Is it halal for a woman to travel alone?

Really good question,
I think it might depend on how fanatical the woman's husband or father is.
For more help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halal

oops sorry, when I say fanatical i mean ... uh orthodox, yeah thats the ticket.

It depens on in which century you are still living in...
In 21st century this question is absurd.

Anyone traveling alone always takes a risk on their safety because a.) you don't really know anybody, and b.) you don't know what to expect. Depends where you are traveling to when you have to determine if you need someone to go with you, or if you will be fine alone. Traveling within the US is fine, but anywhere else, Female or Male, you always have to be careful and plan ahead.

If you have to ask this question, how are you going to be able to do it anyway? Why would it be ethically wrong to go anywhere alone as a woman? As a woman, we all must be cautious, so I'd say as long as you take the proper safety measures, God will keep you safe.

There is an hadith that recommends that women should not travel alone for distances longer than 80 kms, since it might be unsafe for her to do so. (This was during the time of war with neighboring tribes when travel was still done by camel and the potential risk to the woman was death.) But there is nothing in the Quran that says it is haram for a woman to travel alone.

Since the Saudi's are ultraconservative they use the hadith as a reason to restrict women's movements. (Total rubbish if you ask me.)

The rest of the world doesn't care as much. I think that in most Muslim societies the restrictions are more tradition than religion. Ie more like "What will the neighbors think if I let my daughter travel alone ...?" instead of "Is it hala/makruh/haram to let my daughter travel alone?". They are not concerned about God and God's will, but about the wagging tongues of the neighbors. Asked why they will then tell you "it is not good for a woman to travel alone", regardless what the Quran really says. Go figure. (Personally I think we muslims take the ahadith far to seriously - these are sayings by mortals, not God's written word as the Quran.)

You might also want to read this link:
http://web.comhem.se/onesr/fiqhi/fiqha_e...

and this:
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?H...
http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satel...

As you can clearly see, I agree with the opinion in the first link.