She spent time in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Russia, Monaco, Ottoman Empire, Ceylon, the Dutch East Indies, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Australia, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and Venezuela.

During her travels, she used her social status as the daughter of Robert E. Lee to obtain audiences with foreign royalty, nobility, and political leaders including Queen Victoria, Pope Leo XIII, and an Indian maharaja.

[1] After the war ended, Lee's family moved to a house in Powhatan County, Virginia, but she chose not to go with them, instead traveling to visit relatives in Staunton.

Her youngest sister, Mildred, grew bitter towards her and their relationship remained strained for the rest of their lives, owing to Lee's having stayed away from the family during difficult times.

[1] After her brother, George, sold Arlington House, Lee used her share of the profit to spend the majority of the remainder of her life abroad.

[1] During her time abroad, Lee dined with the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, was a guest of an Indian maharaja, met Queen Victoria and Pope Leo XIII, and sat with American diplomats at formal dinners in Tokyo and Rome.

[7] In 1902, Lee returned to the United States and was arrested on June 13 in Alexandria for riding in the back of a streetcar with her black maid, having refused to move to the whites-only section at the front of the car.

[1] In 1906, Lee donated George Washington's military tents for a benefit sale to raise funds for the Home for Needy Confederate Women in Richmond.