When friends and family find out how much I look forward to my solo travels, initially they often don’t understand it. Why would I choose to travel sometimes thousands of kilometres for sometimes weeks at a time, just to experience it alone? Or in many cases, I hear ‘oh wow, you’re so brave to do that!’
But honestly, just because you travel to a destination solo, it doesn’t mean you will be alone and really, traveling solo isn’t necessarily a ‘brave’ decision.
Choosing to travel solo is probably almost a selfish decision, but for all the best reasons:
1. It makes trip planning easier
When you trip plan with only your own desires in mind, suddenly there are no compromises. You only need to worry about what you want to see and do. Want to change things up last minute? Nobody else to consult!
Everyone has different schedules, expectations, interests and budgets. If you wait for everyone to have the ‘perfect time to go’ you will wait forever.
And along these lines is number two…:
2. You’re the master of your itinerary
Planning a trip with multiple people, even if all participants are fairly easy going, is an exercise in compromise and negotiation. Every decision will probably have to be made with the consensus of the group and ultimately, everyone wants a say (as they should! Nobody wants to spend money on a trip they’re not excited about!), and the more people who have input on a trip, the more negotiation will need to be done.
When you decide an itinerary as a solo traveler, you can plan every minute, or you can show up in the country and see where you end up. You can stay in hostels, hotels, or couch surf. You can visit ten museums in a weekend, or read six novels on a beach. Make the most of the time you have, and don’t worry about what others want to do, to have a good experience.
3. Travel Friends
Travel friends are the best friends. Friends who you make strong connections with, whether you know them for an hour, or a week. Friends you link up with on Facebook and randomly find yourselves in the same city years later and meet up and it’s like nothing has changed. (I wrote another post about travel friends here).
Strangers who might see you at your worst (because lets face it. No one looks their best when they’re living out of a carry-on, and drinking 2$ bottles of wine…), and then become friends through shared experiences – often in that same evening – or morning (no judgement here 😉).
Perhaps even better (if possible!) than meeting fellow travelers, is meeting locals who expose you to interesting events, local experiences, or even prove their friendliness and kindness by welcoming you into their country (this last one happens consistently to me. Check out my #1000awesometravelstories for examples of this category of travel friends!)
These travel friends might be the people who you ask for help navigating a transit system, or when you’re lost, or need a restaurant recommendation, or even smile at over a coffee. These travel friends seize the opportunity, and at the same time, provide you with an incredible opportunity to have experiences of a more local nature.
These travel friends lead you to…
4. Your travel experience will likely be more meaningful
While there are definitely benefits to traveling with travel partners, other people can often present a distraction. You can be so busy talking to friends you’ve known forever, that you miss opportunities to engage with locals, or other travelers who might have been interested in striking up conversations with you, but find a group of strangers intimidating.
The memories and experiences you make when you travel solo, although can’t be shared with others back home (‘remember the time …’), often feel more profound and more life-changing if they are yours alone.
5. Confidence Booster!
There is nothing that makes me feel more confident in my abilities and knowledge than when I navigate new cities and countries by myself. When I manage to find a hostel that I’m searching for. When I successfully ask directions in a new language, or order something delicious in a restaurant with no English menus. When I stumble upon an undiscovered or unplanned activity or sight, or even better, when I’m the only tourist there.
There is no better feeling than keeping yourself and your belongings safe in new situations, and having amazing experiences in these new locations.
The trick is that the more you travel solo, the more you will feel equipped to handle these situations confidently. But you have to start. If you always have others to rely on, you may soon start to believe that you can’t handle the situation yourself.
But the more you travel solo and solve any problems that arise, the more you’ll be able to use this past knowledge the next time problems come up, and you can remind yourself of how amazingly you handled this the last time it happened.
Of course, the more you travel solo…
6. The better you’ll get at it! It will make you a better traveller, and probably, a better human being too!
Traveling solo makes you much more aware of your surroundings, of the people and places around you, which, in turn, allows you to become more compassionate and understanding of those who live differently from what you may be used to.
In addition to making you more patient (both with others and yourself!), chances are that you’ll learn a lot about yourself, and others, just by observing those around you – something that rarely happens when you travel with others.
Traveling solo also affords you the time to document and preserve your trip the way you want to. Want to spend an hour each evening writing blog posts about your day’s adventures, the new cafe or restaurant you found, or a wild new experience? Want to spend your day documenting the new city through your camera lens? You can do that when you schedule your own time.
7. Money, money, money
Everyone has a different idea of trip budgeting. Most of my savings go towards traveling. I am always saving towards a trip. But for those who travel less often, a trip might be a once in a decade experience. For those who travel less often, perhaps the trip is a chance to really get away and relax, and maybe this means meals in nice restaurants, accommodation in western-chain hotels, and taking tours and transfers to sightsee. For others with perhaps less discretionary income, a trip might be couch-surfing, eating ramen for every meal, and only sightseeing those sights that have no admission cost.
If you only need to budget for your own travel style, you can chose what you want to splurge on, and where you want to stay. You can travel to inexpensive locations and stay in nice hotels, or tour Paris for 15$ / day.
8. Answer the question: ‘travel solo? What do you do with yourself?’
Aside from ‘aren’t you lonely?’ This is the question I hear most often.
And the answer will be different for everyone. But the short answer is ‘whatever you want’.
Traveling solo gives you the total freedom to do whatever you want; with whomever you want, however you want.
If you ask yourself this question, please just try it! You will fill your time with an indefinite number of activities.
In addition to those already listed, you might:
Read. Relax. Daydream. Eat new foods. Try local beer/wine/spirits. You will sleep well. Discover new cities/towns/neighbourhoods. Try new activities. Learn new languages. Talk to strangers. Turn those strangers into friends. Learn about history where it happened. Hear live music. Experience different ways of life. Meet locals. Think about moving permanently abroad. Take risks. Have exciting adventures. Have funny encounters. Learn to barter. Pay too much for a cheap souvenir.
And So. Much. More. There is so much to be gained from traveling solo that you will wonder how you ever managed to travel with others.
Travel solo, and you will never go back.
Heehee, look at me, ‘touching’ Saudi Arabia (Inland sea, Qatar)
One of the most amazingly peaceful moments of my life. Wandered through this beautiful, open-air monastery in Colombo, Sri Lanka, while it was raining, and I was the only one around.
Entrance to said monastery.
Loved the article. Learned a lot.