Personal Travel Advice
Wandering Solo: Reasons to Travel Alone
I’m sure you’re all familiar with the expression the world is your oyster, but it turns out the world is a vast reef. A reef packed full of sea-mulluscs of opportunities each containing pearls in the form of worldly experiences. All you have to do is leave your precious comfort zone and embrace the universe with open arms and you will be astonished by what this beautiful planet has to offer. Spectacular scenery, friendly locals and extraordinary experiences are just a few of the items on the planets travel menu. There are countless places bursting with wonder and culture just waiting for you to experience. So enough excuses. You don’t need your best friend or partner to tag along as excess baggage… There is so much of the world to explore and be inspired by and sometimes going solo will find you falling in love with not only the world but yourself as well. Still need convincing to travel alone? Keep reading…
A Day in the Life of a Solo Traveller…
You Will Make More Friends. Maybe even too many friends… Not only will these people be from every corner of the globe, they will also be the people you connect with on a deeper level. A ‘travellers’ level. The kind of friendships that are made bonding over your mutual love and appreciation of exploring the world. You may have met your destined friend one morning as you stumbled into your hostel dorm after a torturous night train but by mid-afternoon you have already seen the Eiffel Tower together and gone for lunch at a local cafe, sharing the regions best wine while exchanging travel stories. You will probably be saying farewell the next day as you head to different bordering countries but chances are this won’t be the last time you will be seeing your new best friend. In the case of my great friend Frankie and I not only did we make wishes in Trevi Fountain together, we exposed ourselves to radioactivity at Chernobyl months later and explored ‘Winter Wonderland’ in London together at Christmastime!
Frankie and I at the protests in Kiev
Strangers Will be Kinder: Ahh the kindness of strangers, one of my absolute favourite parts of travelling. Losing faith in humanity? Just spend a day relying on people you’ve never met to help you out and you will be amazed how far out of their way people will go to help a lost and vulnerable traveller. When I was lost in rural Ukraine one woman not only escorted me from my bus to my overnight train (shouting me a local lunch on the way!), but also met me in the morning after arrival and drove me to the airport. She didn’t speak a word of English and we could only communicate through smiles and laughter but there was no way she would let me turn down her kindness. City folk can be just as kind… In Lviv I had locals rushing to my side to teach me how to skate as I stumbled onto the ice. It only took me an hour to gain the confidence to let go of their hands but I would have still been hugging the fence without their help.
Learning how to skate with locals in Lviv
Great opportunities will appear. Sometimes when people discover that you are a solo traveller they immediately offer you some of the most amazing and memorable experiences. If you are travelling in a group and have already made dinner plans you may not have the opportunity to accept a spontaneous night-time barbecue dinner with a group of Moldovan’s who you meet on the snow fields in Ukraine. Or perhaps if you are flying in a pair you won’t be given the chance to sit in the front cabin next to the pilot on your flight back from Greenland… You will be amazed by what the world will present to you as a ‘lonely’ independent traveller but I can assure you that you will never be disappointed by the range of opportunities that will emerge at each destination.
Front row seat on the return flight from Greenland
You Will Experience Complete Freedom If you feel like spending a week on the beach doing nothing but drinking fresh coconuts and riding elephants then why not? If you travel alone you don’t have to worry about what anyone else wants to be doing, you can spend every minute of your journey doing exactly what you feel like. After finishing a European tour in Amsterdam I had the complete freedom to choose my next destination… Somebody had told me Copenhagen was beautiful so I arrived at the train station asking if there was a train that night… the following day I was wandering the streets of the vibrant city, exploring Christiania and experiencing great highs in Tivoli…* Travelling solo gives you the chance to make your own decisions; however spontaneous, impulsive, last-minute, or reckless they may be.
Copenhagen!
You Will Drop the Drama How many times have I been witness to the typical hostel room friendship tsunami? Groups of friends who haven’t spent any time apart for 3 weeks finally on the verge of homicide? It happens more often than you would think. Sure back home you can spend every moment together, yeah I know you pretty much live at your best friends house, but then go home when you need a bit of space… But add the stress of travelling to a situation where going home to get ‘some space’ isn’t an option? You may be setting yourself up for disaster… I’m not saying that you should never travel with your best buddies, just maybe this one time you should try travelling drama free. Who knows, you may just enjoy it…
Drama-free travel days often look like this…
You will Fall in Love (With Yourself) Sure that beautiful Portuguese boy will have you head over heels but the person that you are going to be seriously smitten by is yourself. Honestly, you will be amazed by yourself. You have just travelled through a country where no one speaks a word of English yet you made 10 friends, you must be pretty special right? Travelling will make you realise that your insecurities back home are petty and irrelevant to what makes you the amazing person you are more then capable of being. Taking time out from real life (including the presence of those nearest and dearest to you), will give you the chance to discover what qualities you love about yourself and give you the chance to improve on those you don’t like so much. You will be surprised how much you can appreciate your own company when you try. Did I need a man by my side when visiting Santorini: one of the most romantic islands in the world? No way! I spent my days lying on black beaches, going on dinner dates with myself and then retiring to my private villa. Half the testosterone, double the bed space.
Romantic Days in Santorini
So stop wasting your time trying to convince your friends to join you on your worldwide journey and pack your bags. You will find yourself learning so much about the world, and may even learn a thing or two about yourself…
*The two verbs could be rearranged for an alternative Danish experience…
sally gaskill
Beautiful post, Cat! So happy to have met you in London.
Kevin Davis
Very thoughtful and nicely written. Everything you say is true, but I find the only thing better than traveling solo is doing so with a partner who is as fascinated with the world as you are. I’m fortunate to have found such a partner in my wife, and I wish you the same good fortune. It’s worth the occasional drama. 🙂