I love sharing my travel adventures with my sister. I also enjoy sharing travel experiences with other people I know and love. But truth be told, I would prefer to fly solo rather than go with someone I don’t know well. The introverted side to my personality is very comfortable being in my own company. And although my sister would disagree, I can go long stretches without talking to anyone. If you are the headstrong type like me and enjoy being your own master and commander I am sure you will love solo travel as much as I do. The ability to be completely spontaneous and change my mind as frequently as I like makes partnerless travel perfect. It also helps if you can entertain yourself and don’t mind eating alone.
But traveling alone is not just for the introverted types. If you are more extroverted, you are more likely to meet people as you travel. There are also more and more “meet-up” services online for travelers that crave companionship when exploring new places. Here are a few:
If you’re traveling alone, but don’t want to feel lonely taking a language or art class is always a sure bet to meet people. I’ve studied Spanish in Mexico 3 times. 2 of those times I was extremely social in class and did things almost daily with my new compadres. Another time, I met a woman on a city bus in Mexico and ended up hanging out with her my entire trip. On my last trip to Mexico I enjoyed having breakfast each morning with the lovely hostess/landlady of the casita I rented in Mexico.
Beforehand I was apprehensive, but she was so interesting and not at all intrusive. We still email each other occasionally. Although I didn’t think I would, I actually enjoyed making contact with her each morning. Mexico must bring out my inner extrovert!
If you are venturing off on your first solo trip I don’t think you can go wrong in a big city like Paris. It’s where I went on my maiden solo voyage. The transportation is a breeze – there are metro stops every few blocks, and walking is also endlessly entertaining. Mexico is another place where I have felt super comfortable traveling alone. The people of Mexico are the kindest I’ve met in the world. So welcoming and lovely. I can’t recommend it enough! San Miguel de Allende is a very easy introduction to Mexico if you’ve never been. Lots of Americans call it home, English is widely spoken, and the atmosphere is breathtaking. After I read “On Mexican Time” I knew I had to visit! I’ve been 3 times.
Usually when I’m alone I eat one main meal out in the afternoon or early evening, stop at cafes for coffee and snacks, pick up food to go in bakeries, eat street food, and ALWAYS find a market to keep provisions at home. Most nights I am happily piddling around my apartment, working in my travel journal, blogging, reading, writing. I tend to keep very late hours when I travel and do not get up at the crack of dawn. I leave the house at a leisurely hour and occasionally I don’t leave at all! I find rushing around extremely unpleasant and especially cannot stand going from one monument or museum to the next. I make time for naps. I DO cover most of the “must sees”, but also leave some for the next time. And.. there is always a next time.
I enjoy apartment rentals when I travel solo because I like to feel literally at home. And if it’s an especially fine place, I like to spend time there. Sometimes I leave the apartment early, come home midday to relax, and leave again in late afternoon. Most often I leave the apartment in late morning and return in late afternoon or early evening. I am rarely out from early morning to night. I have a very leisurely relaxed attitude towards traveling & exploring.
Please chime in about your solo travels and/or leave solo travel references below in the comments.
I absolutely LOVE traveling alone… and have from my first trip to Europe in 1972 to later traveling around and later living in Japan and Taiwan in the late 1970s and 1980s and now that I am older, in my 50s and now 60, traveling around Eastern Europe, Iceland, and for next summer planning another Eastern Europe and Hungary trip. I have traveled a bit with groups and not usually enjoyed it, and sometimes end up in Paris with my husband which I enjoy, but on the whole, I would rather go alone. I love visiting daily life spots like grocery stores and art supplies shops and figuring out how to take local transportation and some not so local. One year I navigated my way via small trains and a local taxi (no bus ran that day)to a remote village in Czech Republic that had an amazing BOOK Museum! I do admit that I am pretty good at picking up languages and never have had a fear of trying to speak the language of where I am (which I usually forget when I get home but for a short while I look like a genius!). And I always love buying local foods at grocery and other shops and just hanging out places like Mary Ann mentioned. I think I travel very similarly to you Mary Ann, which makes it even more exciting to see Venice through your eyes soon!
Just about a month ago I heard an interview on NPR with this woman: http://www.women-on-the-road.com/ Her blog is excellent: http://blog.women-on-the-road.com/ Her book is getting good reviews, but I haven’t read it (yet). Her focus is on baby-boomer women in solo travel. I *loved* the interview!
Mary Ann Moss you are a true inspiration.
Here, here Mary Ann. I love my husband dearly but I so much love to travel alone. Being able to stop anywhere I want, snacking a quickie at a frietkot in Belgium… Last june I flew on my own to Californa for a wedding that I had to shoot. And I had a ball.
Last January I drove from Colorado Springs over Albuquerque to Sierra Vista in Southern Arizona… It’s nice to be able to do what you want when you want and where you want…
Coming January I want to go to Tombstone on my own because they have a Jewish cemetary I want to see. Hubby can do something with his mom that day. Grin…
It’s great to hear that Mexico has nice spots too, you would wonder if you read all the news about Ciudad Juarez and the drug kartels in the North of Mexico. And as an avid Mariachi lover, I do need to get to Mexico at least once in my life!
For busy moms, wives, and career women, traveling solo can be a REAL vacation from all the daily stress. I’ve been doing it for decades, and always come back refreshed and revived.
going solo to venice is the bomb !
I have done it both ways but solo wins out .
Thank you for posting this – it’s inspiring me to put my brave pants on and fly solo!
i have to leave for the evening and haven’t even read this yet, but i’m so excited i had to just say that I would LOVE to travel solo some time! I must make this happen. I don’t understand why people don’t want to do this. I may have to take community funds and say, ‘up yours’ and use them for myself.
is that rude?
I say, no.
Best trip I’ve made solo (from a list of many, all in the U.S. or Canada): New England. Get in the car and just go – find little cities you love to stop for lunch in – take a different route if it looks interesting – discover things (like the Eric Carle museum, who knew?) you didn’t know were there even with all your pre-reading and list-making! My energy for trips exhausts my husband and he lacks the sense of adventure I have; although I have a few plans, I want to be open to a change in them. After cruising slowly about the land, then I like to crash in the hotel or apartment and just putz. Now, I’m working out courage to go to Europe alone – and since I have a love affair with Paris, my sixth trip there will be my first solo one. Rhonda, I’m trying to get a friend to meet me in eastern Europe this fall, but if she doesn’t, I’m going there alone, too. Hope you’ll be blogging your trip there!
I love traveling solo, as well! I get some pretty strange reactions when I tell people about an upcoming trip. I feel sorry for them because they can’t even imagine doing that. Another plus of solo travel? It’s much less expensive than bringing alone hubby and three kids. If I waited until we could afford everyone to go we may never get there.
Traveling solo? Yes, I love it. As others said, going with my dh is one thing, but on my own??? eating on my own body clock w/o compromising, windowshopping to my heart’s delight, going off on a travel tangent w/o explanation and going down each rabbit hole as much as I want. Even when I travel with my dh, we have found that the best thing is to have at least 1/2 day on our own about every three days. Next month, I have a week alone in Boston. Bring on the snow!
I’ve loved traveling alone since I overcame my fear at 19 and traveled alone to Jordan. A fave trip was spending two weeks in an upper west side NYC apartment that I rented through Bed Breakfast and Books….all done through snail mail. Just go ladies, GO!