Why You Should Travel Solo At Least Once
When I went abroad, I wasn't planning on traveling solo much, if at all. I ended up doing most of my travels solo and don't regret it for a minute. Not only did I really find myself by traveling solo, but I met the most amazing people doing so. It might sound cliché but it's true: traveling solo teaches you a lot about yourself and the world. Traveling solo is a much different experience than traveling with friends, and everyone should experience it at least once. Here's WHY!
You're more inclined to talk to locals or other fellow travelers you meet when you travel solo since groups are less likely to feel the need or desire to talk to others. When I traveled with friends, I didn't meet any new, and having trips with your friends is great. But it was also cool to meet people from all around the world and to talk to locals. Whether it was joining a tour or exploring a city by myself, traveling solo allowed me to meet people that I really clicked with, and that's part of what makes my experiences in places so special and unique. I made friends from Cambodia, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the US, Thailand, Turkey, Lithuania, Israel, Spain. My friend Weng from Cambodia is an entrepreneur and owns 6 different companies; she's also opening a restaurant and hopefully a Turkish tea house soon. In Turkey, I got to talk to a guy working at the hotel I stayed at and found out he lived in New York City for a few years. I learned a friend from Israel had just finished his time in the Israeli military and was taking a year to travel before starting university. I even met a fellow Rhode Islander on the free tour of Lisbon my hostel offered and learned he lived the town over next to me! And if you think you'll never see the friends you make again, you're wrong! I was able to meet up with my American friend Emily from my Morocco trip in both Seville and London and I met my Australian friend Madi from my Greece trip in London too. You'll WANT to keep in touch with the friends you make traveling solo because often times you'll have much in common and the bond you make will be genuine.
Being in a new place by yourself can be an experience that takes you out of your comfort zone, and this might be scary or intimidating at first, but once you survive it, you can do anything. I was slightly nervous when I began traveling solo, mostly because my parents thought I couldn't do it, but also because I had never done it before. Experiences like not being able to read the signs about public transportation in Copenhagen, getting a crappy hostel in Budapest and having to deal with administration, or landing in an entirely different country than you were supposed to and having to get there in the middle of the night were difficult in the moment. But with each experience you have, you are more knowledgeable and more equipped to deal with anything life may throw at you, travel related or not.
Traveling solo gives you FLEXIBILITY in how you travel. Everyone has a different travel style, and that can make it difficult to travel with good friends sometimes. That's partially why you might click with other solo travelers you meet traveling solo - because you have similar travel styles. It can be frustrating when friends you travel with want to sleep in later than you, sit down for a long lunch when you want to grab a sandwich to go and walk around, spend 5 hours at a museum when you want to spend 3. While being accommodating and flexible are definitely skills to have, it can be nice sometimes to travel solo and plan your day yourself. In Copenhagen, I ate my breakfasts at 7-11 so I could splurge on museums; in Iceland, I went to bed early at night so I could wake up at 6 in the morning for my day trips.
Learn to embrace the solitude and silence. Being alone is a skill we learn over the course of our lifetimes, and it's not something everyone loves. Traveling solo is the perfect challenge to spend time with just yourself and the surrounding world. You become more comfortable with yourself and the times which you are alone. Look out the window of the bus or airplane, take in the silence of that hike, and use it to think and feel. We often don't get the chance to when we're constantly surrounded by others and the busyness and chaos of everyday life. So not only embrace those those quiet moments of watching a sunrise, of hiking a glacier, of a gondola ride, but seek them out.
