Ever planned that amazing, once in a lifetime trip only to find there’s no one to go with?
Ever set some brilliant plans with friends, only for them to drop out at the last minute?
Ever just wanted to get away and see somewhere new but were worried about doing it alone?
If the answer to any of the above questions is yes then this is the blog for you! I’ll show you that not all hope is lost and inspire you into heading into the big, wide world with your most trustworthy trio from your point of view: me, myself and I.
So, how did I get into solo travelling? Well, I had the exact experience described in question two at the top. Some friends and I planned a fantastic trip to Las Vegas and Hawaii and all seemed to be set for us to go. Except when it came to booking the trip, I got a list of excuses from those that had initially been in so it was either I don’t do the trip or go solo. Well, I went solo and I never looked back since, with it being one of the best trips I’ve ever had!
In this blog then, I’ll go through the advantages and disadvantages of travelling on your own from my own personal experiences, sharing some small stories as examples and advice on ways to overcome the downsides.
Advantages
Meeting New People
One large benefit of travelling solo is that you’ll meet many new people from all across the world. I’ve met many great people from around the world, had a fantastic time with them in our location, became good friends and have since stayed in touch with many of them and even visited them in their home countries. This always ends up with a great catch up and having an on hand local tour guide, helping you see both the major sights but also those not on the beaten track.
Self Growth
Going it alone is a very steep learning curve in many aspects but definitely in a good way! Initially, it can take a lot of self confidence to make the decision to do it, followed by a lot of focus on your own organisation skills to book everything and set yourself a budget before then actually committing to getting on that flight! Once you’re there, you won’t have anyone else to look after you! That means you have to be disciplined in your budget and organisation, look after yourself when it comes to feeding, watering and washing yourself, cleaning your clothes and develop your social skills to go out and meet those great new people. Daunting as it may sound, once you’re used to it all you will become a more independent person.
No Compromises With Itinerary
Though travelling with others can be great and good fun, often you will have to compromise on what you want to do and could miss out on experiences you wanted to have due to them not being interested. However, when you’re travelling solo and when you’re in control completely with designing your itinerary, you don’t need to make any compromises for others and can do everything you wish to do, whilst not being possibly pressured into doing something you don’t enjoy.
Time To Reflect
The cliché around travelling is that you find yourself but the truth is, you really do. You have complete freedom with what you can do so if you have that hobby you’ve always wanted to try, try that food you’ve considered, test yourself on a crazy adventure or experience some home comforts whilst away, you can do. You’ll truly learn what you do and don’t enjoy, can take yourself out of your comfort zone, find out what kind of people you click with best and can take yourself away from it all to just sit and reflect on your experience and where it’s taking you. Top tip: Take a journal! Write down where and what you’ve done and reflect on how you felt about it all.
Disadvantages
Human Connection
We are social creatures and enjoy sharing the experiences with those around us, either through social media or in person at the time. The latter of these two brings you together with whomever you are with and allows you to create a memory and connection between each other. However, when you’re travelling on your own, usually the only person there to discuss or share that moment with is… just you.
I have felt this a few times when I have conducted hikes and adventures on my own, gotten to the peak and, though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience, it could always be better if I was with a friend.
An obvious way to get around this is to share the adventures with the new people that you have met and this could in turn help bring you together and create a great friendship. This has happened to me numerous times as I’ve gone around, from free walking tours to organised day trips to sharing New Years Eve. With many of those that I had these moments with, I’ve made friends with and I still to this day talk to them and if in similar areas of the world, make the effort to catch up in person.
Loneliness
One thing that I have experienced when travelling was loneliness, which you might find surprising when you’re surrounded by plenty of new people to talk to. It sounds ridiculous, right? It does happens though and from my own personal experience, I found that this was from burning out and getting tired of starting new conversations with people.
When you don’t have a constant person there whilst travelling and you’re continuously having to start new conversations with new people, mentally it can burn you out and become tiresome to having the same conversations repeatedly. When this happens, it’s very easy to wonder what’s wrong with you and push yourself even further and end up in quite a depressive state.
My advice for dealing with this issue is to not push yourself when it comes to social interactions and when you feel mental fatigue and tiredness coming, take a break and relax with a solo task such as reading or meditating. The key here is to not beat yourself up for needing to rest. Yes, your time may be limited but you need to balance your activities. You may find it worthwhile speaking to friends and family at home but at the same time, you run the risk of becoming homesick so I’d be cautious about doing that.
Adventures
Though I’ve covered how travelling on your own can free up your itinerary by not making compromises with others on what you do but what it can do is restrict you in what adventures you can go on due to the need for a buddy to be there for safety reasons.
You may be confident in your ability, however conditions can change very quickly and put you in danger. You could be determined and want to finish it however having someone else can help you make a more sensible decision. An example of this would be when hiking in Yosemite, it was 40℃+ and my will to complete the hike made me blind to how little water we had left to finish the hike. I needed my friend to highlight this shortfall and get us to turn around before anything dangerous happened. Furthermore, in the worse case scenario, you could have an accident and if on your own, could have serious consequences.
My recommendation would be to either find someone with the place you’re staying to join you on the trip or find a tour company that will take you to where you want to go, thought his may quite pricey depending on the popularity. Though if you do decide to go completely alone, let someone like the hostel reception know what time you’re expected back.
Higher Costs
Now you may be wondering how this one is a downside to travelling solo but hear me out here and I’ll give an example to show you what I mean.
When I travelled along the West coast of America, part of the journey included hiring a Mustang to drive up to Yosemite from San Fransisco then on to Las Vegas. At the time I was travelling with someone else so we were able to share the cost of the car, though had I been a solo traveller, I would have had to have taken on the whole cost myself.
To get around this issue, if you’re travelling solo and have the similar ideas to those in the hostel you’re staying at, band together as a group and you all share the cost of an adventure, whilst possibly adding something else to your itinerary. This worked for me in Hawaii and had, still to this day, one of the best days I’ve had travelling.
Photos
OK, this one isn’t that serious but for some who are all about their social media looking on point (I’ll hold my hand up to that sometimes!), then a consideration can be, “Well, who’ll take photos of me?” when they are planning that candid top of a mountain photoshoot whilst looking away into the distance.
Ultimately, there are two ways around this. You have a perfect opportunity to make new friends instantly and ask someone who’s around to take the photo for you and hand over your camera or phone (obviously a little risky if you’re turning away whilst they are taking it). The other option is to get yourself a tripod and a camera with a timer, one that can remotely controlled by your phone or set it up to video and get the screen grabs from it after. Personally, I use a GoPro Here 5 Session and a tripod to take photos like the one above right, this one was done using remote control via the GoPro app on my phone but I can video the experience and take a screen shot via the GoPro app. One added benefit of having a tripod/camera set up is that it allows photos in places where someone can’t get behind you, which was the story for the photo shown as an example.
