The Orange Kitchen

What it’s like to Travel Solo.

First things first, this is my story, these are my thoughts and they are a product of my own personal experiences. No two journeys are the same, and any thoughts that I am sharing here are not absolute. As a consequence, the title of this article is arguably misleading, because I can only share with you what it’s been like for me to travel solo. But nevertheless, I’ve decided to put into words my answer to something I continually find myself being asked, and that is the million dollar question of what it’s actually like to travel solo. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this question, after all, right now I’m mid-way through a 3 month solo adventure, and last year I spent a month alone in Europe, so travelling by myself isn’t exactly new, but I always find myself stuck for words after I explain my travels and when people inevitably ask the above question.

See, it’s not particularly easy to just put into a few words what it’s like to travel solo. It’s an extremely complex, varied and utterly extraordinary experience. I could use an infinite amount of words to describe solo travel, but essentially I’ve never found something as rewarding, fulfilling and inexplicably amazing as solo travel, and for that reason I love nothing more than to talk about what solo travel is like in the hope that I might convince someone out there to give it a go themselves. But, from my own experiences and through speaking to people about the topic, I’ve found that unless solo travel is something you’ve personally done, there so many myths, misplaced beliefs and doubts about what it is really like, and because of that, many people get scared away from the idea of heading out into the world alone.

Maybe it’s a little odd to say this, but for me, travelling solo has become extremely normal, and I actually find the thought of travelling with others somewhat strange. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy going places with people and doing things with others, because I do. Both types of travel are great, and I think that it is very difficult to say that one way is better than the other because they are both incredibly different experiences that each deserved to be equally valued. That said, I am a huge advocate for hitting the road alone and I absolutely believe that solo travel is extraordinarily unappreciated by many young people and is often feared because of assumptions that solo travelers like myself spend our days wallowing in lonely sadness wishing as hard as we can for a friend. I won’t lie by saying that there are not moments of loneliness, because there definitely are, but as an overall experience, I find being solo a truly amazing way to see the world, and, for me, the solo travel experiences that I have had thus far have definitely not been defined by loneliness.

So, here’s a few things that I’ve learnt, experienced and realized whilst solo travelling.

1. Just because you’re alone does not mean you have to be lonely.

I’m here to dispel some myths, so firstly I’m going to absolutely kill this whole belief that solo travellers are lonely. Wrong. So, so wrong. I am not lonely, I rarely get lonely, and loneliness has only been a tiny part of the 4 months I’ve spent travelling solo. Yes, there are moments I do get lonely, and that is an inevitable part of being alone. But in my experience, these moments have always been fleeting. See the thing is, for me, while solo I am a lot more confident to talk to new people and to make new friends than I would be if I had a friend/friends with me. This is totally a thing because when you have people you know already around you, you generally fall into a trap of being content talking to them so you don’t prioritize or often even think about talking to new people. Conversely, when you’re alone, there is no safety net of friends, so if you fancy having some social interaction, you have to speak up. Luckily this is an exceptionally easy thing to do and all you really need is an open mind and the ability to say ‘hello’. After realizing this, I’ve since spent many days with people from all walks of life. My travel friends range from fellow young solo travellers to retired married couples to young families to local residents on their day off and everything in between. If you keep an open mind and a friendly demeanor you’re almost certain to make friends, and I promise that you won’t be lonely!

2. Just because you’re alone does not mean that you’ll be a target to be taken advantage of.

Another big myth is that solo travel is dangerous because people will take advantage of you while there’s no one around to watch your back. I deal with this misplaced belief a lot because I’m a young female and unfortunately that probably does make me more of a target than if I were a 6 foot 5 male champion weightlifter. But, let me just share an arguably surprising fact with you; in the 4 combined months of solo travelling I’ve done, I’ve not ever had a serious personal safety or security issue. That’s not to say bad things can’t happen, because they can, and it’s foolish to think they won’t, but when you’re prepared, aware, and conscious of yourself and any situation that you’re in, risk is generally relatively low. In any situation and at any time, being safe is about making smart decisions, being prepared and not doing careless, risky and stupid things, and just because you’re travelling solo does not mean risk is any greater than it would be if you were with someone else.

3. When you’re alone, the significance of budgeting takes on a whole new meaning.

Ahhhh money. How lovely it would be if it actually grew on trees. But sadly it does not, and this means you have to budget. I’ve found budgeting has been particularly important while I’m solo mostly due to the fact that when you’re travelling with friends and you go to pay for dinner and then realize that you don’t actually have any cash in your wallet or your paycheck hasn’t come through yet, there’s usually someone willing to let you borrow some cash and you can just pay them back later. You can also split meals, accommodation and transport costs when you’re with friends. But when you’re alone, there is no splitting and there is no lending, meaning you really need to be on top of all your costs and cash. Sometimes it’s cheaper when you’re alone because hotel rooms generally charge less for one guest than two, but sadly it’s often a little pricier because you’ll end up paying 100% of transport (like taxi’s) and meals. At the end of the day though, this is all incredibly dependent upon how you travel, because hostel beds would cost the same if you visit alone or with a friend, as will a bus ticket. Essentially being aware of these things and the cost of getting around, sleeping somewhere and doing stuff is particularly important when you’re alone. Also, just a friendly hint - always make sure you can afford to pay for your meal BEFORE you eat it. This also applies to hotel/hostel beds before you sleep in them. It’s rather awkward/impossible to talk your way out of not paying for something after you’ve already used it…

4. You can still go out and party even though you have *no friends*.  

People often assume that because you’re solo you can’t go out or party or have fun. Again, this is a myth. I’ve met many solo travellers who are completely content to head out to a bar for a beer and see who they meet while there, which is totally something you could do and that’s cool. But personally this isn’t my style and if I’m heading out I like to know I’m meeting someone there, and have therefore prearranged that, or someone is going out with me from wherever I’m staying. This has never been a problem, and whenever I’ve wanted to spend an evening out, I’ve simply kept an open mind and said hello to people. Particularly so when staying in hostels, I’ve found that other people staying there have had similar ideas, and we’ve spent the night out together. As a consequence, I’ve had evenings out with all sorts of people, I’ve had all sorts of fun with lots of new friends and I certainly have not spent all my evenings feeling lonely and bored.

5. You can also not go out and party, and instead adopt a nanna life, and no body will ever know unless you tell them so.

I’ll be straight up honest with you all and openly confess my love for Netflix, chocolate and a comfortable bed. My friends are fairly well aware of these loves because they sadly often find themselves behind these three things in the list of priorities in my life after 9pm. Basically I am bit of a nanna. I like being lazy, I like chilling out, I like sleeping, I like going to bed at a reasonable time and I like quiet evenings in. I’m totally going to own my appreciation for all these things, but if you’re too shy to do that, when you’re solo travelling, you can totally have a closeted love for these things. No one needs to know you actually went to bed at 9:45pm last night after eating an entire block of chocolate. Also, no one needs to know that’s actually how you’ve spent 9.8/10 evenings for the past two months unless you want them to, which leads me straight to my next point…

6. GLORIOUS FREEDOM.

YOU CAN QUITE LITERALLY DO ANYTHING YOU WANT AT ANY TIME OF THE DAY AND NO ONE WILL BE THERE TO TELL YOU THEY’D RATHER DO IT A DIFFERENT WAY OR TIME. So many choices, and they’re all yours! Where you want to eat dinner, when you want to eat dinner, do you even want to eat dinner or will 6 servings from the gelato truck on the street count as sufficient, do you want to go to the museum or the beach, do you want to catch the 10am bus or the 2pm bus, do you want to stay in the Old Town or next to the beach – SO MANY CHOICES. And guess what? You get to make every single one of them all on your own. SO. MUCH. FREEDOM. Do what you want when you want and how you want. GO TOTALLY NUTS. THERE ARE NO RULES. Can you tell I am completely obsessed with the freedom of solo travel? It is the best. It is glorious. Travel solo and you’ll understand the beauty yourself.  JUST DO IT.

7. Corny as it may be, you’ll legitimately find yourself.

I always get super shy talking about this point because I feel like it is so cliché and corny and people think I’m being sarcastic but I mean this entirely genuinely; I’ve learnt more about myself, who I want to be, my goals, my dreams, my life and every aspect of my personality in 4 months travelling solo than I have in the other 21 years of my life. It’s kind of inevitable when you spend any length of time with only yourself for company that you’ll do a fair amount of thinking about yourself. Add to that the fact that when you travel you put yourself in unfamiliar and unpredictable situations that require you to adapt, problem solve and carry responsibility you wouldn’t necessarily normally have, and you grow a lot as a person. You’ll also experience new places, people, cultures, religions, traditions, languages and customs, and all of those things will shape you as a person and create new directions and open new doors that your can venture down and through. Who you are as a person is a never-ending story though, so I guess you could argue that you never really ‘find yourself’ because you’re actually constantly evolving. But for me, I’ve definitely found more direction, connectivity and purpose in my life since deciding to travel solo, which has been an incredible help when making any decision or choice in my life.

8. You’ll become best friends with yourself, and that’s totally cool and is actually a really great thing.

Potentially an embarrassing thing to admit to the world, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I’ve become my own best friend. This dawned on me around a month ago, and since then I’ve decided that this is totally not at all a bad or weird thing, but rather quite the opposite. Initially it was kind of weird and a little unsettling, but after spending so much time with myself, I’m now 100% comfortable in my own company. Again, this is an entirely legitimate point and I am not trying to be corny or sarcastic, but accepting who I am was an incredibly beautiful moment in my life and definitely part of the whole ‘finding myself’ journey. It was incredibly freeing to totally accept myself own mind and a massive part of connecting with myself. Like I said, I was initially embarrassed by this, but the more I think about it, the more I think it’s really a beautiful and freeing thing to totally accept yourself for who you are which is something that wouldn’t have happened to me if I had not made the choice to travel solo.

9. People will think you’re insanely brave.

Moving away from deep and philosophical thoughts, if I could have a Euro for every time someone has called me ‘brave’ after hearing about my travels, I would almost certainly be significantly richer than I currently am. I always get so surprised when people react by labeling me as brave because I’ve truly never thought about my travels or myself that way. I don’t exactly like this label though, because I feel like it automatically assumes what I am doing is dangerous, and my choice to travel solo regardless is therefore some kind of heroic act, which in my opinion, it totally isn’t. I don’t think you need to be brave to travel solo, but if that’s the general opinion, then be brave, cause you’ll actually need significantly less bravery in practice than many people seem to think you’ll need!

10. You’ll have the time of your life so much so that it will be difficult to put the journey down into words.

I’ll continually make the choice throughout my life to travel solo. I am completely addicted to the solo journey and I do not think there are enough words in the English language for me to express how much I love it and how much I encourage others to do the same. Travel is a magical experience in any way, shape or form, and I will always take any opportunity to see new places. But, I’ll always have a particular fondness for solo travel because it’s been such a rewarding, fulfilling and worthwhile experience and I truly would not be the person I am today without the solo adventures that I have had. Every single journey is so individual, and there are an infinite amount of moments, memories, lessons, realizations and experiences that I’ve had whilst solo that I cannot adequately put into words. Quite simply, to travel solo has been the best decision I have ever made, and I cannot recommend solo travel enough.

So, like I said, it’s kind of really hard to answer ‘what’s it really like to travel solo?’ in just a few words, so you get a bit of an essay answer instead. I hope it’s answered a few questions and basically as my parting comment, all I’d like to say is TRAVEL SOLO. You’ll love it!