Making travel plans with friends can be hard. Things can come up and folks may have to drop out. You may find yourself choosing between going alone or not going at all. Sure, you can reschedule for next year, but there’s no guarantee that something else won’t come up. If you have the means to, I recommend traveling solo. I’ve have found solo travel quite rewarding but I understand that many people have concerns on solo traveling. I want to address some of those concerns right now.
Concern 1: Won’t people judge me negatively for traveling alone?
No one is going to think you’re weird for traveling alone. Most of the time, people are too busy with their own live to even notice that you are by yourself. And if they do notice that, they have so much stuff going on that they don’t have time to think, “Look at this loser, they don’t have any friends or loved ones to travel with.” Your lack of travel companions is just not going to cross anyone’s minds when they have 50 other customers to help or a thousand errands to run before they can get home and bingewatch. But you’re right, there is a possibility you will be judged for solo travel. Whenever I told someone that I was traveling alone, 90% of the responses I got were “That’s cool, I wish I could do that.” And the other 10% were from other folks who have solo traveled and they just agreed that solo travel is rad.
Concern 2: What if something bad happens and I cannot deal with it?
While there are some dangerous places in this world, I’m not sure they hold any appeal to a fist time solo traveler. I believe that anywhere that interests a newer solo traveler is already used to tourism and has institutions in place that help you in any situation, including having law enforcement and medical staff that can speak your native language. And like the saying goes, “Forewarned is forearmed.” Almost anything you want to know can be found online, from hot springs that cater to folks with tattoos to restaurants that meet all manner of dietary restrictions. Nearly every local travel site lists areas of the city you should avoid. And, if you are like me and grew up in a place without good mass transit, you can find videos explaining how to use the trains, subways, and buses of your destination. And finally, I would like to stress that, on a daily basis, you do all manner of remarkable things. You do these things so often, that you forget these things are remarkable. When you get into an unfamiliar location, all these automated skills you barely pay attention to when you utilize them at home, will come out as a strong skillset and you will be able to face any potential setbacks.
Concern 3: What if I get lonely?
I’m actually going to do another post on strategies for coping with loneliness while solo traveling, but for now, I would like to point out that on standard week long trip, you might be too busy to get lonely.
Concern 4: Wouldn’t I have more fun if I went with someone else?
While some things are better shared, I would argue that solo travel is even more fun due to the total selfish freedom you will experience by yourself. Even among best friends, people have different interests and cramming everything that everyone wants to see in one trip can be impossible and lead to arguments if anyone feels their wants are being ignored. If you’re trying to hit two museums in one day, dawdling in one leaves less time for another. And you can forget visiting a Pokemon Cafe if your travel buddy believes “Digimon is the one true Mon and Pocket Monsters are kiddie garbage.” And travel can be stressful, traits that were tolerable back home can become friendship killers after a long flight or train ride. The conflict between early risers and late sleepers will cause anguish as the former feels they are missing attractions sitting around waiting and the latter feels like they’re being rushed. When everyone can compromise, traveling with others can be incredibly rewarding, the freedom to eat ramen for every meal or to ability to skip the Louvre and spend more time in the Catacombs or to do whatever you want without consulting anyone is way more fun.
I have taken multiple solo trips and have loved each one. I feel the biggest drawback to solo travel is that you have no one to share costs with. If you have the resources, please take the opportunity to solo travel. I hope I convinced you that a lot of the concerns are easily managed and that the freedom afforded to you by solo travel.