If you don’t already know, I am a huge advocate for traveling solo. I enjoy traveling with friends, understand the importance of traveling with a significant other, and reminisce on past family vacations. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to every type of travel.But nothing {and I mean nothing} surpasses the freedom and independence you feel when you travel alone.
It’s true when you travel with friends you make life-long memories that will be cherished for a lifetime. It’s also true that traveling with a boyfriend or girlfriend, can significantly cut costs of accommodation. And of course it’s nice to have your parents with you along your journey to splash out and spoil you a bit on vacation.
That being said, here are some advantages for hitting the road on your own:
Your trip, your rules
When you travel on your own, you are suddenly able to develop an entire itinerary based around what you want to see and do. I mean, you probably saved up a bunch of cash, or took an extended amount of time off of work to make this trip happen. You deserve to be selfish!
Traveling alone removes the pressure to accommodate someone else’s wants and needs, and instead focus solely on activities, cities, and countries that you are interested in. If you want to spend four hours at Park Guell during an overcast afternoon and wait for the sunshine to arrive to snap some epic pictures. Ain’t nobody gon’ stop you.
I would have never imposed this on anyone I was traveling with, but now that I have some of my favorite images of Barcelona with a stunning blue skied background, I am happy I was riding solo and able to wait out the drab weather.
Openness to meeting strangers
…of whom will most likely, quickly become friends. When you travel with a companion, there is a tendency to become closed off to the opportunity of meeting fellow vagabonds. This is not always the case, I know!
When I travel with Sarah, we always have a hard time saying goodbye to our new travel buds that we meet {and by meet I usually mean force to hang out with us because we are hilarious and everyone deserves to know us} along the way. But a lot of the time, it happens. And fair enough. Meeting others isn’t a necessity. And you probably want to spend quality time with whoever it is joining you on your adventure.
But when you travel alone, you are 100% more likely to step out of your comfort zone and strike up a conversation with a stranger over the free hostel breakfast. Especially if you are traveling long-term. The closest friendships I’ve formed that began as strangers, all transpired while traveling solo.
A budget you can stick to
Traveling alone allows you to manage your budget in a resourceful way. Sharing meals, participating in group activities, and accommodating everyone’s needs eventually adds up. When you travel alone, you can order a cup of ramen and tap water, and not end up paying for Craig’s twelve beers, Katie’s salmon dish, and the guy in the corners side salad as well. And {hot tip!} getting reservations for one at any restaurant is a piece of cake! Take advantage.
A lesson on toughening up
After all, you have no one to rely on but you. Like, when you end up in Madrid with none of your belongings and a horrible set of language skills. Or when you are detained in customs for five hours at a foreign international airport. At the end of the day, these are normal occurrences that will continue to surface long after your travels end. {ok, maybe not exactly normal} But it’s life.
And nothing prepares you more for it then being pushed into a foreign country, with little to no understanding of the language, and then having the man upstairs throw a few jokes your way. When you are alone in these situations, you learn how strong you truly are. You develop a backbone. You do what you have to do ‘survive’ {I know it’s dramatic, but you get it}.
And then you realize you have the capacity to do things on your own. Suddenly, dreams and aspirations that felt so daunting, become possible. You won’t be as fearful knowing you have ‘handled worse’. Cue, ‘It’s handled’ – Olivia Pope.
Gaining independence
Speaking of doing things on your own. Traveling alone is the best way to gain independence. From your parents, from your relationships, from society. Learning to thrive on your own instills a great deal of independence. The realization that you do not have to rely on other human being is one of the most freeing discoveries in the world.
Your world will open up the sooner you understand how capable you are. And independence builds confidence. Suddenly, something as important as a job interview, becomes less of a daunting task because you have built up confidence. You won’t settle for things you used to in the past because, hey, if they can’t offer something to you, you’ll do it for yourself!
You’ll find another way. You’ll take a risk. Because you a strong, independent, black woman that don’t need no man! #favoritememeofalltime
Finding yourself
HOW CLICHÉ RACHEL. Rachel’s the name, cliché is the game. More often than not. But guys, it’s so true! A large chunk of my reasoning to continue to travel the world is based on my desire to find out more about myself than I already know. I can see the changes in myself as they happen and it’s an incredible breakthrough each time.
Being alone and absent of influences, allows you to be fully honest with yourself, make decisions that you feel to be right, and accept the person you are becoming. With each new destination I arrive in, I find a part of myself that hadn’t made its way to my consciousness yet. Knowing them now, only pushes me to the next location.
Over to you! What have you learned from solo travel? Is it your preferred form of traveling?
