Lately, it seems like everywhere you look you’ll find a travel blogger (or a traveler) proclaiming that solo travel is the best experience a person can have. Its benefits are described in breathless detail: the independence! The freedom! You can lie on a beach all day, get up early, sleep in, hit every museum, eat whatever and wherever you please! You’ll meet so many amazing people on the road! You’ll learn to be self-reliant and gain boundless confidence that will spill over into every area of your life!
I’m not here to pop that bubble. It’s entirely possible that, if you choose to travel solo—whether for six months in Southeast Asia or for a long weekend in Iceland—that all of the above will turn out to be true for you. Solo travel might very well be the greatest experience of your life, for all these reasons and more.
However, in all honesty, solo travel isn’t my favorite way to explore the world. While I’ve done plenty of solo trips (Iceland, Turkey, Argentina, Poland, South Africa, Denmark, Portugal) and enjoyed every one of them, I prefer to travel with friends, family, and companions whenever I can. I just find travel more enjoyable when I have someone to share both the highs (the beautiful beaches of Thailand!) and the lows (seven-hour layovers in Dubai following a thirteen-hour flight).
In my “regular” life at home, I have no problem doing things by myself; I pride myself on being exceptionally independent (perhaps too much so at times). I’m the girl who can happily visit a museum solo, while away hours on my own in a market or bookstore, and spend entire afternoons sitting in coffeeshops reading or scrolling through my favorite travel blogs and have a fantastic time. But for some reason, as much as I value my alone time, things feel a bit different when I’m exploring a new city or country, and what I want out of travel is often different than what I want out of my day-to-day life.
And yet, despite all these qualifiers, I’m here to tell you something: there is a very good reason to take at least one solo trip in your lifetime, and it’s probably not the one you’ve heard from other travel bloggers or world nomads.
The Best Reason to Travel Solo
So what’s the best reason to travel by yourself? In my opinion, it’s this:
Because there is almost certainly one trip, one voyage, one adventure that you will only be able to make happen if you go by yourself.
Maybe you have a spouse or best friend who loves to travel and is up for going anywhere you want, any time you’re ready. If so, that’s fantastic!
But for many of us, when it comes to travel, life too often gets in the way. And even though most avid travelers do their utmost to keep travel a high priority, most of us can’t always do it as much as we’d like, and don’t have the flexibility to hop on any potential trip at a moment’s notice. Travel takes planning. And sometimes, the best-planned trips may not work out as you’d hoped.
I’m guessing that if you’re like me, there’s at least one place in the world you really, really want to see…a place that keeps popping up in your dreams, that jumps out at you from your Instagram feed daily, that you want to visit above all others. Maybe it’s China; maybe it’s London; maybe it’s Peru; who knows. But there’s one place that has a hold on you and won’t let go.
You owe it to yourself to see that place. And realistically, going there solo might be the only way to do it.
Maybe your husband isn’t interested in going with you to Paris, or your best friend really doesn’t see the appeal of trekking in Nepal. Maybe your sister would love to visit Greece with you, but she can’t get the time off work and you’ve just found an amazing flight deal that works perfectly for your schedule and isn’t going to last long.
You have two choices: sigh with resignation and pull the plug on your cherished trip because you don’t have anyone to keep you company; or make the decision that the time to fulfill your dream is now, and then do it, with no regrets. If the only way you’ll get to make your ultimate travel dream come true is to do it on your own, then my advice is, buy that ticket and don’t look back.
Solo travel may not be my favorite way to travel, but I don’t regret a single solo trip I’ve ever taken. And I know if I had waited around till I had someone to accompany me everywhere I wanted to go, I wouldn’t have been to nearly as many wonderful places and would regret not having made the leap on my own.
Life is short. Travel opportunities are all too often fleeting. It may not be too long before your own life gets in the way.
So if you’ve got a travel dream in mind and you can venture out alone now, do it. Make your dreams happen, and enjoy every minute of it. You deserve nothing less.
Have you traveled solo? What are your thoughts on this type of trip? Where is your ultimate bucket list destination?