Solo travel is my favorite way to travel, but it’s not without its difficulties. And part of ensuring that you have a great solo trip is being ready for the hard aspects so that you go into your trip with the right mindset. For my first solo trip, I spent three weeks traveling around Japan and it was a pretty perfect trip. There were some stressful moments, but they were just that - moments, and the experience gave me unrealistically high expectations for how my next solo trip would go. So when a lot went wrong on the next trip and the stressful moments got longer and lonelier, I wasn’t prepared and I let it ruin my trip. Solo travel is usually a mixed bag, and while it is incredibly empowering and enriching to have adventures around the world by yourself, it can also be hard. Below, I’ve outlined what I’ve found to be the best AND worst parts of solo travel so you can be ready.
Pros
Solo travel helps you build confidence
My first solo trip taught me that I’m capable of MUCH more than I had ever given myself credit for. I realized that in my day-to-day life I had always relied on other people for things that I didn’t think I could do myself. And without anyone else to lean on during my first solo trip, I had to go out of my comfort zone and force myself to do things that I would normally let someone else take care of. When you’re traveling alone, you have to take charge of every situation. While this can be stressful in the moment, it gave me confidence and changed my life long after that trip ended. I realized that I had always sold myself short and that I am a much more powerful and capable person than I had realized.
You can do exactly what YOU want to do
When you travel by yourself, you get to make all the decisions and you don’t have to compromise. It’s amazing. When I travel with friends or with my partner, every day is full of compromises. You have to compromise on when to head out in the morning, what to do, what to eat, where to stay, and more. You might have different travel priorities than your travel buddies or a different budget. Even if this doesn’t lead to conflict, it can lead to you missing out on certain experiences you want to have. When you’re by yourself, you get to do whatever you want, whenever you want. You might find that you get a lot more out of your destination when you get to experience it in the exact way you want to experience it.
You get to go at your own pace
A great part of solo travel is that you don’t have to keep up with a certain pace based on who you’re traveling with. If you need a day to relax and not do a whole lot, you can make that call without worrying about how your travel buddy will feel. Conversely, you can start your day bright and early without having to wait for your friend to finish getting ready. I’ve found that I don’t always travel at the same pace as many of my friends or my boyfriend (I tend to wake up earlier and pack more into each day than most people want to). I love that when I’m traveling solo, I don’t have to speed up or slow down for anyone else.
Solo travel helps you build your relationship with yourself
This is one of my absolute favorite parts of solo travel. We hear a lot about self-love and building a relationship with yourself on social media, but how to do that is not always so clear. Having adventures by yourself REALLY builds your relationship with YOU. You get to know yourself better. You learn to really trust yourself. And the best part is that you start to love spending time with yourself - enjoying a nice restaurant on your own or visiting a museum by yourself. Even when I’m not traveling, this love of spending time with myself is something I’ve brought home with me and prioritize in my day-to-day life. I no longer view it as being alone, but as spending time with myself and enjoying my own company.
Cons
Solo travel can feel limiting
This is the hardest part of solo travel for me. Sometimes when I’m in a new place, there are certain things I’m not comfortable doing alone or simply don’t think I would enjoy by myself. For example, as a woman, I don’t usually feel comfortable going to bars by myself in a new city. If you make new friends on your trip, this is no problem, but there have been trips where I didn’t meet anyone and simply missed out on a few experiences because I didn’t feel safe or comfortable going alone. I think it’s important to know that this might happen when you go into a solo trip so that you don’t let it get you down and ruin your experience.
There’s no else to lean on when things go wrong
Stressful situations inevitably happen when you’re traveling. Whether your flight gets cancelled or you get lost in a new city, things can (and often will) go wrong. It’s a different experience when you are handling those obstacles with a travel buddy you trust than when you are dealing with them on your own. I’ve found that having to rely on myself while traveling solo has given me more resilience and confidence as a person, but it can definitely be tough in the moment.
Solo travel can feel lonely
Similar to #1, there will likely be times when you wish you were with someone. There might be a restaurant you want to try that looks like it would be more fun with a group or you might do an activity and find that you’re the only person on your own. This can feel awkward and it can make you feel lonely. My advice is to keep going. You might find something awesome the next day that makes you forget all about how you felt lonely. Solo travel has its ups and downs, but I find that the pro’s outweigh the con’s and keep me going back for more.