My first experience traveling solo came when I was 18-years-old, when I split from a program I was on and decided to go it alone in Australia for five weeks. The second time was on a weekend trip to Amsterdam during a 10-day class in Paris. Since then, I’ve added on Thailand, Laos, Bhutan, Cambodia, Nepal and Egypt to my list of international destinations which I have ventured to alone.
I love solo travel. I love the freedom it affords me for spontaneity and that I am able to enrich myself in ways that are important to me. I’ve also met way more people in the times that I’ve traveled alone than I ever have when I have traveled with other people. When I tell people about traveling solo, responses almost always fall on a continuum of “Aren’t you scared?” to “Isn’t that dangerous?”
I had a friend reach out to me for some assurance with traveling to a place that has been labeled “dangerous,” recently, and her response to the advice I gave was, “Have you written a blog post about that?” I realized that I hadn’t, and so here it is, my advice before embarking on solo travel – particularly to places that are often considered dangerous.
