Embrace Your Wanderlust

Solo travel can be a terrifying prospect for many people, but I’m here to tell you: it’s my preferred method of traveling and hopefully I can encourage more people to try it out, at least once.

Picture this: you and a friend have been trying to plan a trip to Rome for years but something always comes up and the trip never takes off from the confines of your imagination. You keep saying it’ll happen, and there have even been a couple of times that you’ve come together to start planning, but alas you have not done it yet.

Now picture this: you…standing in front of the Colosseum with tourists from all over the world, asking someone to take your picture to capture this incredible moment for you….because you decided to stop waiting for your friend’s schedule to align perfectly with yours and took the trip by yourself.

Daunting? Yes. Freeing? Absolutely.

While traveling solo isn’t for everyone, I firmly believe everyone should try it at least once in their life. It doesn’t have to be a week long trip to a foreign country; in fact, if it’s your first time going somewhere solo, I would even recommend just doing a long weekend to a location nearby your home as a test run. I have seen and heard so many stories from people who decide to take a solo 3 month backpacking trip across Europe (as their first solo travel experience) and end up regretting the decision a week in because they didn’t realize what it would really be like. Before you jump into that drastic of a decision, I highly recommend trying it out close to home first.

I personally prefer solo traveling for a variety of reasons chief among them the fact that I can do whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it, without having to worry about meeting other people’s needs. If I want to wake up at 5am to see the sunrise from Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence, I can do that! If I want to sleep until 11am and then do a self-guided spritz crawl around Venice, I can do that too! There is no limit to what I can do when I am by myself and that is why I love to travel alone.

Here are just a few other reasons I enjoy it:

Planning

I am a master planner and itinerary-making enthusiast. One of the best parts about taking a trip is finally seeing how all my research and hard work can come to fruition. I love researching things to do and see in other countries and my itinerary-loving mind takes this research and crafts it into color-coded, incredibly detailed plans for my trips. Traveling solo allows me the freedom to craft those detailed plans however I want. Some people are go-with-the-flow travelers and if that works for you, that’s wonderful! Other people are more like me and they need a more concrete plan. But when I travel by myself, I don’t have to worry about other people’s trip planning preferences.

Budgeting/Spending

One of the biggest things I’ve noticed when it comes to people saying solo traveling isn’t for them, is that it’s definitely more expensive to travel by yourself than it is with others. Even just one other person can help you share the costs for things like accommodations or meals; usually these are two of the biggest costs associated with traveling. For me, it’s the opposite. I like that I don’t have to split the costs with other people because it means that I can create my own personal budget without having to take into account what other travelers can or cannot afford. If I want to splurge on a luxury hotel, I can. If I’m only able to afford a 12-bed dorm in a hostel, I can do that too. And while yes, eating meals can still be expensive when you’re on your own, there are other ways to avoid escalating costs on that front. Which brings me to…

Food/Drinks

Eating out, whether in your home country or abroad, can get expensive. There’s no doubt that having someone else with you on your travels to split the costs of meals can help reduce spending. While I personally like to have one expensive dinner on each trip abroad, I also like to minimize costs in other ways to balance it out. In Paris, I purchased a fresh baguette, meats, and cheeses and had my own picnic for less than €10. In Florence, I got a delicious and ridiculously large panini with a glass of house wine for the same amount. I also like to take guided walking food tours if I can, which can be pretty inexpensive and you usually get a variety of food that you wouldn’t have otherwise known to try. So while eating out can be expensive, it doesn’t have to be.

It can be an uncomfortable and nerve-wracking thought to go to a new place by yourself where you don’t know anyone but that’s the magic of it: you don’t know anyone. If you attempt to say something to a waiter in French and totally butcher it? That’s ok, they don’t know you and you don’t have to go back again. If you take an embarrassing fall down a couple of steps somewhere? That’s ok, nobody knows you so get up, shake it off, and move along to the next street. Or my personal favorite embarrassing moment, if it’s thunder storming in Rome and you’re not wearing a rain jacket, subsequently getting your very see-through shirt soaking wet in the process, that’s ok, nobody knows you….but also quickly go back to the hotel and change after that.

In the end, I believe solo traveling can change you. It forces you to be comfortable being your own company and I feel that it helps you focus more intently on the magic of exploring a new place. When you only have yourself to worry about, you can immerse your mind, body, and soul in every experience. There is strength in enjoying your own company and being alone does not have to equate being lonely.

The world is waiting for you so go embrace your wanderlust!