“Waking up completely alone in an unfamiliar city is one of the most pleasant feelings in the world.”
(Freya Stark, French traveler who lived to be 100 years old)
There are things that are scary to decide on for the first time. One of them is traveling “solo”, that is, alone. But there are many reasons to decide on such a trip. And we have collected the most important of them.
1. Rethink your life
There are a lot of things and people around us, and we don’t often find ourselves alone. We run from ourselves to our interlocutors, to the Internet, to run errands… But is it possible to find ourselves if we run from ourselves? To look at your life from the outside, you need not just leave, but stay with your thoughts, be with yourself, without being distracted. Take a walk alone, realizing where you are now and whether you are happy with it, make plans for the future and gain strength to implement them.
2. Look closely
It is impossible to truly get to know another country on excursions. But it is possible if you explore it alone, without being distracted by your interlocutor, looking closely, taking pictures of local residents with a camera, taking travel notes, dining in restaurants away from tourist routes and wandering the streets without a map.
3. Find new friends
When traveling in a group, you are self-sufficient. When you travel alone, you are open-minded. To conversations, acquaintances, adventures. And perhaps it is during a solo trip that you will meet the ideal travel companion!
4. Go on a trip without delay
It’s crazy how you want to go somewhere right now? Or maybe you suddenly found very cheap air tickets – to the place you’ve always dreamed of going? You don’t have to wait for anyone, you don’t you need to put it off and promise yourself a trip sometime later, when your friend has a vacation. Buy tickets and go on a trip yourself: on any day convenient for you and to any place on the globe you want. No compromises!
5. Opportunity to get bored
Have you ever tried not to tell anyone your thoughts and impressions for at least one week? If you have, you probably know how rich and exciting a conversation becomes after some silence. And there’s so much I want to tell! Especially if you have adventures behind you.
6. Learn to listen to yourself
When traveling alone, every step you take depends only on you. You decide where to have lunch, where to stay overnight, which people to trust and which not, which street to take. On such a journey, you can learn to understand what you really want. And this is an invaluable ability that will be useful upon returning home.
7. You can get a lot done
Read books, work, take photographs, write stories, learn languages… How many activities can you afford on the journey you went on with yourself! Much more than if you went with a group.
8. Learn responsibility
When traveling alone, you won’t expect that your friend’s English is better and so he will have to figure out how to get to the hotel. You won’t think that you don’t have to remember the route because your friend remembered it. You yourself will keep track of the time when the plane departs and will not say later, when you are late: “Well, I thought you were looking at your watch!” Traveling alone, you will understand where your strengths and weaknesses are, learn to trust yourself and not be afraid of responsibility.
9. Be brave
“Luck is the reward for courage” – remember the words of the famous song? Indeed, all great discoveries were made by brave people. And talents were recognized by those who had the courage to prove them. Do you want to become bolder? Then decide to go on a journey alone! Believe the world and yourself. Everything will be fine.
10. Change plan
You have a travel plan, but you urgently want to change everything and go to another part of the planet? Or maybe you want to extend your trip and not return home yet? If you are traveling alone , then you can always change your plans, allow yourself spontaneity and even return your ticket!
Be brave! And perhaps a solo trip will be the most important trip of your life.
