Sometimes I travel with friends or family, and sometimes I travel alone. Traveling alone isn’t for everyone, but it can be very rewarding. It can also be lonely.
The pros of solo travel
Linger in a park. Eat ice cream for lunch. There are plenty of reasons to love solo travel. Here are a few of my favorites:
Keep your own schedule
Get up when you like. Eat when you like. Go to bed early. Sleep late – it’s all up to you. When traveling with others, it can be an ordeal to get everyone up and moving at the same time. You often get someone who thinks the day should start at 6 a.m. and someone who thinks it should start at 10. When alone, every day starts when you choose, and you are not rushed or waiting on anyone else.
No need for consensus building
As a person who is sensitive to other people’s moods and tries to please everyone, this is a big plus for me. There’s no need to try and get everyone to agree on something because it’s you and only you. Don’t like shopping? Don’t go. Love museums? Spend the whole day. You don’t have to get anyone else to agree.
Move at your own speed
Like to move through things quickly? Prefer to linger when you find something unexpected? You can move at your own pace, as quickly or slowly as you like.
Choose the menu
It’s hard to get a group to agree on a restaurant that everyone will like. When you’re on your own, you get to choose where YOU want to eat.
The cons of solo travel
While solo traveling can be amazing, it can be difficult and lonely. Here’s my list of things I don’t like about solo travel:
Restaurants
While it’s great you get to choose the restaurant on your own, I HATE to eat in a restaurant by myself. As a somewhat awkward introvert, this is painful for me. When I’m on a trip with other people, I love sitting down and talking about what we’ve done or have yet to do, and enjoying those moments. When I am traveling alone, I want to hurry up and get it over with.
Getting a second opinion
When traveling with someone, you can bounce ideas off them. For me, this is usually about if I should turn right or left. I am chronically lost, and it helps to talk it out with someone. And there are also those moments where you’re not sure if doing something is a good idea, and it’s nice to have a friend to keep you on the right track. I tend to take risks, and it’s a good idea for me to run things by someone who makes better choices.
Safety
Being alone makes you more vulnerable. You have to pay more attention to your surroundings, and have a heightened awareness of other people. It can be exhausting.
Sharing the moments
When traveling with someone, you get to see amazing things and share them with each other. When alone, you can’t turn to them and gush over the amazing beauty, or the fun moments. For me, this is the biggest downside of traveling alone. It’s nice to share the moments with someone else who is standing where you are standing and seeing what you are seeing. Once back home, no one else will understand, and often times those at home aren’t all that interested to hear about someone else’s trip.
Not ready to travel alone?
If you think parts of traveling alone sound great but you’re not quite ready to make the leap, there are smaller steps you can take. When traveling with a group, take some time to do something alone. Visit a museum, go shopping, take a walk – pick something you want to do and go by yourself. You can let the others know what you are doing, and tell them you’d like a little alone time. I like to go for walks by myself in foreign cities. I once went to buy tickets for a boat ride along the Seine in Paris. On the way back to the hotel, I sat down on the wall along the river, basking in the Seine as the water flowed by. It was a very special moment for me, alone in Paris enjoying the day.
For me, I prefer variety. Sometimes I travel with friends of family, and sometimes I travel alone. Each one is fulfilling in its own way. The bigger lesson, I guess, is that you shouldn’t let fear of going alone keep you from going at all. Just go!