It can be truly rewarding and fulfilling to travel somewhere with your loved ones. You’ll experience many things together in a place you’re all unfamiliar with, which can be a lifetime’s worth of memories. With all these benefits, it can be easy to dismiss solo travel as a less enriching experience. After all, if you don’t have your favorite people to enjoy with, how can your vacation be a fun-filled one?
Yet when you ask many frequent travellers about their fondest memories during their trips, it is usually the times they went out and explored a place on their own. They view it as the perfect chance to discover new things they may have never done in the company of others.
When you look through social media, you’ll see tons of Instagram photos of solo adventures and even travel vlogs on YouTube. Travelling alone has now become easier and more budget-friendly as well, with all the affordable hostels and other accommodations different tourist destinations, including Central London. Indeed, solo adventurers are now taking on the world, basking on the beauty of one destination to another.
But, even with all these upsides, there are still people who find solo travel concerning. This is especially true among women, due to safety concerns, boredom, and loneliness. Still, why is it a great idea to give solo travel a shot at least once in your life?
Frequent solo travellers often share how empowered and independent they feel after their trip. They come back with newfound confidence and a fresher, more mature perspective in life. Solo travel is a representation of independence, freedom and the thirst to learn more. When you are on your own, you can create your own schedule and make changes anytime you see fit without getting the group’s consensus.
You will be really in the moment and focus more on the destination
When you are travelling by yourself, the fact that you don’t have anyone familiar to interact with forces you to explore your surroundings, seize the moment, and be more engaged with the place and not who you’re with. This is perhaps the biggest reason veteran travellers have more recollection of their solo trips than when they’re travelling with others. They are more focused on their surroundings and the activities they have planned and enjoyed.
You will have more opportunities to meet the locals
When you don’t have a travelling buddy to rely on to buy food, translate stuff for you, or keep you distracted during a long and tedious train ride, you will need to depend on the locals. It could be for simple human interaction to avoid loneliness and boredom or just for asking directions. Solo travellers also appear more approachable than those in groups. If you’re with someone, others may find it imposing to strike up a conversation and share travel stories.
Finally, travelling alone can also be the perfect chance for you to get on that task you’ve been putting off for a long time. You can read books during your long travel hours, watch movies on the plane, write on your diary or blog, or even come up with a travel journal. You can also write letters or send postcards.
