Traveling solo

How to have a great vacation?

Even if you have a great relationship or you are simply single, you sometimes need to be alone.  In other cases, your partner may not be able to join you on each and every trip that you want to take either because she or he is busy or has already been there or just does not like that particular travel destination.  In that case, there is nothing wrong with traveling solo.  You will have some time for yourself plus you can go to a new destination.  

In fact in a Perfectil survey, they found that women are increasingly becoming independent.  The survey highlights that being single doesn't mean that women of today won't live their life to the full. Almost half of women would happily go on holiday by themselves (48 percent), 64 percent would happily dine in a restaurant alone, a quarter (25 percent) would attend a party full of strangers, more than half would go to the cinema/theatre alone (51 percent) and fifty seven percent are happy to put up shelves and do general DIY alone.

A few years ago a friend of mine took a solo vacation to Maine. She loves the outdoors and so I thought it was a good idea for her to do so. She was then in her 30s and in good physical shape. After a while she told me that the vacation to Maine had been disappointing after all. She asked, “How many walks in the woods can you take by yourself? In retrospect, Maine is not a good vacation destination for traveling solo."

Traveling solo is, in general, not as much fun as traveling as a couple or with friends and family (unless you are traveling to have quiet time by yourself or for some other specific objective). I have traveled by myself many times mostly because I did not find company and I really wanted to go to certain places. In most cases I had a good time, but not in some others.

If you want to travel to places where you have to go alone, consider some of the following options:

• Go to a place where you can have fun alone. Such as, large cities where you can shop, and visit art galleries and museums, singles bars, etc.
• Avoid places that are for families (Orlando, Florida) or couples (Paris, Rome, etc.) such as certain resorts or cruises. You might feel lonely there.
• Avoid dangerous places. If you want to travel to exotic places in Africa or Asia try to do so as part of a group tour or try to hook up with a group through the Internet. I have not done it, but it might be possible. 
• Considering traveling in a tour where you can meet other people. Ask ahead of time for the type of people that participate in such tours.  Public Radio organizes excellent group tours. 
• Consider learning vacations. This is probable the most fun form of vacation I have taken alone. You can learn a language or a skill, volunteer or just go for the adventure. You can ask for the type of students they typically get, such as age, countries of origin, how many students they get, etc. You will have a lot of free time to explore the area by yourself or with your new friends. Depending On the location, this can be beach vacations, city vacations, or trips to the countryside. You can learn languages, aromatherapy, Ayurveda, cooking, archaeology or you mention it, they probably have it.

Related articles:  Road trips can be a lot of fun for couples    St. Lucia

Have you ever traveled solo?