16 Reasons Why Solo Travel is More Liberating Than Scary
Who’s afraid of the big, bad solo excursion? Traveling permits us to see the expansive world we live in. We dive into other countries and cultures, picking up new habits and learning about ourselves through exploration of these foreign places. During discussions of travel plans, one common question arises. “Who are you going with?” Half of the travelers named their corresponding group, and the other half responded, “Me, myself, and I.” The latter portion believes that solo traveling bestows a matchless experience for the following reasons.
1. Make Your Own Schedule
Start at 5 a.m., go to sleep at 5 a.m., sleep for a whole day, or don’t sleep at all—the choice is yours when you travel on your own. That reason alone is enough to addict wayfarers to solo vacations.
2. Don’t Have to Wait For Others
On single travel trips, you control the plans. If you don’t want to go to the butterfly garden, don’t. If you want to white water raft through the caves, do it. With zero pushback, you make 100% of the decisions. You also determine how much or how little you add to the itinerary. Maybe previous trips felt too busy, so you lean into the relaxation portion of the vacation. Or, vice versa, you feel your previous trips lacked activities, so you cram them into the schedule.
3. Meet New People
Breaking into a friend group scares off a lot of people. Talking to a solo traveler doesn’t. Lots of people in large groups stay in their comfort zone, without meeting new folks. Those traveling alone flock to other solo travelers, sharing their experiences.
4. Different Experiences on Tours
When you are alone on a tour, tour guides love talking to you. I embarked on a ziplining tour in Iceland in 2022 by myself as the sole adrenaline seeker in my family. As soon as we met the guides, everyone introduced their party size with names. The guides noticed I came alone and sparked up a conversation where they informed me of a lot of Iceland’s history. I got this special history lesson because everyone else seemed preoccupied with their families or friends on the tour. Also, the guides picked me first for our surprise bungee jump session due to my lone ranger zipline party. This might startle some out of touring alone, yet it opened my eyes to the joy of waltzing through the world solo.
5. Eat Wherever You Want
Think of your family and friend group. Who is the pickiest eater? Who is the person who won’t order anything except chicken nuggets and french fries despite the restaurant’s origin country? Is that person you? Either way, solo travelers never worry about appeasing the other party because they don’t need to. If you want to eat chicken and fries every day in Mexico, go for it. No one will stop you. On the other hand, if you’re the one with exotic taste buds and a hankering for trying new foods, go for that!
6. Self-Reflection
What do you do when not immersed in conversation? Think. You think about your life, aspirations, travel goals, future, and past. You think about everything. Solo travel grants you that endless freedom to peruse the meaning of life and how you fit into this marvelous and monstrous world.
7. Own Sleep Schedule
I am nocturnal. I despise sleeping before midnight, and the thought of opening my eyes for anything other than drinking water or going to the bathroom before 10 a.m. forces me to hunch over in nausea. I discovered my nocturnal nature at a young age when I begged my parents to let me stay awake and write or play beyond my bedtime. I know experts say that as you age, the urge for earlier bedtime increases, so I’m either immune, or that age is far away from my 25.
On a New Year’s trip to Miami, my best friend and I shared a hotel room for four days in the epicenter of the party place. He rose daily at 6 a.m., waiting for me to roll out of bed and tackle the day with him. As you can imagine, I zoned into consciousness around 11, forcing him to fill the time with doom-scrolling. However, I abide by my sleep schedule on solo trips, not disrupting anyone else’s routine.
8. Learn How to Handle Life
A person close to me once screamed when an automated parking meter asked her for payment. She phoned her mom, bawling while the meter begged for her payment. I tried comforting her and taking over the payment, but she refused anyone else’s advice except her mother’s. With the uptick in technology, this increasingly common device should not have caused such an intense reaction within this person. Alas, her inability to problem-solve on her own led to a breakdown. During solo travel, the occurrence would force her to befriend a new individual or figure out the issue on her own.
9. Shifts Worldview
Everyone knows the judgmental aunt or grandpa. I’m sorry if that is your whole family. One side of my family tends to voice their opinion about every ethnic group not resembling their own, which irritates me to the point of rage. I’ve informed them, tried to teach them, and confronted them about their ignorance. Nonetheless, they remain small-minded. During travels, globe trotters view different cultures, witnessing how certain communities coexist with others. Familial ignorance washes away as they learn the foolishness of baseless judgment.
10. Confidence
Those who travel to different countries alone, especially countries that speak different languages, earn a unique perspective on confidence, one that people only learn through jet setting. Alone, you must ask strangers questions, garner insight, gain information, learn how to read maps, or learn new skills like taking public transportation. Once you’ve completed those tasks, memories of fear surrounding asking a barista for extra milk rinse away.
11. Comfortable in Your Skin
Picture the last time you dined at a fancy restaurant alone. What about the last concert you attended or the last film you watched with your own company? How did it feel? Were you thinking about the hundreds of people staring at you, whispering how much of a loser you were? Or were you enjoying your day on the town, admiring the concert or the film? Leaning into each taste, unafraid of spending time by yourself? Solo travel shows you that you don’t need always to fill a void of solitude. Existing in your own presence can bring solace and euphoria.
12. Navigation Skills
As a child, I knew the NESW (Never Eat Soggy Waffles) acronym, though I failed every test asking me to determine a direction. I’ve ended up lost in my hometown, getting others lost on camping trips and waving away GPS systems, promising I knew the way. I didn’t. Then, in 2018, I studied abroad in London. Without internet service, I taught myself to read the tube station maps, learned the routes, and drilled the directions into my brain. Today, I navigate new places (and my beloved hometown) with gusto and confidence.
13. Pointlessness of Material Things
“We are living in a material world, and I am a material girl,” Madonna sings on her hit, Material Girl. Well, on solo trips, we may not possess that feeling or need to carry around material items. We soak in the moment, lug around what we need, and enjoy the austere. We refuse to spend hundreds of dollars on items we won’t use, to instead delight in a life-changing tour of a waterfall or a trek through the wilderness. We also witness how quickly trash makes its way back into the environment, so we avoid fueling that cycle where possible
14. Teaches Budgeting
In remote areas with zero access to the world back home or the internet, you’ll learn how to spend money without using all of your money. In areas with access to the internet, the World Wide Web assists in techniques for stretching money, although you still must create and follow a system that works for you.
15. Increased Intuition
Intuition is referred to as a gut feeling or a hunch, especially what experience when something feels wrong. In our hometowns, perhaps we ignore intuition when with a friend or family member. For example, say you’re at a bar, and a strange person lingers around your table. Your friend informs you they’re no one to worry about, so you stay despite your discomfort. On a solo trip, trust that intuition. It’s there for a reason. Several solo travelers claim their intuition grew stronger after numerous solo holidays.
16. No Drama
How can you get in a fight with yourself? Sure, we all battle our internal demons. But that’s different than an argument between partners or familial drama. One of the best parts of traveling alone is the absence of arguments. No need to people please anyone but ourselves.
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