During my travels in Europe, I had to travel alone. And you know what? It was great! I learned a lot about myself and found out that it is okay to try new things. I even made a couple of friends along the way. Here are some tips I learned during my solo travels:
Go on Tours! This is a great way to learn a lot about an area and meet new people. Some tours, like Italy on a Budget, are focused on bringing groups of people together for fun social activities. I did a tour with them in Florence, and I highly recommend it!
Stay in Hostels. I know. Kind of cliche but true. You really do meet a lot of people there that you normally wouldn't meet and learn about places to eat that you normally wouldn't find.
Pub Crawls. Did you know that you can do these internationally? Well, maybe you did, but I didn't. I met a lot of people and learned a lot about other cultures through those people.
Meet ups. There is this service called MeetUp where you can meet a group of people with similar interests as you. It occurs internationally as well!
Reflect. Traveling alone is a great time to think about your life, your dreams, and heck, anything else you want to think about. You can write in journals, speak out loud (please don't do it in crowded places or people will think you are crazy), and there are even apps for it.
Don't forget to set alarms! You can only count on yourself and there won't be anyone else to wake you up or tell you when to leave for your next attraction.
Use websites with ratings to book places to stay. I used Booking.com and HostelWorld. Both are great websites with pretty accurate reviews!
Be friendly. You never know what a smile can you give ya.
External Chargers are a great investment. You never have to worry about your phone dying if you have one. You can find some cute ones or a here is a really durable one.
Accept what life gives ya! You never know what will happen if you are open and willing for new experiences. Because I was traveling alone, I got the wonderful opportunity to fly in the cockpit of my flight to Croatia. They needed someone to ride in the jump seat and asked me! It was a wonderful experience!
Readers, have you had any amazing experiences while traveling alone?
I think that it is so amazing that you traveled alone. I have only taken short trips by myself (such as flying to a destination where I'm meeting others), but never taken an actual long trip alone. I admire you for doing that! I want to try it someday :)
ReplyDeleteI was actually terrified as well. But I stuck with it the first time, and discovered that it wasn't all that bad. Sure I would get lonely sometimes, but it gave me time to really absorb where I was and what was going on around me. I highly recommend that you try it sometime. If you don't want to go on a big adventure, take yourself out on dates! That is another way to do it!
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