Boldly Go Solo

How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler.

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Category: -Asia

  • Tokyo cafes where solo travelers can chat with Japanese residents

    In my previous post, my friend Bob described the conversation café scene in Tokyo. The conversation continues. Do guests always just sit down at the conversation cafes and chat? No, the cafes also hold “international parties” on the weekend once or twice a month. At a Norton Place party, a pianist provided a mini-concert at the cozy…

  • 10 good ideas for solo travelers

    Visiting a new place? Ride a bus to the end of the line and soak up the sights while coming and going. Get off the bus if you see something or some place that strikes you. Maybe get back on and go to the end of the line after that. Or maybe not.  I love…

  • Fiji fire walking during which “on the rocks” means hot, hot, hot

    For two weeks before Sawau tribesmen from the island of Beqa in Fiji perform a firewalking ceremony, they have no contact with women and don't eat coconut. If they mess with "the rules" their feet are liable to get badly burned during the ceremony. While in Fiji, I watched fire walking, not on Beqa, but…

  • Solo vacation in DC for cherry blossom seekers

    Biking, walking, boating and other ideas for solo travelers visiting the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC this spring.

  • Solo travel stories offering travel tips

    It almost seems as if solo travel is becoming the vogue.  The Los Angeles Times has a story on 10 vacations for solo travelers. It covers just about every option you can think of, from road trips to special-interest vacations to choosing villages over big cities. Another highly useful LA Times story suggests ways to…

  • One half of a couple travels solo in Japan

    I landed upon the blog of a woman who normally travels with her kids and her "other half," who she says takes good care of her by packing and doing laundry for her. (Is he for rent?) Recently, she had the opportunity to travel in Japan on her own for two days. "Big deal, right?"…

  • Solo travelers need a sense of humor and an iron stomach

    In February I offered some reader stories of mangled language attempts and misunderstandings while traveling in foreign countries. Here's another, from Gayle who has a fun food website called BeenThereAteThat. Gayle has traveled the world and tells this story about her stay in Tashkent, Uzbekistan: Looming over me was a blur of aquamarine eye shadow,…

  • Is traveling solo rewarding or horrible?

    A Brit has written a story in timesonline about avoiding the "heartache" of traveling alone. Oh please… Heartache? If you've chosen to travel alone, you didn't get into it to be miserable. Clearly you have some sense of adventure and a desire to see parts of the world that intrigue you. I personally would not…

  • Vacationers mangle the language as they travel merrily along

    From Becky, who entered my contest to win a funny foreign language phrasebook, a story from Mexico about, um, cannibalism: I was learning Spanish and went to a local resturant in Ixtapa, Mexico. When I got back to my hotel I managed to mix up the words "waiter" and "shrimp" (In Spanish they are very…

  • For solo travelers, highly useful phrases in other languages…or not.

    Over the next several posts I will run some of the entries I received for the contest to win a foreign-language phrase book. I love the following story from B, who did not want his name used: "My parents lived in Indonesia for a year while my dad was advising a company there. They were…