Boldly Go Solo
How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler.
Category: -Egypt
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In a third-hand account of spa-going, I offer you the results from this year's list of best spas, based on a reader poll done by Conde Nast. I tried going directly to the Conde Nast site, but they offered their results with that annoying web trick of forcing you to click here, there and everywhere…
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We here at Boldly Go Solo (we being me) are just bursting with delight over learning that this very blog was awarded top honors by the Society of American Travel Writers' Atlantic Caribbean Chapter. On a related note, I just learned about a new book called Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without…
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"Cairo Time," a romantic drama on the big screen that takes viewers on an in-depth tour of Egypt's capital city, provided me with an evocative return visit to the "City of a Thousand Minarets." I recognized a set of stairs in a section of the Khan El-Khalili market downtown, a minaret (or is it just…
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I like this post on banishing those naysayers who insist you better not travel solo. You tell them you're traveling solo and they get all negative about it. (Maybe they're jealous, the writer says.) Or they'll tell you you'll get hurt. You'll get lost. You'll get kidnapped, injured or die. (Fact is, that can happen…
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I've often been terrified before traveling to foreign countries outside of the "safety" of Europe. I planned a trip to Ecuador and worried for weeks before going. Someone told me about a woman he'd met in Brazil who'd been harassed in Ecuador. I read about pickpockets and thieves and how careful women had to be…
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What makes you happier? Possessions or experiences? I came across a blog post by someone who decided to fulfill his dream of living on a sailboat. He wrote four lessons on what he had learned from his experience. Two resonated with me and will for most solo travelers: 1. Life is about the experiences…
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Before going to Egypt, my visions of the country didn't extend much beyond the pyramids, the Sphinx and Hosni Mubarek. But two of the strongest memories I have now, in addition to those iconic pyramids, are of the many horses and buggies that fill city streets, and the public call to prayer, or the "drone…
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Smapping. That's what Mike Sowden calls it when you become your own cartographer/photographer: "Smapping is the process of taking a digital photograph of a map that you won’t have access to later, except if you take a snap of it." This is brilliant. I've done something similar by snapping signs and information boards when I…
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One of the best tips a solo traveler can learn about photography is number nine on a list of 10 tips released by the Society of American Travel Writers Tuesday: "Put local people in your photos." SATW says to do it because it gives your photos a sense of size and scale. I say to…
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The balloon lifted off the ground at dawn, the peaceful silence interrupted intermittently by a blast of noise and a wave of heat from the gas jets filling the huge tear drop above us. We were headed for the Valley of the Kings. We didn't get there. We had signed up for a balloon ride…
Boldly Go Solo 