Boldly Go Solo
How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler.
Category: Fear, and some loathing
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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?"…
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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,…
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I want to share this amusing (to me) post about how you don't need to be someone with special skills or abilities to be able to travel by yourself and enjoy it. In "Confessions of a Solo Female Traveler," the writer says that she's scared, paranoid, a worrywart, introverted, unadventurous and neither rich nor physically…
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Because I couldn't bear the thought of staring at the four walls of my hotel room and eating a dreary dinner in a hotel restaurant, I pushed myself to stick with my original plan: Dinner at Garrido's. A casual Mexican restaurant somewhere in Austin. The result? An action-packed night filled with squeaky bats, soft tacos,…
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Most travel writers, and many other adventure travel lovers, have read a story or two of Tim Cahill's. The adventure writer is "famous" for being one of the founders of Outside Magazine and for having what some consider one of the best jobs ever: traveling and writing about fabulous places around the world. New West…
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I wake up but do not get out of bed. The Iron Girl triathlon was the day before. A .6 mile swim, 17 mile bike and 3.4 mile run. I finished. "To finish is to win," as JT, a fellow triathlon "girl" kept telling the eight of us doing it. I won. In that sense.But…
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"Tourist cities are useless with single diners, especially women of a certain age." This is a line from a funny article by a woman who shares her strategy for a "successful dining-alone experience," in a Mail Online (British) story. First tip. Have a drink before going out. For confidence. Okay, that cracked me up. But…
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Last week, a friend told me that, following my example, she decided to go solo on a cruise to the Bahamas. How was it? "The first day was crushingly lonely." Ouch. The trip was only three days. That means a third of it was lousy. I asked for more details. It turns out she was…
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I just signed up to go to Guadalajara, Mexico, in October for the annual conference of my travel writers' organization. Locals know Guadalajara as the "City of the Roses," or the "Pearl of the West." Birth place of mariachi and tequila. Year-round temperature of about 75 degrees. Suena estupendo! (sounds great) I've decided to go…
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In an opinion piece in the New York Times, writer Nicholas D. Kristof offered 15 tips for traveling to "even the roughest countries." These are serious suggestions for staying safe and holding on to your money, but they're amusing all the same. Some of my faves: – If you're a woman held up in an…
Boldly Go Solo 