Boldly Go Solo
How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler.
Category: Travel
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When I wrote about my youth hostel stay in Pennsylvania a couple of entries ago, I didn't mention the great shopping I did the day of arrival. If anyone lives within a couple of hours of New Hope, PA, and still has Christmas shopping to do, you'll just HAVE to go alone. You can't bring…
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Suppose you really, really wanted to travel to do something. Say, go to the Superbowl. Or the inauguration of the first black U.S. president. Or to the Olympics. Would you stay home because you had no one to go with? Yes, many people would. And do. But not a 76-year-old woman named Marlene who I…
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I had breakfast the other day with people from Lebanon, Israel, Belgium, Georgia (the American one, not the former Soviet state) and California. These guests at the Embassy Circle Guest House, a bed and breakfast on R Street, NW, in Washington, D.C., were engaged in a lively discussion about public education when I showed…
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My friend Sheara recently sent me a short video she took in Iceland of a geyser (geysir in Icelandic) gushing up from the ground. What a great souvenir of her trip there! Iceland's a great place to go solo. Half-day tours are offered for pony trekking, soaks in hot springs, lava tube sightings, extinct volcano…
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These days, when I run into the tourism marketing people, I always say the same thing: "Nice destination, but is there a way for solo travelers to meet other travelers or local people while there? After a spell, we can get tired of traveling and touring on our own." The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors…
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Bora Bora in French Polynesia. Serengeti, Tanzania. Phi Phi Islands, Thailand. All destination favorites of the folks who book the tours at iExplore. Take it with a grain of salt, naturally. It's likely to be biased because it's put out by a company promoting tours to certain places. And yet…it IS a list of great…
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President-elect Barack Obama will be very good for solo travelers. For all travelers. What, you ask, does the incoming president have to do with solo travel?? It's about likability. Both his and ours, as Americans. I recently got this email from my niece who spent a semester in London and has traveled in Europe in…
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Speaking…again…of grim financial news… If money's tight, or you don't feel comfortable dropping a lot of cash right now, how about paying for your next vacation in increments? Were you ever the type to put money into a Christmas savings account (do they still have those?) or buy clothes on layaway? Now you can do…
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Visiting Washington, D.C., solo and looking for company and entertainment? How about swing dancing on a Saturday night at a beautifully restored dance venue called the Spanish ballroom? A poker game? Nightclub parties? Embassy affairs? Mountain hikes? A bike ride? A haunted tour of Washington National Cathedral? These are the types of things available to…
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On the Web site "Travelers Notebook," Tim Patterson writes about "10 Travel Risks Worth Taking." Several of them don't interest me. (Decline anti-malaria medication. Brush your teeth with the tap water.) But one I particularly subscribe to: Trust in the kindness of strangers. Patterson says that almost all the people he meets in his travels…
Boldly Go Solo 