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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Sometime during my early 20’s, my adventurous father treated me to a trip on a windjammer cruise off the coast of Long Island, in New York. In those days, I wasn’t traveling on my own. But I could see how easy it would have been to sail alone on a small boat like that and…
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When I think about seaweed…and no, I don’t think about it all that often…I think about that gross green stuff that wraps around your legs in the ocean. When "The Seaweed Lady" thinks about seaweed, she thinks about an ocean garden full of 700 species of a beautiful plant in varying colors. I traveled solo…
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A lot of people go to spas for massage and relaxation. I traveled solo to Deerfield Spa in Pennsylvania a few years back for just that. But also to get motivated to shed a few pounds. Unlike the stylish, modern-looking, expensive spas, this one is pretty basic. It was also close to home, saving me…
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I thought I was well traveled because I’ve been to four continents. Then I heard about Lynn Stephenson, 81. She has visited 515 places. I say "places" because according to MostTraveledPeople.com, to have been everywhere in the world, you have to have visited 673 countries, territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups, and major…
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People the world over have much in common. I was reminded of this after watching a video called Where the Hell is Matt? and thinking about the time I played peek-a-boo with a young Thai child. I was hiking in the hill tribe area. Foreigners are still a novelty there and people came out of…
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This solo travel concept seems alien to many people in the travel biz. That’s unfortunate. I recently sent out a query asking if anyone in the industry particularly catered to the solo traveler. I was thinking of such things as a break on the room charge, since only one person is paying the bill. Or…
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When’s the last time you heard someone say, "I’m flying off to Liechtenstein tomorrow?" Probably not recently. What Holly Leber loved about her solo trip around Europe in December was that she could hop to places she might not have crossed an ocean to see. It was easy because she was already in Europe, on…
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Short tours can do wonders for alleviating loneliness when you're vacationing alone. If, after flying to your dream destination, you start to feel lonely, you can join a group activity for a day or two and have real live conversations. Something beyond, "Does this bus go to Sintra?" I recently went on an "urban foraging"…
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On a scrap of paper somewhere, I have a recipe for a caramelized onion salad. It came from Jesus, a Cuban guy who cooked the delicious appetizer for me in an Arizona restaurant. I was sitting alone in the mostly empty dining room. Phoenix in May is not a prime destination. It’s a rotisserie. But…
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If you are prone to vertigo or have weak legs, the port city of Valparaiso, Chile, may not be the place for you. The city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has more than 42 hills, some of them heart-poundingly steep. But if you can deal with some leg work, or find a nice taxi driver,…
Boldly Go Solo 