Boldly Go Solo

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

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  • Boldlygosolo goes musical. Temporarily.

    We take a break from our regularly scheduled blog topic to highlight a musical performance by Amanda Perlman and Bryan Brown, doing a cover of the song, "You and I" by Ingrid Michaelson. Why? Because I'm Amanda's proud aunt!

    Why not take a moment out of your lazy (or busy) Sunday for a musical interlude? And to remember what it was like to be a college kid and go to the local coffee house.

    Comment on youtube if you like it! (Or here.) If you don't like it, well, feel free to step away from the computer and get a bite to eat.


    We will return to our regularly scheduled blog topic tomorrow…

     

  • A traveler writes about his “surprise” company while on a solo trip through Asia

    A solo traveler discovers that a woman he has never met or seen before knows a lot about him.

    Read the recently published tale about one man's solo travel experience, in the Christian Science Monitor.

  • News of a solo traveler advantage

    The digital travel age advances: A new paperless boarding process allows you to download your boarding pass to your cell phone or PDA. Then, at security, Transportation Security Administration officials scan the bar code from your phone. And you're done. No fuss, no muss, no paper. Thanksgiving_1900

    Here's the fun part: It's ONLY for domestic passengers TRAVELING SOLO!  How often does that happen? An advantage for solo travelers? 

    Although I don't really understand that. Why couldn't a husband and wife each do it on their own with their own phones? Anyway…

    According to a blog entry by Fox News, five airlines are using paperless boarding at 14 airports. And it sounds like more will get on board soon.

    Consider it a holiday gift, solo travelers. Happy Thanksgiving to all, and safe travels everyone.

    Image: Thanksgiving postcard circa 1900 showing turkey and football player.

  • Away from the marble and museums of official Washington is a friendly guest house ideal for solo travelers

     Embassy Circle Guest House-Ellen Perlman 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 up.

    The owners, Raymond and Laura Saba, were nice enough to welcome me to breakfast after I explained over the phone a week earlier that I write a solo travel blog. (Even though I wouldn't be paying to stay the night.)

    So I rolled out of my own bed and showed up to join their paying clientele.

    Even had a flaky croissant from an organic market. And some fruit salad that included raspberries and pomegranate seeds, along with melon, bananas, pineapple and other fresh fruits. Because I was busy "working," I didn't have time to really scout the food selection. So I missed the smoked salmon, the cheese, the hard-boiled eggs, the cereal, the scones and the other goodies in the continental breakfast. Dining Room, Embassy Circle-Ellen Perlman

    But I was bowled over (no cereal pun intended) by the intellectual discussion. What do you expect when you show up at a dining room table in an international city? Where guests show up for things like neuroscience conferences, law enforcement conferences and the Washington Opera.

    The conversation went from the quality of education in various countries, to one guest's admission that she'd like to start her own bakery business, to growing up in an orphanage and being schooled by French priests to someone's passion for photographing old U.S. theaters with Middle Eastern motifs.

    In the short video that follows, the people around the table introduce themselves. Just trying to give you a sense of what I experienced. Keep reading after the video:

    (more…)

  • A Geyser Blows in Iceland…

    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 exploration, Northern Lights viewing, dog sledding and so much more you simply will not find in your own backyard.


    All with guides. And hopefully, fellow visitors to keep you company.

    If you don't want to have to think at all about vacation planning, Icelandair is always good about offering interesting packages, although I see on their Web site it's all priced at per person double occupancy. (No surprise there.) Currently, they're offering a winter wellness getaway and a Christmas adventure.

    I love this write-up on their site:

    "The highlight is the funny new "Let's Talk Christmas" skit where you
    will learn about both Icelandic Christmas traditions and the Thirteen
    Yule Lads from their mother, Gryla the Troll!"

    Yes, many Icelanders believe in elves and other "hidden people." Seriously. It's a hoot, and charming.

    Or you can make your own arrangements to Iceland. There's a youth hostel right in the capital, Reykjavik. And there's couchsurfing and bed and breakfasts to be found.

    Meanwhile, enjoy the quick video. (You may have to download software to view it. Mine worked in QuickTime)

    Thanks, Sheara! And Jared, her son, who did the actual filming.

    Download Geyser in Geysir

  • Five fun activities for solo travelers in Miami

    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." Common_dolphins_blowing

    The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau came through with flying colors recently. Jennifer Haz, the assistant media relations manager, sent me a list of ideas, three of which would serve well as "isolation breakers" during, say, a week-long trip that includes Miami, Florida. I've included the other two in case they're of interest.

    Her suggestions:

    1. Find an "ecoadventure" through Miami-Dade Parks.

    Naturalists will guide you through parks, wilderness areas and historic sites. You can go snorkeling and kayaking in Biscayne Bay, canoeing through mangrove creeks "teeming with native wildlife," or biking along the barrier island.

    Also offered are "wilder" activities, including marine wading tours and hiking trips into wilderness areas of the Everglades, Big Cypress National Preserve and coastal parks. If there are others on the tours, you will have people to talk to. If not, there's always your friend, the guide.

    2. Swim with dolphins.

    The Miami Seaquarium is the place to interact with the "Flippers" of the world. The program brings you to a classroom for an interactive presentation. Then you suit up and head out for dolphin encounters. Surely, people in the "class" will be giddy and share their excitement with everyone in the room. Including you.

    Here's the Web site patter: "As a ‘Dolphin
    Odyssey’ participant, you’ll have the opportunity to kiss, hug, dance,
    rub and get up-close to these friendly mammals."

    (Don't you drink the ocean if you try to kiss a dolphin?)

     3. South Beach bike tour

    Since so much of what's unique and cool about Miami is the South Beach art deco area, a bike tour would be a great activity. I've walked around the funky area but biking would be so much more efficient and fun.

    South Beach Bike Tours offers a half-day bike rental (on one of those cruiser bikes), a helmet and "refreshments." Bike and Roll offers a two-hour tour for $39. Again, there will people on the tour to chat with, or if not, a guide.

    These next two don't seem as conducive to mixing and mingling but could be fun things to do while you're there.

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  • The Top Ten Solo Traveler Destinations – says one company’s “adventure consultants”

    Bora-Bora
    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 places. 

    What they say about Antigua, Guatemala: 

    "With more language schools per capita than anywhere else in the world, it
    is no wonder Antigua is a favorite stop on the gringo trail for solo
    travelers. When not studying, you can climb volcanoes, hike, go drinking, and
    visit with the remnants of the Mayan culture."

    A friend of mine toured Antigua with his wife last year and he noticed students of all ages sitting on lawns in the front of houses practicing Spanish one on one. Presumably with hosts they were living with for the week or month while they went to language school. It's high on my list of places to go to learn Spanish.

    Another friend, who I went to Thailand with, traveled solo to the Phi Phi Islands (pre-tsunami) after I flew home from our trip together. She raved about the excursion. She's a pretty outgoing person and that helps. But the Thai people I met wherever I went in the country were friendly and welcoming.

    Santa Fe, New Mexico, another recommendation on the list, would be a great place to go to a spa solo. Eat Tex-Mex. Buy silver jewelry and belt buckles. Mix with the one-third Angle, one-third Hispanic and one third Native American population that lives there. Relax in the adobe splendor of it all.

    I went solo to Santa Fe before joining a hiking and biking tour with The World Outdoors, which I think was called Roads Less Traveled when I went with them. I didn't love the group on that particular vacation, so I couldn't wait to be on my own.

    There you have it. A few more vacation spots to ponder.

    Photo: Mount Otemanu in Bora Bora by PHG

  • Hot spots for dining solo in New York City

    Veselka
     The New York Observer has issued its top 10 list of best restaurants for dining alone. The reviews don't describe what makes the establishments comfortable, or fabulous, for solo diners. Although the write-ups are most drool-worthy.

    We'll have to hope they chose them for good reasons.

    A reader added his own critique of a restaurant not on the list. Joe's Shanghai at 9 Pell Street. "They have tables for 10 and a single diner can be seated at any one of them and feel very comfortable." He says you may be alone but you won't be lonely.

    Having grown up just north of NYC, my family toured and dined a lot in "the Big Apple." And visited grandma on the Lower East Side. New York is one of those cities where you can do just about anything – including play the guitar on the streets half naked or have hair died in a range of primary colors, and few people will blink.Cafe LULUc

    More than just about any place, New York seems an easy city in which to dine alone because of that anything goes attitude. Plus, there's just so much to gape at! For those of you who worry the whole world's watching, my guess is the fact that you are eating alone won't even register with other diners.

    And New Yorkers being the outspoken people they often are, you might find that more people strike up conversations with you there than in most other cities. I can't say that for certain, but it's such a bustling place that I think you'll find going solo a snap.

    Photos: Veselka; Cafe LULUc

    New York City Things To Do

  • Barack Obama sets travelers free

    Obama
    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 the past two years:

    "Yay we can finally travel again without apologizing for our country and president!"

    So true. I was in New Zealand on a multi-sport adventure, the week Bush won the second time (I voted absentee ballot!). When it was over, I toured Christchurch on the South Island, on my own. I was in a souvenir shop at one point and the proprietor heard my American accent. He made a comment about the election. Along the lines of, "how could you?" You being America. I indeed felt the need to apologize. 

    It's been like that whenever I've been abroad over the past few years. I feel sheepish. I want to shout out, hey sorry about the wars and the other stupidity on our part.

    This is very different from when I was a student abroad my junior year in England. People were enamored of the U.S. Oh, certainly they were critical about many things but they admired a lot too.

    So it was nice the day after the election of the first black president, to hear the people in many countries who were impressed by our "shining city on the hill" example once again. I can't wait to go abroad now and walk around with a smile. And stop trying to fake some other accent…(no I did not, but maybe if I had been better at it…)

    Photo: Getty Images

  • Updates on shorter biking tours and paying for travel in installments

    A few weeks ago I wrote about shorter organized tours offered by Backroads. I heard back from Undiscovered Country Tours and learned that they too offer weekend road bike tours. All in California. They say they offer more three- and four-day biking tours in California than any other company. Easy to believe, since California is their focus.

    They offer regular-size tours too. What's great is having a choice of some bike tours in the winter months. Many adventure companies are dormant in the winter. Obviously, the company can do so because the weather is nice in parts of California year round.Apples3, farmers market, DC-Ellen Perlman

    In 2009 there's at least one tour and as many as four per month in February, March, April, September, October and November. (None in January. December, to be announced.)

    Last week I wrote about "vacation layaway" – paying for a trip in installments. I learned of another company, Adventurous Wench, that offers to help travelers out by splitting your trip cost into monthly payments. (Sorry guys, this particular company offers women-only trips.)

    I found out about this via their monthly newsletter. You can sign up for it at their site. Plus, they offer specials each month. The company also says it's offering more affordable domestic trips this year. Of course, "more affordable" is in the eye of the vacationer, so you'll have to assess whether it's affordable for you.

    Photos: Apples. Washington, D.C. farmers' market. We're solidly into fall now. Where are you traveling this winter?