Boldly Go Solo

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

recent posts

about

  • Pairing people up on the road

    How’s this for a new twist on finding people to hang out with in a city you’re visiting? A new Web site lets you find people on your flight, or at your destination, who are interested in some of the same things you are. It’s called triplife, "where travelers click." I guess you find people on the site, and reach out if you want company.

    The Louisville Courier-Journal mentioned it, along with some other travel ideas. I’m going to test triplife the next time I go away. Fill out a profile and see what comes up. It’s gotta be interesting…unless, of course, it’s a total dud. I’ll have to see.

  • USA Today says solo travelers “may be in luck”

    Tour operators increasingly are targeting solo travelers with "singles-only itineraries," a story in Friday’s USA Today says. "The move is designed to tap into a growing lucrative market."

    Yup, that would be the baby boomers. Like the elephant in the boa in "The Little Prince," it’s always obvious what stage of life the boomers are in. Wherever they go, market trends follow.

    I soon will be writing a story on the same subject with a lot more detail (they don’t get to write very long in USA Today). Stay tuned. I’ll let you know when it’s published and will, of course, link to it.

  • Begosh and Begorrah, a tale of pub life and free drinks for the solo traveler, in Ireland and Scotland

    Maria was on her own, in "the cutest little pub I’d ever seen," when the bartender poured her a Guinness she hadn’t ordered. She was perplexed. Then the bartender told her it was from three Irish guys who noticed she was alone at the bar. She’d never had a drink sent her way by a stranger. Let alone, three strangers.
    In a foreign country.Edinburgh_amigos_3

    Maria had been perfectly content sitting in the Ennis, Ireland, pub, reading a history book. But once the guys reached out, the evening morphed into something else. A merry evening with three locals. Verryy local. One lad’s accent was so thick, his friend had to translate for her.

    Running into friendly pub goers turned out to be the norm during Maria’s 10-day trip to Ireland and Scotland. In fact, practically every place she went, expecting to read the night away in a cozy corner, or watch sports alone on the telly, someone would reach out and talk to her.

    It still wasn’t easy for her to go out each night. She doesn’t like eating by herself. But she forced herself out the door each time. "I knew I would have regretted it if I stayed inside watching TV."

    (more…)

  • Lions and Tigers and Teaching, Oh My

    Lazytigr_keepers_of_the_wild_5
    Not all travel has to be about vacationing, in the sense of wining, dining and sightseeing. You could choose, instead, to wade into a culture or a community by serving as a     volunteer. 

    It’s almost a guarantee that lots of people will arrive solo. Imagine trying to convince a travel buddy to catch, color-band and release migratory songbirds in the Tetons the exact same week you want to catch, color-band and release migratory songbirds in the Tetons. 

    Several organizations offer opportunities for "voluntourism." Here are a few:

    Earthwatch invites people to work on scientific field research or conservation projects in one of about 50 countries. Volunteers range in age from 10 to 90. Examples of Earthwatch’s activities include banding penguins in South Africa or tagging sea turtles on Pacific beaches.

    And who knows when Leo DiCaprio might show up to give you a pat on the back. He’s currently an organization spokesman.

    (more…)

  • Escape like the squirrels

    Forest2new_zealand_ellen_perlman
    Brave New Traveler ran a list of the "50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes of all time. I decided to pluck the ones most pertinent for a solo travel Web site. All two of them. 

    #18 – To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world. – Freya Stark 

    #33. I have found that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them. – Mark Twain

    Many of the other 48 entries strike a chord. I’ll leave you with one more.

    #17 – When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in. – D.H. Lawrence

    Photo: Ellen Perlman. New Zealand.

  • Request for help

    Yours truly is in the process of researching a large, and I mean, large story on single supplements for a Midwest newspaper. The story will be resold in many places, perhaps to a newspaper near you.

    So, dear faithful readers, if you are willing to be interviewed by phone on your gripes about the single supplement, let me know.

    If you have found ways get around the single supplement, let me know.

    If you know of companies or hotels or other organizations that waive or reduce the single supplement, let me know.

    Just send me an email (look left and all the way down on this home page) and I will give you my phone number. Or, I’m happy to call you once we get in email contact, if you don’t mind giving me your number.

    (more…)

  • Apologies

    For those of you who receive Boldly Go Solo via email, there seems to be a glitch in the feed. I will try to get that remedied as quickly as possible. No, those 16 celebrity stories from Britain are NOT mine. I’m simply not that prolific!

    Thanks for your patience.

    The Management

  • Take my wife…please. Sometimes I’d rather go alone

    Solo travelers sometimes feel sorry for themselves. They look around and think everyone's luckier than they are. "Look at 'em. They're all paired up. Except for me. Waahhh."

    Patong_beach_thailandHey, plant this idea in your head instead. 

    I was at a formal work dinner, chatting with a nice businessman, telling him about my blog. Don't know how it came up but it did.

    When he heard about my traveling-alone adventures he looked wistful and said:

    "I've been traveling with my wife for 40 years. Sometimes I wish I could travel alone. You take your house with you. You have the same arguments. I've argued with my wife every place we've been."

    Arguing isn't the only issue. I was on an early morning shuttle van to the airport for a flight to Thailand, where I was going to meet up with a British friend. I was on my own, but only for the first 36 hours.

    The van wound through downtown Washington on the way to Dulles Airport. The dawn light was illuminating the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol. Manipedi_patong_beach

    I caught myself smiling, thinking how, soon I'd be halfway around the world. Where most of the residents had only seen these sights on television. In 24 hours I'd be on their side of the planet, experiencing the land of Buddhas, wats and floating markets.

    My reverie was interrupted by the conversation of the couple in front of me. Honey, I think it's beginning to rain… I didn't know a Home Depot had opened up there… I should bring my golf clubs in when we get home…

    (more…)

  • Ten and a half tips for nights alone in a big, foreign city

    For the past 12 years, I've been going cross-country skiing with my good friends Adele and Sheara. It started as a way for five women with young children to "escape" for a little while to get some time for themselves. And some sleep.
    I got that all the time, but they let me along for the ride.

    Our annual outing continues but just with the three of us. Now, Adele's and Sheara's kids are almost "all growed up," to the point where Sheara is going to visit her son Jared, 17, in Barcelona in a couple of weeks.

    Sheara has decided to go to Spain three days early and poke around the city on her own. She's excited and nervous at the same time.

    She asked me: "What do I do by myself at night? I know Barcelona barely sleeps. I need my beauty sleep. Do I just go to sleep?" Great question.

    If I were to start a "Dear Ellen" column, I'd say, "Dear Sleepless in Barcelona. The short answer is 'Yes. Do what you want to do at all times. Don't feel pressured to fit in. Plenty of Barcelonians are sleeping when you'd like to sleep. You just don't see them. Because…um…they're sleeping.

    "In any case, you want to be rested for all the exploring you're going to do during the day. Those people who are out all night are snoring away perfectly good museum-visiting and cafe-sitting hours.Playground_plaza_santa_ana_ellen_pe"

    But I gave her an even lengthier answer, which I'll share here. First off, I'm the first to admit that nights alone are tough. It's why I mostly choose to go on active group trips and travel with the community the tour operator has put together.

    I love poking around cities on my own, but I never plan a trip where I spend more than a few consecutive nights doing so. I'm never sure whether or not I will start to feel isolated. BUT……having said that…

    (more…)

  • Single and looking. Single and biking. Single and doing lots of fun stuff.

    I used to think Mr. Right might show up on one of the biking trips I was booking. Or at the Club Med. Or on the river where I was rafting. I’ve heard many stories of people meeting on active vacations and falling in love. Biking_on_the_icefields_parkway

    Sure, love could strike somewhere between biking a butte and doing an endo (the maneuver of flying unexpectedly over one’s handlebars, sometimes cracking bones, sometimes not.)

    I’ve had my vacation flirtations. After a biking-from-Banff adventure, for instance, I met up again with Joe from Chicago, for a biking weekend in Wisconsin.

    But it dawned on me after awhile (sometimes I’m not too quick) that most of the people I meet on these trips are from far away. If I’m looking for a keeper, I’d really rather meet someone in my home town than someone from four states to the left.

    The chances that someone within a 100-mile radius of where I live will sign up for, say, the Italy biking trip, the same week in November that I do, are akin to the chances of me ballroom dancing with Brad Pitt this Saturday night. Give or take.

    Still, "singles" trips are appealing to many people. (I define singles trips as those where guests are single and looking, and want no marrieds on board. As opposed to a solo trip, where you just happen to be on vacation on your own, with a mix of different people.)

    (more…)