Boldly Go Solo

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

recent posts

about

  • Don’t leave home without your credit card…just without your friends.

    Climbing
    After a stellar mountain biking and rafting trip on the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park, I couldn’t help going on and on about it to a friend. Of course, she then wanted to join me on my next river trip.

    I panicked, and tried to come up with a polite way to tell her I didn’t want her to join me. I didn’t think the experience would be the same if I brought along someone from home.

    That’s like going to college and making sure you room with a high school friend. It’s a crutch. The plunge into the new is what makes travel exciting. Bringing a friend  interferes with the experience. You’re less likely to mix with the other people as well. People give you some distance if you’re chattering away with your friend from home.

    Continued…

    (more…)

  • If you make a mistake while traveling solo and nobody knows, is it really a mistake?

    When I traveled solo to Madrid in June, I tried to save money on lodging, but didn’t want to go lower than a three-star hotel. I figured that would be a decent place to stay for three nights. But I was taken aback by what I found after turning the key in the lock.Imgp0923

    The tiny room offered barely enough space to walk alongside the bed. The roll-down window shade was in the up position and wouldn’t come down. The window itself faced an alley. The bathroom light flickered and needed to be changed. Whoops. My bad.

    Who could know all this from looking at the Internet booking site? Worse, I’d paid $130 a night for this "low-rent" option, due to the lousy exchange rate for American dollars.

    Yet, something else very important was also missing: Guilt.

    Continued…

    (more…)

  • What’s so great about having a travel companion again?

    In my early 30’s, my boyfriend and I spent some time in Bruges, Belgium, during a European trip. He did something to annoy me. I don’t remember what now. I just remember him walking away from me, and me being angry. To this day, you say Bruges and a darkness descends. I really should go back and make amends with the city. 

    The lesson here? I felt safe and secure and excited about traveling with him. Isn’t a travel companion supposed to help make everything alright? For the most part, it worked out. But there were issues throughout the trip.

    If I’d traveled alone through Bruges, I might have memories of the quaint buildings or the Belgian cuisine or some discovery I’d made walking down a side street. Instead of his back after he turned it on me.

    So ask yourself: What’s so important about having a travel companion? And remember, when you get nervous about the idea of setting out solo: There are trade-offs either way.

     

  • Boldly Go Solo, now more convenient

    Imgp2955
    You can now receive Boldly Go Solo via email. Plug your email address into the space provided at the top left of the home page and you will be alerted whenever there is a new post.

    This is in addition to the blog feed you’ve always been able to get. Either way, continue to enjoy tips, trips and ideas for the active solo traveler.

    Photo: Ellen Perlman. Valparaiso, Chile.

  • Solo travel: A “truer” travel experience

    This post, from a Web site called Brave New Traveler, lists six reasons to wander the world solo. 

    1. "Enjoy complete freedom."
    You can try exotic cuisines without having someone "crinkling their nose" at you. And, you won’t have anyone pushing you to eat something you’d rather not, writes Michaela Lola.

    I’ve experienced the nose crinkling. It was from the same person who was irritated because I wanted to get a bite to eat when he wasn’t hungry.

    2. "Challenge yourself."
    Traveling alone forces you to be confident in your choices, she says. And the challenges make you stronger. And, I’ll add, traveling alone allows you to make all the choices. It’s not often in life you get to pick exactly what you’d like to do, all day long, for the purpose of pleasing or educating yourself.

    3. "Attain deeper insights."
    "Everything tastes better, shines brighter and seeps deeper into your bones when all you have are your thoughts and a notebook." Nice sentiment. And, Lola adds, you don’t need to fill empty gaps of time with "desperate, painful dialog" with a travel partner. Amen. How silly is it in a museum to turn to your partner and say, "Wow, look at that." Or, "isn’t that a great painting?" We feel obligated to comment because someone is by our side. Or is it just me?

    Continued…

    (more…)

  • How you say dees een French?: “I had a great time being on my own in Paris.”

    Imgp2387 I went to Paris alone. I was in my 20's and I wanted to learn French. Classes at the Alliance Francaise would be my ticket to fluency. But I knew no one in Paris.

    I spent the first few nights in a cheap hotel, sharing a hall bathroom. I wandered the streets in wonder. I practiced French I'd learned from tapes, and stuffed myself with croissants and pastries from patisseries. 

    Imgp2390I got friendly with a young English guy staying at the hotel. We walked along the Seine one night, enjoying each other's company. A lot. I made my way to the school and found lodging advertised on a bulletin board. I arranged to stay for the month at an apartment offered by a woman named Evelyn. In the chichi 17th arrondissement, a short walk from the Arc d'Triomphe.

    Imgp2388Two other Alliance students, one British, one Italian, also rented rooms there. 

    (more…)

  • Solo travel is liberating

        "And if I’m flying solo at least I’m flying free."

    Lyrics from "Defying Gravity," from the musical, "Wicked."

  • Changing the mindset of the travel industry

    My goal is nothing less than to change the travel industry. To benefit solo travelers, of course. Sounds pretty grandiose, eh? But I don’t think it’s that difficult. Out of self interest, the industry should consider paying more attention to the solo market.

    Too many would-be vacationers, with money to burn, are staying home because hotels and restaurants make them feel as though they need to show up as a pair. At minimum.

    Meanwhile, the number of single adults is growing all the time. From single/never married to divorced, plenty of these people want to travel but don’t have a travel companion. And don’t view the industry as single friendly.

    So many times I walk into a hotel restaurant and see table after table for two occupied by one person. I’m not going to stop and ask these people if I can join them. No, propriety dictates that I avert my eyes and get my own table for one.

    But not at a place like Club Med. There, my host would
    seat me next to other people at a large table, and I might end up
    having a
    lively dinner conversation with someone new. At Club Med, you’re expected to break the ice no matter where on the property you are.

    Continued…

    (more…)

  • Married, but traveling solo

    Not everyone who travels solo is single. My friend’s mother, "K," is happily married. And a grandmother. She travels a fair amount for work. If she happens to land in a fun place, she tries to make time to wander on her own. But she admits that she doesn’t like eating dinner alone, so there are limits.

    Recently, she went to Cambridge, England, for a week, without fear of solitary mealtimes. She stayed with her daughter’s friend Liz, whom she’d met in the States. K liked Liz, but she didn’t know her very well before her stay. (see previous post on solo travelers tapping friends).

    Obviously, the two of them got to know each other a lot better that week. Liz showed K all around the university town. But K also had time for herself. "I spent a day alone in Cambridge, shopping and going to museums. I love that. And it’s nice to come home to people I know." 
    Continued…

    (more…)

  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day six. All done.

    Due to high waters in the nearby canyons, we do loops around the hotel instead of going out to do a breakfast hike. We end up eating near a waterfall. Imgp2342
    Since this whole trip is about healthy eating, breakfast "on the trail" consists of fruit, peanut butter, cottage cheese, fruit, whole grain tortillas, nuts, fruit and more fruit. Good eatin' in a beautiful setting. Though Tucson winter mornings are a tad chilly.

    We scurry to get a final hike in. And are rewarded with another great sunny day among the saguaro cactus in Sabino Canyon. Imgp2362

    Last night at dinner in an Italian restaurant, we received silly awards. Things like the roadrunner award for fastest hiker; the "pushing your personal limits" award for someone who'd never done this kind of hiking; and the most dedicated "spa-er" for someone who dropped out of one hike for a mani/pedi at the hotel spa. She had also come alone on this trip, leaving behind her husband and 14-year-old daughter.

    Continued…

    (more…)