Boldly Go Solo

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

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  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day five. Pain.

    I wish it hadn't taken me slamming into a prickly pear cactus to make a great point about traveling solo, but it did. Here's the sad tale. Imgp2312

    In heavy hiking boots, on a trail marked "difficult," I tripped and pitched forward. Under normal circumstances I think I would have been able to right myself. But with boulders planted on the trail, I kept misstepping, never getting my feet under me, until I took the header into the big green vertical bed of needles. A "sider" actually. I finished the spill with my back leaning on the cactus.

    Ouch, ouch ouch ouch ouch…and a hundred more ouches. That's the sound of someone having many, many hair-brush sized needles pulled out one at a time from arms, legs, back and other more interesting places. By me, and both my hiking companions.

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  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day four. Laughs.

    Imgp2275
    Bridget, a fellow hiker, had some of us laughing all morning, after she showed us the "Michigan mitten" at breakfast. Someone asked her where she grew up and she held up her right hand and pointed to one side of her palm. "Right here."

    Huh? Apparently, Michigan children learn that their state is shaped like a giant hand, or mitten. And they locate their cities on their own palms. Bridget showed us Kalamazoo, where she grew up, and then traced a line with her index finger to Ann Arbor and on to Detroit. She seemed surprised we didn't know about the mitten. Or else she has a very dry sense of humor. Either way, she had us in stitches.

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    After breakfast, I had a peaceful morning hiking by myself in the northern part of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Well, not totally by myself. It's not a trail I would have braved on my own. Too many risks for a once-in-awhile hiker from out of town to attempt solo. But with people from the group ahead and behind, I felt secure. When the eager hikers set a brisk pace behind the lead guide, I dropped back so I could be on my own and walk at my pace.

    Continued…

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  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day three. Rain.

    Yesterday’s hail dusted the mountaintops here in Tucson, changing the desert palette. By this morning it was raining. If I had been out West hiking on my own, I might have spent a lonely day in my room, or hanging around the hotel, today. Maybe I would have gone shopping or to a movie.Imgp2208

    But I’m not here alone. I’m with a dozen plus other people I now know.  I enjoy their company. And now that we’ve gotten the "where are you from, what do you do," conversations out of the way, we’ve moved on to more interesting topics, like religion, adoption and how great the masseuses here have been.

    I come and go as I please. This morning I skipped the group exercise circuits at the gym because a nap was more appealing. When I was ready for activity and company, I joined the others for lunch. And then for an afternoon strength class.

    Imgp2205_2That’s the point of this hiking spa vacation, says Devon Metz, the owner. "You can focus on yourself, but you also have this group camaraderie." In other words, indulge at will. In massages, classes, meals and friendly company. Or wander off on your own when you’d like.

    Continued…

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  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day two. Hail.

    Tucson in December has its surprises for an East Coast girl:

    A loud, heavy hail storm has left quarter-inch balls of white ice on the hotel's lawns and sidewalks.

    An old water tank for cattle, which are no longer allowed where we're hiking, is filled with plump, healthy goldfish. Goldfish! In the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.Imgp2197_2

    When an arm of a saguaro cactus is turned downward, it means the cactus is dying. But it can "change its mind," at which point the arm starts growing skyward again.

    But about solo travel…today's observations. The people who arrived here alone are more open to mixing and mingling with everyone. The people who arrived here in pairs tend to stick by one another. And I tend not to engage them as much as the solo guests. They are a set. They are self-contained. They go to meals together, go back to their rooms together, look for one another wherever they go. They're a little closed off from the rest of us.

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  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day one. Apprehension.

    9:30 am, Houston. Having one of those "poor me" moments while rushing to make the connection to Tucson. Imgp2121
    Why was I going to all this trouble, flying to join a bunch of strangers at a spa? All alone. I think about home and it seems so cozy and inviting. Typical day one for me. Just have to push through it. I have traveled solo dozens of times and have never regretted it. Yet I always have these first day doubts and crankiness.

    I board the second flight and get absorbed in my magazines. Again, wondering who I will be spending the week with.

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  • T-Minus one day before going alone on a spa vacation

    The day before a vacation is my least favorite day of the whole thing. Usually followed by my first day of that vacation. Packing always seems a little daunting, despite the fact I finally put together a check list. so I don’t have to search my brain for everything I have to throw into the suitcase.

    And once I get there, the settling in and meeting people and figuring out the lay of the land takes something out of me. After that, I’ve learned, things usually get better and better every day.

    This solo trip isn’t nearly as nerve-wracking as some I’ve taken. For one, it’s in Tucson, which I’ve been to many times. It’s not a foreign country with a language I don’t understand.

    Second, I know two of the people running the show. I went on a multi-sport trip about five years ago with one of the guides, Allan Wright. Coincidentally, the woman who founded Devon Hiking Spa, Devon Metz, was a guest on that Lake Tahoe trip. Allan and Devon obviously kept in touch…

    Continued…

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  • Solo travelers are tired of the “Hobson’s Choice” tour operators offer

    Lots of hubbub in the blogosphere over Sunday’s New York Times article on solo travel. As of 5 p.m. on Friday, 82 readers had sent their online comments. I’m impressed by how one rabble rouser, Ted, expresses his point:

    The "Immutable Law of Double Occupancy" punishes solo travelers, he says. Tour and cruise industries have built their businesses on the bedrock of double occupancy. That means couples and families benefit, while solo travelers – who are "more than an insignificant aberrant minority" – get stuck shelling out more than their fair share for what he calls a "non-conformance penalty."

    He says this about the tour operators who inflict the penalty:

    "The best they seem able to do is to pair up roommates, providing a Hobson’s choice of sharing accommodations with a total stranger or paying double."

    It hadn’t struck me like that before. Ted recommends avoiding the tour packagers to avoid single supplements. His further thoughts are compelling:

    "Perhaps the long-term solution might be for solo travelers to make a point of letting executives of travel companies know that they’d be eager to book tours and cruises that offer prices without the difficulties of sharing a small space with a total stranger."

    Amen, brother. Would tour companies like to respond?

  • Bears and whales and ice caves and eagles. May I go too, please?

    My friend Anya, a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and sometime travel writer and photographer, recently sent me her story on Juneau, Alaska. After reading it, I’m totally sold on the place. I love this line in her story:

    We saw bald eagles lock talons in midair, tumbling toward the ground like comic-book foes before they soared free.

    Anyas_photo20071202img_1666_330 But I’m veering off here… My point is, now I want to go to Juneau. I want to view the bears and the beauty she describes. Since I’m going to a conference in Seattle in June, it would be easy to head north from there. Easier, at least, than starting from the East Coast. My company is already paying for the round-trip flight to Seattle, so I would save plenty on airfare. I’m definitely going to be looking into this.

    Do other people think this way? Or do they shy away from such opportunities because they don’t have someone to travel with? Tell me why, assuming you had the time, money and desire to go to Juneau, you would or wouldn’t go if you were in my situation.

    Photo: Anya Sostek. Ice caves in Juneau, Alaska 

  • Travel with friends is stressing me out

    In a few days, I’m setting out solo for a hiking and spa vacation in Tucson. Then, in January, I’m going to Park City, Utah, for a ski week with two good friends. I’m way more stressed about the ski week with friends.Nz_first_set_083_2

    For my hiking/spa trip, the company already has scoped out the hiking trails, the restaurants and the hotel, and given them the seal of approval. I just had to decide if I liked the company’s concept, and the location, and then sign on the electronic line.

    The ski week, on the other hand, remains a work in progress after several months of negotiations. And dozens of exchanged emails. First, I made all the condo arrangements, after my friends approved of the choice. Then I paid the bill and my friends sent me reimbursement checks.

    After that, we had to decide on room arrangements and whether the one who requested the master bedroom with private bath should pay more since the other two will share a room (the answer is yes). Now we’re deciding whether to rent a car to get to the ski resorts in the area or do without one.

    Continued…

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  • Make a run for it. Marathons as an anchor for solo travel.

    428805408_501480d9a1 A 45-year-old woman in Wisconsin uses marathon running as a way to take solo vacations. "Every spring and fall, I look through my marathon calendar and ask myself where I’d like to go," she told a Wisconsin paper. "I just throw a marathon in for the heck of it. I get to see nice places, meet nice people and see the scenery."

    This is what I’m TALKIN’ about. A marathon, a business trip, a visit to your old college roommate’s mother. Who happens to live in Paris. You find a little something that makes the idea of solo travel comfortable. Then you make your plans and go.

       Photo from flickr. Credit: Cazasco