Boldly Go Solo

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

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  • Travel Writers Crave Solo Travel

    World Hum, a travel magazine site, ran a twelve-part "e-mail roundtable" in October, written by four veteran travel writers. It was all about the "rewards and perils" of women traveling alone. I’ve pulled out some quotes that struck home for me.

        In Part 8, Catherine Watson writes about traveling with her significant other, who doesn’t like to travel:

    We always fought when we tried to do it together. We once had a huge fight in the train station on a one-day stop in Venice over whether we should store the luggage so we could walk around freely. He grabbed me by the shoulders and said, "Travel is hard for you, isn’t it?" Amazingly, he managed to keep on being my friend when I told him the truth: No, it’s only hard when I’m with someone."

        Continued…   

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  • Things to think about when choosing a trip – Part II

    When I took a Backroads biking trip to the Canadian Rockies, many years back, the price was right for me as a young writer (read: poor). It was a camping trip and I enjoyed the spirit and attitudes of the people who were willing to rough it. When I had more money I took a more expensive trip and stayed at lovely inns. It felt different. The people were used to finer things and complained if things weren’t going well. And why not? They’d paid good money for their trip.

    Canadian_rockies_biking
    It may be a massive generalization based on a statistically insignificant sample but I will continue to wade into this dangerous territory. My theory is, the more luxurious the trip, the more particular, shall we say, the people might be. If you are the type that demands the best, by all means, pay for it and hold the company’s feet to the fire. But if you’re more "go with the flow" and it would bother you to listen to others make those demands, go cheaper or rougher.

    Continued…   

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  • Things to think about when choosing a trip – Part I

    Somewhere along the way I realized that the type of trip or tour you pick, and the price you pay, determines a lot about who shows up. I THOUGHT that a rafting trip would attract active young people…which I was at the time. Turns out that when the guides do all the rowing, a lot of middle-aged men show up, and often they’re the type with their hands permanently curled around a beer can. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. You may be one of them.

    But if I’d chosen a trip where the all guests had to paddle their rafts, the group might have skewed younger or more active. The point is, it helps to be a bit clever when choosing a trip, if who shows up matters to you. And it makes sense to hash out trip particulars with companies you’re considering traveling with before you commit.

  • ISO someone to travel with

    You can’t fathom setting off on vacation without a friend or a significant other? How about pushing yourself, with the idea that that friend or significant other will be waiting for you when you get there? Let me explain.

    Melinda and I have known each other for about four years. Though she’s from the West Coast (of the U.S.) and I’m from the East, we’ve never broken bread together in the Northern Hemisphere. We met on a New Zealand trip. We both arrived solo. 037okarito_sunrise
    That bonding thing began to happen among the group of 15 people, both couples and singles. Melinda and I ended up in a two-person kayak in the tiny village of Okarito, paddling badly, getting soaked. We spilled about the men in our lives, and our parents and families, and the conversation continued in the van that was taking us around the South Island. She and I and the others biked and hiked and oohed and aahed our way through amazing scenery, sharing wine, our political views and our astonishment about just how many sheep can fit on one small island.

    Three years later, I was going to South America for a conference and emailed Melinda to see if she wanted to meet up with me and travel around Chile. She preferred to visit Argentina. It’s a deal! I hadn’t been to either country and was just as happy to go to Buenos Aires and elsewhere around Argentina.

    At the B.A. airport, I recognized Melinda, but it felt strange. Yet, within hours, we were back to the camaraderie we’d established several years earlier. Traveling together can do that for people. The same way summer camp can. By the end of a week or two you can feel like fast friends with someone, and when you part, you want to stay in touch. Imgp0380
    Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. When it does, you’ve gained a friend who you know likes to travel the way you do. And you’ve opened the door for more excellent adventures.

     1. Okarito, NZ, sunrise. Photo: Ellen Perlman.

    2. Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina. Melinda, Ellen and two friends from our day long tour hiking on the glacier. Photo by a nice stranger.

  • A Week in Spain, understanding “todo” (everything)

    So this is how I found myself living luxuriously, swimming laps in a pool facing the mountains in rural Spain, alongside a new friend from Australia.
       Imgp1044
    I've been studying Spanish for about five years now and love to practice any chance I get. In a somewhat confused moment, I decided to go to Spain to spend a week conversing in English only.

    The deal was this. I would stay in a private room, with jacuzzi tub, in a four-star hotel in Barco de Avila outside Madrid. With three meals a day provided, at aforementioned four-star hotel. All for free. Just for being willing to speak in English with Spanish people all day.

    I happen to be very good at speaking English. This seemed like a very, very fair deal. No, a great deal! Off I went. Never even thought to contact friends to see if they wanted to go. They'd just get in the way.

    A company called Vaughantown "hires" English speakers to spend a week at one of several location where Spanish students and businessmen go to improve their English skills.

    We create an English cocoon where the Spaniards can safely try out their faltering "Please pass the salt's" and "I work in the telecommunications industry's" on us without the stress of a real business encounter. Their companies pay for the privilege. We live off the fat of their their expense accounts. Imgp0943   

    The week I went there were 17 Spaniards and 17 "Anglos," a mix of Americans (only three), Aussies, Brits and Canadians. The best part was that I got to spend a week getting to know Spanish people I never would have talked to any other way.

    And I got to ask the important cultural questions. Like, how exactly how does one "siesta?" Do you get in your jammies and sleep for a couple of hours at home? Take a power nap at your desk? We got a siesta each afternoon at Vaughantown, which is when I would either nap or head to the indoor pool with the picture windows.

    I would love to do this again. The original fantasy included hitting it off with a Spaniard so I'd have someone to visit to practice Spanish with. Preferably someone with a large villa. Didn't happen. But the people were lively and the days had purpose.

    There's another company called Pueblo Ingles that seems to run a similar program.

    Photos: Ellen Perlman

    1. Spanish students doing an Irish jig they learned from an "Anglo" from Ireland.

    2. The view from my window at the hotel in Barco de Avila, Spain.

  • Can I really do this? Travel Alone?

    A couple of decades ago, nervous as hell, I decided to go alone on a biking and river rafting trip in Utah. I hadn't managed to talk any friends into vacationing with me but I really, really wanted to try river rafting. I chose a mountain biking and rafting trip through Holiday River Expeditions.Floating_in_canyonlands_2

    I researched the company through the Better Business Bureau. I called the tour operator and asked them who was going on my trip. And I called them again, and again, so see who else had signed up. I asked them what they thought about the fact that I was going alone. (They told me it was pretty common.) I made sure to choose a hotel for the night before that had a lobby, not those individual doors that face the parking lot. Bad guys wait for single women to arrive so they can break those down, don't they?

    Have I mentioned I was nervous?

    The morning before joining the group, I sat alone at breakfast, wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Little did I know that I was on the verge of a vacation romance with the guy sitting alone at the next table.

    A week later, I chalked that trip up to one of the best vacations so far. I laughed and ate and hiked with an incredibly fun group of people. Five of us bonded like we'd known one another since kindergarten. We did everything together, including always nabbing one of the rafts just for us.
        Setting_up_camp


    One new-found friend put his hand on my butt and pushed, to get me over a tough rock wall. Hey, five days of living together on the river removes a lot of inhibitions. Another friend sang "I Smell Teen Spirit" as we got riper in the hot sun. One night we slept under the stars, our sleeping bags all lined up in a row.

    I cried when we parted. Well, well. Traveling alone was pretty fantastic.

    Photos: Ellen Perlman
    1. Raft flotilla in Canyonlands National Park, Utah.

    2. Setting up camp by the side of the river.

  • Taking the Leap

    Trapeze_wmn There are so many reasons to travel alone. I could go on and on about them. In fact, I will. That's the purpose of this blog. To "talk," not just about how to set out alone, but why.

    Friends tell me I'm brave to do it. C'mon, now. Neil Armstrong was brave. Ulysses S. Grant was brave. The guy who invented bungee jumping and decided to be the first off the bridge was brave. Me? I just like to travel. It was really irritating not to be able to go places I wanted to go because I couldn't find friends to go with me.

    You know the story. They're busy. They're poor. They want to stay in five-star hotels. Or they want to stay only in Motel 6's (okay, I don't have too many of those sorts of friends). They don't like getting dirty, so camping is out. They don't bike or they don't boat or they don't do Asia. Whatever. I got tired of hunting for travel companions to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.

    Brave? HA! I'm apprehensive before every trip I take. Even though I'm experienced enough to know that the minute I land I'm happy and excited to be there. I compare it to the time I tried the flying trapeze at a Club Med in Mexico. Standing on the platform, I thought my head would explode from the pounding fear. Yet, the second I finally jumped off, and was flying through the air, the fear left me immediately.  But a few days before any trip, I'm standing on the same damn platform.

    I'm just grateful I always jump. The pre-trip feeling is incredibly uncomfortable, but so far I haven't allowed it to stop me. Neither should you.

    Photo courtesy of Club Med