I’ll admit, I’m kind of addicted to going on solo adventures. The more I travel solo, the more empowered and confident I become – it’s like a game, where I level-up within myself.
Overcoming loneliness, experiencing self-discovery, and making new friends are just a few reasons why I love to travel on my own.
As I discussed in my blog post on safety, most people are afraid to travel by themselves. I’ve been told time and time again, as a woman I need to “be more careful,” and I should, “have a man with me.”
While traveling with a partner or in a group has its own list of benefits, I’m still a firm believer than everyone – especially women – should experience a solo trip at least once in their life.
Traveling alone has given me confidence, independence, and affirms what I know to be true: I don’t need to have anyone with me while traveling to feel safe or to have a good time.
Here are my top 5 reasons why you should travel solo!
Leveling Up
Honestly, my favorite part about solo travel in general isn’t exploring beautiful scenery, learning about different cultures or lifestyles, or even about meeting new people.
It’s the self-discovery.
I know not everyone will resonate with this. Some people are blissfully unaware of why they do the things they do or say or think. The thought of doing internal work is not only terrifying, but tedious.
For me it’s like a high. Facing the darkest and deepest parts of myself, working through them with God, and moving forward as the person I’m destined to be gives me a feeling nothing else can.
It’s like that saying goes about being an onion, where I peel back layer after layer, discovering things within myself that I didn’t even know existed, unlocking versions of myself I didn’t ever think possible.
There’s something about getting out of my regular environment and changing my routine that brings this internal work out of me.
When you don’t have a travel buddy to constantly fill the silence with, or when you don’t constantly have Wifi to distract yourself with, you’re left with one main thing: yourself.
And driving down a lonely one-lane highway in some random state when you don’t have service on your phone and the radio isn’t working, you can’t ignore yourself.
Always being around other people doesn’t give you the chance to really see yourself for who you are. Yes, being around others can bring out certain parts of you and help you in your journey – and that’s why I absolutely love meeting people during my travels – but self-processing in solitude is incredibly powerful.
Meeting People
I’m very much an ambivert– I can spend days working on myself alone in the forest, but I can also spend weeks traveling with a group of fellow nomads.
Traveling solo allows for both introspection and external connection, and another vital aspect of traveling solo is the people that you meet.
There’s something so different about meeting people while traveling – it’s the true rawness of encountering people out in the world – not at work or school or social media, but the places that you never would’ve gone to had you not traveled there.
And it’s the knowledge that you’ll may never see that person again, or the excitement of a new relationship starting that makes it so special.
It’s not that you can’t meet people or have experiences with strangers with a partner, but the dynamic changes and you’ll have different experiences. As a solo traveler, you give off a different vibe, attracting different people.
Even when minding my own business, I’ve attracted certain people, who’ve led me to some life-altering experiences, and meaningful, deep connections.
Some of these people include:
A woman close to my parents age commented on how summery I looked while standing in line at Starbucks in Pensacola, Florida. She ended up buying my coffee, and we talked for two hours. She lived in Kalispell, Montana, and was traveling for work. She gave me her info, and I ended up staying with her for nearly a week a couple months later during my travels. We kayaked the river in Glacier National Park and had loads of great conversation.
I wandered into a jewelry and crystal shop in the sleepy, artsy town of Madrid, New Mexico, and the elderly man sitting behind the counter struck up a conversation with me. He lit up when I mentioned I lived in van, and he told me how he was one of the original nomads of the 70’s. He left New Mexico in his old Ford cargo van with only $200 in his pocket. He regaled me with wild stories of his youth. He gave me his business card and told me to call if I ever needed anything.
At Horseshoe Bend I was struggling to take a selfie, when a girl randomly asked if I wanted my picture taken. Not only did she spend the time taking several Insta-worthy shots, but her friends kindly hung around while we talked. She was from San Diego, but she told me how she always dreamed of traveling to Southeast Asia to connect with her heritage, and only a year or two later, I watched her journey on Instagram.
I bonded over boy problems with punk-goth girl who worked for Tesla at a small music festival in the Nevadan desert; I sat beside two guys at a bar in Portland and one told me how he was moving to Hawaii (which I also got to witness via Instagram); I asked a guy to take my picture on a hike in Canada, and we connected over our veganism, living in a van and hiking. He became my hiking buddy during the weeks I was in Alberta.
I met a middle-aged man living out of a minivan with his brother at the park in Mount Shasta, and we sat under a tree in the 100-degree weather debating the mysteries of life.
It was also in Mount Shasta where I met a dude who was traveling out of a self-build sprinter-type van, and he introduced me to a tribe of nomads. I ended up traveling with them for a few weeks, which made my travels that summer.
I met a woman who lives in a mini bus with a deaf albino Great Dane in a backyard party in McMinnville, Oregon, and she gave me and my friends matching tattoos. Months later when she was passing through Colorado, she ended up camping at my house for a few days, and we formed a deeper connection as we galivanted around Denver.
All of these people – and so many more I haven’t mentioned – touched my heart and helped shape me into the person I am. That sounds cheesy AF, but it’s true. Connecting on such a deep level with people is kind of terrifying, but also such a testament to the goodness of humanity.
We all want to be seen, heard, and understood. And it’s been such a blessing to have that with the most random, most unlikely people. I highly doubt I would’ve had half these experiences had I been traveling with someone.
You Decide – Everything
Nothing screams true freedom like being in charge of your journey.
The next best part of traveling solo is that you’re in control – of everything. Where to go, what to do, when to sleep.
You want to eat cereal for dinner and deep dive on Instagram for a couple hours because this is the first time you’ve had service in days? Do it.
You feel like staying an extra day in that random state park so you can do a sun rise hike with some people you just met? Go for it.
You fall in love with a small Canadian town and want to quit traveling altogether and move there permanently? It’s all you, baby boo. Well, if you’re from the US, it’s actually really difficult to work/live in Canada, they have some stupid act in place. Believe me, I already looked into this. Anyway…
You don’t have to take anyone else’s feelings or ideas or needs or wants into consideration when you’re traveling by yourself.
You can plan your idea of the perfect itinerary and execute it without needing to pull your travel buddy out of bed to make it on time to the early morning tours.
You can go where God guides you with no plan whatsoever, and not have to argue with someone whose stressing about finding a place to sleep every night.
When traveling solo, it’s all up to you.
Independence
Because you get to make all the decisions when traveling solo, you gain a sense of independence.
You’re not reliant on anyone else to help you decide on the day-to-day basics. Being by yourself enables you to strengthen your critical-thinking skills and how to problem solve.
By overcoming obstacles or problems by yourself, you develop a deeper sense of self-sufficiency. You no longer look to others for their opinions or validation because you know that you are capable of figuring it out.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t ever ask for help – especially if you’re in a harmful/dangerous situation. But when it comes to the normal components of traveling, like navigating through a foreign city, or changing a flat tire, being independent is an advantage. Which leads me to my next point…
You Gain Confidence
The more you adventure by yourself, the more independent you become. And the more independent you become, the more confident you become. It’s an empowering feeling.
Being in certain situations and having to figure out how to handle them, move through them, and process them helped me see my own capabilities were so much more than I had originally thought.
We often think we can’t do certain things until we’re faced with them, and there’s something about traveling that gives us the chance to move through more of those situations.
Surviving a flash flood (okay, I’m being kind of dramatic, but it was still scary), advocating for myself when encountering aggressive men, and pooping outside are all scenarios that I came out on the other side of feeling surer of myself and who I was as a person.
The phrase began to develop in my mind, if I did that, I can do anything. And having this belief has helped me in other areas and seasons of my life when shit really did hit the fan.
There you have it – my 5 favorite reasons to travel solo. What are your favorite things about traveling solo?
