Solo travel advantages
I have seen people hesitating to go travel alone and look for bunch of people to have company.
Well, if you want to see the reality of world around you, bag pack and go out.. the world around is amazing and best school to teach you best lessons and having wonderful experience. The inner sense should be... I want to see that's all.
Travel is a wonderful way to broaden your mind, change your perception on the world, and meet amazing people from diverse places. Yet there are a number of different ways of experiencing the magic of travel: hostels or hotels? Planes or buses? And, for me, the big one, solo or group? The way you choose to travel can have a massive impact on your enjoyment of the trip and the memories you take from it. I have been lucky enough to travel in my (relatively) short life and have traveled as part of a group and alone, and, I have to say, alone wins for me every time…
Here I have listed advantages of travelling alone based on my own experience:
Travel on your own terms plans
Someone has said: It is useless to find your own happiness in someone else. What I have seen and experienced that it is almost impossible to find bunch of people having similar mindset who think on same line. So many travel plans are abandoned because of differences in interest and denial at the eleventh hour by some group members. So it is about you and your plans and your liking ! Run on your terms plan on your terms.
Many times there were difficulties when choosing an ideal itinerary. I’m not the kind of person who enjoys mountain heights for Sure,
The mountain supply me with ultimate feeling of being on top, with far view and breeze. But anything else is just plain boring. So quite often there was a hard time combining my culture drive with my travel companion’s beach drive. It just doesn’t work very well. Someone is going to be suffering in the end.
Eat, sleep, party whenever you like
Another aspect to traveling with a friend are different sleep routines. Sometimes it may work out, but usually it doesn’t. I’m an early bird and like to start my day with the first sunlight. The whole world is out there waiting to be explored. Why waste the time? This is where I have experienced frustrating results – some people enjoy sleeping in. It’s a holiday after all! So that is another good reason for solo travel.
Eating out (although I usually prefer to combine supermarket food with cafes) is also a bit of a problem. I like to taste some local flavor, sometimes spicy food. Some of my friends prefer to avoid that and eat, let’s say, Italian. So how do we agree upon the best option? During the last few trips we managed to find some malls with various food stalls and free seating. This is a good solution for people with different tastes. With different day routines, bunch of people struggle to
set for destination on time. If you have to see high peaks, sea shallow water with early golden hour sun rise, you cannot be waiting inside room so that your company gets ready. Often the best views of tour are missed because of difference in routines and the soul reason for which you have reached to destination is wasted.
Get to meet locals
Which brings us to our next point – meeting people on the go. Solo travel has definitely it’s advantages and this one is by far the biggest. Traveling with a companion will most probably restrict you from getting to know other travelers (or locals).
So why would you limit yourself like that? Get out of your comfort zone and meet some amazing fellow travelers. One of the easiest way to do that is at a hostel, as many people are traveling solo and are just like you!
Meeting locals is even better – they can tell you some useful insight information – where to go out, good places to eat and how to have the best time you can possibly have! Plus, you can possibly make new friends and get invited to a dinner party. Imagine this turning into an awesome friendship. So next time you visit the destination, you would already have a place to crash.
Makes you more self aware and better person
A person becomes more matured and much attentive if he/she has to handle all the perspectives of going out on his/her own.
Many solo travelers come home with a new perspective of life. Traveling makes you self-aware – you get to think a lot (as you might be spending quite a lot of time with yourself), analyze your life, think about your future and the possible things you’d like to change. It’s an invaluable experience and a gift. Going on a journey, leaving everything behind and learning to trust yourself is really important. You might discover something you have always known, but never put into words. You might decide to change your life completely and start from scratch. It’s all in your own hands – just make the first step.
Trip planning is easier.
Getting everything ready for a solo trip — booking hotels or going there without pre booking is your own choice. Selecting class of travel and mode of travel…. well here you are your own master. You can pick your route, pick your destination, pick your comfort according to your own choice.
Last-minute changes are not a problem
A single person can start without clear route plan that can be changed according to mood of time.On a similar note, when traveling alone, there's more flexibility for plans to change at the drop of a hat. If you wake up feeling adventurous, you can hop on a regional bus to visit some far-flung attraction; by the same token, if you feel run down at the end of the day, you can cancel your dinner plans and munch takeout in your hotel room. There's no one to disappoint when things don't proceed exactly according the agenda.
It empowers you.
As a person you see more, experience more and you feel more democratic and free in open world which you have planned and managed according to your own dreams-it empowers you.
One finds traveling alone to be a trans-formative endeavor — one that makes me feel capable, independent, and empowered. Negotiating the sometimes-difficult intricacies of getting around in an unfamiliar place — and drawing upon only your personal resources to do so — is a self-confidence booster that you owe it to yourself to experience at least once in your life.
