The advantages of travelling solo

Where do I start?! As great as travel is – with the right travel buddy, spouse or otherwise – going solo can be pretty fabulous. Over the years I’ve travelled to lots of places on my own (in and out of Australia), and never had a major problem. But I’m sensible. And practical. There are places I wouldn’t be silly enough to go to alone (anywhere, anytime), and I value my safety and my life, so I do my research and am generally pretty well-prepared.

Some people say that travelling alone forces them out of their comfort zone, but I don’t know that it really makes that much difference to me. If I want to go somewhere, and I think it’s safe, I go. I’ve felt lonely at times, but in general I love the experiences I’ve had. No matter where you go, if you’re friendly, friendly people are friendly back.

For me, the biggest advantages to solo travel are:

1. Pleasing myself. There’s no one else to please, or displease, for ANY of it. The when, where, how and every other part of it, is all up to moi.

2. No waiting on people to get up or hurry up, or who constantly wander off, or who don’t bother to check in with you if they’ve gone off somewhere and are now later than they’d said, leaving you to worry (are they okay? or not? or what?) and/or miss the next part of your adventure. There’s no fun in that. It’s just plain annoying.

3. Having a room and bathroom all to myself. Bliss! No snorer keeping me awake every night, no bathroom or TV hog, and if there’s a mess, it’s only mine!

4. Being smart about my seat selections and flight times so I end up with three seats to myself on overnight flights to/from Asia! (eg: Air Asia uses Option Town – fantastic for bargain-priced extras!).

5. No one to scoff at my choices or get cranky if we get “lost”. Making the odd mistakes, or transport etc being delayed along the way, is all part of travelling, I reckon. I don’t expect it to be perfect. In fact, I don’t want it to be!

6. I meet interesting people from all sorts of places and backgrounds. In airports, other solo travellers waiting for a flight are sometimes after a chat. Wherever I’ve travelled to, it’s always a local who doesn’t speak English (and I don’t speak their language either) who’ll offer a spare stool to sit on in the shade (especially in Asia and Southeast Asia). And if you’re friendly, it’s usually easy enough to have a laugh over a bit of crazy sign language and a cold drink.

I guess my point is, that it doesn’t matter whether you travel solo, or with a travel buddy. If you have a sense of adventure, are sensible, do your research on a place and its culture etc before you go there, dress and behave appropriately, stay open to – and welcome – chance encounters, and expect to enjoy yourself, solo travel can be much more fun and interesting than you could ever have imagined. The stories I could tell!