I love traveling by myself. But when I tell people that, it’s often pretty clear that they can’t understand why I feel that way. My first trip by myself occurred a few years ago after I left an unhappy work situation. I wanted to get away for a couple months and knew that no one else would be able to get that amount of time off from work. I chose to go volunteer in Venezuela for one month and planned to travel around by myself for another month following that.
I booked the flight, bought a backpack, and was on my way. I was a little bit nervous about traveling by myself in a country where I didn’t speak the language, but my intuition told me that this was something that I needed to do on my own. To be honest, I was probably more worried about traveling with just one bag for over 2 months that I was about being by myself at the time. What I ended up discovering was that traveling solo allows you to avoid quite a few stressors that come up when you travel with others!
1. Solo travelers don’t have to go by anybody else’s schedule
How many times have you traveled with someone only to get into multiple arguments about dinner times, wake-up times, shut the light off times, and other scheduling issues? When you travel solo, you get to do whatever you want at the times that are BEST for you! That means you eat when you want to (no leaving the beach if you are not ready!) and get up when you want to (want to get up for some early morning exercise? you can!). Vacations are about recharging and doing what is best for your body and going by a schedule that works for you will let that happen instantly.
2. Solo travelers don’t have to do anything they don’t want to
We often worry about our travel partner’s happiness. We want to make sure that they are enjoying themselves and we often “settle” on the location that we are traveling to or the activities that we do while we are away. Many times we keep our wishes or desires to ourselves and don’t let our travel partner know what we really want to do. That doesn’t happen when you get travel solo — you can choose to go wherever you have been dreaming about and you can choose whatever activities interest you too. This is the perfect time to try out that activity that you know no one else wants to bother with, but really excites you!
3. Solo travelers don’t have to worry about conflicts
How many times has your trip or part of your trip been ruined because of arguments with your travel partner? Maybe you’re tired of being in a tight space with them. Maybe you are just tired of them after a few days! Maybe their voice is starting to annoy you. All of these things happen when you spend a lot of time with someone else on a trip. Solo travel is actually very peaceful and relaxing. If you are traveling by yourself, there is nothing to argue about and no one to argue with (at least I hope you aren’t getting mad at yourself on your vacation!).
So the next time you’re thinking about taking a vacation and you can’t find a travel partner with the same interests, plan your own trip! I can even help you come up with a stress+less travel plan during an intensive Fast Fix coaching session.
I would love to hear about the amazing solo travel experiences you have had or any questions you have about traveling solo in the comments below!!
P.S. Want to know what motivated me to travel alone? Check out my Confessions of a (former) Stress Addict.
