Solo Travel - 5 Things You Will Love & Hate About Traveling By Yourself
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2014
- Thinking of traveling on your own? Backpacking? Travel Around the World By Yourself? Here we go through the best and worst of traveling by yourself.
Hates
1. You get lonely
2. Can be more expensive than traveling in groups
3. Easy to Get side tracked
4. Not always safest way to travel
5. All your pictures are Selfies
Loves
1. You are independent
2. The people you meet
3. You time
4.
5. The cool stories you have
Filmed in Brno, Czech Republic, Vienna, Austria, Ghent, Belgium
Copyright Mark Wolters 2014
I've... never felt that loneliness when traveling alone. Never thought "oh, I wish I could share this experience with someone"... I enjoy the experience alone. I can take it all in, process it on my own time, have my own thoughts about it, without needing to express it to anyone. I've talked to people here and there - a family I was seated with on the whale-watching tour, a woman taking a day off on for dinner and a show. But it was only ever a bits of conversation, sharing of how we got to be in the same place. Aside from running into the family again on the ferry, I never talked to any of them again.
I think the pros of solo travel definitely outweigh the cons. It's easy to be afraid to travel alone, but the experience is exciting and inspiring and exhilarating in a way travelling with other people can never be.
I'm a bit of a loner, so solo travel is perfect for me. When I've traveled with friends or family in the past, they've just ended up getting on my nerves. I remember when I was 16 and I went to Florida with my older brother, his wife and my little brother. My older brother would yell at us because he expected us to be in and out of the shower in 5 minutes, even though he always took the longest and everyone ended up waiting for him. There was this one day when I was so hot that I just didn't feel hungry, it was July and there was actually a heat wave! He starts yelling at me because I won't force myself to eat. He was just so lucky that I had a placid nature as a teen. He was just stressing everyone out and that's the last thing you want or need on holiday.
travelling solo now in France. a hard part is having dinner. it kills the spirit when I see a full restaurant of people eating with company but I gotta go in alone and sit in a corner. though it is also a cool thing, when eating dinner alone in a packed restaurant, I feel I have the world
Traveling alone is very underrated IMO. People are just afraid to do and afraid to be alone. But you have total control of where you go, what you do, when you leave, where you go next, how much you spend, if you change plans or not on the spur of the moment. Yes as others said dinner is kind of awkward. I don't find the other meals to be awkward. You can go out to some of the bars or clubs and meet other singles. It's great actually. I've met people from all over the world I would have never even talked to in Europe if I was with established friends. It forces to you talk to others. You do meet new friends.
It's been 11 days that I'm all by myself in New York City and I'm loving it.
I LOVE traveling alone! I prefer to have little to no itinerary; I just wander around and look at stuff that interests me, and can spend all day in one spot if I want. If I'm tired, I can nap at my convenience. What interests me often doesn't interest others, and vice-versa, so most of the time traveling with another person would be a chore for me. Often by the 3rd day my feet & legs need a break, and that's when I'll do the group bus-tour thing. While on the bus I make note of things we pass that I want to go see the next day. The other advantage of being alone is not having to eat at restaurants. I learned long ago that heavy meals and travel don't go well together. I prefer to just snack my way from one end of a country to the other. I can live for weeks on croissants, some cheese or meat, fruit, and of course ICE CREAM. Who needs a 10-course dinner? After several prior instances of a trip with a friend being almost ruined by the friend bailing at the last minute, I started making my travel plans solitary ones. (Once a friend called the NIGHT BEFORE leaving and said "I can't get off work.") :( I went ahead and did the trip alone, and that's when I learned that for me, it's the ONLY way to fly! ;)
I hate traveling with others. I never feel lonely.
I found when travelling alone I felt less targeted by thieves etc, because I was less obviously a tourist and could have been just an average person walking around town. I guess it depends what you're wearing and what you're doing at the time. The time when I was carrying around a bag of souvenirs from an attraction was when I felt most targeted, and if anything were to happen that is when the less safe part of being alone would have really come in to play - don't have a friend with money on them to get you back to where you're staying, keep an eye out for you etc.
I travel solo, because I'm single and international friend travel just isn't possible for my friends financially. I barely do it and only because it's a priority of mine. I agree with all the pros except making friends. I certainly speak to people and meet people, but as woman, I don't feel like I have the luxury of trusting people when I travel alone.
I recently did a trip to Scandinavia partly by myself and partly as a group. I actually had a better time by myself because the group tour was over-planned. Not enough time to rest, not enough time to explore, not enough time to go out with a special friend or group of friends. In other words, everything was with the whole group 8 am to 10 pm every day. One nice thing about solo travel is the privacy you can have when you want. Also, not having to put up with personal habits that are less than ideal. The loneliness aspect is especially noticeable when having meals. Pretty well any other time, I can easily amuse myself. It is very true that you plan things at the spur of the moment. Oh, I want to go on that boat cruise in 30 minutes or that walking tour. And it is also true, that when you go by yourself, you do meet people, whether locals or other travellers. That can be fun and you can get insight that you might not otherwise get about the location you are visiting. The people I met while on my own was one of the highlights of the trip.
Traveling solo through Europe has been one of the most positive experiences of my life. One thing that wasnt touched on about the benefit of traveling solo is the amazing opportunity to evolve personally. If you have issues being alone, then you most of all need to subject yourself to time alone.
You seem like such a nice guy. If I see you anytime around the world... drinks on me!
My biggest regret is going on a trip with a tour earlier this year. I traveled completely solo on two trips before that and I felt the difference. With a tour a paid a humongous amount of money on entrance fees, only to spend little time in museums and sites. In my solo trips I paid discounted entrances since I am under 25 and an EU citizen + in Italy certain museums are free the first Sunday of the month - benefited from all of those and spent hours in museums and saw EVERYTHING. On my first solo trip I always remember a guy from USA (originally from Haiti) who wanted to teach me how to ride the bike. I failed learning how to ride the bike, but I will always remember his kindness. Before I left the zip of my luggage bag broke and he also went out of his way and went out to buy me tape and help me pack. If you do travel solo, you'll never be completely on your own.
only negative I found about traveling alone is when people treat you funny when you tell them you're going alone.
I prefer solo travel big time. No compromises and more time to explore the history, architecture and food of Europe on my own terms. It does force you at times to ask questions and mix more with the locals, which is a good thing.
Another wonderful Wolter's World vid! I started out as a solo traveler due to circumstances--friends at the time didn't have the same interests and/or the finances to travel domestically or abroad. Not once did I ever desire to take a selfie. The reason is: I read in a travel article years ago (likely at the beginning of the selfie "phenomenon") that if a tourist or traveler gets too caught up in producing selfies, he or she loses precious time savoring travel moments IN the moment. Same goes for snapping way too many photos ALL the time. Here, I'm not referring to professional travel photographers, travel journalists, etc. Our brains have the most amazing cameras, called memory, right? Part of how we strengthen our long-term memories is by telling our stories. And a major component of telling our travel narratives is culling together all those special moments and events from the wonderful photography stored in our brains. Do I take photos? Sure. But none of those pictures can match the ones stored in my mind.
I took my first-ever trip overseas. I chose Paris: “See Paris at night” was on my Bucket List. I went alone (I did have two ladies who had offered to join me, but I really wanted to go solo).
My favorite is getting the best of both worlds: traveling with others but on some days taking breaks apart for a few hours to do my own thing.
Traveling solo is sometimes boring, which is why I would prefer company, if there weren't those "hate"-parts.