Reasons Why You Should Travel Alone At Least Once.
Traveling with family and friends can be incredibly rewarding, offering experiences and laughs that can bind us for a lifetime. So it might seem that traveling alone would be a less enriching experience; without our favorite people to share it with, how could it compare?
Why are more and more people traveling alone and how can you benefit from the experience?
We dive into nine reasons why everyone should try it at least once in their life.
1. Simple logistics
It can be challenging to coordinate a trip and time away from work with another busy person in your life, and it’s even more difficult when you try to make plans with a group. Usually, these challenges can be overcome by simply planning far in advance, like booking car parking or even airport transfers, similar to these heathrow transfers, a couple of months in advance of your holiday. This can help you rest easy knowing everything is in order ready for your holiday. You can also benefit from finding a great travel blog to help you make these plans like ConnollyCove. But, if you find yourself with some downtime and you can’t find a travel partner on short notice, it may be the perfect time to pack your bags and go anyway.
2. Work on your bucket list
Is there something you’ve been dying to try that no one is willing to try with you? Maybe you’d like to go skydiving over the Grand Canyon, see ancient Mayan ruins, or simply eat real Maine lobster. When your partner and friends don’t share every one of your interests, that’s OK, but it’s not OK to sacrifice your dreams, especially when all you have to do is get there.
3. You’re great company
If you rarely spend significant time alone, you may be surprised at how enjoyable it can be. When was the last time you truly listened to only your thoughts and entertained only your dreams? Depending on the destination, a solo trip can be a powerful, introspective, life-changing experience. Imagine sitting on a peaceful beach at sunset or taking an invigorating morning hike without having to make conversation with anyone.
4. You’ll meet new people
Perhaps one of the best parts of traveling — you get the opportunity to meet new people. Traveling alone to somewhere you’re not familiar with can be terrifying, especially if you’re making your way to a different country. But if the separate part scares you, just think of all the people you’ll meet along the way. Every time you stop to get coffee, duck into a shop, stand in line for train tickets or check out a band playing at a local bar, you’ll be surrounded by people from different places, with different stories to tell. You can meet some of the most interesting people while on the road, and who knows, they might even have great suggestions for you on where to go next!
You will learn there is no us and them. There is only we.
Everyone, everywhere is essentially the same, we hope for the same things, we fear for the same things. We want to love and be loved.
5. You can put yourself first- Do everything you want and nothing you don’t want
Traveling with family and friends can be a blast, but it may seem like you almost always get stuck doing something that you don’t want to do. When you’re traveling with a group, everyone has a say in the itinerary. What time to wake up, where to eat, what sights to see, what activities to pay for… You can easily miss out on significant parts of the trip due to the stress of making decisions and planning out every move to make the majority happy. When you’re able to control your own itinerary, you can make sure that you don’t miss out on a single sight, restaurant or activity. You’ll be doing what YOU want to do, 24/7.
Have you ever been hesitant to do that half-day at the spa you were longing for because you felt bad leaving your travel partner with nothing to do? When you travel alone, you are not obliged to entertain anyone but yourself. If you want to “waste” the day sitting at an outdoor bar drinking mojitos instead of sightseeing, you won’t have to answer to anyone.
You get loads of alone time, you get to control your itinerary… this trip is about YOU. You won’t have to worry about switching up activities to make it fair for the group, or going to a seafood restaurant that you hate because your friend really wants to go. You control your trip, 100%. If you were planning on Thai food but suddenly feel hungry for a juicy burger, you can head back to that awesome hole-in-a-wall place you passed earlier, without thinking twice or even feeling a twinge of guilt. Maybe you’re staying at a resort and they have an amazing spa where you want to get a massage, or you want to try snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. The world is yours.
6. It’s empowering
If traveling makes you a better, smarter person, then traveling alone makes you super-better and super-smarter. For any of you who may feel uncomfortable even sitting alone at a diner to have breakfast, taking a trip by yourself might seem daunting. Once you take the plunge and get over your fears, you’ll feel a sense of empowerment. A successful solo vacation can inspire you to tackle even more things in life you’ve been afraid to try.
7. You will be insprired to live a story worth telling
Most people settle for far too little adventure in their life , and they choose existing over truly living. Anna Quindlen :”The life you have had doesn’t have to be the only life you have”
Having the opportunity to travel is great, regardless of the circumstances. However, somehow, being the only one of your family and friends to have gone somewhere amazing, have seen something incredible, or tasted something delicious, allows you to revel in the experience just a little bit more. Knowing that you not only did it on your own, but you came back with some unforgettable stories to tell, making the trip that much more meaningful to you.
You will own your experience for yourself. No one can discover the world for you, you can read other places, cultures, people all you want, but you are simply learning facts.
Truly experiencing life requires taking the ride yourself firsthand.
No one can live the life for you and no one is blame if you die unfulfilled.
8. You’ll find the answer to an important question
We travel initially, to lose ourselves, and we travel next, to find ourselves.”
While the reason you planned this trip may have been to find your independence, feel free and have some alone time, your experiences along the way have the potential to completely change the way you view the world, and even the way you see yourself. Traveling can open up a side of yourself that you never even knew existed. You’ll see amazing things, meet unforgettable people, hear interesting languages and taste food that you never knew existed. You just may awaken an adventurous and curious part of yourself, and in time figure out just who you are and what you want in life. You’ll travel to explore the unknown, and along the way, you’ll find you.
You will gain new perspective. We are all accustomed to seeing only one side of any story, our travelling alone opens you to experiencing daily life through another set of eyes.
There is no better way to learn about your own culture than to see it from someone else’s view.
9. You can learn more about who you are.
When you venture out into the world on your own, you eventually need to face who you are, what you care about and what you want to do with your time. Certainly the literature of our species bears this out, with a journey at the center of many of our greatest and most significant myths, novels and memoirs. Traveling with others you will find great friendship, diversion and fun; but traveling alone you might find yourself.
Its easy and You are not alone, actually
Many jobs have become independent of concrete locations and can be carried out remotely, whether in a beachside hostel or a downtown boutique hotel. Travel has also become easier: cheap short-haul flights and online bookings enable a high degree of spontaneity, and the popularity of bespoke trips abroad has increased. All these factors make it easier to tailor travel to the whim of the individual.
Finally, with the advent of social media, one is never truly alone. The loneliness the prospective solo traveler fears can be allayed, at least partially, by a free WhatsApp call home, or a few friends’ comments under a Facebook photo. Experiences can be shared – filtered and in real-time – with everyone back home, as well as with complete strangers who are willing to admire and reinforce one’s adventurousness. What’s more, platforms like Instagram and SnapChat actively encourage us to develop a narrative of ourselves as an individual, plotting our route through life by way of the people we meet and the places we go.