Traveling with your friends and family can be an incredibly rewarding experience that can create lifelong bonds. So, it might seem that heading out alone would be a much less enriching experience. However, the memories you’ll make on an extraordinary, eye-opening solo trip can have you finding and seeing things you might never have done otherwise. Here are five reasons why traveling alone is one of the greatest adventures you’ll ever have.
Simpler Logistics
When you travel with other people, it can be a challenge to coordinate a trip and time away from work. Everyone has different budgets, different schedules, and varied travel interests, so, waiting around for the right time for your trip is a waste of time, according to the travel experts at Fodors. While many of these challenges can be tackled by planning your trip far in advance, if you find yourself with some time off of work on short notice, it is much easier to pack your bags and head out by yourself.
It Builds Confidence
If traveling is supposed to make you a smarter, better person, then traveling by yourself will make you even more intelligent. If you feel uncomfortable sitting alone at dinner, then taking a trip by yourself might seem daunting. However, once you take that step and get over your fears, you’ll feel a sense of empowerment and faith in your resourcefulness, notes Sarah Schlichter, Senior Editor at SmarterTravel. A successful solo trip can inspire you to tackle even more experiences that you’ve been afraid to try.
Meet New People
Traveling alone can be a great way to meet the locals of the region and make new friends. People who are alone often appear more approachable to others. According to Pavan Belagatti, a writer for Medium, making new friends with different ethnicities and from different places will broaden your knowledge. The key is that you need to keep an open mind while also keeping your safety in mind, especially when you are traveling internationally.
Do Everything You Want
When you travel by yourself, you are under no obligation to entertain anyone but yourself. If you want to spend a half-day at the spa, you can do it without feeling bad for leaving your travel partner with nothing to do. If you want to spend the day sitting at an outdoor bar drinking margaritas instead of sightseeing, you can. Being able to everything you want and nothing that you don’t want can be extremely satisfying.
Work Your Bucket List
If there is something that you’ve been dying to try that no one is willing to do with you, traveling alone could be your chance to check things off your bucket list. When your travel partner doesn’t share your interests, that’s okay, but you shouldn’t have to sacrifice your dreams, especially when all it takes is finding a way to get there. When you travel on your own, there will be no one standing in your way of experiencing everything you want to experience.
If you love to travel, sometimes the best travel companion that you can have is yourself. Solo travel can be an enriching experience and something that everyone should experience at least once in their life.
