Sep 21 2008
Good Things About Travelling Solo
This topic has been done to death but I though I’d have a crack at it once again based on my recent experiences having a friend with me for the past month and a bit.
- Sense of accomplishment - There’s something to be said for being able to handle yourself in a foreign land and meeting each day’s challenges can leave you with a great sense of accomplishment. My friend has worked as a tour guide for a couple of years and is more of a leader type than I am so I tend to let her take the lead most of the time. It suits me just fine (I’d organise everything and she’d get it done) but I sometimes miss the challenge of working things out for myself.
- Time to myself - I haven’t had any time to myself over the past few weeks and I’ve missed it. I’m happy in my own company and can spend hours on solo hobbies or just chilling out. My friend is the complete opposite and has no hobbies that don’t involve sports and gets bored if she doesn’t have other people around. Going solo means I can have my alone time without feeling guilty.
- Get to decide my own timeline - Deciding what we wanted to do each day was never an issue since I’m prety laid back about that sort of thing but the pace at which we did things would often lead to us both becoming frustrated. I’m a big fan of slow travel, I love my sleep, and I’m not too bothered if I miss out on a so-called ‘must see’ attraction. My friend is the type who wants to get up super early and cram as much in as possible which meant that I was often either dragging her down or being dragged along.
- Healthy living - When I travel alone I’m less likely to be lured out on the booze every night and more likely to eat well. I have a very twisty arm and travelling with a partner in crime means that we both tend to lead the other astray.
Despite my love of travelling solo, I really loved having my friend around and I’ll highlight some of the reasons why in my next post. Stay tuned!
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I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go. 
Totally agree on all of the above! I really enjoy my own company and can’t wait to travel alone again
I’m still insanely jealous of your cool trip, it’s so great to read up on your adventures!
Good points Kelly! I’m also a solo traveller, although I would take a weekend or week trip with a friend if possible. Whenever I do something touristy I prefer to do it with someone - last weekend in San Francisco I made sure someone was with me to take my unusual photos with me in them (that you couldn’t ask a random tourist for usually); the cable car and walk across the Golden Gate bridge (next stop Alcatraz!!) would definitely not have been as fun by myself.
But as far as getting to know the real local culture goes, I also prefer to have the freedom to be by myself. As well as your list I’d add learning the local language is greatly hindered by travelling with someone from home or another English speaker you may have met on the way. Walking around speaking English alienates you from the locals, whereas at least you can try to blend in if everything you do is attempted in the local lingo. Also, the focus on the place itself is lost when you are trying to have fun with someone - you can’t just have a nice walk around a city / town and try to soak it up because you’ll be chatting about something with your similarly minded friend. I find it much harder to step outside myself and see a place for what it really is like that.
So a decent balance of the two is in order!
Obviously being TOO solo has its own problems…
I agree with Benny (and with each point, Kirsty) but it isn’t just speaking English - it’s just that when I’m with someone I’m WITH someone! I don’t try to walk up to strangers, or talk to the next table, or sit beside someone on a bus… we’re always doing things together so I actually don’t let the world in. It’s not from any aversion to it - it’s just that time passes, I travel, and my social needs are met by whomever I’m traveling with…
When I travel solo I get fed up with my own company often enough to seek out someone else’s… and that’s how I get under a culture’s skin - I sometimes get invited places, or I see things that aren’t in a guidebook, or I meet a family I wouldn’t have met otherwise…
Solo travel basically helps me meet more people, not fewer…
Key I just had a look at your Oslo site, it looks really great!
Benny all good points, especially the language thing. Although I wonder how it would work out if people travelling together were also studying a language together. It would be super easy to slip into English, but it could also be a motivator having someone to study and practice with. But I know what I’m like and I’m sure I’d be speaking English like crazy!
Scribetrotter I can relate to that. It’s nice to have a safety net there and sometimes I’ll be in the mood where I don’t want to put any effort in to meet new people. I guess the trick is finding someone who bores of my company easily! Then they’ll be doing anything they can to find new people to speak to. I’d never thought about whether I meet more people solo or with a friend until now. It’s something I might pay closer attention to and write about in the future because I’m pretty sure that in this case, I buck the trend.