Best Reasons to Travel Solo
“What’s so fun about that?” Was my dad’s first reaction when I told him that I decided to start traveling solo from time to time. I haven’t started solo traveling yet, and I can already hear people wondering about this wierd idea. It’s important to say that I really don’t think this is the only way to travel, but I do think it is something that everyone should experienced, at least once.
Happiness is only real when shared
Know this sentence? I guess anyone who’s seen the wonderful movie Into the Wild knows it (and if you haven’t seen it, then stop reading now, find a copy, and watch it).
I ponder a lot about this sentence. Imagining myself alone in a foreign land, watching an amazing sunrise or entering a magical lake, alone, and obviously wanting to share it with someone, maybe take a photo and sharing it with my loved ones. I may well think to myself “what a perfect thing it would be if Adi was here with me at this moment.” Humans are social beings. It is ingrained in us. We have the need to talk, share, give. And that’s right, it can definitely be something that sucks sometimes when you’re traveling solo.
So why travel solo? What’s the fun about that? Here are all the reasons.
Freedom
Remember that imagined sunrise, and the imagined sadness that I didn’t share with Adi? So here is the moment to say that chances are, unfortunately, that if I was traveling with someone else, I wouldn’t have come to watch the same sunrise. Because that person was tired, or didn’t want to get up early in the morning before sunrise, or just because we decided to do something else, which could be just as fun, but it’s something else that took into account the desires of both of us, and maybe just the wishes of one of us, because we didn’t want to part. After all, we were traveling together.
When you travel solo, you decide everything. When to sleep, when to eat, when to go out in the evening, when to return, where to go, what to do, where to be, who to approach. You can be spontaneous or planned, go slow or fast, go to bed early or dance until the morning light. You can decide to drive 5 hours today to some remote town that intrigues you, even though it makes no sense, and no partner would join you on this adventure.
So when I travel solo, I’m first of all – free.
Openness
You may be the most sociable people you can be, and you can be in tune with new acquaintances, but once you travel with someone else, most of your social energy will be redirected to the person you travel with, whom you know and love. It’s certainly the most comfortable thing to do. Even when you both get to know someone new and have a nice conversation with them, it can be a good thing, but it’s unlikely to go anywhere because it’s difficult to join a couple or more.
So when traveling solo, you are much more open to new people (if you want to). You don’t have any obvious person to consult with, so you’ll consult the guy sitting next to you at breakfast. You don’t have any special lunch plan, so you’ll have lunch with that girl from the hostel.
I don’t travel solo so I can be alone all the time. On the contrary, one of the reasons I want to travel solo is to open myself up to meeting new people and have experiences I would never have at my homeland.
Like that time on a solo trip in India, where I found myself at the center of a local game where I am surrounded with dozens of Indians, with a cane in hand, with the goal of reaching the pitcher and dropping it. I failed the mission (the guy who was with me, Actually cheated, won, and got extatic cheers from the crowd!).
So when I travel solo, I am first of all – open.
The Loneliness
Yes, you read correctly. The loneliness. Since when is loneliness a good reason for traveling solo? Since when is loneliness good? So no, loneliness is indeed a terrible feeling, and it is certainly a sensation that can arise more on solo trips. I’m not talking about the moments you are alone beause you want to be alone, but the moments when you need someone to talk to, and you don’t, because you have decided to travel solo. Like that moment at the Guest House in Hampi, India, which I remember to this day. I couldn’t find anyone to talk to, and I missed home. So I found myself sitting on the floor of the room, taking selfie pictures, long before the selfie concept was invented (see photo below). A moment I don’t even remember how I got out of, but I know it’s gone.
So why did I write Loneliness? Because loneliness is ultimately the bridge that will lead you to yourself, to help you meet yourself, and to re-acquaint yourself.
When we are at home, in our routine, and our social situation is good, we are usually surrounded by friends and family, and moments of loneliness are relatively rare. The same is true when traveling with other people. But when we travel solo, we don’t always meet people, and we don’t always have someone to share the moments of happiness with. Then loneliness begins to peck, and it is the feeling that gets us out of ourselves, forces us to get up, get out of the room, and start a conversation, or embark on a new adventure. So in the end, loneliness also has its role, and it can be channeled in our favor.
When I travel solo, I try to see loneliness as an opportunity.
Because You Control Your Budget
Feel like spending 100 euros on a rafting trip or a hot air balloon ride? Great! You won’t have that friend who would prefer to stay on a budget, and perhaps get you to pass on the adventure.
Feel like saving money and stay in a cheap dirty hostel like you did when you were much younger? You won’t have that friend who would prefer to indulge in a hotel room with a fancy breakfast.
When I travel alone, no one is making decisions for me.
Because Your Confidence Will Rise
I remember that time I was traveling with a friend in India (a stranger I met on a trip, who became a lifelong friend), and decided to drive the day before him from a Matheran (a hill station in the middle of nowhere) to Hampi, a trip that was supposed to take about 12 hours. Below is the email I wrote to him when I came to Hampi, with the goal of trying to prevent him from making the mistakes I made.
Hope you see this in time …
After a tiring and exhausting 34-hour road trip, I arrived at Hampi last night. I tried to send you an email yesterday but the internet was screwed and after I left the store everything was already closed.
Anyway, here’s my story on the go:
From Matheran I took a “direct” train to Pune, passing through Karjat. I mean I exchanged a train at Karjat and arrived in Pune at 16 in the afternoon. Then I stood in line for half an hour and bought a ticket to Hospet on a train called Goa Express.
Something seemed strange to me about the card because it said that it goes through 3 places until Hospt … Then I also remembered that I didn’t ask for a sleepper (a bed). So I stood in line again and the clerk didn’t really help me, so I went to the platform and searched for the conductor’s office …
He told me to get on the “Goa Express” train, and for the sleepper I had to look for the Titi, which is the on-board conductor. I found a spare bed and after about an hour the “Titi” arrived … I talked to him and realized I had to change stations 3 times or so …
I really didn’t want to change stations 3 times and in the middle of the night when there was no one to help me, so I decided to continue on to Goa. I got off at the first stop in Goa (there are two stops and the first one is most central, I think its name is Maruban or something. It’s near Kolba beach), at 6:30 am, and went looking for a travel agency to buy a ticket for an overnight bus.
After the hardships in Goa that I will tell you about when you arrive, and after discovering that there is no overnight bus that day (by the way, it costs 500 rupees), but only the next day, the nice motorcycle driver offered me to take a local bus to Hobli, and from there to Hospet.
And that’s what I did.
He drove me to a bus stop, showed me which bus to get on, and so I went on a 5 hours bus ride until Hobli. In Hobli I asked where the bus was to Hospet, and then I rode another 4 nightmarish and bouncy hours until Hospet.
At Hospet I took a rickshaw at 100 rupees to hampi, I got a bed at a loudy guest house because it was already 8 pm and I had no energy to search for a decsent one, and today I moved to the other side of the river. Much quieter here. Although there are more Israelis here, I chose a hostel that is far from the hustle and bustle. The guest house is called MANGO TREE.
You cross the river in a small boat, go up and go all the way to the left until you see it on your left.
Anyway, I don’t suggest you do the ride the way I did.
If you leave at a more reasonable hour (I left at 5pm in the afternoon so if I would have switched trains it would have been in the middle of the night), then do the train replacements. If there is a direct train to Hobli, it is better to buy a ticket there, then buy a ticket to Hospet.
That’s it, in short, not easy but worth it …
Hampi is really beautiful … I won’t elaborate so that you see it for yourself … The atmosphere here is kind of like Wang Weyang, just bigger and more beautiful.
So let me know what’s going on with you, where you are and how you are, and when and how you think you’ll get here
See you in a few more days,
Yoav.
This story happened 15 years ago, and It’s not a coincidence that I remember it so much. This experience, all alone, encountered with a thousand and one problems, when i had no other option other than dealing with everything by myself, without a phone, without Google, just me. solo. This (and others) experience has built me, strengthened me, made me realize that I can handle everything in this world.
And there is nothing in this world that’s worth more than that.
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And what about you? What do you like about solo trips?
