Why Do We Need Solo Travel?

Think of your favourite trip. The one that earned the most beautiful place in your memory, the one you desperately want to repeat but can never quite bring yourself to plan again for fear it would not be the same. Then think about why: what was different about that holiday, why did you feel so happy, free, relaxed, light, what made you laugh so much, who did you laugh with? Let us keep those answers in our pocket; they will come in handy later in this piece. This piece is dedicated to those free spirits who can nourish their soul in their own company, and written to inspire those potential free spirits who have not yet experienced it. Because being able to be alone is a great space of freedom that deserves to be celebrated and encouraged out loud.

Holiday, Travel, or Where to Begin?

We cannot expect the same idea of a holiday to appeal to all of us; some of us equate holidays with travel, for some a holiday is being in that familiar place they visit every summer, for others it is simply lying back and watching something without interruption. While every trip can turn into a holiday, not every holiday has to become a trip. In this piece we are not talking about a holiday spent in a fixed place but rather a travel experience in motion.

So how should you plan your first solo travel experience? Let us go back to those answers in our pocket. It helps to start by remembering what kind of traveller you are; is a cultural programme more your thing, a summer route, or a gourmet trip? Then you can look back at the trips you enjoyed most and examine what made them unforgettable; loved ones may well come first in the ranking, but beyond that, what we are really looking for; is it discovering a new city, sitting in your favourite café in a city you already know and love with something to read, a sport you have never tried, or new people? The chances of an experience that made you happy before making you happy again are higher, and that is a good starting point for planning your first solo trip.

What Does Travelling with Yourself Promise You?

Stepping outside your comfort zone is above all a liberating act. At first you inevitably take a cold shower; this could be entering a new circle of friends, a migration experience, learning a new language, or trying to figure out the metro system of a city you are visiting for the first time. If you think of the unforgettable travel experiences you can list above and the division of tasks you had with the people you shared them with, even that is a comfort zone. An experience entirely on your own, like most areas of life, equips you with the strength to deal with unforeseen problems when they arise. Although unsettling at first, it gives you the opportunity to become skilled in matters you never had to deal with or that someone else always handled, and it builds your self-confidence.

Another point: when you travel with someone else you are inevitably in a state of communication. Yet when you are alone with yourself there is nothing to relate to other than yourself and your surroundings; there is a difference in experience between sitting alone and sitting in a crowd at the same restaurant; in most scenarios we find more room to observe what is happening around us when we are alone. We analyse, we talk to ourselves, we comment; different gears that do not need to turn when someone else is present start turning inside our heads. Watching the couple at the next table, a child cycling across the street, people waiting at the train station; these frames create different associations for you; sometimes they trigger something, sometimes they make you smile, sometimes they become inspiration. Watching life flow by on the street from the window while sipping your wine, or sitting down with a book after a long walk along the river, is every bit as romantic an act done alone as it is when couples do it in romantic films.

To close, it is worth remembering that solo travel is the next step in spending time alone with yourself. You do not have to take a big leap straight away. Perhaps you start by taking yourself out for a few hours over coffee or dinner, then you spend a whole day exploring a neighbourhood you have never been to on your own, then you continue with short one or two-day trips.

Being able to travel solo is a bold choice; it means being ready for whatever comes your way, not being afraid of unpleasant surprises, feeling excited about the good ones, believing you can overcome the challenges that may arise, and knowing that even if you cannot, you will still try. Ultimately, none of us knows what lies ahead, but how we respond to any given situation is our choice; every experience, both the ones we have lived through and the ones still to come, opens up a new space for growth. It reminds you why you love the things you do, shows you what else you might come to love and what you are afraid of, and makes you question what you no longer want, both in your journey and perhaps in your life; sometimes, it simply makes you grateful for what you already have. Here's to an experience that will stay with you just as much as your favourite holiday.