Flying Solo: 5 Tips for Thriving on Your Solo Travel Adventures

One of the best pieces of advice my mother gave me growing up was, “Don’t wait for the crowd for you to decide if you want to do something”. At age 13, this advice applied to the teenage struggle of wanting to engage in activities that the larger friend group didn’t deem “cool” or “interesting”.

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Throughout my teenage years, I exercised my solo muscle. As a young adult, I discovered the joys of taking myself on coffee dates and watching movies in an empty cinema. I even booked AirBnBs in my city of residence to enjoy alone. (Staycations, would highly recommend).

In the years since joining uncool clubs and drinking lemonades alone, I have travelled internationally and locally by myself. Here are 5 tips and lessons I’ve picked up along the way.

Do your research 

I am no stranger to travel anxiety, and a moderate fear of the dark. One thing that helped build my confidence was watching YouTube videos of the places I would be visiting. This way, I could visualise and “practice” being in those spaces in my mind before the moment I actually arrived.

Have a non-emergency contact

It’s a given that if you are travelling, you should have a plan for who to call should an emergency arise. But what also helped ease me into the solo travel lifestyle was having a non-emergency contact I could reach out to. This was the person I could text or call if I got nervous at any point during my trip. I didn’t end up needing to message them, but knowing that I had a friend a few taps away brought me some much needed peace.

Make a plan for your phone

On the same note, make sure that you have a plan for connecting your device to the outside world. Whether you need to juice up your phone with airtime before you travel, or you need to buy a SIM card when you land, make sure you know what you’re going to do ahead of time.

Pack earphones

Travelling alone can be overwhelming. Be sure that you are still make wise choices for your safety, but having a playlist ready to go when you need to block out the outside world can be the extra tool you need to do the brave thing of going out on your own.

Lean into being alone

Your next solo trip can give you the opportunity to shut out distractions, be spontaneous, and to prioritise yourself. Lean into this! It can be tempting to stay glued to social media, but do what you can to embrace the unique aspects of solo travel. Take yourself out to eat at new restaurants, explore the city, make new friends!

The idea of travelling solo can be daunting, but I have found that in the end, the experiences had and lessons learnt are worth the butterflies and uncertainty that comes beforehand.

Have you ever been on a solo trip? If you haven’t, what’s stopping you?

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