{"id":2711,"date":"2015-12-14T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T00:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.sg\/stories\/tips-for-travelling-solo\/"},"modified":"2022-07-11T18:24:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T18:24:02","slug":"tips-for-travelling-solo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com.sg\/stories\/experience\/tips-for-travelling-solo\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Reasons Why Travelling Solo is Amazing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Becky Wicks<\/em><\/p>\n

I was lucky enough to travel alone for the best part of three years, while I wrote three travel books for a publisher. It\u2019s not so much the bad tattoo, the mind-melting ayahuasca experience or the dalliance with an over-zealous jungle guide stirring up nostalgic feelings, but more the feeling of being out there, alone and free. Here\u2019s why travelling solo is the best thing I\u2019ve ever done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. You can skip bits of the guidebook and no-one will ever know<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I never went to Ellis Island in New York City, never looked up at Liberty\u2019s crown in the land of opportunity. Nope. I couldn\u2019t deal with the tourists.<\/p>\n

Instead I holed myself up in a dive bar and sang karaoke with a group of bearded bikers. It felt far more authentic. Travelling solo means you make the rules. You tick off your own checklist, and you feel awesome about it, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. You will learn how to fend for yourself<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t just mean you\u2019ll learn how fast you can run from a pack of wild, possibly rabid monkeys as they prepare to attack you for your Almond Magnum (true story, the monkeys won), I mean you\u2019ll quickly learn when to say no and when to put a stop to sticky situations before you even get into them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. You<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ll become a more compassionate person<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I was almost mugged once in a Colombian ghetto, and recall a local lady crying for me, even though I wasn\u2019t hurt and was still 20 times better off than she was living there. As I travelled alone, I became more aware of the disparity between rich and poor, donating money or simply kindness whenever I could. I\u2019ve seen it come back to me several times over.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. You<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ll make your coupled-up mates at home jealous<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Since returning home, my friends in relationships have admitted they wish they\u2019d also had the chance to rendezvous with an Indonesian bar-owner\/hostel-worker from Ecuador\/artist from Buenos Aires. The men I met as a single female traveller seem a world away from the people I meet now, and that makes me smile.<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. You can party like you<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>re 20, even in your 30s<\/strong><\/h2>\n

No-one has to know how old you really are when you\u2019re \u2018just passing through\u2019. I\u2019m not ashamed to admit I did more tequila shots in the Galapagos with a 21-year-old student than I ever did when I was a student myself. I was 33. He didn\u2019t have to know that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. You can eat what you want, when you want<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Trying new foods is the most exciting thing when you\u2019re travelling \u2013 although I did have to draw the line at the deep-fried tarantulas in Cambodia. There\u2019s no set breakfast, lunch and dinner when you\u2019re rushing between buses, planes and trains, so why bother pretending you have a routine? Chocolate bar at 8am? Oh, go on then.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. You will never have a curfew<\/strong><\/h2>\n

No-one in a hostel ever scowled at me for coming home, watching cats on YouTube and eating chips on the communal sofa at 3am. Enough said!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Galapagos<\/p>\n

8. You can talk to the animals without looking weird<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Long walks with me, myself and I meant I struck up quite a few friendships with fuzzy bits of nature. From toadstools and birds in Peru to croaking frogs and snuffling pigs in India, I talked to them all and I swear they talked back (maybe don\u2019t eat the toadstools).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. You can do weird, spiritual things without losing any friends<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I spent a week without judgement in an ashram at the foot of Bali\u2019s Mount Agung, practising the art of shaking in order to let in the light. I also drank toxic tree sap in the Amazon in the name of enlightenment. Not things I shout about now. I like to be viewed as relatively normal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Happy<\/a><\/p>\n

10. You<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ll make friends where and when you least expect it<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s a real sense of camaraderie in hostels, and also when things go wrong \u2013 like the time my bus broke down for three hours on a highway in Thailand and I played poker in the aisles with a group of Danish guys to keep from going crazy. You never know who you\u2019ll meet, or how, or when, and isn\u2019t that incredible?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

11. You<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ll learn how to budget<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When it comes down to either taking a 23-hour bus ride across Nepal for $40 or paying $100 extra for a flight, you quickly learn the flight is best, even if you have to live on Ritz crackers for a week to make up for it. (Note: I will never eat another Ritz cracker.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

12. You<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ll gain a new-found sense of confidence in your abilities<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What was I saying about budgeting? I also learnt I was surprisingly quick at picking up languages. I never dreamed I\u2019d be jabbering away the way I was in Argentina and Bolivia, but the mind works in mysterious ways once you\u2019ve made the mistake of telling a rather hot man you\u2019re pregnant (embarazada<\/em>) instead of embarrassed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

13. You<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ll be treated like a VIP<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Other people will be impressed that you\u2019re doing all this alone. I often found myself at the best tables in restaurants and was once even upgraded to a honeymoon suite in a hotel in Bali. I think the staff member who checked me in assumed I\u2019d been abandoned by my husband. I thought it best not to correct her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

14. You will learn what<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s really important<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Before I left to see the world I valued a stable income, relationship and job above all else, but travelling gave me perspective. I saw that life is about love, feeling happy and spreading that love and happiness whenever possible. It\u2019s also about having a comfy bed in a room with less than nine people in it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

15. You<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ll truly appreciate home<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Home isn\u2019t a box that houses all your belongings \u2013 not to me anymore. To me it\u2019s a combination of all the little parts of me I discovered in different places. As a result of travelling alone, I have friends all over the world to go and visit now. And in every one of them is another little taste of home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Credit: Getty Images, Becky Wicks<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Becky Wicks I was lucky enough to travel alone for the best part of three years, while I wrote three travel books for a publisher. It\u2019s not so much the bad tattoo, the mind-melting ayahuasca experience or the dalliance with an over-zealous jungle guide stirring up nostalgic feelings, but more the feeling of being… Continue reading 15 Reasons Why Travelling Solo is Amazing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,90,77,14],"tags":[392],"authors":[24],"class_list":["post-2711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-experience","category-listopedia","category-solo-travel","category-tips-inspiration","tag-travel-tips","authors-expedia-globetrotters","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSolo Travel: Why Travelling Alone is Amazing - Travel Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Before your solo adventure, arm yourself with tips for travelling solo. 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