Solo travel

Understand

Traveling alone is not uncommon and most solo travellers are able to meet other travelers at hostels, bars, organised tours or any place where travellers tend to hang out or congregate.

Advantages of solo travel

Your time and budget are your own! It's all up to you how much time to spend someplace, what your daily modes of travel will be, etc. You need not take into account the preferences and demands of a traveling companion. You don't have to worry about boring a companion or vice versa. You also have more space to make your trip entirely your own. Solo travel can be a great opportunity for reflection and moving at an individual pace. (You are likely to bring whatever problems you have with you, but you may gain a different perspective on them, and if it's your first time travelling by yourself, you may have the privilege to discover just how resourceful you are.) Travelling by yourself, you only have to please yourself. It's easier to make friends with the locals. Many great opportunities to interact with the locals on a personal level can be found and enjoyed without a friend or other companion. You don't have any social obligations. You have space and time to be yourself, apart from your family and work roles. You will be far more flexible than non-solo travellers, and may find it easier to cope with unexpected setbacks and complications. For instance, if a flight or hotel is overbooked, you can make alternate plans more easily. There's nobody to blame you for your own gaffes, after all! You can more easily change plans, as you don't have to run your spontaneous ideas by all other members of your group. Do consider however, that most plane and train tickets have limited refundability and some hotel reservations are difficult to cancel (or keep all or part of your pre-paid money)

Disadvantages of solo travel

Personal safety can be a concern as there's nobody to watch your back and no one to share the driving should you get tired. There's also no one to watch the luggage while you go buy train tickets. You will have to carry all your gear yourself, which can be both inconvenient and stressful. Arrangements may be more expensive on a per-person basis,

Talk

If you are travelling by yourself in a region whose language you do not speak, it's particularly important for you to learn at least a survival level of the local language if you have no travel partner to converse with, strategise with, and potentially fall back on. It's really not so hard to learn basics of any language today. You can start with Wikivoyage's phrasebooks, but also make sure you hear some basic words and expressions pronounced and practice saying them before you go, if at all possible. Borrow some teach-yourself CDs at your local library and/or look for videos on websites. Common languages (that are more likely to be understood than English even in some places where they are not the native language) like Spanish (Instituto Cervantes), German (Goethe-Institut), Arabic, Russian, Mandarin Chinese (Confucius Institute) or (especially) French (Alliance Française) can be studied at universities or cultural representations of the country they originate in for quite affordable prices almost everywhere. Look for organizations or venues which are visited by people of your own kind. As an example, Russians abroad usually go to chess clubs to find their countrymen. As stand-up comedy is traditionally an Anglophone art, many cities have comedy performances in English, with a crowd which can be presumed to speak English.

Get in

Some destinations lend themselves better to solo travel than others. You may find places where accommodations for a single traveller are less restrictive or expensive. There may also be places that cater to individual travellers.

Get around

If you can afford a taxi and speak the local language, the driver can be a good companion. Pack as light as possible. When travelling with friends the burdens can be shared; one person can watch the gear while another waits in line for train tickets, buys drinks or goes to the toilet. By yourself, you'll probably have to bring your things everywhere you go and prepare for tasks on your own, and having a heavy set of gear may not work. When you have a choice, consider taking intercity trains instead of buses, so you can move around freely and mingle with other passengers. On most long distance trains the locals bring along a picnic, so take some extra food to share with your new friends. Longer flights (about more than 5 hours) can also a be good opportunity to learn to know fellow travellers. Try not to look at maps in busy streets, which will mark you as an easy target for pickpockets. Do the map reading in places that can be settled like a café or library and unwind for a while. In many cities using a mobile device might blend better than standing on a street corner with a map, but it can be dangerous in crime-ridden countries (and perhaps crime-ridden areas of many cities). An inconspicuous alternative is to print out a map, cut it in palm-sized pieces and staple together the parts you'll need for your trip.

Do

Guided tours, especially walking tours, can be a great way to meet other travelers. They are offered in English at many destinations, and a place to meet other English-speakers.

Photos Lone travellers have a difficult time getting good photos of themselves; selfie mode on smartphones gives lower performance than regular mode, and selfie sticks might feel awkward. In certain places, lending your camera or phone to a stranger in the street is a risk factor. Some smartphone cameras can also be triggered using smartwatch apps or hand gestures. Using a small tripod or leaning your smartphone against something can allow you to take photos of yourself when used in combination with these options. Whenever you have some time with a trusted companion (or hospitality staff that is not too busy), ask them to take a photo of you. They can take it with their own equipment, and send it to you.

Eat

Try to find places with a casual atmosphere in European cities, such as cafeterias in department stores, a pub, or an outdoor patio during warmer weather. Other good places are fast food and takeaway restaurants, diner-style lunch counters, delicatessens, cafeterias, buffets, street food stands, pizzerias offering pizza by the slice or personal pizzas, eateries at hotels, grab-and-go food from convenience stores or supermarkets, and food delivery (directly from a restaurant or through an app). If your hotel offers it, room service is an option if you want some privacy, but it can be expensive. A cheaper option for in-room dining if your hotel room has a microwave oven is to buy frozen meals and reheat them in your room. A number of hotels have on-site convenience stores where you can purchase food, though it will probably be cheaper to buy food at a local grocery store if you wish to prepare your own meals. Plus, it's a great way to meet locals. Also, if you wish not to stand out, you may prefer to pick establishments where you're not the only person eating alone. An expensive and exclusive place not located at an accommodation is the worst choice in this regard in some parts of the world. However, in American cities like New York, it's extremely common for people travelling alone to be able to sit at the bar of even the best restaurants, and they are often able to order from the full menu there. In Japan, single individuals can reserve places at the counters of great sushi/sashimi restaurants and have omakase (the chef's choice) while interacting with the chef. At the low end, it is completely natural in Japan for single individuals to sit down at the counter of a ramen house and have a great inexpensive meal. If you go to an empty bar or café, the staff is usually idle, and might be happy for a talk with a guest. For their own marketing, they prefer to have a place that is not completely empty. If you are lucky, they might even give you a special offer.

Sleep

In places