After some posts by the Solo Travel Society regarding the idea that solo travel is scary and lonely, I would just like to reiterate: IT IS NEITHER.
Mostly because it is nearly impossible to be the only traveler in a place, forget being actually alone. Also, unless one is traveling to literal war zones – which one is probably not doing alone anyway – one is no more likely to die in a strange place than in a familiar one. I promise.
Instead, individual adventuring is like signing up for an organized tour – yes, without other friends or family, what are you four years old?* – and realizing that the reason it cost one-third what it should is that none of the organizing has been done in advance. So it’s just you and some like-minded, friendly strangers headed to some cool places together, taking turns asking for directions.
You will find them on buses and trains and planes. You will find them in hostels and campsites and hotels (though the more expensive and private you go, the more elusive they will be). They will strike up conversations in cafes and at monuments; they will have lots of questions and lots of answers. You also will accumulate answers as you go and can share them during a city tour or while hiking a volcano. Because you will find other travelers there too. And they will strike up conversations. And they will have questions and advice to share. And they will want to eat dinner / go dancing / tour the basilica / hike to the waterfalls with you.
Honestly, getting travelers to stop interacting with you is the second-biggest challenge you’ll face.**
I’m sure you have heard a lot of scary things about the places people go. Colombia or El Salvador for instance. Yes, people are killed in Colombia. And El Salvador. Those people are not usually foreign travelers.
More than 45 million people will visit Chicago this year (it is, after all, The Best City On The Earth). However, more than 900 people have been shot in the first 23 weeks of 2014. I will bet you two-trillion dollars not a single traveler will be shot this year in Chicago. Dangerous places don’t make it to the tourist maps.
Travelers who accidentally encounter dangerous places
- are either belligerently trying to get far away from other travelers (remember that time I wanted to go to San Cipriano?) or seeking obviously bizarre-o adventures (illegal Colombian gold mines, anyone?); and
- will tell EVERYONE – chatty, remember? – so no one can possibly repeat their mistake.
Don’t get me wrong, I usually enjoy the ego-stroking of being called brave. But let’s not get carried away. Of course one needs a sense of adventure and a desire to visit new places – not everyone has those and that’s cool – but I have met 20-year-olds on their first time out of the country down here, so I can’t be that intrepid.
*To be fair, I was tremendously nervous for my first trip like this, and I was already almost 30 and used to traveling in the USA and Canada by myself.
**The actual biggest challenge is not losing one’s mind when encountering “rudeness” or “a lack of common sense” owing to cultural differences with the local people.
You’re so right! As a random stranger who met you at a hostel, I can attest to the fact that you’ll meet people on the road and never be alone. Even when you want to be. But it does take a strong person- and a strong woman- to be willing to go at it alone, so props to you!
thanks, Michelle! and props to you two, who are also traveling “alone”, as well =)