Everyone should travel solo at least once in their life to a place they’ve never been before. Traveling solo is the ultimate life experience to discover more about yourself and your surroundings. I learned a lot by traveling solo, so let me explain why you should do it too!

Why you should travel solo at least once

Complete freedom

To travel solo means you’ll have to organize, book and research everything yourself; your plane tickets, hotels, local transport, activities, …  The best part is that the only person you’ll have to take into account is yourself and you’ll have complete freedom of choosing what to do. So you won’t have to check someone else’s work holiday arrangements and you can do the things only you want to do! It also means you’re the only one responsible for arranging everything, so make sure you check everything twice before booking. There’s only one pair of eyes now!

Discover how you deal with situations

When you encounter your first tricky situation, you’ll soon discover it is only you who needs to think fast and creatively to find solutions now. You’ll find out what you’re capable of soon enough. Are you someone who can deal with problems yourself, or do you step to others to help you? Do you start panicking or do you stay calm and are you in control of the situation? This time there are no friends or family nearby to help you out! This is a very interesting thing to learn about yourself!

Your confidence will grow

During solo travel you are the only person you can count on. You will need to convince yourself of (not) doing something. It’s just you and your own thoughts. This can seem scary in the beginning. Especially when you don’t feel confident about yourself. But once you travel solo and you discover you can deal with situations on your own, your confidence will grow and the feeling of victory afterwards is just great! You’ll learn to be self-reliant.

How kind are you really?

Traveling solo will also make you see what kind of person you really are and how you behave towards others. I traveled for about 10 years with a friend and after I started traveling solo I discovered people were way friendlier to me. I didn’t get any awkward questions anymore about the unfriendly face next to me (sad but true), what the hell a person like me was doing with a person like her (which was rather harsh in my opinion, so I hope she never heard them) and I didn’t have to fix impoliteness (saying please never hurts anyone). I’m someone who always greets people, smiles, says thank you and please. This really impacts the way you’re treated by others. By myself I got better treatment, discounts, I made more friends,… so actually it doesn’t only show you who YOU are, but also that maybe you’re hanging with the wrong people! It is true that you get the treatment you deserve. So the warmer you are towards people, the more kindness you receive in return.

You’ll meet more people

Not only do you meet more people because maybe you got rid of your bad travel companion, you also meet more people simply because they’re often curious about you. Why are you traveling solo? This triggers people to start talking to you. I also believe you are more open for contact when you travel solo, because you have no one else to talk to. So you’re automatically more approachable (if you have the right attitude). I also easily start talking to people next to me. It’s just easier to make contact while traveling.

You’ll feel stronger

I often get the remark people admire what I’m doing after they hear I’m traveling on my own. Especially at the more challenging destinations. I never forget the horrifying looks on two French women’s faces when they discovered I was driving a car at Madeira by myself without a man doing it for me. They thought that was extremely courageous, because the roads over there are super challenging. This made me realize that what I was doing wasn’t as random as I thought it was.
Also hiking on my own on challenging paths with a fear of heights was something people were kind of shocked about, when I told them about it. A lot of people think traveling on your own must be very scary and lonely. They think it’s a brave thing to do. So this made me proud of myself and made me even more determined to continue doing what I’m doing. I feel way stronger than a few years ago knowing that apparently it takes guts to do what I do.

Now it’s your turn!

Even if you think you don’t have the guts to travel solo, just book that solo trip! Get out of that comfort zone and live a little! There’s nothing better in life than to do things you normally never do and succeed at them. Because give me one good reason why it won’t work for you? Scared to feel lonely? Then start reading my previous post about “Not every solo traveler is a loner”. You think you’re too shy? Travel kills shyness, simply because you’re the only person who can fix things or explain things. So just go!

If you like the pictures in this article I suggest to check out my Instagram account where you can find a lot more!