Travelling solo: a testimony.
“Oh…you know, travelling like that is good too!”
About half a hour into my flight to Prague, I started talking with my neighbour, a woman aged about 25. She was with a friend and was telling me that she was going to see a good friend of hers that lives in Prague. Then she asked me if I was with someone.
“No, I’m travelling by myself.”
“Oh, nice, then you must have some friends in Prague!”
“Oh no, I don’t know anybody there.”
“Oh…you know, travelling like that is good too!” she said, her previous smile transforming into a frown and then back into the fakest smile I’d ever seen.
“Yeah, but I didn’t ask if it was.” Is what I wanted to say, but I just nodded and smiled and then proceeded to ignore her for the rest of the flight.
This kind of occurrence isn’t rare; in fact, most people react about the same way when I tell them I travel alone. Now, I’m not judging these people, they can travel however they want. However, this kind of reaction shows that they are judging me, either pitying me or thinking that I’m some sort of freak. Some of them even say “Oh, did one of your friends cancel their trip?” As if travelling alone was some kind of forbidden act.
Pitying me is absolutely ridiculous, since I’m obviously doing this of my own volition, and I’m pretty sure my smiling face (I try to smile as much as I can, except when I’m reading) should indicate that the prospect of going solo (you might have Wham’s famous song stuck in your head now, and I don’t apologize for that) isn’t giving me suicidal thoughts.

Now let’s finish this rant and move on to the actual subject : Travelling solo, why? First, let me tell you this article is only for people who want to discover a city or country, if you’re going on vacation to have fun, get drunk and dance, then it’s probably better to go with friends. It’s still possible to go by yourself, but you need to be very confident and enthusiastic.
Many articles have been written about how travelling solo will change your life, make you grow, increase your confidence. Don’t take my word for it, here’s what science has to say on the subject.
In my personal experience, navigating my way through a foreign place or country by myself definitely has a lot benefits, like :
- Being able to visit whatever you like, whenever you like
- Being able to take public transportation, walking, cycling, or even unicorn-riding if you feel like it
- Being able to change your mind
- Being able to rest whenever you like, or on the opposite, not be obliged to stop whenever someone wants to rest
- Eating wherever you like
- Drinking whenever you like
- At night, going out without having to wait for people to get ready
Basically, the gist of it is that you have absolute freedom over whatever you do during your trip. For example, I was in Manchester once, I went out on Saturday at about 9 am, and didn’t go home until 3 am on Sunday, having visited thoroughly the city and then went out for a copious amount of beer and live music. I probably couldn’t have done this if I was with friends, as some of them would probably want to rest for a bit. There are, however, some challenges and drawbacks associated with solo travelling, like every good thing in life:
- Boredom: this is most likely what deters most people from travelling, as you’re more likely to be bored when you are by yourself. To have fun, you need to enjoy your own company, or/and you need to talk to other people.
- Planning your trip: yes, you probably will need to plan your trip by yourself, and this may feel like a hassle for some, and an absolute joy for others. I, for one, belong in the first category. I usually just look up videos made by locals of the city, note a few landmarks, and then plunge in.
- Accommodation: you will have to find accommodation by yourself and for yourself, which means in some cases having to pay more.
- Safety: You may feel less safe when you’re in solitary, depending on where you’re travelling.
Now some people may find those drawbacks outweigh the freedom. But hold! I didn’t actually talk about ALL the benefits of travelling solo, I just mentioned freedom as it’s the more obvious and superficial of the lot. Indeed, spending time by yourself in an unknown place definitely has its advantages, in that it will make you grow as an individual (as mentioned a bit in that article before), due to the challenges you’ll face out of your comfort zone. Personal examples:
- No matter how cheesy this may sound, you will discover a part of yourself you didn’t know even existed. For example, I am apparently a friendly and funny guy, according to the testimonies of people I met during my travels. I wouldn’t have known this if I always stayed in my bubble, and this really helped my self-confidence. Note: This also applies to whenever you get outside of your comfort zone, by hanging out with people you don’t know, doing things for the first time, etc.
- You will meet people. When you travel with friends, you tend to stay with them. Of course, you still talk to people from time to time, but you don’t actually have conversations with them or keep their contact. When you’re by yourself, you tend to be pressured to be talk to other people, and, if you’re shy, people tend to come talk to you if they see you by yourself.
- A consequence of meeting more people is that you’ll also have more chances to meet locals, which will in turn show you around, make you discover hidden things, and more importantly, make you see the country through the eyes of someone who was born and who’s living in it, which is definitely a good thing if you’re into “authentic” tourism. To take the example of Manchester, I discovered some cool bars by hanging out with a local. And that’s really one of the less impressive things you can discover!
- Finally, you’ll grow. In every way possible, in fact. If travelling alone wasn’t considered so weird, I’m pretty sure it would be a good thing to add on a CV. You’ll learn how to appreciate your own company, to make your own decisions and take responsibility. That’s only in general; you can learn pretty much anything, it all depends on how, where and for how long do you travel. I can’t remember any personal specific example of that, but a friend of mine learned how to construct a truck made for transporting horses in Australia; how awesome is that? (Thanks Solène!)
Now, you might ask yourself : how do I travel alone? And well, it turns out there’s a whole website that exists for the sole purpose of giving you tips for travelling.
But in any case, here are some personal tips:
- Stay at hostels or try couchsurfing: even if you have the means to go to a hotel or get an Airbnb, you will have less chances to meet people. Of course, if you don’t care about that, then you can just stay wherever you want.
- Couchsurfing is a good tool to use, even if it’s only to meet people; try their Hangouts option.
- If you’re staying for a long time, doing Wwoofing or using HelpX to find work and help someone out.
- If you have the time, move a lot. This applies even to travelling with other people, but still. Don’t stay in a single city for a week, get out there!
- Alcohol can help in enjoying yourself. Drink like a fish if you believe you’re with people you can trust, but if you’re not sure, stay lucid. (Or keep your precious things in the hostel’s lockers or something like that. That way you can’t get your things stolen.)
- About safety…what you should do is before you travel, to try to contact locals through Couchsurfing, Facebook groups or however you can and ask them how it is and if they advise travelling alone. And know that even when travelling with friends, there’s always a risk, so just enjoy yourself to the max and trust your gut feeling if it tells you it’s risky to go somewhere.
- If you ever feel too bored or want to go back home for some reason, then you should! There’s absolutely no shame in going back home; travelling should always be a pleasure, not an obligation.
Thanks to Solène for helping me write this article, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have a review/question!

In any case, I hope you liked this article and that it gave you the urge to get on a plane/boat/car/unicorn without asking anyone if they want to join!
