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5 reasons why you should travel alone

At some point in your life, you should travel alone. Pick a new, unexplored part of the world, buy a round trip ticket (or one-way for those feeling particularly adventurous), and set off with a loose itinerary and an open mind. Travelling alone will give you the freedom to do exactly what you want to do and open up opportunities to try new, adventurous things that will be the foundation of stories you tell for the rest of your life. Here are 5 reasons why you should consider embarking to parts unknown by yourself:

1. Meeting new people: Practically all great travel stories involve meeting someone new, whether it’s a new friend who shows you a secret bar in London where up-and-coming writers go or a romantic fling you find in Rio who convinces you to move back your flight. Being by yourself makes it significantly easier for other people to approach you and will compel you to reach out to others. If you’re naturally social, meeting people should come easily when you’re at the hostels, tourist attractions, and bars at night. Look for anyone who appears interesting or even plain bored and pick their brain! If they’re locals, ask them what their favorite places to go for fun are — especially restaurants and bars. Locals know how to avoid the tourist traps and where the real fun happens. If they’re tourists as well, chat them up about where they've gone, where they hope to see, and where they’re from. Even if you’re not naturally social (like I had been), there are great resources online to help you meetup with new people in foreign countries. My favorites are Meetup, Reddit (go to the city specific subreddits), and CouchSurfing. Connect with people before you go, and you’re on your way to making new friends and new memories abroad.
2. Traveling at your own pace: If you’re like me when you travel, you like to take your time and enjoy like the locals do. Sleep in a bit, take the scenic route, and just read a book at a cafe while enjoying the local fare — sounds perfect. Turns out, that’s not how some people like to travel. While I’m perfectly content spending an entire day relaxing, others can’t go a few hours without knocking something off of their ‘must-see’ list. Everyone has their own preferences, which makes pace a pain point when it comes to travelling with others. As a group, you have to find the right balance between seeing things and soaking it all in. When you are travelling alone, you make all of the decisions on how fast you go. Don’t feel like getting out of bed after a late-night bender? Sleep in and get up for brunch when you want to. Feel like doing a marathon sightseeing trip around Paris in 24 hours? Go for it, there’s no one to slow you down. And the fellow travelers that you meet who become your temporary companions are welcome to come and go as they please, participating at their pace, and the same goes for you. That’s the freedom of travelling alone.
3. No logistical nightmares: Admittedly, this feels more like a corollary to number 2. You know the situation where your group wants to go sightseeing but can’t agree on where to go, when to go, and how to get there? How about the feeling that you are as fast as your slowest group member through each room of the museum you’re visiting? Travelling alone means going the second you decide to go and being able to be as flexible as you want to be. Logistical challenges are much simpler when you have 100% of the vote. This also extends to lodging, where you completely avoid the challenge of finding accommodations that meet the needs of everyone you’re travelling with. Are you OK crashing in that hostel with 14 beds per room? Well alright! Lodging-savings-high-five. Feel like sleeping on the beach tonight? No one will put up a fuss or judge, which brings me to point 4…
4. Experiencing new adventures (saying ‘Yes’): Personally, this is the most compelling reason to travel alone. You can quite literally say ‘Yes’ to everything you always wanted to: meeting new people, trying new foods, visiting new places, learning a new activity, exploring uncharted waters — the world is your fat juicy oyster my friend. On my last night in Barcelona after a day of drinking on the beach with a collection of new friends from the US and Europe, saying ‘Yes’ led to late night swimming in the ocean, drunk food on the boardwalk, and sleeping under the moonlight along the beach. During my first night in Seville, saying ‘Yes’ led to riding a Vespa for the first time and almost getting stranded on the highway 20 km away from the city with a broken down motor bike . Having the freedom to agree to whatever new adventure presents itself is powerful and intoxicating — and will open you up to whole new side of travelling.
5. Finding yourself: Yep. This is unavoidable. While you won’t be alone all the time, there are going to be times when you will be your own company — either by choice or by circumstance. If travelling alone has one major spiritual benefit, it is that in the time that you have to yourself, you get to know yourself intimately. How do you behave when no one around knows who you are? What do you think about given no distractions on a train ride or hike? This is the time to reflect on life. You’ll come to know the people you truly miss in your life, the things you can’t wait to do when you get home, and the parts of your life that don’t really matter. Getting time and distance to get perspective on your life is an underrated, but truly significant outcome of travelling by yourself.

So give it a shot! Next time you have a long weekend, plan a trip all by yourself. It doesn’t mean you can’t plan time to see friends along the way or that you should let spontaneity take over for reason (be safe!), but allow yourself the experience of traveling unfettered. Just you, your thoughts, and your open spirit.

If you enjoyed this read, I’d love for you to ‘Recommend’ this piece so that others can enjoy it as well. If you have experiences of travelling alone you’d like to share, tweet me at @andrewjiang.