7 Ways To Make The Most of a Solo Adventure

You’ve gotten over the hardest hurdle, which is making the decision to travel solo. You’ve picked a destination and booked accommodation in central locations. You’re all set to get on that plane! You’re really doing this and it’s amazing!

If you’re new here, let’s catch you up quickly. Last month, I shared tips for planning a first solo trip, and I also suggested approximately 30 solo travel destinations around the world. Now, I’m following up with tips on how to make the most of your trip while you’re there.

 

1. Meet The Roommates:

Getting to meet people easily is the single best perk of staying in a hostel as a solo traveller. On my first solo trip to Turkey in 2010, I stayed in a hostel for the very first time. To be honest, I was nervous about the whole experience so I booked a 4-bed dormitory in the best-rated hostel to limit the ‘craziness.’ There was only one other girl in the room from Brazil, and we ended up spending a whole day together checking out the city. Even if staying in a dorm is not your thing, many hostels have private rooms that allow you to meet people in common areas without sharing sleeping quarters. In New Zealand, I spent an evening with a Canadian girl I met in the hostel lobby!

 

2. Join Group Tours:

If hostels are just not your thing (private room or not), you can still meet people through group tours. As I rarely stay in hostels anymore, this is now something I do often. While traveling solo, consider booking at least 1 group activity: walking tour, cycling tour, boat cruise etc. You never know whom you’ll end up chatting with. While traveling solo in Vietnam two years ago, I stayed in boutique hotels but booked a street food tour. I ended up hanging out with my group for 4-5 hours after the tour ended.

3. Take Some Pictures

Believe it or not, even though I enjoy taking pictures I often get lazy to take pictures when I travel solo. But I try to do it even when I don’t feel like it, and I’m thankful for it much later. So please, even if you’re not a ‘pictures person’ take a few shots on your phone. Yes, ask a stranger to help, people hardly ever say no.

Sometimes I look for another solo traveller and offer to take their pictures as well, or I look for someone who appears to know their way around a camera J. If you’d prefer, show them how you want the picture taken by setting up the shot or taking a practice shot for them to see!

Why do I advocate for this? No, it’s not for the ‘gram.’ I do so because we are human and after a while we forget the little moments and sometimes all it takes is an image, and you remember the place, time, people, smells and everything that goes with that memory. When they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I really think it’s worth a thousand precious memories. This is true for everyday moments as well as while traveling.

 

4. Change Your Plans, It’s Okay!

If you’re tired one day and decide to sleep in, that’s okay! On the flip side, you can wake up and decide to go on a day trip to a nearby city, go right ahead. You’re on your own schedule, and you’re the boss!

 

5. Choose How you React:

Remember when I said to pack your best attitude and an open mind? This will come in handy in situations where you might be disappointed, or it might rain an entire day when you had grand plans, or when your luggage takes five days to arrive. Choose to roll with the punches, and to have a solutions-driven mindset. When you can’t solve it, choose to look for the positive in every situation. The trip (and life) is short; don’t spend it sulking!

 

6. Do Something, For You:

Find one thing to do differently than you would if you weren’t riding solo. Walk up to a stranger and say hello, eat street food, or dine super fancy, join that group tour and hang out afterwards, go skydiving, have a spa day, camp on a beach, share secrets with strangers, go on a date, dance with the musician in the street, sleep in, or watch the sunrise. Point is; do something for yourself that you’ll remember!

 

7. Be Friendly, Yet Sensible

Smile often, it goes a long way and might open up the most unexpected fun experiences. Chat to strangers but please have your wits about you. Don’t hang out late by yourself. If you must, call a Uber/taxi and don’t hang out alone in sketchy places.

 

This is the second in a 3-part series on solo travel. In the final installment next month, I’ll be answering a few of the most frequently asked questions about solo travel. So, if you have any unanswered questions, please send them my way or leave them in the comments below.

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Till next week,

Ms. Heels