For me, solo travelling this summer began as a trip starting in a familiar place to see if I actually liked travelling alone. Unfortunately for my bank account, I’ve realised that as well as trips with friends, I need to fit more solo travel into my life and it does live up to the hype it gets on social media.
My first couple of solo travel experiences technically ticked all of the solo travel boxes: I had a couple of days alone in a hostel dorm before one of my friends arrived. And after these experiences, I had an entirely different mindset. I hadn’t really branched that far out of my comfort zone – I’d made friends for sure, and I’d explored new places but I felt as if I was just waiting for someone else to join me and that I was less stressed when I wasn’t alone.
The thing is – that was nothing like to actually committing to solo travel for a month. This kind of solo travelling taught me about connecting with people, places and learning that actually you are okay by yourself. And after that month, I can firmly say that it’s not hyped up an excessive amount – it’s amazing to learn more about yourself and gain confidence.
There’s something so freeing about solo travel on your own timeline, and that if you want to be entirely flexible – you can be. Case in point – I was up a hill watching sunset in Slovenia and suddenly realised I had nothing booked for the next day, not even knowing which country I was heading to next. (Massive shoutout to the guys here who navigated us back while I was frantically scrolling on Hostelworld to try and find a bed.) The point here is that you’re not only in total control of your small choices, like your meals, activities or routes, but you’re also able to just make big decisions and go with them if you want.
Another huge thing for me was the sociability. When you’re travelling alone you don’t have someone to talk to immediately. What that means is you’ll find people to talk to – just a small hi can turn into a group of you going to the beach together. Everyone solo travelling is generally down to do something as a group – I’ve never met a solo traveller who has come and wanted to stay alone all the time. It’s ten times easier to make friends and talk to strangers than it is if you’re travelling in a group.
You also don’t really need to worry about whether you’ll need to fit into groups: hostels are filled with solo travellers – on my boat trip with six of us in Montenegro, all of us had come alone, and ended up cliff jumping, swimming in caves and drinking on the boat together. But still, there have ben some places where I’ve joined a group of people travelling together rather than other solo travellers and it doesn’t feel like you’re an add-on if you’re with the right people.
Hostelworld has been one of my absolute go-tos for solo travelling as you can see how many other people have booked the same hostel (plus their ages and nationalities) so you can find one with the right vibe for you. Also – go to the hostels you get recommended by your friends. So many people told me when I was in Ulcinj, Montenegro to go to wanderers hostel in Shkoder to do the Valbona-Theth hike. I didn’t… and then a month later ended up in wanderers doing the Valbona-Theth hike because I’d been told about 50 times that it was the place to be (it was). When you’re solo travelling, you can genuinely just take the advice and recommendations and go off that – people backpacking know what people backpacking want! Keep yourself flexible and try to book only refundable and cancellable hostels, you never know what you’re going to decide.
I still talk to plenty of the people I met solo travelling today – when we can next potentially meet up, talking about shared experiences like university or just general travel recommendations for the future. Typically as well, seeing each other’s instagram stories when one of us has gone back to studying and the other is still living out of a rucksack (yes, I am a little envious. Need to start planning another trip soon).
What you have is connections from around the world of people who know you as just you. Not the two British girls they met, or the couple who were travelling together but simply you: a solo traveller ready to chat and bring whatever version of themselves they want into the country. When you’re not travelling with anyone, you’re not subconsciously being the same person you’ve always been around them. You can be whoever you want to be – more confident than usual, more talkative, taking more risks (within reason), being someone new and find that version of you that you love.
At the start of this year I was a little nervous to take the leap and leave the continent to solo travel (hence why I tried solo travel in Europe). Now, I’m so excited to go further and go alone. I’ve found a new love for travel, love for sharing my experiences with everyone again and just loving what I’m doing. And for anyone thinking about solo travel – it doesn’t have to be far and it doesn’t have to be too long, just make sure you commit to socialising, leave the stress behind and be who you want to be while you travel.
Other Travel Tips and Articles You Might Be Interested In:
Hostel Green Flags – How To Best Pick Your Hostels
Backpacking as a Girl in the Balkans
