Should you consider solo female travel? Yes! Even though going off on your own can be scary, it will be good for you – trust me. Traveling alone (and even leaving your partner at home) can be an amazing opportunity for growth. As someone who has gone on a 2-month long solo trip, I have zero regrets about leaving my boyfriend, family, and friends behind for a little while.
It Increases Your Self-Confidence.
The number one reason for solo female travel is proving that you can do it. All on your own, you can travel the world – and thrive! If you’re the kind of person that has a lot of anxiety about adulting and handling any sort of logistics, traveling alone will cure you of that. You’ll learn how to navigate unfamiliar environments while keeping yourself safe. You’ll realize that when something goes wrong in your travel plans – you can solve them on your own! It’s a wonderful thing to have someone else to lean on during stressful times. It’s even more wonderful to know that you can take care of yourself.
It Gets You Out of Your Comfort Zone.
Solo female travel has become more popular in the past few decades, but it will never become easy for women to travel alone for the first time. People, in general, are drawn to comfort. We love people who make us feel relaxed and having a place to call home. Traveling the world by yourself will deprive you of that comfort and force you to adjust. However, you will never grow without leaving your comfort zone. People need to be pushed in order to become better, and choosing to travel solo is like pushing yourself off a cliff. Although scary – it’s ultimately good for your personal development.
You Will Meet New People.
Whether or not you want to meet new people, it’s an inevitable part of traveling on your own. Even if you’re the most introverted person in the world, you will need to interact with others when traveling alone. From public transport to buying groceries, you will learn to make purchases and navigate a foreign environment. Not only will you improve your social skills, but you might even make some new friends! If you’re open to it, you can even seek out new friendships during your trip. It might be the best place to find other people who share your view of the world.
You’ll Have The Ultimate Freedom of Choice.
When you travel with a group, there’s a lot to balance. You need to make sure that everyone gets a say in the activities and food choices (and much more). When you travel alone – you can do whatever you want, whenever you want! You can schedule out your trip or decide what to do on a whim. Most importantly, you can always change your mind. Maybe you meet a local who recommends their favorite restaurant, so you go there without any debate or checking with a group. If you wake up with jetlag, you’ll be free to rest for as long as you’d like. Those are just a few examples of how solo female travel can give you an insane amount of freedom.
You Can Learn a New Language – And Fast.
It is widely known and accepted that immersion will help you learn a language quickly. If you really want to immerse yourself in the language of a foreign community, go alone. If you travel with friends or family, you will continue to speak your home language – no matter how hard you try. You’re going to spend most of your time with the group, after all. How can you expect to maximize your exposure to the foreign language in that scenario? It might seem intimidating, but give it a try. Most people feel honored when they see you trying to learn their language. However, keep in mind that they might still want to practice their English with you!
It Will Expand Your Worldview.
The world that you interact with on a day-to-day basis is not the only one on Earth. In fact, most people in the world live differently than you. We each see the world through a unique lens. If you never stop to see the world from a different perspective, then you are missing out. You’re giving up the opportunity to appreciate the diversity of the human experience. Without experiencing other perspectives and cultures, you won’t be able to truly empathize with people from those worlds. Solo female travel can open your eyes to a new way of seeing your place in the world. Thanks to the internet, you can continue to expand your worldview even after your trip.
You’ll Learn a Lot About Yourself.
When you travel alone, you learn who you really are. What do you do when there’s nobody holding you accountable except yourself? What tries your patience, and how do you keep your cool in a stressful situation? What makes your heart soar? What makes you uncomfortable? You will have no one to lean on but yourself, and that can reveal a lot about your character. Solo female travel can be especially challenging if you’ve never done it before. This is a good thing! The better you understand yourself, the more you can become the person you want to be.
It Will Reveal Where Your “Home” Actually is.
You’ve heard “home is where the heart is”, but what does that even mean? Home is a place or setting where you feel comfortable, secure, and autonomous. Once you know what home means to you, you can recreate those feelings anywhere. When you travel alone, you will be stripped of most things that bring you the feelings of home. If you can look a bit deeper and figure out what you are missing, then you’ll have the building blocks of “home” in the palm of your hand. When you get home, you can focus on the things that really matter. Those people that make you feel completely safe, and the habits that make you feel free – that’s what will make you feel at home.
You Get to Redefine Loneliness.
Loneliness is defined as sadness because one has no friends or company. The key word in that definition is sadness. You can take that loneliness and turn it into solitude! Solitude is the state of being alone – without any emotion tied to it. When you travel alone, you will probably notice the absence of your friends or family and experience loneliness. However, reframing loneliness into solitude is easier than you might think. Embrace the fact that you are alone, and notice how you can take care of yourself. When you trust yourself and follow your own instincts, solitude can become something wonderful. You will start to look forward to your alone time, because you don’t need anybody else to feel fulfilled. For many women, solo female travel is empowering because it teaches us how powerful solitude is.
It Gives You Time and Space to Reflect.
Stepping out of your everyday life and into a completely disconnected world lets you look from the outside in. When something huge happens in your life, it can be very easy to forget to process. We get swept away with the everyday grind of life and don’t make the time to reflect. Ignoring our feelings (even unintentionally) can lead to many unhealthy coping behaviors. Because of this, it’s important to face your feelings and take the time to understand them. A solo vacation is a wonderful place for self-refection and healing to occur. You will be free to take the time to truly understand how you feel about your life and what changes you’d like to make when you return.
You Will Learn to Take Care of Yourself.
Traveling on your own removes a lot of distractions and habits that you may have unknowingly been using to hide. It’s healthy to find support from our friends and family when we struggle, but you also need to know that you can support yourself when you need to. Solo travel gives you the opportunity to learn how to be your own support system. Now, I’m not advocating for isolation and extreme independence. I’m just saying that it’s good to know that you are capable of handling any obstacle on your own – should you ever be placed in that kind of situation. At home, you are used to going to places of comfort when feeling overwhelmed. When you travel, not only do you learn what triggers discomfort, but you also have to find new ways to cope. It’s healthy to learn how to take care of yourself.
You Will Travel More Often.
It’s just a fact – if you don’t have to coordinate with others, you are able to travel whenever you want. Traveling with others is wonderful, and is definitely worth the trouble. However, you don’t need to wait for someone else to travel the world. If no one can join you – then do it yourself! Go to those bucket-list locations, and enjoy the adventure. You can even make a list of your favorite places and bring a buddy the next time you go.
It Reveals What You Actually Need to Be Content.
When you travel, it teaches you there is more to happiness than having more. More clothing, better tech, a nicer car – all of these things can be nice, but you don’t need them to be happy. Traveling on your own teaches this in two ways. First, you learn that you don’t actually need many physical items to explore the world. Having more clothing, for example, will actually weigh you down (literally). Second, you realize that the few friends that keep in touch with you during your adventure are all you need. You need people that will go out of their way to be your friend, not people that are only friends with you out of convenience. These are just two examples of how travel teaches satisfaction with what you already have.
It Makes You Brave.
Rather, it will show you how brave you already are. Solo female travel breaks you out of your comfort zone. You are removed from your everyday world and placed into uncomfortable and unfamiliar situations. Because you have to deal with all potential problems alone, you become more sure of yourself. Successfully completing a trip on your own gives you validation of your own abilities. It teaches you what you are capable of when the only person you have to rely on is yourself. The truth is – you were always capable of these things. Once you actually start seeing yourself as brave, then that skill will only continue to grow (even after you return home).
You May Uncover a New Passion.
You can always find new passions through travel. Whether you want to reconnect with old hobbies or try something completely new, you can do both while traveling on your own. You can do anything you want when traveling alone. For example, you could spend entire days practicing photography or working on your language skills. If you’re open-minded and willing to try new things, you never know what passion you might discover. When walking down the streets of an unfamiliar city, keep your eye out for anything that sparks your curiosity, and give it a try!
You Get to Prove the Doubters Wrong.
When people learn that you are going to travel alone, they will doubt you. Especially as a woman. However, when I say “doubters”, I really mean YOU, because your opinion of yourself is the only one that matters. You will have people advising you not to travel alone. When they realize that you are not going to change your mind, they will give you advice. To be fair, you do need to be careful when traveling on your own. Trust your gut and don’t put yourself in potentially dangerous situations. While it can feel offensive when someone doubts your ability to travel safely, focus on the fact that they care enough about you to be concerned. If you start to doubt yourself because of other people sharing their opinions, stop. Remember to trust yourself. You can do this, and you will gain more confidence along the way.
It Will Expand Your Palate.
When you travel, there is always an opportunity to try new foods. This is especially true if you travel abroad. Food tours are huge tourist attractions, but you don’t need to go on a food tour to try something new. Often, the best way to find food that is authentic to your location is by asking a local. Going out and trying new dishes is also a way to meet new people and make friends when traveling alone. Everyone loves food, and sharing a meal is a form of social bonding. Food is a part of the culture, and a great way to experience a new culture is by trying their food.
You’ll Become The Ultimate Problem Solver.
Problems are almost guaranteed when you’re traveling. From transportation issues to language barriers – there is always a solution. It can be easy to get overwhelmed when solving problems in a foreign environment, but it gets easier the more you do it. You’ll learn to stay calm when you miss the bus, and you’ll develop solutions for your day-to-day difficulties. After you pull off a solo trip, I’d say you’re qualified to put “problem-solving” on your resume list of soft skills. Other soft skills gained from travel include time management (think scheduling transportation, accommodations, and activities), adaptability (changing the plan on a whim when you need to), and communication (any human interactions on your trip).
You Will Inspire Others.
Sharing about your solo female travel adventure is bound to inspire the people around you. It’s becoming increasingly popular for women to travel on their own, but many people don’t think of themselves as capable of such a feat. Those who you know personally will be inspired by your success – especially if you share openly about your fears and how you overcame them. People travel for many reasons: relaxation, excitement, social events, personal development, and cultural experience. You can choose to share what you gained from your adventure alone and motivate others to follow in your footsteps.
Why Not?
If you really want to think about it, you can find dozens of reasons not to travel. However, if it’s something you’ve dreamt about doing – why not? You have so much to gain from it, and so little to lose. Of course, there are life situations that can prevent you from traveling, but circumstances change over time. Be patient and know that your time will come. This kind of trip is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many women. Of course, you can choose to travel solo for the rest of your life – and I hope you do it you love it. A solo trip is a gift; a chance to focus on yourself and your needs. You deserve that opportunity, so take it!
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