Why I love solo travel

A Late Bloomer to Solo Travel

I’ve been a budding solo traveler for a long time. However, I never really solo travelled in my twenties. I guess you could call me a late bloomer. I regret that fact a little bit, but after reflecting on my life circumstances as well as recalling a man child I dated briefly for a month when I was 23. He made me feel insecure for not experiencing the typical college campus life. I came to a realization, I believe that I made the choices I made back then with the resources I had. I was simply doing the best I could with what I had by living at home. And anyone who makes me feel bad or ashamed about it is a huge red flag. It is a process to grow confidence and I really suffered from lack of confidence growing up. I felt that fear and anxiety often held me back from trying new things.

Unfortunately I didn’t really work part time or make much money during my college years. I worked an unpaid internship for six months as I was really desperate for more graphic design experience. But I came out of university with no student loan debts and work in the field I studied in. I will consider that a success.

Growing Up Curious in San Francisco

I am also of the mind that if you want to try something it’s usually not too late. I am in my thirties now.  Over time I realized I have been really lucky, to grow up in such a unique city, San Francisco. It helped me be a resourceful, observant, a people watcher of a traveller.

I grew up exploring Chinatown on the weekends, which includes dodging all the grannies and grandpas. Trust me, you do not want to get in their way while they are picking their produce on Stockton street. I also have my parents to thank for constantly making us eat anything that they placed in front of us, no matter what when I was very young and often shocked and challenged by the different textures and tastes that Cantonese food brings to the table.

The Freedom of Traveling Alone

I think some aspects of solo traveling that I really love is being open to new experiences, meeting people (or not), and the freedom to do whatever you want. It’s also incredible as an artist to explore so many parts of different European countries because it is a treasure trove of significant architecture, art and cultural traditions. that’s one of the reasons why I love living in Spain, with traveling to other parts of Europe is much more affordable and accessible.

Taking Baby Steps Into Solo Travel
I think the baby steps for travelling solo is often just exploring locales nearby and having that curiosity to wander. I love taking the time to see more of my hometown.

I truly enjoy walking around and taking buses and sometimes avoiding the steep terrain of hills, being astonished by stunning views and wearing several layers to be blanketed by fog.

It’s stopping to notice the plant life of succulents, garden nasturtiums, huge lilies and pincushion proteas. It’s lush and green there, with the fog that rolls in and out of the air. I miss the smell of the air and hearing the fog horns in the distance when I lived in the outer Richmond neighborhood. If you happen to live in a unique place like SF, consider that luck and where the stars align.

Traveling Before Smartphones

I am old enough to remember a time without smartphones, Google maps and the only way to get online was to use a dial up modem. I remember I traveled to NYC by myself when I was fifteen. I was kind of a disaster as I remember almost losing my passport at the airport. I was looking for it in panic and figured out I dropped it on the floor somehow. I remember barely navigating NYC by myself because back then I had no point of reference on how to get around and I didn’t really know how to use a paper map. I had to muster up the courage to ask random people on the street for directions.

I remember that in July it was hot as hell and the weather just bogged me down. The heat and humidity always makes me so drained and tired. I still cringe recalling that I got cat called by gross men while walking out to the subway by myself. I remember that it was hard to travel by myself without what we have today, which is smartphones equipped with data, social media and Google maps. I had almost no spending money. I took that trip because I was accepted to the National Book Foundation’s summer writing camp and we all met up first in New York to travel up to Bennington, Vermont for the camp. But that’s for another story, I guess.

Staying safe and doing research
Honestly as a solo female traveler, I just recommend picking locations to travel in that you know are safe. Spain is very safe, most parts of Europe are safe and easy to get around in. Getting access to data with an esim works wonders, or if you can go to a local shop to get a physical SIM card it tends to be an even better deal. However, nowadays you can’t really beat the convenience of an esim and the price is really affordable as well.

Planning the Practical Details
One thing that used to make me feel flustered or anxious was not knowing how to get from the airport to the hostel or whatever place I was staying at. I really dislike winging this as a solo traveler. Often times, with a bit of research, I usually find this information quickly and more comfortably when I’m sitting around at home on a laptop.

I like seeing what options there are from the airport to the place I am staying at. Sometimes the best option is a bus. Other times it’s a train. Or a train and then a transfer to another train. And some places need you to validate your train ticket, like Rome because like clockwork the fare inspector comes and checks the Leonardo Express, even if it’s eight o’clock in the evening.

I also remember booking a National Express Coach (bus) to get from Stansted airport to London. It was affordable especially compared to taking a black cab and a lovely older airport worker directed me to the parking lot to board the bus. I also use this information on getting from the airport to the hotel to gauge how much a taxi would cost, so I can figure out if I can afford it.

I also like checking airfares and with low cost budget carriers like Ryanair, it’s prudent to know how far an airport is located from the actual city. The airport that Ryanair flies to Paris is significantly farther than CDG or Orly. Needless to say, I decided not to buy those Ryanair tickets! I’m very glad I decided against it, because a taxi to the actual city of Paris could cost over €100.

Take some time to research the place you’re going to. Sometimes I move away from Google searches and read a travel guide (yes, I read travel guides for fun) or watch a YouTube video to get a sense of the place. I found that doing research really gets me excited about the trip. I make notes and sometimes book tickets for attractions I want to go to, especially if it’s something incredibly popular like Anne Frank house in Amsterdam which gets booked out very quickly. Or if it’s a smaller town like Manises, Valencia – I found a lot of great information through a blog and also a tourism website that highlighted all the charms of that ceramic town.

Let Your Interests Shape Your Trip
For me, this is key to solo travelling. Sometimes there’s the perception that when visiting a new and very well known, popular tourist destination like Barcelona or Rome is to only see the big attractions. And they are the big attractions for a good reason. But I find that you don’t have to go to all of them.

Take a breath and seek out the ones that interest you the most. It is perfectly ok to visit the Louvre, though I much preferred seeing all the impressionists at the Musee D’Orsay.

I looked through the Louvre’s website and found a guided “trail” that walked us through the most famous pieces and ended with the Mona Lisa. By then my feet were killing me and I decided to sit down at a cafe and rest.

I think about activities I really look forward to doing, some of these include:

• Food tours, tours about public transportation, ghost tours, architecture tours
• Learning about the local street art in cities such as London, Athens, Porto, and San Francisco.
• Exploring neighborhoods that feel authentic and special to the city like Gracia in Barcelona, the Alfama in Lisbon, the Albaicin in Granada
• Art or craft workshops: mosaic making in Rome, tile painting in Lisbon, indigo dyeing in Ibaraki, Japan, marbling in Florence.
• Smaller niche museums like Museum of Mouassine Music in Marrakech, Museo de Traje in Madrid, Design Museum in London.

I love seeking out activities that correspond directly with things you love to do. in Budapest I booked us time to relax at Gellert Baths. John and I truly enjoyed a super laid back day of lounging and bathing in the different pools.

I often inspect itineraries from companies that host creative art retreats and use those as inspiration to seek out local artisans and museums, workshops in the places I am interested in travelling to.

On a recent trip to Morocco, I booked us a cooking class in Marrakech, there were two other women in the class and it was a really fun and inspiring class to learn how to cook Moroccan dishes! Instead of the whole trip being a group tour, joining in on organized tours or classes for a few hours is another way to meet other travelers.

The Joy of Freedom and Spontaneity
I think this might be the best part of solo traveling. There’s freedom to do whatever you’d like. I am not on someone else’s schedule the way we had to get up early as a part of a tour group in China. You end up getting taken to various stops for foot massages and shopping, forced to eat in restaurants that solely cater to tourists.

During that trip to Yunnan, China with my family we had to eat the same thing every day for five days. We were so tired of it by the end. There’s something so wonderfully freeing about going from plaça to plaça in the Gracia neighborhood of Barcelona, sitting outside sketching and people watching. I had time to eat an ice cream and window shop.

I loved booking a food tour in Rome as well as a mosaic making workshop where the teacher so patiently and carefully taught me how to break apart the tiny square stones, which is called tesserae. In a few hours, she helped me create a small mosaic. 

Why I Keep Traveling Solo

Solo travel lets me enjoy wherever I traveled to at my own pace, it allows me to wander and stop to take it all in. I used to be afraid to travel by myself. Now that I’ve done several solo trips, it’s really something I look forward to, it’s a type of adventure that really fuels my free spirited self.