7 Surprising Benefits to Traveling Solo

Ever wondered what it's like to have complete freedom on your travels? Join me on an exploration of the empowering benefits of solo travel. In this episode, I promise you'll uncover seven compelling reasons to embark on a solo adventure, even if you're a seasoned traveler or contemplating your first trip alone. From setting your own schedule to savoring the thrill of spontaneous decisions, I share personal experiences that illuminate the joys of independent travel. 

The transformative power of solo travel is at the heart of our next segment. We'll explore how traveling alone can be a profound journey of self-discovery, helping you unearth hidden skills and foster self-reliance. Learn how solo adventures offer more opportunities for meaningful connections with strangers, fulfilling our innate need for human interaction. This episode encourages you to seize the moment, embrace independence, and build the confidence to navigate the world on your own terms.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Benefits of Solo Traveling
• 8:44 Solo Travel for Self Discovery

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:42

Hello, sister travelers, have you gone on your first solo trip yet, or maybe you are a seasoned solo traveler? Well, I'm going to share today just some benefits that maybe, if you've been doing solo travel, you have forgotten about some of these things of you know that's a positive reason to travel solo and some benefits from it. And if you're new to solo travel and you haven't quite taken that leap yet, I'd like you to consider these seven reasons that I came up with. There are many more, but these are ones that I find are important or that I've noticed when I do solo travel that have kind of benefited me in my time and my travel. And I still get asked, even to this day, amazed they're like amazed that I'm going solo on a trip. And recently I will share later in a few more weeks I am preparing to do the Camino, one of the Caminos, and I still get asked and surprised by people. They're surprised I'm going by myself. But you know we'll talk a little bit about those benefits and I'll also share a little later some other episodes later on as it gets closer to my time, of when I go to the Camino and how I've been preparing for it and if that's something you're interested in doing, you can use those episodes to help you get ready.

Speaker 1: 2:14

But today I'm going to talk about some benefits to traveling solo. Well, number one this is kind of my favorite is that you get to create your own schedule, your own itinerary and, just in general, being able to do what you want when you want. So no longer do you have to collaborate or compromise your plans and accommodate other people in where you go, when you go, where you stay, where you go to eat, go where you stay, where you go to eat. I just love this because often if I travel with other people, you know you are kind of compromising to accommodate. You know the general masses. For example, if I've ever traveled with a family, you know family members, you know a big group of family members, then you have to consider the, the collective, or if you're just going with one other person something I've run into that I prefer to travel solo because I often have a different sleep schedule than maybe someone else that I might be traveling with, so then I don't have to be pressured to fall in line with their sleep schedule, just so we can. You know, especially if you're sharing accommodations, that makes it a little little tricky, you know if you have a morning person versus a night person, right? So I love the fact that when I travel solo, I don't have to worry about that and I can sleep in, I can get up when I want, I can go do things whenever I want. I don't need to worry about what the other person or other people want to do for the day, and so I love that ability, that independence, so to speak. And that brings me to point number two.

Speaker 1: 4:03

When you travel solo, you find your autonomy. That means kind of your independence, your self-governing, being able to, I guess, make those choices by yourself and just feels natural. You're going with your. You know whether it's your gut or what you want to do. So having that autonomy a lot of us look for that in our everyday life and sometimes it's hard to achieve. So traveling solo, you will definitely have that opportunity to discover your independence and having the ability just to figure things out on your own. So there's a confidence booster there. You learn how to problem solve on your own. So again, you find your own independent autonomy.

Speaker 1: 4:55

And number three, spontaneity. Again, you have that freedom to do what you want. You could plan things to the minute, if that's the way you are, if that's the kind of person you are, or you could just wing it and just fly by the seat of your pants where you're going. Maybe you just decide one day when you get up oh, I'm going to take a train here. And so there's that benefit of traveling solo, because then you don't have to worry about what the other person wants to do, or if there's, maybe they're a planner and you're not, so you have that sort of that flexibility to be spontaneous if you want, and I recommend it even if you are a planner. There's so much serendipitous that happens when you do something spontaneous, things that you would never expect or imagine. So I encourage you if you're one of those. You have to know what you're doing. You want to be in control. I would encourage you to even just spend an afternoon in your travels to just do something spontaneous. There's a scariness, but then a freedom in it as well. So try it out.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Number four you will appreciate your surroundings more. I believe this because when you're not, you know someone else's opinion is not overshadowing what you're you are visualizing. What you're seeing, you know, might skew your perspective. I appreciate my surroundings more because I have more time usually to just sort of sit in the moment as opposed to feeling like I need to rush on to something else. But there was actually a study done, and it was a study about solo travelers versus going to. It's about museums, right, when you go to a museum, they did a study of people that went to museums with a friend or with somebody else versus those that went by themselves, and they found that the people that went solo and viewed the museum, they spent more time viewing the exhibits, appreciating the exhibits, whereas when they found, when they were with somebody else, there was a sense of rushing or just moving through without taking time to really reflect on, maybe, a painting or a sculpture or something that you were really enamored by, right. So when you're with somebody else, again, there's maybe that pressure to keep moving through a museum. Whereas you're by yourself, you can stop at your leisure, and so the study did show that when you go to a museum by yourself, you are likely to spend more time and really observing the art exhibits. So I think, in general, that tells you know you appreciate your surroundings more, and that study specific on museums, though, really does reflect that that benefit of traveling solo.

Speaker 1: 8:06

Number five I also love this one. This is some of the reason I actually travel solo is to take care of myself, or take care of yourself, finding maybe some rest or solitude time away, getting away from maybe the hectic lifestyle you might have, or just getting away in general to find that solitude and taking care of yourself, whether it's physically, mentally or spiritually. Solo travel will do that. So definitely a huge benefit. That's one of my favorites to solo travel.

Speaker 1: 8:44

And number six you will discover new things about yourself when you travel solo. Yeah, not something you might be expecting, but you might get some different revelations while you're traveling about yourself, and some of that has to do with when you are alone. Again, you're having to do some interpersonal reflection, possibly, or you don't have someone else to rely on. You may also discover, because you don't have anybody to rely on, that you actually know how to read maps or you actually have a good sense of direction but never had to really use it, because maybe a spouse or a friend was always better at it. But it doesn't mean you don't have that skill. So it's a great time to discover new things about yourself, whether it's something tangible that you have learned to do while you travel solo, or just something very deep, interpersonal that you discovered about yourself because you are by yourself and you're alone, that you had that time to do so and no distractions, usually right.

Speaker 1: 9:55

And the number seven this one might be surprising to you, but when you travel solo you actually have just more opportunities or more chances of meeting other people, maybe meeting other solo travelers, I know. For me I have more of a chance of striking up a conversation with a stranger versus if I'm already with somebody. The likelihood of me striking up a conversation with some stranger, random person, maybe sitting on the bus next to me, is very slim if I'm with somebody else. But if I'm by myself, then I have that more tendency because we are human. We are humans and we love and we need that community and interaction.

Speaker 1: 10:40

So when you're traveling solo, especially if you're an extrovert, you're going to probably find yourself, you know, meeting other people striking up conversations.

Speaker 1: 10:52

For me, it kind of gets me out of my comfort zone, trying to maybe create some conversation with somebody, maybe just asking them a question and then seeing if it leads to anything else.

Speaker 1: 11:04

So it's almost like we're forced to, particularly for us introverts and you could technically I mean, if you really wanted to be solitary, you could not talk to anybody on your solo travels but I do find that when you are traveling solo, there is just something in you wants to talk to people, wants to reach out, and so, because we don't have anybody else to talk to with us beside us in our group, then you're likely going to find some other people to talk to and have a conversation with.

Speaker 1: 11:42

So these are seven benefits to traveling solo that I absolutely love, but I know there are probably others. Maybe you've experienced some other benefits to traveling solo and if you have not gotten out there, I hope that maybe some of these benefits that you've heard, or these positive things that come out of traveling solo, that it might inspire you to get out there and have that first solo adventure. And that's what I developed this podcast for is I really want to encourage more women 50 and up, to get out there and have those adventures, to be independent, to have that spontaneity, to just learn to be self-reliant and all that stuff and build confidence in themselves through travel. Sisters, this is your time. Don't waste it and we are not guaranteed tomorrow. So I'm encouraging you just get out there and do it.