Before you totally fall in love with solo travelling let me answer some of your inner questions and doubts. One of the most frequently asked queries is: why to even bother travelling solo? Let me quickly convince you by listing here 9 solid reasons why to travel alone. Read why solo travel is important and why you should explore the world on your own at least once in your life.
UPDATED: 11th April 2021
Playing with the idea of going abroad alone but lacking the courage or motivation? Everyone has to start somewhere to learn how to become a lone wolf! To make your new path as easy as possible, I put together 9 reasons why to travel alone and why solo travel is important. Enjoy it and let me know in the comments below what is your personal reason to travel the world unaccompanied.
NOTE: These are 9 reasons why to travel alone which I gathered myself. This is not a close list. You can find another 10, 100 or even 1000 more reasons to travel solo. It is also fine to travel alone without any single reason. Just do whatever your heart desires!
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1, You Own Your Own Time
The aim of solo travel is not getting away from all the people in your life. The goal is to own your own time. Literally. Some of you might have possibly experienced travelling with companions who for one reason or another keep on wasting your precious time.
As a lone-wolf wandering around you decide where to go, when, as well as who – if anyone – to go with.
You get to wake up when you want, you taste the type of local specialities if and when you feel like it, the way that you want and no one tries to persuade you to do the opposite.
You are the king or the queen with the final decision over every single moment of your journey. Nobody steals your time, nobody changes your plans, nobody strikes activities in your schedule. The time is fully yours.
2, Nobody Tells You What to Do
Everyone is familiar with this scenario: you’ve spent the entire previous day with planning and scheduling every single castle, church, park, ruin, hill and tree you want to see.
Or the opposite, you’ve decided to be spontaneous and just go with the flow of your feelings. Everything is perfect until the ‘other person’ comes and spoils it all by demanding to do things a different way.
When you travel alone, nobody tells you what to do and how your trips shall look like. Moreover, nobody gets hurt and offended because nobody’s expectations endure.
The person you travel with influences your trip in such a tremendous way! The most important thing is to understand that the influence is completely well-earned because he or she can also express opinions on things and adjust the schedules and plans.
That is the deal of travelling with somebody – we are talking about finding a consensus. And you can be dealing with bursts of both-sided happiness, but as well one-sided frustrations and dissatisfaction. Unless of course, you get out on your own.
3, You Experience Your Own Pure Feelings
Why is travelling solo that important? Because you can finally experience your own pure feelings! When you travel solo, you usually feel and experience more than because there are no distractions or setback around.
Nobody influences your feelings with their emotions or opinions. There is only you, the place, the gorgeous land around and the atmosphere. No filter in between, pure reality only.
You can fully breathe in the vibes of the place, to feel it deep in your veins, body and mind. Because there is just one and only perception – yours.
When travelling alone, you can enjoy the place in much deeper ways as when going with others. You can focus just on the pure experience without any outside influence or interference. You can enjoy the moment to the fullest and the moment is all yours.
4, Travelling Alone Helps You to Discover Your Deepest Alter Egos
Why to travel solo? Because you can start again with a clean slate, right after you find out everything about your deepest alter egos.
Nothing in life is more important than getting to know yourself. Realising your weaknesses and fears and accepting them is an essential part of growing as a person. You can’t find happiness in life without loving yourself and you can’t love yourself until you truly get to know yourself!
When traveling alone you are exposed to doubts and dreads, challenges and life missions that you wouldn’t normally encounter. You are out there alone!
This is the best experience how to cope with yourself and how to find out who you really are. You can learn to forgive your sins and put the mistakes and bad paths you’ve been down behind you.
RECOMMENDED => What Travelling Alone Teaches You
5, When You Travel Alone the World Looks Different
Every single person on Earth perceives reality differently. When you travel with others your experiences and opinions are inevitably influenced by these people.
While this isn’t always necessarily a bad thing, it can be a detriment to your own perception. Especially if you are unfortunate enough to be surrounded by negative people.
When in the company of others, the places, the streets around, the food you eat, the people you meet and the atmosphere are never the same as when you are relying on your own senses and feelings only.
If you want to get the real feel for a place then go on your own. Travelling alone is important to encounter the world in its purest way. The way only you see it!
6, Travelling Solo Inspires You to Be More Creative
Inspiration is everywhere and great ideas usually wait for the best momentum to come. There can’t be a better moment than the one when you are alone surrounded by nature.
Have you ever heard about famous writers, photographers or other artists and their deepest passion in solitude? I bet you did! Hemingway loved to praise the power of loneliness too.
Thoreau, Orwell, Twain and more writers just locked themselves in remote cabins to get the genious sentences out. (If you’re interested to read more about solitude and writers, see this blogpost about loneliness).
Loneliness itself is not a reason why to travel solo but being alone abroad is definitely one of the most effective ways on how to boost your concentration, inspiration and creativity.
Solo travel is important when you need to clear your head, think about your life or finally kick up those creative motions inside of you! It is incredibly inspiring mostly for people who love writing – check out how long are the pieces I wrote during my solo travel trips (example: San Sebastian guide).
7, You’re Pushed to Get to Know New People
There are at last two types of solo travellers. Those introvert ones who travel solo to experience the world alone, uninfluenced by others. They like being alone in general.
The more extroverted solo travellers wander alone because they don’t need any companion on their trips. They usually make friends effortlessly and even if they travel solo, they are never lonely.
I consider myself being the introvert solo traveller. I do travel alone to explore the world alone because I want to do whatever I like to do. Also, I do not need to meet anybody on my travels.
Why would you want to meet some weird strangers if you’ve decided to go solo? Here comes the unravelling. Meeting locals or other travellers is part of the solo travel experience.
It is a great way how to overcome your shyness, your communication blockers or how to listen to sorts of crazy stories of random people. And this kind of stories will become unforgettable.
Travelling alone is important for both introverts and extroverts. Solo travel helps to improve social skills of naturally closed natures. (And do not you lie to yourself, we all need social skills.) It also feeds the curiosity and human touch cravings of extroverts who need to make friends around the world!
Meet new people on your solo travels, listen to their stories, get inspired and inspire them! Expand your horizons to the maximum.
8, When Travelling Solo You Avoid Frustrations and Disappointments
This is another great reason why to travel solo! To avoid hurting other peoples’ feelings by failing to reach their expectations, avoid disappointed faces or broken promises.
When exploring the world solo you cannot be disappointed or disappoint anyone else. You always reach and get what you want because there is never anyone in your way.
I know this may sound incredible selfish, and it goes against all the ‘sharing is caring’ philosophies. But is sharing a frustration caring as well?
We all need some time alone. We need to kick our energies back, to relax, to have a break from the overwhelming world of relationships and families where you really have to follow some rules to respect the ones you respect and love.
That is why travelling alone is important. You don’t have to do it always, and you don’t need to travel through seven seas and oceans. You can try to disappear only for a couple of days to find your inner peace and balance.
It is not only me talking, science proves it too.
As published on Forbes: ‘being alone can help you build mental strength, and it increases empathy’.
Don’t we all deserve some time without people commenting on your actions? Without people moaning because they had a different travel idea in their head?
Why frustrate people and get frustrated yourself when you can easily avoid this aggravation? How? Going there on your own!
9, Your Self-esteem & Self-confidence Will Grow to Its Healthiest Limit
Defeat your doubts and grasp hold of the fearless savage living within you. One of the best ways to boost your self-esteem and self-confidence is by travelling, exploring, getting know the unknown and trying new and undiscovered things.
Prove to yourself that you’re better that you’ve ever thought. Show yourself and others you are fearless and independent!
As previously mentioned, one of the reasons to travel solo is to know more about yourself. Self-knowledge goes together with self-esteem and self-confidence.
The more you experience on your own, the wiser and braver you are. These are one of the attributes for a healthy self-love.
Solo travelling is a great way to trust yourself, to spend some quality time with the only person who never leaves you – yourself again! You’ll start believing in your abilities, you will learn how to rely on your guts and will grow as much as you afford yourself to grow.
All these will result in a healthily self-confident individual. Who will thrive from such a happy self-esteemed individual? Basically, everybody around you!
It is not a secret that healthy self-esteem improves relationships, productivity at work and helps ourselves to relax. (Source: mayoclinic)
This is Why Solo Travel is Important
Yes, travelling solo has plenty of benefits.
Travelling alone can be important only for a particular phase of your life. It can also be your never-ending treat. Whatever makes you happier and whatever brings you joy and self empowerment.
It is totally fine to travel solo to forget a painful breakup, to save yourself from a toxic relationship, to think about restructuring your life. It is normal to travel alone only because your friends or a partner don’t have time to do it.
Try travelling alone it at least once in life. You can start with a small local trip. It can change your thinking and possibly give you one of the best stories of your life to tell to your grandparents before a good night sleep.
Photo: magdeleine.co