Unless your fortunate to have a partner or friend who enjoys long distance rail travel and wandering around foreign cities and towns while carrying your own backpack (and if you do have consider yourself very lucky),if you want to travel you either go solo or don’t go,I’m sure we’ve all read those travel books were our intrepid author travelling alone only has to walk into some lonely cafe/bar/waiting room etc to be made into one of the family and treated like a local and every minute of every day is full of adventure and fun thing’s happening but what is the reality?
Little things like eating alone in a restaurant at night,not having someone to share the ticketing/which platform/missed connection hassle and I guess just the sheer loneliness of being in a beautiful place and having no one to share it with.
Basically what I’m asking is what are the advantages of travelling abroad alone and even if your comfortable with your own company if there are low times and how you deal with these?.
Thank you.
This is a great question and there are some amazing answers here. However, we are all responding with our own personal experiences, and what is often left unsaid are the obvious things about us: age, gender, race. Travelling solo in places where you don't speak the language will have added complexity depending on who you are. A solo woman will, unfortunately, be subject to unwanted and even predatory attention at certain times and in certain places. If your ethnicity is in the minority in the locale, you also may not feel comfortable. It saddens me that many of my non-white friends (and even mixed white/non-white couples) have experienced racism across the UK and Europe in the form of verbal abuse on the street or being refused service in cafés, etc. I don't want to provoke a debate in this thread, but I hope we can acknowledge that it is substantially easier to travel solo almost anywhere in the world if you are a white cis-man, which I think represents the dominant demographic in this forum.
So we don't know who you are or how old you are. Nonethelesss I want to encourage you to find the travel that inspires and rewards you.
Over the years , for various reasons loads. The most impressive being NYC to San Francisco by rail in 1984. Superb as I met so many interesting people. (with a priv rate on Amtrak it was less than a £100)
I am a great fan of Amtrak travel, both in the roomy coach seats and the sleeper car options. Most long distance Amtrak trains have a sightseer lounge car, with huge windows. which is great for meeting other folk. I even got invited to stay on a Menonite farm by a chap I got into conversation with in the lounge! Still very good value, Chicago to San Francisco in coach seats is still only about $150.
I love these recollections by
@ChiefPlanner and
@OldandRambling - I too have travelled a lot in America and Canada, and rail travel there is very different. In April and May 2006, I used the (discontinued) North America Rail Pass to travel around the USA and Canada (I
blogged about it here). Trains are slower, less frequent and less of an every-day experience. VIA Rail in Canada is (outside the Ontario/Quebec "corridor") quite an expensive affair, and weighted more to tourists. But Amtrak serves an important social function, akin to Greyhound, and I used the Sightseer lounges and Dining Cars to meet all manner of people from every stratum of US society (from down-and-out alcoholics, banned from flying; to a retired US senator and his wife).
(That said, apart from NYC, Chicago, DC and maybe SF, US cities are not at all geared up for solo travellers. Amtrak stations are generally in very sketchy neighbourhoods with no matching infrastructure... so have a plan for when you arrive and depart somewhere!)
For me (30+, white cis-male), what I have realised is that travel reveals and brings to the surface a lot of underlying emotions that were there before I travelled. I went out on that North America trip with a sense of adventure, but spent a lot of the in-between moments reflecting on my personal life, family, home, etc. Some of those were positive, but some were negative as well. No matter how scenic the landscapes or enthralling the interactions, you will be away from your home, bed, and all the things that ordinarily bring you comfort. So when you start to feel the "Sunday scaries" (i.e. those everyday moments of doubt or depression), you don't have as much insulation.
The Christmas before that trip, while spending a year living and working in Canada, I found myself in November facing the prospect of my first Christmas alone, in a rented but shared apartment. I couldn't afford to fly home to see family, so I bought a cheap trip to Cuba and spent a week in Havanna. The trip was miserable. It was Christmas, so everything was closed for much of the trip, all around me families were celebrating being together, and I didn't speak a word of Spanish. Hostels were (and I think still are) non-existent, so I had to rent an approved tourist room in a private home. There are only so many sundowner mojitos you can enjoy on your own. That was an example of a badly planned trip which did nothing to address the underlying emotional state I was in when I went on the trip. I could have stayed in Canada and been just as miserable and saved $1000...
I absolutely love
@takno's story of panic-travelling. I completely understand this:
The worst problem I used to have was panic-travelling. I would have made general plans to swan around an area like the Balkans, staying 2 or 3 nights in various places, but I'd land up off a sleeper train at 7am, bleary eyed in a tatty part of town and with no hostel booked. Before I'd had time to look for a hostel the panic had started to rise, and before I knew it I'd booked on the next train out. I've still basically never seen Bucharest at all for this reason. My take on this now is to always book the first night anywhere, even if you only do it the night before you travel, or even on the train on way there.
Finally, lots of thoughts on the hardest logisitcal part of solo travelling... the eating.
Often travel alone. Do get asked why? from acquaintances, guess its not their thing. Do love the freedom. I find solo dining easier abroad if you can sit outside.
Eating alone is a significant issue for me. I tend to either eat at a bar with snacks, fill up at breakfast where being alone is more normal-feeling, or eat sandwiches on the move. Between those I haven't had to sit down for a solo restaurant experience since 1997. Included breakfast buffets (fingers crossed they make a full return) and shop snacks can also be a good way of keeping costs down.
Everyone has to eat, but when you are travelling you have to go out and find food in places which generally cater to people being sociable. Again, if you are a woman, this can be harder than if you are a man. I like
@route101's tip about eating outside. Parisian cafés are a great example, with all their rows of chairs facing outwards to the street, where it is quite acceptable to sit alone, eat lunch and enjoy the view.
If you want to eat at a pub or a bar, consider sitting at the bar itself. Bartenders will usually be more than happy to help if you explain you are eating alone and - if you need it - intervene politely but firmly if you want to be left alone by other people.
Finally - take something to read. Although printed newspapers seem to be a dying medium, try to buy one in every city you visit. It doesn't matter if you don't speak or read the language. Just take your time, you'll be amazed how much you absorb. That, or a paperback book, is the perfect companion to dining alone, and usually works as a signal if you don't want to be disturbed. (
Remember also that David Bowie always used to carry a Greek newspaper when he travelled by London Underground, so as not to be disturbed by fans.)
- or maybe not. Long time ago.
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