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I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, so I have taken solo trips there before. Since I am 18, I have a passion for traveling. This summer, I wanted to go to NYC by myself; however, my mom made me take my brother. If everything works out during fall break, I may travel to Tuscaloosa, AL by myself on Amtrak's Crescent!
I spent a day and a half in Paris by myself and had an absolutely great time (I do speak the language).
I had planned to go back to Paris for a week on my own after my divorce (seems like solo travel to celebrate divorce survival is pretty common), but my mother decided she wanted to go on vacation too, and we settled on a singles' cruise to Alaska (soooo much fun).
My mom has traveled on her own through Germany, London, Ireland, NYC, Hawaii, and parts of California. She loves to travel and didn't want to wait for someone else to decide to go.
I don't mind going off on my own, as long as I have a good map, but it can be more fun to have someone to share the experience with. It's just sometimes hard to find the "right" travelling companions. When I remarried I made sure we took a few vacations together before marriage to make sure we'd mesh ok.
When I was going to Santa Cruz for university, I did go to San Francisco and some cities between SF and San Jose during the weekends when I did not have a course load. However I have never taken a proper long distance vacation by myself. I guess it would be fun.
But NOT in any sort of ordinary way. Just last month, I made a solo trip all the way to far out islands of the Bahamas when i visited a different island every few days.
Everyone thought I was nuts, but on Mayaguana, I rented a Jeep and drove for almost an hour, totally as a 1 man band, on a very rough and overgrown road to one of the most remote beaches in the Bahamas, known as Wreck Bay (good luck finding it labeled on a map!).
Despite the ride in the truck taking 55 minutes from the nearest town, I covered only 8 miles during that time!
Once at Wreck Bay, I walked another 4 miles further away from civilization along that beautiful beach, almost to the next stretch of soft white sand---White Hill Bay.
I almost made it to WHB, but had to turn back when trying to cross a creek that was up to my waist, and getting deeper.
Now being 15 miles from the nearest person (talk about literally traveling solo), that voice inside my head screamed at me to cut my losses, despite being just 100 feet from the other side of the creek and less than a mile from White Hill Bay---my final goal!!
On the way back, I was stepping over countless jagged rocks to get along the shore and despite having a satellite phone and an emergency transmitter locater (EPIRB), I had this nagging feeling inside that I'd be in a heap of trouble if I twisted my ankle badly enough to not be able to make it back under my own power.
Luckily it all worked out, but its a world of difference when traveling solo and you are not sure how to find your gate at the airport in Tokyo or your Botique Hotel in Paris versus when you could be killed or badly injured if you miscalculate the elements or make foolish decisions when faced with potential danger in the wild with no one else beside you to look to for a second opinion!
It's just sometimes hard to find the "right" travelling companions. When I remarried I made sure we took a few vacations together before marriage to make sure we'd mesh ok.
The travel test. This is an essential part of a relationship. You learn so much about a person by traveling with them and for me this is absolutely essential to see if I mesh well with someone.
I traveled in Europe for four months by myself, less the three days I met up with a cousin in Dublin. "He travels best who travels alone". Don't know who said it but truer words were never spoken.
The travel test. This is an essential part of a relationship. You learn so much about a person by traveling with them and for me this is absolutely essential to see if I mesh well with someone.
So true!
Thankfully, my partner and I mesh pretty well with traveling, and we've made several successful trips together. He tends to sleep in later than I do on vacation, but that also gives me a bit of quiet time to have a nice breakfast, email some photos of our trip to friends, enjoy the view with a pot of coffee, etc.
I was thrilled to discover we have the same standards for hotels. That's been a real problem for me in the past!
Our only possible source of tension is that I tend to want to be a bit more active, go-go-go and would cram our days full of various things (places to eat, things to see, museums to visit, activities to do). This is why he's willing to happy let me do a solo trip, especially if it's somewhere he knows that I'd try to make him sightsee from dawn to dusk.
For our next trip, we are trying a compromise - we'll do one "big" thing together each day, plus meals, but we'll also each get a chunk of daily scheduled "on my own" time. To be spent... at the beach, the spa, napping, reading by the pool, shopping, or visiting that museum that the other has no interest in whatsoever. Trying to figure out how to divide the time, though.
I've heard about times where people on the radio said they've gone to the beach to get away after working and they went alone, but had a great time. The guy on the radio show said the person calling in was brave and asked what advice that person would give to those considering doing the same thing.
Has anyone ever done this?
The farthest I've gone from home by myself just for fun was 5 hours away. Anything farther away was for school or work.
Bermuda 4 times,
Martinique once,
San Diego and LA once.
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Vacations by myself
