Many of us save our vacation days for a trip with our family or our best friends, but solo travel can be exciting, freeing and fulfilling in ways that getting out of town with others isn’t.
But if we’re going to try heading out on our own, what should we know before we go to make our foray for one the best it can be? And if we’ve never tried solo travel before, where should we start?
That’s what we — Raj Punjabi-Johnson and Noah Michelson, co-hosts of HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast — asked Jessica Nabongo, a solo travel expert who has visited every country in the world and is the author of “Catch Me If You Can: One Woman’s Journey To Every Country in the World.”
“First, go to dinner by yourself in your city,” Nabongo told us. “I think there’s little baby steps. Go to a movie by yourself. Go to an art museum by yourself. Get comfortable in a place where you’re already comfortable doing things on your own. Then maybe … do a road trip within three or four hours [of your home].”
She said this is like “solo travel training wheels,” and allows you to feel safe while you’re experimenting with how it feels to do things by yourself.
Then, once you’re ready to upgrade to traveling abroad, Nabongo suggested visiting a place “that you feel confident and comfortable being in,” which will probably be a country where the locals speak a language that you understand.
You should also figure out what kind of lodging you want, as this can set the vibe for the entire trip. Nabongo prefers hotels because she likes having “everything at [her] fingertips,” but she noted that hostels are frequently much cheaper and can be a great place to meet other people, which is often important to solo travelers.
Regardless of what you choose, Nabongo emphasized that you shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of good when it comes to planning your trip.
“Find something that’s within your budget today, as opposed to putting [a trip] off for years because you’re like, ‘I want to do it this very, very specific way…’ If COVID taught us nothing else, I think it taught us to live now,” she said.
Once Nabongo arrives wherever she’s traveling, the first thing she always does is look for the driver of the car she booked in advance.
“I’m not trying to figure out public transportation after an eight-, nine-, 10-hour flight,” she said. “I like a little sign with my name on it, just so that I can settle in very easily. Then you can talk to that person on the way to the hotel [and] start to get the lay of the land.”
Otherwise, aside from booking reservations at a few restaurants, she doesn’t like to plan too much of her trip.
“A lot of people will be made more comfortable by having concrete plans — that’s great — but you have to leave some space for spontaneity as well,” she said.
“This doesn’t apply to solo travel specifically, but when my husband and I travel, we always pick one cultural thing to do in the morning … and then we leave the afternoon totally open to sort of fall into things,” he said. “We like that because then we definitely see things — we have a little bit of a plan … but there’s still room for the magic of just discovering things in a new place.”
As for the anxiety many people may have about being lonely while traveling alone, Nabongo reemphasized test-driving your solo trip by doing things close to home by yourself until you’re ready to try somewhere farther away. She also said she likes to eat at the bar of a restaurant because there are “a lot of other solo people at the bar and you also can talk to the bartender, so that’s kind of like a little built-in conversation.”
Michelson noted that a psychologist who was a guest on an episode of “Am I Doing It Wrong?” about making friends as an adult said human beings often misjudge how’re they’re going to be perceived in social situations and worry that people won’t like them, so they don’t go up and introduce themselves.
″[In reality], people are friendly — they do want know your story, so if you just can get out of your own way and just try talking to the person sitting next to you at the bar … really cool things can happen,” he said.
We also chatted with Nabongo about her top three countries for solo travel, her tips for staying safe while traveling alone and much more, so click above to hear the full episode or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also watch the full episode on YouTube.
For more from Jessica Nabongo, visit her website and Instagram.
Have a question or need some help with something you’ve been doing wrong? Email us at [email protected], and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.