Don’t you feel afraid to solo travel? This is one of the questions I always get as a women travelling alone.
I am single right now and if I did not travel alone I would not go anywhere. This is what I always tell people when they ask why am I travelling alone or say I am so brave to travel by myself. This is my truth.
I enjoy my own company, I don’t have to compromise on where to go or what to do. Sometime I miss having a companion but can find people to have fun with when I want.
Solo Travel after Divorce
I have been travelling alone since my divorce 12 years ago. The first solo trip can be challenging and scary if you choose to do it. My first trip was a roadtrip down to New Mexico. A place I had always wanted to visit. I spent 90% of my time alone driving and crying. This was a healing trip for me.
I saw some beautiful sites. Taos, Sante Fe and many native sights through Northern New Mexico. The petrified forest, Sedona and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Byrce Canyon, Zion National parks In southern Utah. When I arrived back into British Columbia Canada I felt lighter. The trip had allowed me to grieve and start healing from my divorce.
My next trip was to have a “new” Christmas experience so I flew to NewYork City for 4 days. It was an enlightening trip for me. Exploring somewhere new, somewhere I had always wanted to go. I totally enjoyed myself with walking tours, seeing the Christmas decorations, skating in Rockefeller Center, having a cocktail on Christmas Eve, enjoying the Rockets and Jersey Boys at Radio City Music Hall.
I felt safe walking the streets of New York, checking out Time Square and even had a psychic reading. The trip was originally made as a distraction from past Christmas traditions, however once I got there I had a fabulous time and that trip inspired me to do more solo travelling.
Beach Solo Travel
The year later I went to Cuba to an all inclusive vacation. I had never been on a tropical beach holiday before so again I was experiencing something new. I enjoyed the beach, the rum and lime drinks at the pool, the wonderful entertainment and all I could eat. Finding the resort a bit lonely I took myself off to tours in local towns and to Havana. Here I found my love of new cultures, seeing how people live in a different country and explored new places.
Garden Roadtrip
In 2015 I took 6 weeks vacation and hit the road to travel across the USA. In 2007 I started a vegetable gardening website and have a bit of a following. I sent out emails to my readership asking if anyone would be interested in me coming to visit their garden, take a few pictures and write a blog. I had about 15 replies and organized with 10 people to visit their garden. As divine guidance arranged it, they were on an easy path across the USA.
First stop was a garden in central Oregon, then onto northern California and southern California. I drove through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas checking out some great sights along the way. Whitesands National Park, Carlsbad Caves, Houston, New Orleans, and Louisiana beaches.
Then I visited gardens in Georgia, North Carolina, Brooklyn, Connecticut, Cape Cod. I stayed a night at each garden host and then travelled for a day or two in-between seeing the sights in Savannah, Washington and New York City. By the time I was on the northeastern coast I had to be on purpose to get back across to the west coast. Along the northern states I visited gardens in Wisconsin, Indiana and Montana.
Throughout this 6 week trip I slept at my garden hosts or in my SUV at rest stops. When I arrived back to Vancouver in western Canada I vowed I would do another road trip and this time have a little more comfort. This is when I started dreaming of my travel van.
Solo Vanlife
Arriving at today I am just completing a 10 month roadtrip across Canada and the USA in my converted Promaster van. Looking back at all I have done the last several years makes my first sentence true. If I had not travelled solo I would not have had all these life changing experiences and met some wonderful people. All I can say to someone who feels nervous of going it alone is to “just do it“! Trust your instincts and go for it.
My next post will be my tips for being safe as a solo women traveller.
What a great journey I wish my aunt would’ve done it sooner as she always says, I have no one to travel with and now she hasn’t gone anywhere, and her years are counting down love reading your blog and hope to see you and Nor Cal for a cuppa coffee one day Safe travels.
Thanks Mark. Yes is can be scary to go it alone but there are so many benefits. Suggest to your Aunt to do a short little trip to a place where she feels safe, life a hotel in her own town for a night as one suggestion. Take some baby steps.
Thanks, I had to go back and think about places I had been to.