Look, we all need some mum time, and we don’t mean an hour over the weekend. We mean a break; a chance to go travelling alone for a bit. We go on holidays as a family, and read all the tips we need, but it’s so important for mum’s to get away alone because, well, we get an average of 17 minutes to ourselves a day.
However, for one reason or another, women are led to believe that traveling solo has a myriad of negative side-effects linked to it. There are perceptions that it is dangerous, hard work, lonely and frightening. We are led to believe that we are not only easy targets when traveling abroad, but that will definitely will be targeted. Some women even decide that traveling alone is embarrassing because traveling alone must mean you have no friends or partner, right?
Wrong.
All of these are misconceptions that have spread like wildfire thanks to the day and age we live in. This is mainly because the media only sell stories that thrive on fear. Well, to help debunk these myths surrounding what it is to be a solo female wanderer, we have come up with some truths about what it is really like to see the world on your own terms, and hopefully, this will give you the courage you need to go for it. After all, traveling alone is the single best gift you can give yourself.
- Travelling Alone Isn’t Reserved For The Brave
One of the biggest natural emotions of any person is to be afraid of the unknown, so feeling a bit nervous and apprehensions and self-doubting as you step onto the plan are totally normal. It is human. Just because you are traveling alone doesn’t mean you have to be a survival expert, trust us on that. What you will learn the moment you step off the plane in your destination is that you have all the skills necessary to get around, meet people, find amazing food, sleep in amazing places, overcome the language barriers and have an adventure. The modern age, especially tech, has made traveling alone easier than ever.
- Travelling Alone Doesn’t Mean You Will Be Alone
We all like to have a little bit of “me time” now and again, but the idea of being alone for two weeks or two months – or maybe even longer – is daunting. That is when being alone turns to loneliness and who wants to feel lonely while in an entirely new environment? No one. However, traveling solo doesn’t have to mean being lonely. That’s the great thing about travel. There are services, like those offered by Just You, which are designed for people wanting to have new experiences to do so in good company. But if you want to go solo-solo, what you may find is, there are loads of other female travelers that are on the same trails of you, and you all just end up socializing. Either way, you meet new people and make new friends. It is an inherent quality in all of us.
- Travelling Alone Isn’t Exclusively For Extroverts
If there is one major benefit of traveling alone, it is suddenly realizing how many qualities you have that you never knew about and how much self-confidence you were hiding. It is only when we step out of our comfort zones that we become the outgoing people we always wished we were, we start flapping our wings and trying to fly. You may have found large groups of people seriously suffocating back home, but out there, on the trails of a new country, socializing becomes a lot easier because the people you meet have a wonderfully genuine way of including you in a conversation. We all have different stories, that is what those traveling know more than anyone. It will be terrifying to reach out at first, but you’ll soon realize how friendly people sharing the same experiences with you are.
- Travelling Alone Isn’t As Dangerous As You’ve Been Told
Look, Hollywood was never going to make a film about a girl who has an amazing time traveling, where she has all these amazing experiences, learns about herself, makes new friends and has nothing go wrong. The reason being, it wouldn’t sell. As such, we only see thriller’s where female travelers get kidnapped or thrown in jails for big drug mules and that sort of stuff, which is why so many of your friends and family will try and talk you out of it. They’ll think that it is just as dangerous as Hollywood hyperbole. Traveling solo and staying safe is all about reading advice, using your intuition, common sense and going about life in the same way you would back home. You wouldn’t walk alone at night or get wasted in a bar by yourself back home, so don’t make exceptions because you are traveling. Oh, and talk to the locals too. Ask them what to look out for; they’ll be your best source of information on that front.
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