this is the truth about solo travel from someone who's been doing it for almost a decade
i know that you hear all kinds of things on the news you hear
all kinds of things from people who frankly haven't solo traveled before
some people make it seem like it's so rosy and perfect and awesome all the time and other people
make it seem like it's terrifying and scary and you should never do it so today it's time to
spill the tea the first big misconception that people have is that solo traveling is inherently
dangerous oh this one is just so annoying to me but i understand it because a lot of
the times whenever we see something in the news about something happen that was bad it's like
why was she out by herself why would anyone ever do anything alone the truth is that most of the
time when people travel nothing bad happens they come home in one piece and they have a
really good experience i have a whole video just on things that you should avoid when you travel
alone but the biggest thing is just not getting too intoxicated and behaving on the road like
you would at home so a lot of the rules that you follow and hold sacred at home to have survived as
long as you have will keep you alive on the road as well and it really doesn't seem to me that
having another person with you necessarily means that you're going to be safer sometimes that other
person might make decisions for the both of you that aren't good the thing about traveling alone
is that your intuition gets sharper you don't have anyone distracting you and so you're totally
taking in your surroundings and when you are responsible for everything that happens i think
we take it upon ourselves a little bit more than we normally would to make sure that what we're
doing is safe to we do a little bit more research we we talk more to the people around us to try to
learn things we know that it comes down to just being us who are making those decisions who are
making the call so just like you go out and you do things alone at home this isn't that different
honestly i think the next biggest misconception and the one that i definitely had before i started
traveling alone is that it is lonely why wouldn't traveling alone sound profoundly horribly lonely
the first big solo trip i did was when i straight up moved to taiwan when i was 21 years old
i was terrified i booked a hotel for me to stay in for the first three days and then by then i had to
have like a bank account i had to be enrolled in language school and i had to already have signed a
lease for an apartment so number one i put tons of pressure on myself i actually wanted to come home
because the first few days of being in taiwan were so lonely for me and so difficult that i was just
like this can't ever be fun my mom talked me out of it and i'm so glad that she did because i ended
up meeting people and people make the experience and it was really wonderful and awesome by the end
of it but i learned something from that and that is that you've got to set yourself up for success
you know back in the day i hated being alone i hated it so much when i booked my trip back to
bangkok nine years ago with a one-way ticket going on this trip by myself i asked everyone to come
with me first i still didn't want to do this alone however no one was at the point in their
life where they could just drop everything and come travel with me so i was like okay
i'm gonna do this by myself and i ended up having the most social amazing beautiful experience ever
the wonderful thing about traveling alone is that you're going to meet tons of other people who are
also traveling alone i do recommend staying in hostels people of all ages stay in hostels in most
of south america central america south africa for sure most of africa you're going to meet people of
all ages at the camps and backpackers and lodges don't completely rule out hostels just because
you're a little bit older oh china as well that's another place where you'll meet people of all ages
all countries hostels are awesome in china another good way to meet people is by signing up for
activities like when i was in taiwan i could have signed up for something maybe a walking tour just
to meet other people i could have used meetup.com i could have used facebook groups which are much
more robust now than they were then but there are all kinds of online forums where you can
meet up with other people i created one called the bmtm solo female traveler connect so if you
want to make sure that you're going to meet people there are ways to set yourself up for
success the number three biggest misconception about solo traveling is that it's going to be
more difficult somehow the ways in which it can be more difficult is if something goes wrong it's
going to be completely up to you and you alone to figure it out at the time this will seem
shitty but i've learned what i've made of from this i am the quickest problem solver
i know when something happens i'm like okay what are we gonna do about it i immediately
get to problem solving i don't cry over spilt milk because i know it's pointless
but if someone else were there to maybe pick up the pieces and like do all the heavy lifting for
me i would never have become so confident in my own abilities to problem solve and i'm so much
more willing to take risks in my life in terms of business in terms of saying yes more in terms
of being willing to be uncomfortable because of the times when i was sort of forced into that
situation traveling and i actually think we need to be thankful for these opportunities
at the end of it you're gonna look back on it and you're gonna be like i [ __ ] did that
and it feels really good i had someone say that traveling was so difficult because she had to make
all of the decisions she had to choose where to eat she had to choose what to do and this was just
so exhausting for her but how would it look if it were easy just pick a place to eat not a big deal
just do it just pick what you want to do on a whim and be really grateful that you don't need to take
anyone else's thoughts needs or considerations into account no one's going to be disappointed
with the choice you make no one's going to argue with you and want to do something different so i
would take that actually as a good thing that you get to be totally selfish maybe for the first time
in your life the word selfish has this negative connotation and it probably should in most
applications but not when it comes to your trip that you've planned for you've wanted to do your
whole life everyone should be selfish once in life the next common misconception is that it's somehow
gonna be more boring to be by yourself no one's gonna be there to share this beautiful experience
with it is easier to meet people frankly when you're by yourself there's often room for one
more person the amount of things i've been invited to that ended up making the coolest stories later
the amount of things that happened where someone would be more interested in talking to me
especially a local who kind of wanted to take me under their wing that happens so much more often
when i'm by myself it just does you're not as approachable if you're a couple you're not as
approachable if you're in a group people who are traveling alone are going to approach you
more often if you're alone it's just kind of how it works and i find that i am also more outgoing
and my craziest stories truly have pretty much all come from the times when i was traveling by myself
the final misconception i think people have is that solo traveling is somehow less appealing and
it should be a last resort i certainly shared this feeling back when i was first trying to travel i
asked my best friends all of them i asked people who weren't even that close of friends i asked
my cousin i i started really going down the line until i realized that i was gonna have to go alone
and i all these misconceptions that i've talked about so far in this video are misconceptions that
i had about traveling alone so i went out there scared petrified terrified of the whole thing and
i ended up having seriously the best time and that is why i love and advocate solo traveling so much
i don't think it should be a last resort in fact i think everyone should do it at least once in life
because you finally get to hang out with the you that no one knows the you that you might
not even know the you who exists independently of anyone else's opinions or historical knowledge of
who you are we act a certain way when we're around people they reflect back to us certain things that
we end up defining ourselves by and when you're by yourself you're gonna start to learn exactly who
you are and i think everyone deserves that choice in life that chance in life that opportunity to be
like okay who am i really when i'm not trying to fit into a predefined box when i'm not trying to
be a girlfriend a daughter a you know a niece or whatever a classmate i'm suddenly just kristin so
who does kristen really want to show up as so i really encourage you to use solo traveling as an
opportunity to be like okay what do i really want who am i really and what do i want to come
home knowing better so for me solo traveling has time and time again been the better opportunity
for me to really have an immersive experience one where i get to know myself and my surroundings a
little bit more deeply a little bit better and i often do have something come up where i have
to be the problem solver and at the end of it i always look back and i say wow i did that so
i want you to have that same opportunity there is so much content on this channel about solo travel
you can watch my vlog about solo traveling in utah and then i have more information about how you can
stay safe when you solo travel as well and don't forget to subscribe love you guys see you soon