I've been solo traveling for more than eight years. I have traveled to
every continent on earth other than Antarctica, hitchhiked on every continent,
hiked, backpacked, camped, met amazing people. And it has turned me into the braver, more confident
woman that sits in front of you today.
So why did I decide to start traveling alone?
Well, I got a fancy job that I thought you were supposed to get working in finance. I did
all the things that everyone had told me to do throughout my whole life.
And then I realized, like, this is not making me happy.
When I decided to buy that plane ticket,
it was not an easy decision for me at all.
And I was leaving a lot behind. I ended my lease in California, I broke up with my boyfriend of four years,
I took my savings and I went to Southeast Asia,
where I pretty much slept exclusively in dorms for the first year. I only ate street food, which is delicious, by the way.
I made amazing friends along the journey. And I realized that like this is not that weird for people from other countries and other cultures.
It's weird for Americans, but a lot of young people travel in other cultures to figure out who they are.
Left the boys in the dust. You can't even see them back there. Power of the unicorn hat. Woman: Wooh.
You could say I'm still on that trip now, basically, eight and a half years later,
completely funding my travels through my online work now.
So these are the biggest things that I've realized over the past eight years that I think
everyone needs to realize about themselves and about the world, to make the world a way better place.
The first biggest thing is learning that you can totally face and get over your fears on your own.
We all need to have this experience in life where we are like chief adventure officer.
I've got four days ahead of me with this turtle shell.
Solo traveling just strips all of the distractions away so that you are the one
making the observations of your environment. You are the one saying yes or no, sharpening
your intuition. You are the one who goes out there and talks to people and gets information
and makes informed decision. And now, I'm gonna head up north to
the north so that I can see some of the other stuff up there.
Maybe you never thought you could hike or backpack before. I definitely thought this of myself. And
then when I started doing it, I realized I love this. And I actually can do this.
I've never hiked at altitude with weight. And this is the first time
that I'm doing a multi-day trek on my own.
I'm gonna have to rappel down that, oh my god.
I can get on a motorbike and drive myself around.
I can totally go hiking and backpacking in the snow.
4750 meters. I'm proud of us.
I can hold my breath and free dive down to 60 feet. The next amazing thing that
solo traveling gave me was a beautiful trust in other people in our world.
Most people in this world want it to be a good place.
Child: Hola. Kristin: Hola.
The third biggest thing I learned is that trusting in the process is a beautiful thing. You witness
so much that you can't help but build trust in all of it. Look back as things in your life
all line up and make sense, and you realize that everything just sort of had its place.
Trevor got a flat tire and just left me there. His family came out and just like
hung out with me while I waited. A situation that seemed really crappy turned into a
really interesting cultural experience. So I was given a chair to sit on. That was nice.
It's actually a beautiful place to be stuck, all things considered. I guess they are worse
things. I'm a bit delayed getting up north. But this is not an experience I would have had
otherwise. And this is what traveling is. Biggest thing that I learned is that all of
these things put together just empowered me to do more of whatever I want. Now,
20 years ago, even 10 years ago, I never thought about being my own boss. Now. I run one of the
biggest solo female travel blogs in the world, and I never would have gone for that without
feeling the empowerment of traveling solo. The world will open up for you in such a beautiful
and amazing ways when you let it. Realizing that I'm the only person
out here. In every direction that I look, I don't see anyone or anything except for two empty cars.
That's such a cool feeling actually. I thought it would be terrifying, but it's...the sunset was so
beautiful and actually, it feels really cool. It's not anything special that I did or anything
about me that you don't have in you as well. It's just that I made the commitment to go. So
I hope that this video inspired you to get out there. There's so much more on this channel that
actually help you do that, bunch of information in the show notes below on my blog about every
single step of the way of becoming a solo female traveler and make it really easy and accessible.
So check that out and let me know what other topics on solo female travel you're interested in.