How to travel on your own – and love it

Travelling alone for the first time can be an exciting yet daunting experience. The fear of getting lost, not having another person you know with you, or being unable to make new friends makes you want to drag any person you’ve ever met, kicking and screaming, with you.

Don’t let the fear of travelling alone stop you from doing it, because as fun as travelling with another person can be, I promise you that exploring new places on your own is the most rewarding way to travel.

Here are some tips and insights from someone who’s found the joys of travelling the world on their own:

Group tours are your new best friend:

The best advice for someone travelling alone for the first time is check out Topdeck, Contiki, or other group travel tours company. These tours allow you to travel to the places you want to see at a far cheaper price as transport, accommodation, activities, certain meals, etc. are booked as a group. Your guide oversees the organization of check-ins, trip inclusive activities, city tours, and transport so you don’t need to worry about most of the organizational side of the trip and you are free to just enjoy your holiday.

Another tip would be going to a travel agency rather than booking online. Travel agents can advise you on what’s the best tour according to what you want to see while fitting in your budget. They can recommend certain tours that you may not have considered or even know about and can advise you on the best flight and accommodation deals.

Make new friends – it’s shockingly easy:

Personally, I’ve been on two different Topdeck tours and each time I have made friends that I am still in contact with today. How did I meet these friends? Without even trying; they are the people you sit next to on the coach, shared hostel rooms with, started talking to while waiting around and doing tour activities together. You will easily make new friends on these tours as everyone is there to have the same experience as you. The longer you are on these tours, the closer you become. It’s true when they say the people with you become like your overseas family and I promise you will greatly miss these people that were strangers before your tour began.

Know what activities you want to do – and plan accordingly:

Most of these tours have optional activities not included on the tour fee. Make sure to have a look at them and decide which ones you’d like to do. Pick and choose which ones you want to partake in, some of them are once in a lifetime opportunities (like skydiving out of a helicopter over the Alps or jumping into the ocean in the middle of winter in Scotland on New Year’s Day.) Don’t feel pressured into doing any of these as even just the chance to explore the area is an experience all its own.
Also do your own research. Often there are free days in which there are no planned activities and you are free to explore the area. For those days, look up sights or activities you’d be interested in.

Another tip is to find out where your accommodation is in each city you visit. The tour companies generally give you the name and address of each place in advance and this will help you plan how to get to your activities and sights and back to your hostel.

Download offline maps:

We live in the 21st where everyone has a smart phone and we have the wonderful thing called Google Maps. While I still stand by and have used old school paper maps, these can be confusing if you are unfamiliar with the area. (Take it from the girl who walked around lost in the outskirts on Paris for 4 hours, it’s less romantic than you think.) Google Maps allows you to find your location and guide you to sights and activities.

And the best part is that you’re able to pre-download entire cities onto your smartphone so even if you’re like me and refuse to spend money on an international SIM card, you will be able to use the app even while you have no Wi-Fi connection.

Don’t be afraid to go off and do your own thing:

This is my personal favourite aspect of travelling alone on these tours. Being able to go off by yourself and experience a new place alone. While many people tend to go on these tours with a friend, partner, or in a group, I would highly recommend against it. Going alone forces you to talk to new people and make friends you wouldn’t have if you’d gone with other people. I’ve see it happen, where best friend or couples just stick to themselves and become isolated while everyone else gets to know each other. And while this can be fun to share a trip with someone, you can miss out on one of the biggest parts of travel: new experiences and meeting new people.

The other benefit of travelling alone is not having to worry about another person and just focusing on what you want to do on your trip. If you want to spend 3 hours in a museum while everyone else goes on a bike tour around Paris, do it. (I did) Your new friends won’t get annoyed with you because they just met you and they’re too busy enjoying their own holiday to get angry about you wanting to enjoy yours.

An example of this: on one of the tour days, everyone was scheduled to go on a day trip to Nice and I had planned to meet up with an old friend living in Antibes. I told my tour guide this and he happily told me which public transport to take to get me there. The tour leaders are there to help you enjoy your trip and won’t force you to follow the schedule so don’t be afraid to do your own thing if you want to.

Plan to stay a few days before and/or after your tour, you’ll thank yourself later:

There is nothing worse than the fear of missing your tour or flight home because you didn’t give yourself enough time to get there. Most of these tours start early in the morning (5/6am) in order to arrive at the first destination at a reasonable hour. Try to arrive a day or two before so you have some time to enjoy your arrival city and allowing you to get a decent night’s sleep before your trip really begins.

I would also recommend booking a few days after the end of your trip in your final city so you don’t miss out on the sights of your last tour day because you’re rushing to the airport to make your 3 different connecting flights (I’ve made that mistake.) Plus, you’ve just made a whole lot of new friends and you might want to spend an extra day or two with them before you have to say goodbye.