Category Archives: Solo Travel

Advantages and Disadvantages of Solo Travel

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Solo female traveler Advantages and Disadvantages of Solo Travel

New friend from China. CC Image from Kathryn Gray (Flickr).

Individuals who have never traveled alone might consider the prospect quite terrifying. Others may jump at the chance to explore the world on their own. The truth is that traveling alone has plenty of pros and some cons. It really depends on the type of person who embarks on the adventure and what he or she hopes to accomplish on the trip.

The prospective solo traveler benefit from considering all possibilities associated with traveling alone. What are the perks of traveling solo; what are the disadvantages; is traveling in a group better for some types of journeys?

Here is a look at what to consider when planning a trip – either in a group or alone.

Freedom and Flexibility

One of the best parts of traveling alone is that there is no one else to worry about. You can see what you want, when you want it. The freedom and flexibility of traveling alone makes everything so simple. There is no need to discuss the itinerary with anyone else or to get a consensus on what everyone wants to do; the independence can be liberating for many.

However, too much freedom and flexibility is not for everyone. Traveling in a group does great things for motivation, travel plans are rarely thrown by the wayside and the entire group shares experiences. Sometimes, it is just more fun to share experiences with friends or loved ones. Seeing a situation, attraction or culture from someone else’s perspective can be enlightening and make for wonderful memories.

Meeting New People

Often, the appeal of traveling to new places is not only to see new things, but also to meet new people and have exciting memories. On a solo trip, it can actually be easier to meet new people than when traveling in a group.  Think about it, when there is a group, people are less likely to approach anyone in that group, as they are likely to seem preoccupied. When you are on your own, the chances of someone striking up a conversation are much higher.

Traveling alone may not be the first option for the faint of heart or shy. Anyone who is uncomfortable talking to new people or experiencing new situations on their own might not want to travel alone. It really comes down to the personality of the individual traveler. People who enjoy the comfort and contact of familiar faces may prefer to travel in groups.

Finances and Safety

Two important issues for any sort of travel are finance and safety. Carefully consider both when traveling alone. While travelers can tend to spend more money on food and entertainment when they travel with friends, that cost may be cancelled out when you split the cost of the hotel, rent a car or share other travel expenses. Remember, when vacationing solo, the bill is also all down to the individual, so if on a budget, sharing the costs with another can be the better bet.

In addition to the financial perks of traveling with other people, there are safety issues to consider. The old saying goes, “there is safety in numbers.” Traveling in a group is more practical when it comes to personal security. However, solo travel can be just as safe, as long as you are vigilant and cautious of which areas to avoid and where it’s safe to do what you came for – experiencing new memorable moments.

The Secrets of Solitary Travelers

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Barbara Conelli The Secrets of Solitary Travelers

Barbara Conelli.

By BARBARA CONELLI

The best trips of my life have been those I have taken alone. I am a solitary traveler, and I love it with every inch of my traveler’s soul. Many women are afraid to travel solo – they are worried about feeling lonely and not knowing what to do, or are busy creating worst case scenarios about the risks they may encounter. But once they discover the beauty and zest of solitary travel, they swear by it for the rest of their life.

Today I would like to share with you the top three secrets of solitary travelers, and give you a juicy tip that will help you take your first baby step into the adventure of solitary travel.

Secret #1: Solitary Travel Helps You Grow

When you travel on your own, you grow as a person and discover the true you that may have been hiding under the expectations, wishes and desires of others. As a solitary traveler, you learn to rely on yourself and take responsibility for your actions. You become more open-minded and tolerant to other cultures, religions and opinions. You turn into a keen observer excited to discover the real face of the places you visit. You have time to think about yourself, about what you really love, and about who the beautiful woman in the mirror really is.

Secret #2: Solitary Travel Helps You Make New Friends

When you travel on your own for the first time, you immediately discover that you’re never alone. As you pay more attention to people around you, you are approached by strangers, exposed to their life stories, and you make new friends easily and effortlessly. When you travel with your usual clique, your chances to meet knew people and really get to know them are quite small. When traveling the world, I have met dozens of amazing people and most of them have become my closest friends.

Secret #3: Solitary Travel Helps You Taste True Freedom

When you travel on your own, you can seize your days, you can seize your nights, and how you do it is only up to you. You can go wherever you want and whenever you feel like it. You can eat what you want, wake up when you want, and do crazy things without being judged by your “wise and reasonable friends”. You are free to explore the world and yourself. You can wear crazy hats, and go make-up free, and be childish, and flirt, and laugh, and eat lots of chocolate, and hike, and swim, and sleep, and maybe for the first time in your life live the way only YOU want, in the present moment, just for yourself.

Dolce Vita Solitary Travel Tip

Okay, maybe the idea of becoming a solitary traveler excites you and scares you at the same time. Why don’t you start small? Choose a city close to your home where you’ve never been. Or a nearby city that has a restaurant or spa you have always wanted to try. Or a city with a wonderful theater play or exhibition you desire to see. Book a nice hotel for the weekend, pack an overnight bag, take your camera, get in your car, take a deep breath and go! Very often we think that traveling means flying far away without realizing that beautiful treasures can be found just a few miles away waiting to be explored by the beautiful newborn solitary traveler – YOU.

Barbara Conelli is an internationally published author and Chiquenist on the mission to bring Fantastic Fearless Feminine Fun into women’s lives. In her charming, delightful and humorous Chique Books filled with Italian passion, Barb invites women to explore Italy from the comfort of their home with elegance, grace and style, encouraging them to live their own Dolce Vita no matter where they are in the world. Barb lives between New York and Milan, and as a real globetrotter, she’s always on the move, accompanied by her adorable and very spoiled beagle. To her, writing is like breathing, and she’s currently working on her new book.

Her latest book, Chique Secrets of Dolce Vita, is a narrative travel nonfiction book full of charming, poetic, delightful and humorous travel and life stories about extraordinary Milanese women and men who have succumbed to their temptation and the art of living your own dolce vita no matter where in the world you are. You can visit her website at http://www.barbaraconelli.com/ or connect with her at Twitter at www.twitter.com/barbaraconelli or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/barbaraconelli.

How do You Really Do It? Steps to a Do-It-Yourself Eat Pray Love Experience

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florida How do You Really Do It? Steps to a Do It Yourself Eat Pray Love Experience

At the age of 44, Barbara Singer decided to reinvent her life. In one tense-filled year, her only child went off to school, she got divorced, and fell in love with a new man who then suddenly passed away. Barbara was no longer interested in building wealth. She wanted freedom, adventure and romance. After giving up her career to travel cross-country in a RV to Alaska from Pennsylvania, she lived on a sailboat in the Caribbean and spent four months in Florence, Tuscany. For her, the real goal in life is now to enjoy people and collect experiences rather than go shopping and buying new material possessions.

She wrote “Living Without Reservations: A Journey By Land and Sea in Search of Happiness” partly to show that anyone can have an Eat, Pray, Love experience and build the life they dream about. Today, Barbara highlights 12 things to address as you work towards your goal. Here is her roadmap for making a personal transformation that allows you to steadily develop and realize your own true vision:

By BARBARA ELAINE SINGER

1.    Get Ready Mentally. Your attitude is far more important than the check book balance. Focus 100% on creating the lifestyle that you want. Be acutely aware of how you are spending your time and money. If it is not bringing you closer to your goal, it is taking you farther away. There are NO neutral actions. You must believe in why and what you doing with all your heart. You are no longer marching in step with everyone else. You are choosing a different path and will be making daily decisions that others will question. Don’t listen to anyone who is negative. Stop doing anything that doesn’t bring you joy. Quit all organizations, commitments. Create a totally different home environment -turn off the TV, turn on your favourite music, open the windows, eat your meals outside and de-clutter. Change up your daily routine and spend time walking or biking alone in nature. Plan your strategy.

2.    Liquidate your home. Rent it to someone else or sell it. The goal is to travel light. You will be renting a room from someone else somewhere in the world (perhaps even several times a year in different locations), so all your possessions need to fit into a bedroom. Rent or sell your home furnished if you can. It will save you a lot of hassle of moving and selling furniture and household goods which have very little resale value. Sell antiques or valuables on Ebay. Hold a garage sale. Consign designer clothing and expensive jewelry. Avoid storing anything except personal keepsakes. You will pay to keep stuff that no one, including you, will want in 5 years from now. If you have debt, rent your extra bedrooms, attic, basement, garage to others who need it for storage until your Jump Date arrives.

3.    Get Rid of Your Car. Stop your car lease or car payments sell it then buy something under $5,000 and put the minimum insurance required by your state. You will cut 2 bills with this one move. Most of the time, your car will just sit, unused while you are out of the country.

4.    Stop all re-occurring monthly charges. If you don’t spend it, you won’t have to earn it. Stop all services like cable TV, lawn care, pool care, cleaning service, car detailing, beauty treatments, all memberships, and classes. You will have plenty of time to do these things yourself because you are not doing any of the old time wasters of the past. Eat all your meals from home. Use up all household products in your pantry, bathroom, wine cellar/bar and garage.  BUY NOTHING!!

5.    Forget about Security and Responsibilities. Security doesn’t exist. It is a big lie. All kinds of unexpected events can change our lives in second – like a heart attack, car accident, getting fired, or divorced. Live today joyfully rather than spending time, energy and money on days that may never come. You will handle what actually happens. You are only responsible for yourself. You are not responsible for another. Let each person stand on there own. By providing for another, you are actually weakening them by making them dependent. Let each person stand on their own. Their life is a result of the choices they made. If you just said, “I would love to do that but…,” everything after the but is your ego talking. I can assure you, that if you died tomorrow, everything after the but…would some way or some how be taken care of.

6.    Get Healthy. Since you will be living and travelling abroad, you need to be in good shape. Get off all medications and get in your correct weight category. Look toward alternative medicine if need be. Buy catastrophic health insurance with a big deductible and shop around for the best price. The healthy you are, the cheaper your monthly rate.

7.    Get Mobile. Get a laptop and learn to get all the information about your finances and other important things on line. Stop every piece of paper mail and learn how to get what you need from anywhere in the world. Get a Post Office box at Mailboxes Ect. And have them forward you the mail every so often.

8.    Living Without a 9-5 Job. Focus on the gift of exchange. You may not have money, but you have something much more valuable, time and talent. Practice thinking of ways to get what you need without using money. Always give more than you receive in cash value. Do your best and think win/win. I trade you this X and you give my Y. Everytime you spend, think how you could get this without paying with money. You can have everything you need to live your dream life without a huge pile of money. Start in small hops. Take a leave of absence, unpaid for a month or two. You will be surprised how many employers would love that. You would take time off unpaid if you or your loved one was sick, why not when you are well. There are lots of ways to make money without a “real job” and all the deduction from a normal paycheck. Trade out for services you need. Clean for the dentist or paint his fence. Let your natural talent shine and the money will come. Offer something you enjoy doing. Such as babysitting, tutoring, yard work, painting, caring for elderly or sick, music lessons, computers, fixing things, organizing closets, helping make a garage sale or running errands. You can even trade your room rent for these items.

9.    Work on the Road. Work when it’s right, then make it last as long as you can. That’s my motto.  You work in season in the states and then travel wherever you want until it is time to work again. If you have skills you can freelance your self online anywhere. If you don’t, you can still find good paying tipping jobs at restaurants and resorts at during high season for a few months in destination towns (e.g., Aspen or Key West). Then you can fly to Italy or the Carribean, rent a room for a month at a time, and go on from there. When you head to the destination and high caliber tourism locations during high season everyone is hiring. The beauty of moving around is you get choose a place where the weather, temperature, and recreational opportunities meet you desires.

10.    Make Your Plans and Study Now. You may simply want to move to someplace new and get set up for the first time. You can do that. If you have a particular country in mind, apply for a visa before you quit your job and travel. Every country is different so get online and do your homework. Don’t be afraid! It is easier to find work once you are already there. Not the other way around. You can’t even imagine the opportunities until you are there to see what is happening. Find work with housing included: working on a cruise ship, for Club Med type resorts, caretaker. Work for an American company abroad.Use the internet! Tons of resources at your fingertips. Work for a resort company. Work for the National Park system (Campworkers.com), find unique opportunities at Caretakergazette.com or work on boat and be paid crew (Crewfinder.com or 7knots.com), or be a live in nanny or teacher and travel with an International family (nanny services).

11.    Making a Living on the Road. You don’t have to plan out the rest of your life. Break it down into little chunks. Rent a room for a month at time or plan to stay in an area for a season. If you decide to go touring you can keep costs low by staying in hostels (no longer just for youths!). There are also organizations that offer assistance to travelers, pensiones, and home stays like serva.org.  Americans can even travel and work in places like American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and other places without any additional papers. Once you are on the road, fellow travelers are an excellent source of information. You do not need to have an agenda or great expectations. Stay light and be flexible.

12.    Be Helpful And Be Useful. Visit without mooching – If you are lucky and have friends and family in places you want to visit, go see them, and be useful. Offer you talents. Offer your time. Work freely and wholeheartedly. While you are there, you can wait for the roofer or the air condition inspector to arrive, take the dog to the vet, clean the pool, mow the grass or take their car in for repairs, hang drapes, paint, do yard work – whatever you do to be helpful and appreciated. Make people happy you are there and make sure you leave a favorable impression.

living without reservations How do You Really Do It? Steps to a Do It Yourself Eat Pray Love ExperienceHit the road. Go ahead. Decide to meet new people living incredible lifestyles. You will blow your mind and eyes wide open.

You will learn to trust the laws of the universe. You will find courage that you never knew you had. You will watch in sheer amazements as life and all its miracles, unfold right before your eyes.

Living Without Reservations is for all those who say “some day.” This book will inspire you to take that leap of faith and starting living your dreams.

Barbara grew up in rural Lancaster County Pennsylvania. After graduating from Penn State University, she moved to Orlando, Florida. She has one daughter. Being a lifelong student of self help and motivation, she has walked on fire with Tony Robbins. She finds great joy in traveling, meeting people from around the world, reading and listening to eclectic music. She is a three time marathon finisher and two time Ironman tri-athlete. As a dynamic speaker, her greatest passion is inspiring others to wake up and start living.

Living Without Reservations: A Journey By Land and Sea in Search of Happiness is available in bookstores nationwide and online. For more information visit http://www.barbaraelainesinger.com..

7 Tips For The First-Time Traveler

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Girls finding their way through an ancient place 7 Tips For The First Time Traveler

Girls finding their way through an ancient palace.

By ESSENTIAL TRAVEL

Embarking on your first trip to another country is undoubtedly on of the most exciting things you’ll ever do. So, to make sure that you get to enjoy every minute of it, we’ve found some tips that will help you make your trip so much smoother.

1) Pack Light
You never need as much as you think. In fact, the general rule is to take exactly half of that. To achieve this, pack out everything that you want to take along on your bed. Go through it and get rid of anything you can absolutely do without. Whatever else remains should be halved and packed. That’s your luggage.

2) Travel Insured
From luggage getting lost, to your camera getting stolen, it always helps to travel insured. And it doesn’t have to cost you much to do so. Simply snoop around online for a cheap travel insurance provider that provides you with great cover at low premiums. Apart from just medical coverage, also make sure your policy covers legal expenses, baggage and passport, personal liability and cancellation and curtailment.

3) Make an Itinerary
There is nothing worse than feeling lost in a foreign place. An itinerary will help you plan your trip down to the last detail and provide you with a clear idea of what to do and the places you should visit. The key to a good itinerary however, is to make sure you don’t over-fill it with activities. Trying to squeeze in as much as possible into a short time will just lead to frustration.

4) Double Up Your Documents
Make sure you always leave photocopies of your passport, visas and flight ticket with a family member or friend. That way, should you lose the original, you can ask them to send it to you. We also suggest leaving a copy of your itinerary with them, so that they always know where you are.

5 Use Public Transport
This is not only the best way to get around in foreign city, it’s also the cheapest. Of course you should always check schedules to ensure you know where you’re going. However, if you’re planning on hiring a car, we suggest booking it online before you go. This is cheaper and when done with a reputable car hire site, you’re assured a car when you arrive.

6 Know the Language (a bit)
Knowing some French before going to France will make your travels so much easier. This allows to get around by yourself much easier and will help should your map fail you with directions. If you don’t know the language, get a pocket translator and make sure that you know useful phrases off by heart.

7) Take More Money
Seasoned travelers will tell you to always take more than you budgeted for. This will act as insurance should something go wrong or when you just see something can’t leave without. We suggest never carrying more cash than you need for a day. Also, make sure to inform your credit card company that you will be leaving the country and to expect purchases made in a foreign country.

These travel tips were brought to you by Essential Travel, the award winning travel add-ons provider.

Travel Tips For Female Solo Travelers

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female travelers Travel Tips For Female Solo Travelers

Pack half of what you think you’ll need, make an effort to learn the language (before and during your journey), travel partly without plans, go with the flow, dare to go off the beaten path, have faith in yourself, remember to stop and smell the roses, trust locals and fellow travelers but listen to your gut instinct if something feels wrong, bring a notebook and a pen wherever you go (you’ll thank yourself for it afterwards), take photos of people and not merely places, move out of your comfort zone every day, treasure the little things as much as the incredible experiences (the ‘wow’ moments of your trip), keep a positive attitude no matter what happens, view mistakes as valuable lessons, and learn to appreciate all types of weather (because you’ll never know what the next day may bring).

Those were the tips I sent in to HostelBookers short survey of women travel last month. They asked readers to share their travel stories, plans, top places to visit and best tips for female solo travelers.

I especially liked one of Sara Bell’s travel tips:

Have no expectations of places you visit, be content in being surprised.

And Carolyn Gindein’s top ten tips were all terrific. Three of my favorites:

1. Become an actress – sign language & acting skills are a must for communicating in a foreign language you don’t speak. A little language (phrase book) so you can work out signage and ask for the basics helps but don’t be afraid to add your acting skills when in doubt.

4. Be flexible – don’t worry if plans change, flights are delayed or other seeming obstacles occur. You’ll get to your destination eventually and getting upset changes nothing but your stress level so carry a book and an Ipod and enjoy the downtime.

7. Be sensible not scared – in places reputed to be risky visit during the daylight hours rather than after dark and look as if you know what you’re doing/where you’re going, even if you’re sightseeing (you know this is working when people start asking you for directions).

I particularly agree with Carolyn’s advice about acting as if you know where you’re going – regardless of time and place. When I first arrived in Paris, around 11 pm a Saturday night, I had memorized the way to my hotel – only two blocks from Place de la République – before the train reached Gar de´l Est. As I walked past restaurants, bars and late-night shops, I pretended to be a local who’d returned home from a vacation abroad. Whenever I visited a new city by myself I did the same thing; acted as if I had lived there for years and knew my way around the neighborhood (often far from the case). One time in London, near the upper sections of Regent’s Park, a woman asked if I wanted help and I realized I needed more practise. When people started asking me for directions, I knew I did well.

To read all featured travel tips in HostelBookers’ survey, visit Reader’s Tips for Women Travel.