I'm a Seasoned Solo Traveler—I Wish I'd Known These 10 Things Before My First Adventure Alone

To date, I’ve visited over 30 countries solo. There's been a nine-month escapade through the tropical island of Sri Lanka, weekend breaks to little-visited Romanian and Polish cities, and lush vacations in Costa Rica, where cloud forest trekking and sloth spotting ensured I was permanently smiling.

Each adventure varied, and while some trips were flawless from start to finish (Costa Rica being one of them), others required a little more patience and planning, especially since I'm a female travelling alone. The best countries for traveling solo offer clean, affordable, and well-designed lodgings, restaurants, and cafés that don’t discriminate against one, plus good public transport for zipping from each destination to the next.

Once you’ve picked your destination and packed your bag, it’s important to delve into the history, culture, and psyche of a country by doing some research. Not only will this important practice help you better understand the nuances of the place you're visiting, it'll also provide endless conversation starters when chatting to residents and/or making friends along the way.

If you’re about to embark on your first solo adventure, here are a few things I wish I’d known before heading off alone.

Solo Travel Can Be Extremely Lonely

If you’ve never been away alone before, you might be surprised to feel a sudden rush of loneliness from time to time, even more so if you’re visiting a place radically different from your home country. Culture shock is real, so be kind to yourself and take it easy during the first few days in a new country. Even when you’re surrounded by people, it’s still possible to feel lonely. Try to sit with the feeling and embrace it, knowing that it won’t last forever.

For me, one of my loneliest moments was during a three-month trip to India. About midway through, the swell of sadness crashed harder than the waves on Mamallapuram beach, and I felt seriously cast adrift. I hadn’t crossed paths with any other travelers for weeks and had a few incidents of unwanted attention. To remedy this, I booked a room in the home of a young couple in Hyderabad who turned out to be the sweetest people ever. We spent days wandering the city, eating street food and drinking whiskey in their flat, chatting about life, Jainism, and love—it was the tonic I needed.

Planning for Safety Is Key

When backpacking with a companion, I rarely had a plan and hopped from town to town without so much as a bedroom booking for the night. When going it alone, however, you have to be much smarter. I’ll never arrive in a new destination without having booked accommodation first, and I’ll always plan my arrival time during daylight. Sometimes it can’t be helped, especially if the airplane, bus, or train you’re traveling on gets delayed, but when this happens, be sure to take a registered cab—wandering unknown streets alone at night with a backpack or carry-on is not a smart idea, whatever country you’re in.

Restrooms Are Tough to Find When Backpacking

This is one for my fellow backpacking girls, as it’s something I always struggle with in vast countries like Brazil, Argentina, and India, or even smaller ones that require lots of overland travel due to mountainous terrain (places like Bolivia and Nepal). Quite often, I’ll have to switch buses at some point in my journey, but I’ll also need to use the restroom. Backpacks and restrooms don’t mix, even more so when you add a squat toilet into the mix, so what to do? If there’s a restroom attendant, I’ll ask them to watch my bag, otherwise, I’ll drop it on the ground outside and ask someone nearby to watch it. In most places, it feels safer than when I lived in London, and people are usually very helpful.

Solo Travel Exhaustion Is Real

This is more for anyone thinking of taking a long-term, multi-month solo trip, rather than a two-week vacation. When you’re on the road for a long time, you have to plan everything, book everything, and make every single decision. It can be tiring. Add to the mix lots of sightseeing, endless walking, and the exertion of making friends or acquaintances, and boy, will you feel it. These days, I tend to travel slowly, spending weeks at a time in one destination before moving on, rather than the couple of nights I used to.

You May Face Sexual Harassment

Turkey, Cuba, Sri Lanka, India, Argentina… just a few of the places where I’ve been catcalled, stared at, upskirted (although to be fair, this has also happened to me in London), groped, and flashed at.

This is undoubtedly the worst part of travelling alone as a woman and is often scary. Also, due to cultural differences in some countries, I constantly get asked why I’m not married, why I don’t have children, and why I’m traveling alone, which has led me to start making things up. Now I say my husband is at home and I’m traveling for work—not ideal, but sometimes it's needed.

Nobody's Around to Take Your Photo

I hate selfies and rarely take them, but quite often I’ll be in the dreamiest of places without anyone to take a photo of me. Since my memory is awful, my photos have become my notebook; I also want to look back one day and remember being in a certain spot at a certain point in my life, which is why I’ve had to get creative. My phone's self-timer setting is ideal for this, ensuring you can set up the ideal shot and jump in before the shutter goes—or, to make things a lot easier, invest in a nifty remote control. Battery-powered, these tiny gadgets connect to your phone using Bluetooth and come in incredibly handy when you want to capture an expanse of stunning scenery.

You Won't Get Discounted Stays

Hotels rarely offer discounts to solo travelers, even though you’ll be taking one less breakfast, one less sun lounger, and using fewer amenities. I often think hotels should at least remove the cost of the second breakfast, but it’s never the case, which is why a lot of people traveling alone opt for hostels and homestays instead. I adore staying in arty boutique-vibe hotels; I just wish that sometimes they could be a tiny bit more solo-friendly.

Beach Days Come With Stress

Picture the scene: you’re in Valencia and decide to spend a day on the beach. You pack your water bottle and book, and pick up snacks for the day, but when you arrive at the beach, it’s crowded and there’s a low tide, meaning the ocean sits pretty far back from the shore. After chilling on the beach for a while, you want to go for a long swim, but what are you meant to do with your phone and other belongings? I remember the first time this happened to me; I felt so deflated. I constantly felt as though I had to watch my belongings to ensure they didn’t get stolen.

Now, when traveling solo, I ensure I head to the more rugged, hard-to-reach beaches with fewer people. As well as being prettier, I also feel safer on these beaches and will quite often look out for other solo females or families and ask them to keep an eye on my belongings when I’m in the water.

Finding a Table for One Can Be Hard

Depending on the country and food culture, it can be tricky securing or keeping a table for one. In busy, popular cities, many restaurants don’t want to waste their tables on a solitary solo diner, preferring bigger groups who will stay longer and spend more. Some of the time, counter or bar seating is given to solo-ers, which I do like as it (mostly) ensures good service and equally good views.

In countries like Colombia, Sri Lanka, Poland, Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Costa Rica, I’ve never had issues as a solo diner. It’s in these countries that I adore the low-key eateries serving brilliant local food at reasonable prices, as well as the more upscale restaurants that delight with unique takes on traditional dishes.

The Experience Will Be Life-Affirming

While you should be mindful of the points I mention above, the positives of taking a trip alone—whether long or short—usually outweigh any of the negative or tricky experiences you may witness. Highly addictive and incredibly humbling, traveling solo, especially for prolonged periods, allows the best of humanity to shine. I’m always amazed at how kind, warm, and hospitable strangers are to me wherever I wander—the kindness of other humans is truly something special and one of the main reasons I keep going back for more solo experiences, time and time again.