Why travel solo?

I often travel by myself.

The first time I did this I went to Mexico and toured the Mayan ruins and snorkeled and went to cultural exhibits (I’m not a hang-out-at-the-beach sort of person at all).  And I found I liked it.

I didn’t have to worry about what others wanted to do, or when.  I didn’t have to feel bad about possibly dragging someone to an exhibit they weren’t interested in.  What time should meals be?  None of that was a thought at all, which freed me to do whatever I felt drawn to do.

Traveling alone avails you of opportunities you don’t have when you travel with people you know.  You learn who you are because no one you are with has expectations of what you will do or say.  You can go where your interests lead you, even if no one else wants to learn the entire interaction between a wasp and a fig, you can spend an hour at that museum exhibit if you want (Panama’s BioMuseo).

You can change your schedule on a whim.  Want to learn belly dancing tomorrow? Go for it.  Want to go to dinner with a person you just met on a tour, there’s nothing to stop you.  And this freedom can lead to finding beauty in the world around you and experiences and friendships that change you forever.

You’ll make new friends.  Yes, some of them will be the “single-serving” (ala Tyler Durden) kind, but others you’ll follow on Facebook or Twitter and possibly run into in some other country in the future.  Sometimes you’ll make lifetime friends.

You become more self-reliant and better at problem-solving, since there’s no one else there to help. This can give you more self-confidence and self-esteem.  And if you do sufficient research on a destination before you go, none of the surprises should be insurmountable.

Since you aren’t being distracted by talking with and worrying about the opinions of others you can let your mind wander, and can reflect on the full experience of where you are.  You can pay attention to the sights and sounds of where you are, and the smells and the feelings you have about all of the above.  There are no distractions.

And as you see how other people’s cultures are, and how people live different ways around the world.  you become more compassionate to how people behave when it is different than you learned, because you know there are many ways to behave that are standard in other societies.