Book the Ticket for One

Hey! The last time you heard from me I was sharing my thoughts and reflections on things I have learnt from living alone. I won’t go over that here, but in a nutshell I concluded solo living gives you the beautiful combination of the freedom to do as you please with practice in holding yourself accountable for you. I massively value both these things.

It’s almost six months since I packed up my stuff and took my (actually quite small) backpack 15,000km across the world to settle down all over again. I’m not writing this to say uproot yourself and change continents, I’m writing this to say don’t let the thought of travelling alone stop you from any kind of exploring.

For context, I’m very poorly travelled. Before this move I have probably been present in about five airports, total – and yes that’s Ronaldsway included. So if you’re an anxious traveller or inexperienced like myself, read this knowing it’s coming from someone who had a high chance of messing up a series of connecting flights.

I also have the worst sense of direction, I could honestly get misdirected on the way from Laxey to Peel (no exaggeration, it’s happened). So when I decided to make Australia my new home, this aspect of my character needed some attention. Spoiler alert, it’s not gotten any better but I have learnt that getting lost can find you in the most beautiful places, granted taking a little longer than if I knew where I was going but, as cheesy as it is, it really isn’t the destination but the journey.

The first place I stepped into on my Big Solo Adventure was Athens, Greece. I was meant to have my first proper grown up experience travelling in August 2020 with a holiday island hopping in Greece, needless to say, this was cancelled so I figured now was the time.

Since I was going to be away for such a long time, I was on a super tight budget for this trip. This is important to note because if I was going to holiday in Greece for a week by myself then you can absolutely bet I would be the type to book out a cushty Air Bn’B or serviced apartment and treat myself to living like a princess for seven days. However, since I couldn’t really splash the cash like that I had to have my first hostel-living experience.

If you read my last post you will know I had never really experienced sharing a living space with anyone, I didn’t go to Uni and get to understand what living with other students was like or how to share a home with anyone other than my family growing up. I want to preface what follows with this information so you know that the prospect of living with a bunch of total, random strangers and sleeping in the same room as them met me with mixed feelings since it was totally out of my comfort zone. In the grand scheme of things I was mostly quite looking forward to it after the classic YouTube ‘solo travel’ rabbit hole I had delved into, and I’m pleased to report that I’ve found everything they (YouTube bloggers) had said to be true. 

You meet incredible people in hostels, this is a fact. Yes, you need to be able to tolerate some behaviour from randomers that you’d rather not have to, but such is life. The people there will be much like yourself, including other solo travellers, looking for adventures and connections and exciting plans. If I wasn’t extending my journey beyond Greece then I never would have discovered this. I genuinely think everyone should experience a hostel holiday at least once – so if you’re looking to explore somewhere European, taking flights through Asia, departing to America or fancy Australia like me, book yourself into a hostel. At the end of the day, if you find you don’t like it you can always pack up and check into a hotel or villa or B’n’B without losing out on too much wasted cash.

On my journey I’ve come across groups of friends who have decided to hit the road together and I can tell you it’s not all peachy – I’m not saying that solo travel is either, there are absolutely moments where you’ll wish you had someone beside you but a phone call home or to a friend can quickly alleviate that. When you travel with others, you take on their needs as well as your own. The beauty of solo travel is that you can do what you like, when you like, where you like. I discussed this when I spoke about living alone, but this point is much more predominant when it comes to travel.

There’s added complexity to little daily things like when and where to eat, what sights to see, meeting the travel plans on time, they all become more of a challenge when they lie on the shoulders of more than one person. When you’re on your own it’s just you and your plans at your own time. If something gets ballsed up along the way it can only be on you or from something out of your hands, never on somebody else. This is the point about accountability I discussed last time, arguments with yourself are gonna last less time than those across a friend group – unless you’re really good (or, I suppose, really bad) at arguing with yourself.

I’m not saying these things to put people off travelling in groups or pairs, there is absolutely a list of great pros for joint travel but for now I’m talking to the people itching to see the world but holding themselves back by thinking that having to go it alone will be no fun.

I say it with total sincerity when I say there’s not a thing I would change about my time in Greece. This is if you’re sitting at home, at work, in bed, thinking about going somewhere other than Strand Street for the weekend but not seeing travelling by yourself as an option when it really is, and a great one at that.

My holiday was spent waking when I wanted, grabbing food as and where I felt like and then picking places to go at random. I got to decide when it was my beach day, city day, Parthenon day. I got to choose when I took breaks and when I carried on the journey, I got to choose if I wanted to catch a taxi or take a long walk to the next spot. If I wanted to catch an early one, I could, without letting someone down on evening plans. If I had to scrimp and grab a snack bar for lunch then I didn’t make someone else miss out on a restaurant feed because of it, just myself.

You don’t need to share your experiences with anyone else for them to be important to you. My pictures from these places mean so much to me and I didn’t have to share it with anyone else for those moments to be special.

We’re living in a time where you have a device in your back pocket that connects you to the whole world. You can transfer currency in seconds, translate your words without having to know the language, enter a destination and be guided straight there, road by road. If you’re anxious about travelling alone, so long as you have data connection and charge in your phone, you will struggle to really find yourself in a problem you can’t get out of.

It takes guts to go it alone, no denying, but millions of people have done it before you, millions will do it after and who’s to say you can be part of the people who are doing it now? Whether it’s just a couple days spent in a place not too far from home or if it’s a few months hopping around the globe, whatever you’re daydreaming about doing – big or small – don’t let your deciding factor be that you don’t want to go by yourself.

There’s so much for you to do. So if you’re thinking about it, save up the cash, book the tickets and thank yourself later. Don’t wait around for anybody but yourself.