Why I Took My First Solo Trip

We are switching things up this blog post and going to do a little story time. The most common question I hear is…. “so why did you decide to go by yourself?” So let me tell ya.

LET’S GO BACK TO 2020… WHERE IT ALL STARTED

The picture above is from my first solo trip to Costa Rica. Remember Covid times? When we were all stuck in our homes with nowhere to go. I was in Chicago, living alone, I was truly isolated with lots of time on my hands. At the start of 2020, I had just returned from my first trip visiting my friend in London and caught the international travel bug. But then, Covid happened and travel was put on pause.

So after a year of living in Covid quarantine, coming off an European trip, Pinterest-ing dream destinations, putting together puzzles of Italy and Greece, the urge to travel the world was strong. It just so happened that it was my golden birthday coming up, I was turning 28 on the 28th. I wanted to celebrate in a big way. With all that time on my hands I mentioned earlier, I was researching tropical destinations that allowed tourists and fell in love with Costa Rica (online, of course).

HOW I DECIDED TO JUST TRAVEL ALONE

This didn’t start off as a solo trip… like I said, I was desperate to go somewhere other than my couch and the grocery store, especially for my birthday. I spent a lot of 2020 reflecting on my goals and what I wanted life to look like - traveling was deeply ingrained in that. I wanted to see the world that I always saw through pictures on my Pinterest! At this point, I had only been on 4 international trips (2 of those to the Caribbean which isn’t very far). It felt like I hadn’t been hardly anywhere so solo traveling didn’t even cross my mind.

I started asking friends/family if they wanted to come along because I was nervous of going by myself. I lived alone, have gone on work trips alone, but I have never went on a vacation solo. And boy, did I hear every excuse in the book of why they couldn’t:

“I don’t have the money,” “I can’t take off work,” “I am busy,” “let me look at my schedule (then never got back to me)” “I am saving that destination to go there one day with my significant other”. All I heard were no’s.

Not to mention, countless of these people said to me “why don’t you just go by yourself.” Well, if it was that easy, everyone would do it and… they don’t, do they? Expressing how bummed I felt that I wouldn’t get to go on the trip of my dreams in a heart to heart with my bestie, she just said “well.. what would it look like if you DID go by yourself?” That got me thinking hey, maybe I can do this!! I survived a pandemic ALONE, I can go a trip alone. I started researching solo traveling blogs like my life depended on it and I came across this blog post from Nomadic Matt where he described solo traveling like:

“It’s taught me that if I wait for others, I’ll never go anywhere.”

So I held onto that. And me wanting to see a new place overrode the fear of going by myself.

ABOUT MY FIRST SOLO TRIP

I spent hours planning this trip. I wrote everything in a Word doc by the hour and emailed it to every single one of my friends and family, who were understandably worried. I included every single phone number for each hotel, private transfer, and tour company. The works.

Many people said to me “You shouldn’t go by yourself, that’s so dangerous” so I didn’t tell a lot of people what I was doing. I only wanted positivity, I didn’t need to be made more anxious by negative comments like this. I was already nervous AF!!

I really thought about what I wanted out of this trip. It was simple: If I didn’t have fun, I didn’t have to take any more solo trips. I wanted this to be about getting to know myself, embracing the discomfort, navigating travel solo, and the hope was to make friends around the world so that eventually I wouldn’t necessarily need to travel alone.

And guess what? That’s exactly what happened! I met a group of guys from San Francisco who loved to travel, one in particular (shoutout Ajay!!) And a year later, we met up at Oktoberfest together. In addition, I have met so many friends from other countries like Switzerland, Brazil, Croatia, some who I still talk to. It’s a great way to connect with people! I have also been connected with strangers through mutual friends where they ask for travel advice and recs. It’s really connected me to so many people which I love.

I loved this trip so much, it brought a side of me to life that I felt like I was missing. It felt so authentic to who I am: independent, outgoing, adventurous, social.

Not to mention solo traveling allows me to see the places I dream of, the freedom, the flexibility, and of course, meeting new people. After this trip, I made it a goal to do 5 solo trips in my lifetime.

WHERE I’M AT NOW

People ask me all the time “don’t you ever feel alone?” And wow writing this, I am realizing that people have a lot of opinions haha. But the answer is no, I am never alone. I meet people every single place I go. It’s refreshing not to be “on” 24/7 and just be me. It’s also taught me so much about myself like how to handle travel mishaps, relying on myself to problem solve and remain calm when things go wrong, patience, being humble and asking for help, and most importantly, it pushes me out of my comfort zone.

Now, it’s become such a fun tradition: every year for my birthday, I take myself on a solo trip. It’s turned into this exciting inside joke where people ask “so where’s the trip this year?” It makes me feel like everyone is along this ride with me.

To date, I have gone on 6 solo trips, visiting 7 countries. My new goal is now 10 solo trips! I hope to continue to make so many friends around the world. In fact, I just went to Spain with a girl I was introduced to by a mutual friend - check out the story here.

LITTLE BIT OF ADVICE

So if you are wanting to do things, go on that trip, go to a concert, see the world, even as simple as seeing a movie and no one will go with you — GO WITH YOURSELF. You can do it. Change your perspective - it’s not going alone, it’s going solo. It will be scary, nerve-wracking, exciting but it will also be fun, you’ll learn a lot, and you will be happy you did it. If you wait for someone to do things with, you’ll never do anything.