10 REASONS WHY EVERYONE SHOULD TRAVEL SOLO AT LEAST ONCE IN A LIFETIME

For some of us, traveling alone can seem like a daunting idea. Too many fears and questions hold us back. What if we get lost? What if we feel lonely? What if we get bored?

These are all negative questions that distract us from the point that traveling solo can bring with it many fruitful and life-enhancing rewards. Traveling alone can open up your eyes not just to new worlds, but also new ways of living. It can be a spiritual experience, and it can be a journey of self-discovery.

So to find out why stepping onto that plane all by yourself is something you should do at least once in your life, let’s take a look at 10 reasons why you should travel solo.

1. Your Will Expand Your Mindset

Many of us live in a bubble of expectations, predictably, never leaving our comfort zone. Everything we know about life exists in this bubble. For some of us, everything we could ever want to know about life exists in this bubble. For this reason, we never leave it. We stay inside, happy and content with who we are and what we know.

By travelling solo, you will expand your mindset and your soul. You will see that there are different ways to live, and many more wonderful things to explore. Your preconceptions will be tested, your perceptions changed.

2. You’re Your Own Boss

“I want to go here today.”

“Well I don’t. I want to go here instead.”

“Fine! Have it your way!”

Sound familiar? When you’re traveling with someone else, you don’t have enough time to do everything you’d like to do. You have to compromise. It’s just the nature of the beast. And so you miss those ancient ruins that you’ll never EVER get to see again.

Travelling solo means the only thing against you doing everything you want is time. And usually, you have all the time in the world.

3. You Get The Chance To Grow Up

Sometimes we require a challenge to help us grow up and mature. For a lot of people, this challenge could well be traveling solo. All of a sudden, you’re put in an unfamiliar place where you can’t do anything but grow up. You’re no longer at home with your parents and friends; you’re somewhere strange and new, on your own. This is a marvellous opportunity for you to learn new skills and learn more about yourself as a person.

4. You’ll Achieve Freedom

Freedom is hard to find when we’re stuck behind our desks all week. It’s hard to find in a world of cultural and societal norms and expectations. Each day, you have to do this and that. You’re struck, trapped. You’re not free.

When you travel solo, you’ve got freedom. The world opens up to you and you can do what you want, go where you want, and see whom you want. No more desks, no more monotony! Yay!

5. You Get Some Me Time

Me time is important. We all need it. Sometimes we just need to “get away from it all,” for a few days/weeks. What better way to do this than via traveling solo? It’s just you, a few belongings and the open road. No Facebook, no stressful meetings, no deadlines to meet, and no people to please. Just pure, limitless me-time. Ah, how peaceful!

6. You Might Save Some Money

Whenever you travel with others, you’re always more tempted to spend more money. You and your friends bounce off another, and you goad each other to drink more and eat more. You have to buy rounds, split bills and indulge in expensive water parks.

When you’re alone, though, none of this happens. You spend way less, which means you can have a longer vacation and there will still be money waiting for you when you return home. Double win.

7. You Can Make New Friends

Your friends are great. We know this. You love them, and a holiday with your best pals is often amazing. But when you take a trip with your buddies, you can get a bit inclusive and you end up not branching out and meeting new people. You do everything as a group; you go for drinks as a group, go swimming as a group and hit the beach as a group.

When you’re on your own, you open yourself up to conversations with new people. You meet different faces and make new friends. You drink with strangers and raise a glass to the diversity of life. It’s awesome!

8. You Observe More

When traveling with friends, it can be hard to just stop for a few moments and actually observe life. You don’t get the chance to just stop in a spot for moments on end, watching the clouds sail over your head. You miss out on the little things.

When you travel solo, however, you’ve got all the time in the world to see everything. You can take moments out of your day to just sit around, inhaling life. You observe the people around you, discover new customs and soak up the atmosphere. You become more attuned to a different lifestyle and your knowledge increases.

9. You Will Develop Intuition

In life, we trust our knowledge more than our intuition. We are brought up to be rational beings who make decisions purely based on logic and rationality. It is our conditioning that helps us to arrive at cooly calculated decisions that are supposedly “right”.

When you travel alone, though, you have to be more reliant on your intuition. You have to make decisions not necessarily based on logic, but on an inner voice that is telling you to just “go for it!” And the great thing is, when you return home you’ll be much more trusting of your intuition.

10. Because Home Can Be Anywhere

Think your hometown is truly home? Think you can’t possibly live anywhere else? Traveling solo will open your ideas that home can be literally be anywhere. It can be in another town, in another country, and even in another culture. Traveling solo allows you to open your heart to other people, and it allows you to connect with new places and new ways of living. It shows you that home doesn’t have to be where your pay check is. It can be in the place that makes you happiest, whether it’s where the sun barely ever sets or even in the mountains.

Have you ever traveled alone?

Stay happy!