Travel Guides and Tips
Where to go?
Travelling solo can be daunting, and it doesn’t make it any easier if you are a girl. Too often you have 2 million things on your mind and decision making proves to be quite challenging, let alone you need to take into account all the safety concerns as a female solo traveller. I spent 13 months on the road from May 2015 to June 2016, covered all seven continents (yep I did Antarctica!) and almost 30 countries, it has impacted me in so many ways I don’t even know how to elaborate at this point. But I have to start from somewhere right?
The most questions I get asked is how I plan my trip. Admittedly 13 months on the road is not exactly for everyone, there are financial or even emotional hindrance. So if you ever dream about going away living like a nomad, I sure as hell have a lot of advice to offer, if you just want to plan a normal getaway from work, guess what, I can help you too!
First and foremost, you need to figure out when and where – AKA budget and time.
Too often I hear people nag about they don’t know where to go for holidays. Well that was never a problem for me, why, because I always know what I want. You have no idea where to go because you haven’t the slightest clue on what you are trying to achieve. Do you want to just relax and lie on the beach? You wanna party with aboriginals and drink whatever disgusting yet interesting drink they throw on you? Wanna get cultured and submersed yourself with Van Gogh and Picasso? Or simply sip on a latte and enjoy a bite of that sweet Macaroon. Yes you are spoilt with options, whatever type of holidays you desire, there is an answer to your aching travelling bug. It is like trying to get healthy on yogurts for the night and you see this at Coles, you’d wonder: shouldn’t life be easier than that?
My advice, just pick the easy one. Yes the one right in front of your eyes, don’t look elsewhere. The same theory applies in picking a destination if this is your first time travelling solo. Male or female, solitary is not easy to deal with. Imagine landing in La Paz airport in Bolivia (assuming you do not speak fluent Spanish?) at midnight? It won’t be fun trust me, you don’t want that for your first solo trip. Go pick an English-speaking country, pick a city location from the developed (AKA civilised) world, no offence but these places mean reassuring your personal safety or even financial safety. Stay in a hostel instead of airbnb, that way you get to meet friends and a reception desk open 24/7 for information.