Travel solo for the first time.
Before you travel solo for the first time, you’re likely to wrestle with yourself about where, why, and when to go next in 2023 and beyond.
Time to start dreaming about travel in the coming year or gather inspiration for your next travel adventure when you can fly.
While you may be excited and anxious to travel solo for the first time, you will need to decide where to go, address safety concerns, and if you’ll feel lonely on your own.
Travel solo for the first time is an adventure.
You get to see the world on your terms.
Decide your itinerary and get to like your own company.
It is exciting, exhilarating, and can be amusing all at the same time.
Learning a new language is one!
For someone who has traveled solo since my 20s, I have friends who ask me all sorts of first-timer questions – the same questions I had when I first headed out on my own.
Tips for Travel Solo for The First Time
I will answer the 10 most common questions female travelers have to help you get on the road quicker. I aim to inspire and encourage. Feel free to share your other concerns if I didn’t cover these.
Contents
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – What’s My Bucket List And Where To Go?
A valid question if you are traveling with a group – deciding where to go unanimously.
Very difficult.
I started traveling at 17 with a friend who decided that going to Singapore for Christmas decorations was the best time to experience the tropics.
After that, I would travel to other states in Malaysia for my holidays.
One of the best confidence-building trips was to Club Med Cherating—I didn’t have to worry about what to eat, where to go, what to do, or how to make new friends!
Some women may stress out about meeting people.
Quick friendships are easy to build with fellow travelers.
You can share travel tips and talk about food is a good neutral subject for people to open.
Even if you’re socially awkward, asking about what is good to eat will make the conversation flow easily.
Travel Safety Tips: Avoid probing personal questions without being boorish, and you will do fine.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – Have you ever felt that a place you are at could become dangerous?
The best thing to do is make logical choices of where to travel.
While many may not think some places can be dangerous, remember not to wander alone late at night in unknown cities.
Even when you travel by Grab, take precautions, such as screenshotting the driver’s ID and sending it to a friend back home.
However, many community places are safe, depending on the severity of the local situations.
If you see reports of civil unrest and destruction in the news, you may want to postpone your solo trip until things calm down.
Many places are perfect for solo female travelers standard safer than what is portrayed in the media.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question—How do you deflect unwanted attention as a single woman traveling alone?
The most effective strategy is to learn about modesty requirements.
On the East coast of Malaysia, the outskirts of Indonesia, and small towns, it is important for women to cover their knees, backs, and shoulders.
Plunging necklines, barebacks, and spaghetti tops are frowned upon, together with short shorts.
Some places require women to cover their hair in public and wear long-sleeved tops, long skirts, and trousers.
If you don’t want stares, you may want to dress like the local women and blend in with the community.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – For a newbie to “conquer the world,” what is the most important advice?
Be as prepared.
In Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell wrote that to Be Prepared means “you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty.”
It doesn’t mean planning out every minute detail of your trip.
Rather, it means being financially secure—do you have your travel visas, a valid passport, travel insurance, and a strategy for earning an income on the road?
Read all you can about local customs and cultures before you visit that country.
Find out about scams so you know what is real and what is not.
It also means tying up loose ends at work and home before you go.
Apply for annual leave, get it approved, and return on time—you wouldn’t want your boss to hire someone else to do your job in your absence, right?
Let your family and friends know where you will be and check in on social media – so everyone back home knows you are fine.
With that, you can be present to enjoy your solo trip and have an amazing time.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – Find a female traveling buddy.
With your inner circle of friends, you can find another like-minded friend to travel together.
You get to share the cost when you travel in twos.
You could also post a Facebook post to see if your friends know anyone in the new places you are heading to—I have hosted some travelers my friends sent my way.
Sometimes it is good to meet a friendly face to warm up to in a city, of strangers.
Even if your friends and realities aren’t thefull traveling types, you may be surprised by who they know in other parts of the world.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – What if I get homesick when traveling?
It depends on where you are and how far you are from home.
I was homesick for soya sauce on a trip to Europe for two weeks.
I remember I was in London and met a classmate who had me sorted out. She took me to a restaurant called Bali, where I had some braised Ee Fu Noodles.
That was the best meal I’ve had in a long time. I had pickled green chilies drowned in soya sauce with my spongy noodles.
A taste of home.
Loneliness gets to me sometimes, but I get used to it once I start traveling with a timeline that I’ll be home before the month ends.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – Do you struggle to learn a new language or speak to locals?
Speaking to locals is one of the safest ways to find out where to eat, shop, and sightsee.
Most will tell you where to visit and where to stay away from.
The best tip is to ask locals what to eat or if you like a particular local dish.
I remember walking up and down checking the food court stall in Manila – I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the food.
Finally, I asked a local man who recommended Angus Pares – and the best Java Rice.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – Are You Worried About Your Career If You Travel All The Time?
Are you in the office that books all your annual leave in advance at the start of the year?
Do you know the long weekends in your country by hard without looking at the calendar?
If you answer yes to both questions while using the Flight Alert Setup to track price changes and score cheap flights, then you are seriously addicted to travel.
There is nothing you rather do than spend all your time on the road like a nomad.
You have even scribbled your design for a calling card with your name above the designation “Digital Nomad.”
Since you have answered yes to the questions above and probably a few dozen others I have not asked, would you consider leaving your current job and traveling full-time to another country?
Let’s check out all the other jobs you can do to earn money while you travel.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – Is there any specific age (or age group) you recommend traveling solo?
I started in my 20s, almost 40 years ago, in a world with folded maps, without the internet, and writing physical letters and sending postcards.
There is no magic number.
Women of all ages and walks of life can and have traveled solo before.
I was 23 when I met an American woman traveler; we were queuing to buy train tickets.
I remember her telling me to save my money to see the world.
Her best and only advice is to get good leather ankle boots.
They protect your feet on the road.
You should do it when the opportunity arises and go to see the world.
If you are an open, curious, and friendly person, your age doesn’t matter.
Travel Solo for The First Time Question – How can I travel solo for the first time, travel free, and get paid for traveling the world?
Traveling for free and getting paid to travel the world seems like a dream.
You may want to ditch owning your property or an apartment in exchange for a hotel room.
If I’ve learned anything, my journey differs greatly from yours.
Staying in one place when you are young and fit and then traveling the world after I retire from my full-time job to write is ideal.
If you plan on doing the reverse, you may not follow the same path as your childhood friends, university mates, and work colleagues.
You may have a wealth of experience living in many countries and cultures, speak many languages, and be a citizen of the world.
You will have that faraway look in your eyes – that wanderlust of not taking root in one place, and that is alright, too.
I’m just happy I found a way around that by getting work online that pays for my travel, food, and lodging.
Life is still life; there are up days and down days.
Nothing is always perfect, and traveling won’t change the nature of being alive.
It’s a great chance to love the time spent with yourself, which is a benefit of solo traveling at times.
And that’s the best life!
