Solo travel tips: what 6 years of traveling alone taught me (the good, the terrifying, and the bits nobody posts)

The first time I traveled solo, I sat in a restaurant in Bangkok for 45 minutes eating pad thai and trying not to look like I was eating alone.

I was definitely eating alone. Everyone could see I was eating alone. The waiter felt so sorry for me that he brought me an extra spring roll that I hadn’t ordered and didn’t charge for it. I’m not sure if it was a sympathy spring roll or just a service error but either way I ate it and then walked home and felt something I hadn’t expected to feel.

Like myself.

That was 2019. I’ve been traveling solo more or less continuously since, across Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and South America. I’ve had terrible nights where I genuinely couldn’t remember why I was doing this, and I’ve had evenings so good I considered just staying forever. Usually both in the same week.

Here’s what I’ve actually learned.

The safety basics (done quickly, because you already know most of this)

Share your itinerary with someone at home. Not a vague “I’m going to Thailand” message. Specific hotels, booking references, the app you’re using to communicate. Tell them when to expect to hear from you and what to do if they don’t.

Get travel insurance that includes medical evacuation. Solo travel means making your own medical decisions when sick or injured abroad, with no one to carry you to the hospital or translate. This is not the item to economize on.

Keep digital copies of your passport, visa, insurance documents, and travel bookings somewhere accessible offline. I use a locked notes app that doesn’t need internet. You’ll need your hotel address at immigration even when you have no service, and you’ll need your insurance number when you’re feverish and panicking and definitely not able to think straight.

A local SIM card or eSIM is, in my opinion, a safety item when traveling solo. Being offline while navigating alone in an unfamiliar city isn’t romantic, it’s just harder. I sort my data plan before arriving in each country. Maps that actually work. The ability to call someone. A working way to summon a cab if something goes wrong. Worth it.

The loneliness no one posts about

Can we be honest for a second.

Solo travel is incredible AND there are days when you sit in a guesthouse in a city you don’t know and feel something very close to invisible. This happens to people who’ve been doing this for years. It’s not a sign that something is wrong or that you’re not cut out for it.

The worst ones for me: Sunday evenings in Europe. There’s something about European Sundays, everything closing, couples and families everywhere, a particular quality of late-afternoon light that makes you feel like you’re watching someone else’s life through a window.

The things that helped: not forcing cheerfulness on bad days, allowing the feeling to exist rather than running from it. Calling home without guilt (the idea that calling home is weakness or that you’re “not really experiencing” the trip if you talk to your mum twice a week is nonsense invented by people who are possibly also having a terrible time and are too proud to admit it). Writing. Eating something very good.

The other thing: the loneliness is temporary in a way that’s almost medically reliable. Book yourself into a hostel common room or a free walking tour and within four hours you’ll have met someone interesting. Not always, but often enough to count on it.

How to actually meet people

Hostels, even if you’re 30+ and feel weird about it.

You do not have to sleep in the dorm (the private rooms at most hostels are genuinely fine and still put you in the common areas where all the meeting-people happens). The hostel social infrastructure is built for solo travelers. The common room, the communal kitchen, the organized pub crawl you can opt out of but exists if you want it. No other accommodation type has this.

Free walking tours. They’re everywhere now (major cities in Europe, Asia, South America) and they attract solo travelers in roughly the same proportion as group travelers. You walk around for two hours with a small group, the guide is almost always interesting, and it orients you in the city physically. Easy conversation starter: “so, are you here alone too?”

Cooking classes, surf lessons, day trips to things that require transport. Any activity with a small group size where you’re doing the thing together rather than standing next to each other looking at a thing. The doing creates natural conversation.

Staying longer in one place rather than moving constantly. One of the mistakes new solo travelers make is moving every 2-3 days trying to see everything. The problem is you keep restarting the social process. You get somewhere, meet no one for a day, start to connect with people on day two, then move. Stay somewhere a week and you’ll have actual relationships by the end of it. The city will feel different too.

Solo travel by region: what changes

Japan is the best country in the world for solo travel. Genuinely. The infrastructure runs so smoothly that you spend zero mental energy on logistics, crime rates are negligible, the food at convenience stores is better than restaurant food in most places, and the language barrier is lower than you’d expect (signs in English everywhere tourists go, Google Translate handles the rest). Day one in Japan: deeply disorienting. Day three: you feel competent. Day seven: you’re already researching when you can come back. I wrote a full eSIM guide for Japan because staying connected there made the whole thing click.

Thailand is where a huge proportion of solo travelers start, for good reason. The infrastructure for solo travel is mature, the hostel scene is excellent, everyone is trying to sell you something but usually warmly, and you’ll meet other solo travelers at every turn. Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Ko Lanta are all genuinely easy starts. The language barrier is real but manageable (Thai script is not like learning to read Arabic or Mandarin; most tourist-facing businesses have English signage or a staff member who speaks it).

India requires more preparation as a solo traveler and significantly more as a solo female traveler (more on that in a moment). The density of sensory input is higher than anywhere else. Day one is overwhelming for almost everyone; experienced India travelers will tell you this. Book your first accommodation in advance (unlike Southeast Asia where you can usually show up and figure it out), get your data sorted before landing because navigating Indian cities without maps is a different experience entirely, and build in slow days. India rewards patience. It does not reward the rushed two-week dash.

Morocco is extraordinary and it’s also the place where I’ve experienced the most persistent attention as a solo traveler. Especially in Fes and Marrakech medinas. The attention is rarely threatening but it is relentless, and if you’re not accustomed to it, it’s exhausting by day two. Knowing it’s coming helps more than you’d expect. Having a data plan that works so you’re never lost or dependent on a stranger’s directions helps more. Learning “la shukran” (no thank you) in Darija helps. The country is worth every bit of it.

Colombia has transformed its reputation dramatically in 15 years. Cartagena, Medellín, and Bogotá are all popular and relatively safe in tourist areas. The standard precautions apply: don’t walk alone after dark in unfamiliar neighborhoods, use ride-share apps rather than hailing cabs, keep your phone out of sight in crowded areas. The coast (especially Cartagena) is genuinely wonderful for solo travel. Medellín has a remarkable hostel scene and one of the more self-aware travel communities I’ve encountered.

East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) tends to attract group tours and organized safaris, which actually works well for solo travelers because you’ll always be placed in a group for activities. Book through a reputable operator (I use local operators rather than international booking aggregates for safari, the money stays in-country and the guides are almost always better), factor health prep in seriously (malaria medication, vaccinations, yellow fever for Uganda), and budget for it properly. East African safari travel is not cheap. Worth every bit of it, but go in clear-eyed.

Money and solo travel

Every financial decision falls on you, which is clarifying.

Get a fee-free card before you leave. The Wise card works in most countries. Revolut if you’re in Europe. Charles Schwab if you’re American. Using a standard bank card abroad for three months of solo travel will cost you hundreds in fees you didn’t notice accruing.

The solo tax is real. Hotels, tours, certain activities all have single-supplement pricing that assumes two people. You can mitigate it: choose hostels or guesthouses over hotels, book group tours rather than private, split transport costs with other solo travelers you meet going the same direction. But budget for it. A solo trip costs more per person than the same trip with a partner.

Tell your bank you’re going before you leave. Card blocks in a country where your card is your only access to money are SIGNIFICANTLY more stressful solo than when you’re traveling with someone. Two minutes before you leave. Just do it.

When things go wrong and you’re alone

Things go wrong. This is going to happen.

The flight is cancelled. You get sick. You get robbed. The accommodation is not what was advertised. You make a wrong turn in a city and end up somewhere you shouldn’t be.

Solo travel forces you to handle all of it yourself, which is either terrifying or quietly excellent depending on your personality, and it turns out a lot of people discover it’s more the second thing once they’ve been through it a few times.

The practical piece: have emergency cash in a currency that’s accepted widely (USD or EUR) kept separately from your main wallet. Have your insurance number saved. Know how to find your embassy. Have a backup accommodation option bookmarked.

The less practical piece: you will handle it. You’ll be surprised how many resources appear when you need them, how helpful strangers are when you’re clearly in a bind, and how much better you feel about yourself on the other side. The problem is part of the trip. Frequently the best part.

The reason to do it

Traveling solo means you go exactly where you want to go, at exactly the pace you want, and eat exactly what you want for every meal without negotiating.

This sounds small until you’ve spent a week in a group where someone always wants to leave later than you, someone is vegetarian and someone has a shellfish allergy, and someone needs a nap at 2pm every day. (No judgment. I’ve been all of these people at different points.)

Solo travel is SELFISH in the best possible way. Your schedule, your choices, your experience. You meet people when you want to and withdraw when you don’t. You follow the detour that interests you and skip the famous thing that you’ve seen in every photo and don’t particularly want to stand in front of.

The version of yourself who travels alone is, in my experience, a more interesting version. More resourceful. More present. More confident in their own taste. You make decisions faster because there’s no one to defer to.

The sympathy spring roll was the first of many good things.