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info for the solo traveller
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
does anyone have any information, tips, advice, website links for someone interested in travelling solo?
thanks
thanks
Post edited by JustV on
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The downside is that it can get a bit lonely - sometimes just small things, over a period of time, can really add up, like having no-one to laugh with about something random that just happened. If something goes wrong you have to deal with it by yourself, and it can seem a lot more serious than if there was someone there to go through it with you. Even something like getting lost can turn into a bit of a nightmare if you're on your own, especially if you can't speak the language, but if there are two of you you can turn it into a bit of a joke.
I don't know really what sort of tips you're looking for, as travelling solo is pretty much like travelling with someone, except that you have to be able to entertain yourself more when you don't have someone always there to start a conversation with if you get bored. Give me a bit more information to go on and I'll probably be able to help better. Things like: Where do you fancy going? Do you want to travel round or just stop in one place? How long are you thinking of going for? What time of year? Do you care about things like how nice the accommodation is, or is it fine as long as there's a roof over your head? Roughly how much do you want to spend?
North America or Asia like thailand way.
Travel all over I guess.
Don't know time, as long as it takes I guess.
Reasonable accomodation.
Not thousands.
Quite often when your travelling alone you will not always be "alone" either but will meet up with different people and travel with them for different parts of the journey.
Indeed we do
On TheSite...
Travelling solo
Travelling alone for the first time
Making friends
The Guardian...
Travelling solo microsite
I've Been There
Hope these help.
I am at work now o cant read in depth but will look into it further.
any more advice, please feel free :-)
has anyone here actually travelled alone?
where did you go? I flew to Moscow, then went by train to various places including St Petersburg, then came back to Moscow and flew home. This was last summer, for 3 weeks.
what was it like? Russia, or travelling by myself?
Well, I'd been to Russia before so it wasn't a completely new experience, but unless you go to exactly the same places as you've been before, there's always going to be something new. I also think that the more travelling you do, the less of a new experience it is wherever you go, because you learn what sort of things you should expect to be different and you learn how to cope in general travelling situations. Is this going to be your first time travelling, or have you done any before?
Travelling by myself was fine. I like it because I can do exactly what I want and when I want to, like if I feel like going to buy a train ticket at midnight I can do it without anyone complaining because they want to go out or go to bed. I enjoy my own company (not saying I'm a loner or anything, just that I can enjoy myself without other people around) but if you stay in a hostel, which I do, there are almost always other lone travellers there who you can get chatting with, share tips about things to see and do, maybe even join up with for the day or longer.
what did you do? During the day I went sightseeing a lot, to the famous things everyone sees and quirky little museums for the amusement factor (eg. the Erotic Museum in St Petersburg, whose prize exhibit is Rasputin's penis, pickled in a jar
how did you organise it? I bought a travel guide - they give you loads of tips on how to get there, whether you need a visa and if so how to get it, how to get around once you're there, anything you need to be careful of, useful phrases, recommendations of places to stay, eat and go out, things you might like to do or visit (but don't 100% trust the opening times or prices, as they may have changed since the last edition - useful as a guideline, though). I didn't really organise anything in advance apart from flights, oh and I organised a bed for my first few nights through a couchsurfing website, which is where people offer their spare bed, sofa or a mattress on the floor to travellers so both parties get to meet new people. After that I just booked into a hostel when I arrived somewhere new, or travelled on a sleeper train. I just decided after reading my travel guide what places I'd like to see, bought a train ticket and stayed until I'd seen everything I wanted to, and then moved on.
and how much did it cost? I'm really not sure. A very rough guess would be £350-400, including flights. Russia is cheap for certain things (train fare and food are two that spring to mind), and I wasn't fussy about accommodation, as long as it was cheap I was happy.
Any more questions, feel free to fire away.
I found it quite easy to entertain myself as I'm definately quite at home in my own head and I did the usual sight seeing kind of stuff - but I also met up with people in the places I stayed and did stuff with them as well and had lots of parties.
I also randomly met people in one part of the world and then randomly found them again in a totally different continent. It was great I really liked it - I did also like travelling with my friends but being alone was good because you only had to please yourself and not anyone else - which is obviously incredibly selfish but good if you need your space.
However if you have never really been abroad before I reccomend you go on a mini trip first with someone else - I met a couple of people travelling alone who really wern't coping so if your in any way nervos or not an experienced traveller then I would reccomend you don't just head off to africa alone.
xx
I have been travelling when I was kid but that was with folks, stop overs and flights and stuff mainly.
This would be my first time alone. I wouldnt have minded going with friends but they aint into travelling so its on my own I'd go.
it is a little tricky at the mo as while I'd love to just set off and go all over, I work full time and you only get so many holidays a year, so I'd have to leave my job if I wanted half a year or 3 months or owt big like that.
What are hostels like? Whats the standard of sleping there? Are they really friendly?
How do you meet solo travellers, I mean do people approach you?
I'd love to meet new people and gain new friends and go to parties and have the usual travelling fun that people rave about. I am just unsure how to do it and while I am sure I would be fine just going aorund on my own, expecially if it was a city and sight seeing trip, I;d be a bit more nervous about meeting people and stuff.
European hostels are great. There are often a couple in each town, more in cities, and if you go to one that's listed in a Rough Guide or Lonely Planet travel guide then you can be sure it won't be dodgy. The number of beds in a room varies, six or four bed dorms are fairly common, and the beds are often bunkbeds. Sometimes the dorms are mixed sex and sometimes there are separate ones for men and women. Some are of a higher standard than others, but I haven't been anywhere that I wouldn't happily go to again (and I've been to a fair number!).
Most hostels offer breakfast (sometimes at an extra charge) and some offer dinner too (always costs extra). There's usually some kind of common room or games room where people can hang out, lockers or some kind of left luggage facility so you don't have to carry your stuff round all day, and often a couple of computers with internet access. Some have a curfew (midnight or 1am) but others you can come and go as you please once you've checked in (which you usually can't do until at least midday), which can be both good and bad - good if you want a night out, bad if you want an early night but someone in your dorm wants a night out and comes back drunk at 3am.
And yeah, they are really friendly. The people who work there almost always speak English and will be happy to help with anything from suggesting places you might like to visit, to helping you book a train ticket to your next destination.
Sometimes people will come and talk to you, sometimes you'll start the conversation. Dorm rooms are nice because you've got new people right there to make friends with. If the place offers breakfast or dinner it's also good because you can chat to fellow travellers while you're eating - generally these places aren't massive so you won't have a table to yourself, and it's just a case of saying hi to whoever you're sitting with. Or you can hang out in whatever communal area there is, and talk to whoever else is there.
My advice would be to save up some holiday and go to somewhere in Europe for a couple of weeks over the summer. It won't be too expensive because of all the budget airlines that are around now, and you'll get some travelling experience and gain confidence. Maybe you'll love it so much you'll decide to give up your job (once you've saved up) and do several months travelling round somewhere like Asia... or maybe you'll decide it's not really for you, but at least if that happens you won't have paid a lot of money to fly somewhere exotic and be miserable for six months.
Summer seems a long way away now tho lol.
Well I certainly wouldn't mind meeting new people and hostels sound good for that, I wouldn't mind mixed rooms but bunk beds and number sof people? I dunno. I may like my privacy and a decent bed to sleep in.
Can you still meet travellers if you don't stay in a hostel?
Hostels are really the best place because the people who stay in hostels are almost all going to be travellers on a small budget, so you'll be surrounded by lots of people doing a similar thing to you. Some hostels have single rooms, they're more expensive than dorm rooms and you'd need to book in advance to make sure of getting one, but that would combine privacy with the opportunity to meet other travellers in the communal areas and at mealtimes.
The people who stay in hotels and guest houses will be much more varied - maybe businessmen, couples on a romantic break, families (you do get families in hostels, but not often), tourists with all kinds of budgets. You're less likely to find people staying there who are doing the same thing as you, although of course there may well be some, especially if it's a cheapish place. Rough Gudie and Lonely Planet travel guides give listings of hotels and guest houses as well as hostels, so again you don't have to worry about ending up somewhere dodgy by mistake.
And of course there are other places where you can meet travellers - get chatting to people at the train station with big rucksacks, people wandering round at a tourist attraction, people sitting near you on the train, people in a town centre bar.
seems kinda scary mind. Wouldnt exactly go up to strangers at home and start chatting.
whats the best place to get flights from?
I'm not an outgoing person at all, but when you're abroad it's a lot easier to start chatting to randomers because you can just ask them about their travels and that gets the conversation going. You can ask them where they're from, whether this is their first time travelling, how long they're here for, why they decided to come here, where they've been that they'd recommend, where they're going next, etc etc.
As for flights, it really depends where you want to go. You can get cheap flights from all round the country nowadays, obviously London has the biggest choice of destinations, but you'll probably find at least one cheap airline that flies from near you to somewhere you'd like to go, or you'll be able to get a cheap internal flight to London and then connect onto another flight. When you decide where you want to go and want some help looking for flights, let me know.
You should be aware that budget airlines often advertise that they fly to a certain city, when actually the airport is quite a distance away from that city and you need to get a bus or train to get to the city itself - think London Stansted, which is actually 45 minutes by train from central London. That usually isn't a problem unless the flight arrives late at night when public transport has stopped running, because if you end up having to get a taxi you might as well not have bothered with a budget flight in the first place.
I seen a lot of cheap flights advertsied on Jet2.com, tho I know they add charges on plus coz u have to use a crad, they had a hcarge to that to so not cheap as they say but still chepa I think.
Wel lif I waan go to USA I guess I'd have to go to London first as there is no direct flights to usa form anywher eother then london.
same for thailand and further afield I guess?
I would be concerned about connecting flights tho, I mean down to one airport, find ur bg, check in again and so on, what if its delayed?
I wanna do it, just all very overwhelming.
The price of a flight is divided into two parts - the cost of the flight itself, which is decided by the airline and can be very very cheap, and the airport taxes and charges, which are fixed by the airport and the government. So yeah, a flight is never actually going to cost you 1p, you'll always have to pay taxes and charges on top, but you can easily get one way tickets to places in Europe for £10. And you'll only get charged for using a card if it's a credit card, there's no charge for a debit card.
You don't always have to change planes in London, in fact it's often cheaper if you go via somewhere else. What's your nearest airport? From Manchester, for example, you can fly direct to Boston, or if you're going to New York you can go via Amsterdam.
You don't have to be worried about finding your bag during your stop-over, you check it in at the first airport and they do all the rest of it for you. Of course there is a greater risk of luggage going missing when you take an indirect flight, but that's just a risk you have to take any time you fly, really. As for flights being delayed, they just have to stick you on the next available one, it's not something you have to worry about arranging.
Nearest to me is Leeds and Bradford.
no charge for debit card? good, I dont have acredit card anyway.
flights for £10? wow. Tho you have to return don't u, so will they let you get 2 cheap singles, inclusing one coming back to the UK?
God I wish I could and probably should get away right now.
been such a shit day. :crying: