{"id":65455,"date":"2022-02-28T11:55:37","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T18:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=65455"},"modified":"2022-02-28T15:55:43","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T22:55:43","slug":"travel-solo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/travel-solo\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s why, at least once in your life, you should travel solo"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the scariest moments of my life was stumbling out of a plane in Frankfurt, Germany, jet-lagged, knowing about three German words, flummoxed by public transit (perks of growing up in a small town?), with a phone that didn\u2019t work and useless money in my wallet. I was 31, traveling internationally by myself for the first time and in that moment really regretting this life choice.<\/p>\n

It took a good night\u2019s rest, some German pastries and taking a train to the city where I was born to realize how much I loved it and that, while traveling alone is (still!) scary, it\u2019s also incredible. For Plan a Solo Vacation Day, allow me to tell you\u2014yes, even you, you big ol\u2019 extrovert\u2014why you should travel solo at least once.<\/p>\n

\"Sunset\"
You may also discover a deep and abiding love for sunsets and spend actual hours sitting on city walls, seawalls, beaches, patios, boats to watch the sun go down. This is from Oia, the northern edge of the Greek isle of Santorini and home to some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. Tourists pack that edge of the island and cheer when it slips out of sight into the Aegean Sea.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You don\u2019t have to share.<\/strong> Not your food, not the narrow beds and not time behind the wheel on the autobahn\u2014it\u2019s all yours. So stretch out, eat the whole bag of cookies and enjoy the accelerator in that little German car that shifts into sixth gear as effortlessly as a warm knife slicing through butter. It also means you don\u2019t have to share the embarrassing story of how you didn\u2019t know how to shift into reverse in cars with six gears because you\u2019ve always driven a car with five gears and you had to ask a random guy on the street where all the gears are in German cars.<\/p>\n

Now, you should share that story. Moments like that are what make travel memorable. But you don\u2019t have<\/em> to share it, which makes it a quirky traveler\u2019s tale instead of an epic fail. 😃<\/p>\n

To that end\u2014there are no witnesses when you do something dumb. <\/strong>Like the times\u2014yes, it\u2019s plural\u2014when I got stuck in an elevator. (In my defense, in old buildings in the Mediterranean region, they are very<\/em> small and the doors don\u2019t open automatically.) Or when I accidentally booked a hostel 200 kilometers away from where I was staying. Or the time I ended up at the train station and not the beach and actually thought the map was wrong. (I … might not know right from left without thinking through which hand I write with.)<\/p>\n

The only person you have to worry about having fun is you. <\/strong>You know what I did not enjoy at all? The Louvre. I wasn\u2019t alone on that trip, and I didn\u2019t leave as early as I wanted\u2014but I left earlier than my travel companions wanted and none of us were happy.<\/p>\n

\"BMW
And German car museums, like the BMW Welt in Munich.\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which leads to \u2026<\/p>\n

You only go the places you want.<\/strong> My first trip abroad, with my mother and sister, we went to so many art museums. It\u2019s Europe! You see the art. Well, it turns out I hate art museums. I don\u2019t \u201cget\u201d art. Give me a museum on chocolate, cheese, football (soccer for the Americans), communist sculptures, history or leprechauns and I am set.<\/p>\n

You get to go at your own pace.<\/strong> Ever gone hiking with someone so much slower than you that you spent most of the hike waiting for them? Ever been that person? You know what I mean. It\u2019s fun to power up that mountain. It\u2019s also nice to take a rest day. And it\u2019s amazing to rent a bike and go on a self-guided \u201cSound of Music\u201d tour of Salzburg without worrying if someone else is nerdy enough to sing \u201cHow Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?\u201d while you go.<\/p>\n

\"a
My people: an inquisitive Dutch goat. Not my people, though it was a fun night: the big-city Irish folks who took over the small town where I went to hike for the yearly matchmaking festival the next time over. I did meet a man. It was not meant to be.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s easier to make friends when you don\u2019t have any built in.<\/strong> If you haven\u2019t guessed by now, I am an introvert and am super into spending time by myself and not talking to people. But I\u2019m not a total hermit, and I like a little human interaction every now and then. And not having a travel companion has allowed me to strike up conversations with travelers in buses and hostels, to say yes to that dinner invitation from the vegetable peddler in Athens, to chat with guides on small tours or surfing lessons that were unexpectedly private. (Pro tip: You get a lot of private tours when you travel during the off season because no other tourists are signing up. In fact, if you want a mostly-solo trip with a little human interaction, look into small group or walking tours, cooking or some other kind of a lesson or my personal favorite\u2014food tours. If you\u2019re not already booking food tours on trips, start immediately.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also spent a delightful morning with a friendly cat at a pineapple plantation. You gotta find your \u2026 people, in a manner of speaking.<\/p>\n

Now, will being alone mean you get approached more, especially as a woman? It\u2019s definitely possible. But I\u2019ve never felt unsafe traveling alone. The same rules apply\u2014be alert, pay attention to your surroundings, avoid dark alleys, walk with a purpose, try to keep your face as grouchy as possible so people don\u2019t want to approach you. (Not advised if you, like me, are constantly lost and need directions. You do need to be able to switch from get-lost face to please-help-me-nice-stranger face quickly.)<\/p>\n

\"HeidiYou get to experience things quietly and let the grandeur of the moment sink in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In August, I went to Egypt. It\u2019s the kind of trip that feels like the culmination of an entire life; I knew more about King Tut and the pyramids than I did about American history until my teenage years. I climbed Mt. Sinai in the middle of the night, beat the other tourists to the top (thank you, living at 7,000 feet!), and I had a beautiful, quiet 10 minutes of solitude on top of that mountain that is sacred to three religions. I was alone inside pyramids\u2014which, after a frighteningly real nightmare about mummies 30 years ago, was a noteworthy accomplishment all by itself. So much of the world\u2019s history happened in Egypt, and I got to sit quietly and reflect. I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n

That also means \u2026<\/p>\n

\"A
A commemorative plaque, in English, from Auschwitz-Birkenau in O\u015bwi\u0119cim, Poland.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You get the quiet when you most need it. <\/strong>One of the times I have been most grateful to be alone was on the bus back from Auschwitz. I needed time to decompress, to consider the emotions I felt and the stories I heard, and to weep. I didn\u2019t want to talk. I needed the solitude for my own emotional health. I felt the same at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum and the Bosque Redondo Memorial. I wished it had been an option on the U-Bahn back from Dachau, the longest-running concentration camp in Germany, but I unwittingly sat next to two Americans who wanted to talk about Dan Marino.<\/p>\n

You feel empowered. <\/strong>I learned public transit and city layouts. I can say \u201cthank you\u201d in a bunch of languages. (If you learn no other words, learn \u201chello,\u201d \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you.\u201d) When you travel alone, you have no one else on whom to rely. It is definitely scary and sometimes uncomfortable. I have been lost, I have been unsure of what to do next, I have waited for a bus that I wasn\u2019t sure was going to come and gamed out how to hitchhike back. I<\/p>\n

\"Women
My sister and mother on a summer day in London.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

have cried. I have felt stupid asking for help. And I\u2019ve been lonely. But traveling solo is a rush unlike anything else I\u2019ve ever done.<\/p>\n

Now, I get it\u2014traveling solo is not for everyone. And I\u2019ve had some amazing moments traveling with people\u2014my mom and sister and I laughed until we cried after getting dumped on while on the top of a double-decker bus in London. My mom and I occasionally remind people about the mama bear and cubs who strolled right past our bus window in Denali. The time my best friend and I bottomed out kayaking in East Texas would have just been sad on my own. And you never have to awkwardly ask a stranger to take your picture in front of whatever beautiful and\/or historic place you’re visiting.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Awkward photo. My mom and me in Denali National Park in Alaska. It is mid-summer. Fun fact: Denali doesn’t have trails. You just (very carefully) strike out on your own and talk loud enough to keep the bears away. If you do that solo, you just end up talking to yourself or singing <\/em>Hamilton songs.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But give it a whirl. You might find a whole new person who can confidently stride into a restaurant, ask for a table for one and then promptly pull out a book so strangers don\u2019t try to talk to you.<\/p>\n

Happy planning!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\n

Heidi Toth is assistant director of NAU Communications and avid solo traveler. Her favorite place to travel is Germany. Have questions or want to share travel stories or pictures? Email heidi.toth@nau.edu<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the scariest moments of my life was stumbling out of a plane in Frankfurt, Germany, jet-lagged, knowing about three German words, flummoxed by public transit (perks of growing up in a small town?), with a phone that didn\u2019t work and useless money in my wallet. I was 31, traveling internationally by myself for…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":65547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1816],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lumberjack-lifestyle"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}