I usually prefer travelling solo or with my family who are equivalently energetic like me.
Whether you’re on your own or with your friends or family, there’s no denying that traveling is a ton of fun.
Finding out the right time, place and mode of transport is always challenging and the major challenge comes in convincing others to join in this journey.
When you start convincing others for this journey, the reasons most commonly holding people/friends back is resistance, willingness, motivation, comfort and lots more which they don't have any explanations for.
This may cause lots of frustration as after doing all the efforts and you land up with disappointment.
So what I've realized in few years is my top few reasons for why one should travel on your own:
Decide and Start:
One of the best things about traveling solo is that you can do it whenever you have the time and opportunity.
Traveling with friends and others can get very difficult.
You’ll have to do lots of liaising for planing, spending lots of time in logistics, deciding what you’re going to do and where you’re going to go, and a lot of times deciding on a date and time which is agreeable by all.
But if you’re going it alone, you can just decide a place, and start at your own convenience time. And any last-minute changes/hurdles to your plans you can manage on your own.
I personally love traveling with my friends and their family, but I'm not sure whether they feel the same. Its always this human nature you are not sure of what they feel and think. I've done plenty of trips with my friends and their family and they were really enjoyable but in most of them you need a lot of patience, coordination and compromising behavior.
Freedom:
This is the most obvious advantage of traveling on your own is to do whatever you want to do and whenever you want to do.
I've plenty of things on my list but it is NOT possible to share and plan with my friends, they may be too hesitant to decide.
So what I normally do is plan my itinerary however I want or being spontaneous anytime to start.
When you’re traveling alone, you’ve also got freedom in your packing, food, location, time, transport medium & lots more. You do not have to depend on anyone for anything
Economical:
This one is one of the other prime reason to freedom of solo travelling is budget!
Sometimes when you’re traveling with others, you might find that you can't say NO for things which group would like to do.
Say food choices or attractions or transport mode or it can be anything involving cost. This makes us on the back foot as generally the cost is shared within the group and it would be odd to not agree to things which group decides.
You might find yourself sometimes paying more than you wanted for a meal or paying for an attraction that you didn’t even really care to see to start with. But if you’re traveling on your own, you can set the budget and plan your meals, attractions and activities accordingly.
Overcoming Show Stoppers:
There are some challenges to traveling, and you’re going to have to learn how to keep your cool and deal with problem-solving.
Travel solo will make you get outside from your comfort zone, navigating, keeping occupied, and lots of other skills that are applicable which you would not normally do.
Show Stoppers could be anything related to food not available, desired hotel not available, road not comfortable, basic facilities not available such as toilets etc.
In such situation, you'll try to adjust but not sure your friends and their family can do. Difference of opinion and choices will occur resulting in any affection within group/friends. To avoid these show-stoppers, I would prefer solo.
Discover You:
But traveling alone you discover you; it’s an important aspect to know yourself better.
You’ll figure out things that you’re interested in, it could be art, history, photography, nature, people just anything.
You’ll figure out how you react in a variety of situations.
You’ll figure out what’s important to you. In fact, traveling solo might prompt you to change the course of your whole life. You might find that you take a tons of self-confidence or a new habits or hobbies back home with you.
Networking:
Once you decide and start travelling solo, you tend to meet new people and build your network around the world.
It’s not always easy to meet new people in your daily routine life, but once you get out from your comfort zone, there is a whole world waiting to meet you.
If you stay in hostels, take tours, go out in the evenings, and so on, you’re bound to meet people. Meeting new people may open up doors of opportunities and also understand people how they live and their behavioral aspects.
This not only increases your experience but also self confidence and being more fluent in communicating and eventually increasing your power to public speaking.
To end a note here, traveling with Friends has its Challenges. Just because you’re comfortable in your friendship back home, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be compatible traveler with them or vice-versa.
You may start exploring them in short trips and evaluate for longer trips.
Good Luck and Happy Travelling
~Sunil Khatri (snkhatri@hotmail.com)
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