She is not Lost – Girls Solo Travel (Spain Blog) #2: Why travel solo?

Travelling solo is definitely not the easiest thing to do. Having someone with you just makes it a little easier especially when it comes to decision making, planning, roaming around at night in a new city, drinking etc. My first night in Madrid, I was back in my room by 10PM because I found it intimidating to roam the less crowded streets at night. Also, not having someone to talk to while travelling between places can also get a little boring. Plus, you have to be responsible for everything during the trip – ensuring you reach places on time, making sure you keep your essentials safe, etc. The biggest drawback of travelling on your own for me is not having someone to take your photos. How do you get instagram-able photos when you don’t have someone to take your 50 photos from different angles?

So why travel solo?

1. For someone like me who is a complete control freak – it’s nice to be in charge of all the decisions. It’s amazing that you can decide what to see, where to eat, what time to wake, etc.

2. It’s liberating. Words can’t explain the feeling. Standing at this beautiful vantage point on Montjuic Hill in Barcelona, my heart was filled with this crazy amount of happiness and excitement and I literally did a mini-dance without caring who watched.

3. Escape from your life. Not everybody needs to escape but for people like me (with crazy corporate woes) solo travel offers an opportunity to escape the ordinary and just get lost in a new place where no one knows who you are and work is forgotten all about.

4. Build confidence and self love. I know this sounds cheesy but being on your own forces you to confront your insecurities and just love yourself a little more.

5. Meet new people. I’m sure this would be higher on other folks list but I’m not one of those people who makes an effort to interact with new people and hence, this is lower on my list. For me, my solo trip was made even better thanks to the amazing people I met along the 12 days. I met people from across the globe and ended up spending some portion of my day with them. It was so amazing to learn about their lives, their backgrounds and their cultures. It is very poetic to spend some time with a stranger and just be you you without any inhibitions because you are probably never going to see each other again (just be on each other’s instagram).

6. Be whoever you want to be. You could be confident and outgoing in one city, be withdrawn and grumpy in another, be crazy and spontaneous in the other city. So much potential for so much madness!

7. Be less dependant on others. Life is very short and there are far far too many places on the map that I want to see. So many tiimes I’ve ended up not going to places because my family & friends are not free at the same time as I am or they don’t want to go to the same place as I do. Being less dependant on others definitely means far more realised vacations.