Solo Female Traveler. Assumptions and Assessments.

Four weeks?! All alone? You will be so lonely.

YOU? It is not safe for you as a woman.

You want to travel without friends?

Alone? As a female traveler? Aren’t you afraid?

Sounds familiar? Have you heard these phrases or similar ones? Just before heading to your trip or even after past travels?

No worries. I think it is a common thing which is not restricted to a specific nationality. Everyone seems to worry a lot when it comes to solo traveling, especially when it comes to female solo traveling.

For those of you who solo traveled before will most likely be nodding and smiling a lot while reading this post. AND for those who haven’t started solo traveling yet, or even got sceptical about starting alone:

This article will give you an insight of solo (female) traveling and whether its assumptions and assessments are reliable.

My last trip was for four weeks in February and March. THAILAND. Some people may say I traveled alone, but actually I did not! Even after month, I cannot believe the amount of people who reacted with phrases I mentioned above. One colleague of mine even kept saying that she would never do this on her own in a country like Thailand.

Alone? As a female traveler? Aren’t you afraid?

Really? Everyone who has been to Thailand will give me a nodding here. Thailand is super safe and easy to travel, no matter which sex. To be honest, often I felt more secure in Thailand than I do when walking though German cities. On this point, I want to make clear that I think when traveling you should always take care of yourself. One of many things, I take care of is to not drink too much of alcohol while traveling. Sometimes I do not drink alcohol at all in some place, even though it seems really tempting. I just feel better when I got 100 percent of myself when being in another city, especially during the night. Just imagine yourself at night, not sure where you are and trying to figure out where you need to go… on top of that being tipsy won’t help. But on the other hand, I also felt very secure in Thailand when it comes to personal belongings. Once I got used to the lifestyle, I would leave my phone on the table and my purse next to me on the ground while eating, paying no attention whether its alright or not. Just because I knew it will be fine. !!!HERE I do not want to promote and give you advice to leave your things around .. you never know!!! At some point, travel mates and I recognized our habits, it was interesting that we all reflected it pretty much the same way and were amazed by the Thai mentality.

You want to travel without friends?

YES YES YES and NO. Haha. Yeah this might be confusing. This question has to be reconsidered from different perspectives.

On the one hand: if your friends haven’t got time or/and money to join you travels.

Do you want to stay at home? You cannot change their position but yours. You got one life. One chance. There will be no repetition. IT IS NOT A REHEARSAL. If you keep waiting for friends to join, you might end up waiting and not seeing much or doing anything you would like to. Do you really want to miss out places like these?!:

On the other hand: you want to leave alone which is fine for you, but not for your environment.

Whoever is not able to understand your decision, keep telling them that you just make new friends along the way and that solo traveling got quite a few advantages. Once you arrive in the backpacking mood, it is easy to talk to strangers in a hostel who might become your friends. At the end, all of us, especially traveler, are in the same situation of traveling and making new friends along the way. Don’t be shy. Just talk to people. It helps ;). Due to my travels and lifestyle, I am happy to have friends around the world. It is just amazing how I met a bunch of great friends. Take chances as they come and all will be alright. While traveling Bali, I was happy to meet some awesome people from around the world. During breakfast I talked to two travelers from Netherland who were about to leave Denpasar. I did not have a plan and just joined them. We spend some fun days traveling together as well as meeting up in different places. The following picture shows a Thai friend of mine who I met while traveling his beautiful country.

You? It is not safe for you as a woman.

Come on. Are you serious?! Just ask that person whether s/he traveled solo before!? In most cases, it turns out that all worries come from those who have not been to your destination and some have not even traveled that style before. I guess that already shows their liability. While traveling Thailand, I was never worried (beside my couchsurfing experience as well as some dogs. Haha. I will write about it soon.).

My last night in Bangkok was absolutely a blast and I felt super safe being out dancing all night. A local friend who I met while my journey in Thailand (pic above) and I spend the last 48 hours exploring the city during day and night. During the night, we met more people and I met one of his friends and we all went out dancing. There was no single minute that I felt lonely, unsafe or without friends.

Convinced? Still any doubt to leave alone?

Whenever I start thinking or planning a trip on my own, I get all kinds of questions. And I wonder if people hear themselves. It depends on my mood of the day how I deal with the utterances but at the end I know that worrying too much will hinder you from making your dreams come true.

Facts:

  • Take care of yourself but don’t worry too much. Just worry as much as you do in your hometown.
  •  You only got one life. Take risks.
  • You won’t be alone because you will meet many other travelers along the way.

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