Why People Decide To Travel Alone

It happens to us all. We’ll be scrolling through countless websites letting our wanderlust grow and grow and grow. We’ll get excited about a particular holiday or destination, mentally book the flights and the holiday and look into e111 renewal or whether our passports are still in date…

Only for that excitement to dwindle when your best friend can’t afford it or you realise your family aren’t free at the time. But that shouldn’t be the end of your plans. Why not travel alone? We’ve listed some of the best reasons for you to go travelling on your lonesome this year. 

Planning is so much easier

You don’t have to worry about other people, what they want, when they’re free, whether they want the window seat on the plane or the balcony room at the hotel – it’s all up to you. You can have the balcony room and the window seat if you want it, and you can pick whichever dates work best for you. There’s no trying to line up schedules or working out what costs who. Travelling alone is just that – travelling with yourself. So sit back, relax, and work out how you want to do it. 

You control your itinerary

Just like planning, you have full control over what you do while you’re on holiday. If you want to go to that museum that your friend would have complained about the whole way around, or you want to skip that hike up the mountain that made your legs ache just thinking about it, then you have complete control over that. You can do what you want, when you want to with no one to tell you otherwise. You can be as adventurous or as relaxed as you want, and you never have to stick to plans you make with yourself. After all, there’s no on to disappoint when everyone involved has decided to chill at the hotel instead. 

Boost your confidence

This is especially one for the shy among you. Travelling on your own forces you to put yourself out there in a way you wouldn’t have had to do while travelling with someone else. You’ll quickly realise that it’s not as scary as you think, and while you won’t notice the change in yourself right away, the people around you back home will. Expect plenty of comments like ‘that holiday did you some good!’ and ‘you’re so much more talkative now!’ You might not feel any different, but the confidence will shine through.

You get some me time.

We all say it. We want some ‘me time’ which will usually end up being sitting at home with either a beer, or chocolate in at least three different forms – see: Hot chocolate, chocolate bars, and chocolate smelling candles – and our favourite series on Netflix. While there’s nothing wrong with that kind of me time, travelling alone gives you the chance to not only relax, but truly spend time with yourself. You’ll learn more about who you are as a person and how you handle situations you’ve never been in before. You won’t that kind of information from an episode of Game of Thrones! Probably.