Dishin’ with the Diva

Solo Travel as a Woman

I recently added the Amateur Traveler podcast to my iPod, so now I’m playing catch-up on older episodes. The first episode I listened to, posted back in September, covered solo travel as a woman. This is a subject near and dear to my heart, and I plan to write about it more in more detail for a future Tips from the Diva article, but I do want to touch on something said by the guest Sherry Ott.

Sherry made the statement that everyone should make an effort to travel alone at some point. I agree with her for the most part, but I think that’s too much of a blanket statement. Solo travel is a whole different experience than what you get traveling with even one companion, let alone a group, and I don’t think it’s for everyone. It requires a certain level of self-confidence, of outgoingness, of comfort with your own company.

OK, so maybe the people who need the experience of solo travel are the ones least likely to go that route, but for you to get anything from the travel experience, you have to be genuinely open to it. Some folks are simply happy with their world as they see it right now and don’t particularly want that to change. And you know what – there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not me, but it can work for others. If someone simply isn’t willing to step outside his or her comfort zone, or is going to find the whole thing simply a miserable experience with no redeeming value, he or she probably isn’t suited to solo travel.