5 Reasons to Travel Alone at Least Once in Your Lifetime

Whether it’s a yearlong round-the-world expedition or just a weekend getaway during a study abroad semester, there is something indescribably liberating about traveling to new places alone.

Solo travel abroad presents the kind of life experience that cannot be properly described without actually experiencing it for yourself. However far too often these types of adventures are stopped in their tracks by factors such plans for the future, the opinions of family and friends and simple fears about what traveling alone entails. 

What follows is a shortlist of five reasons to ignore each of those influences and to break away from the rat race—and instead find what can easily be one of the most formative experiences of a lifetime.

1. No Friends? No Problem

One of the biggest concerns of prospective solo travelers is the notion that there will be no one to talk to while traveling alone and that loneliness will quickly and inevitably set in. For the vast majority of solo travelers, this is entirely false. In fact, traveling with other people can often trap you within a social bubble that envelops your small band of travelers, and goes no further. 

The whole point of world travel is to see unfamiliar places, meet new people, and try different things—at least one major part of the reason you came all that way can be negatively impacted by bringing friends along for the ride. A nice compromise might be to consider booking a tour or traveling alone, where you’ll meet new people in a safer, more intentional space.

2. Hostels Can Help You Socialize

Socializing is always as easy or as difficult as you want to make it while traveling. If you are feeling particularly adventurous and want to make some new friends, hostels are some of the best places on earth to do so. Group bunk rooms are almost always the cheapest accommodations in town and provide a fantastic environment to meet and get to know fellow travelers, many times from countries all over the world. 

Regardless of where each person calls home, the simple fact that each of you is far away from that particular place provides a unifying experience around which you can easily and quickly start a conversation. Many encounters you have with strangers will last no longer than several hours, but it is also more than possible to make lifelong friends in the same types of situations. This means that solo travel combined with hostel living may possibly be the quickest and most effective way to diversify a Facebook friends list known to man! 

Pro safety tip: Never tell a stranger you’re alone! Find more important solo travel tips here.

3. No Compromising

Seeing and experiencing new places with old friends obviously has its advantages, but far too often these other people can delay, alter, or outright cancel even the best laid plans. Traveling alone means that none of these burdens are even a possibility. Trying to organize a trip around one life—yours—is hard enough, but doing so around several lives can often be nearly impossible. 

Even if you somehow manage to coordinate schedules and find an ideal time to travel with a group of friends, everyone will have slightly different goals for their time abroad, leading to logistics issues and disagreements on how time should be spent. If you were to travel alone, even just once, every possibility would remain open to you as you make your way around the places you visit. It is this freedom of choice in your movements that makes solo travel so liberating. You decide the course of your day and you write the story of your trip! Your adventure is entirely up to you and you get to make your experience exactly what you want it to be.

4. No Mountain Too Tall

To pretend that any kind of traveling can be done without its fair share of challenges is unrealistic. There will always be some kind of obstacle or adversity to face when you venture out from home, whether it’s to the other side of the world or to the grocery store down the street. These problems will simply have to be solved in order to move forward, but the sense of accomplishment one can achieve when facing them alone is indescribably empowering. 

The memories of “that one time I was completely lost in Madrid and still managed to make it back to my hotel by using broken Spanish and a rousing game of charades with a few locals” will stick with you for the rest of your life. These types of experiences leave you with a sense of being able to handle almost anything once you return from the trip, with vivid recollections of the challenges faced and subsequently defeated while traveling. If you can deal with your problems in a strange country where they speak an even stranger language, why wouldn’t you be able to overcome just about any issue at home? 

It is this empowerment through experience that makes travel so important in life, and solo travel is especially adept at forcing individuals to learn to solve problems as they come, a valuable and applicable life skill to say the least.

5. No Fear, Just Faith

Dorothy Thompson, perhaps the most influential woman in the history of American journalism, once noted that, “Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.” This notion served her well as she broke down the gender barriers in journalism, and it is more than applicable to the idea of travelling solo as well. Dorothy had no idea what to expect as she made her way into the unknown realm of an industry consisting almost exclusively of men, much the same as a traveler embarking on a journey has no idea what challenges he or she may face in the coming days, weeks, or months. And that’s the fun of it. Leaving the comfort and familiarity of a place you know well in search of new and strange locales inherently involves a certain degree of fear.

Fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar is an emotion that has been found in humans for millennia. For our ancestors, traveling outside of the areas they knew well meant facing the very real dangers that may be present there—most notably the risk of being eaten by predators—and so they stayed close to home and close to their fellow humans. For them, it was their fear of the unknown that kept them alive. 

In today’s world, it is quite the opposite—just ask Dorothy Thompson. There are very few things out there that want to eat you. Rather, the lions and tigers and bears that fueled the fears of our ancestors have been replaced by less tangible things, things with metaphorically sharp teeth rather than literal ones. Concerns about family, friends, finances, and careers left behind will often deter potential solo travelers long before plans can even take shape. But like any good story, an ounce of courage will open up doors you didn’t even know were locked. Take a chance on travel, take a chance on the kindness of humanity, and most importantly, take a chance on yourself.

In conclusion...

While you don’t have to ignore these fears, do your best to acknowledge them without letting them deter you from your grand solo adventure. The collective voices of experience from hundreds of thousands of solo travelers who have faced these exact fears in the past will tell you that they are entirely unfounded. Jobs will be there when you return. Money issues can be handled with disciplined spending. And family and friends can either accept your decision to go or they can face the fact that it is your life to live and consequently not their decision to make. 

There’s a lot you can learn about solo travel from group travel and vice versa.

Instead of dwelling on the fears about what might happen, go into the experience with faith in the idea that you, and only you, can control what will happen. Having the proper mindset is the most important factor in the success of a solo trip, and it is perhaps the biggest hurdle you will face. However, once that hurdle is crossed, you will be fully prepared to make your trip exactly what it is meant to be: The adventure of a lifetime. 

Jake

Hanrahan

A Midwesterner born and raised, Jake recently graduated from Iowa State University with degrees in Kinesiology and International Studies and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Health at Colorado State. He is a writer for GoAbroad.com and loves inspiring future travel.

Unexpected Paradise: 6 Macaronesian Islands That You May Not Have Heard Of

Off the coast of Europe and Africa, the Macronesian islands offer unspoiled landscapes, quaint towns, and stunning coastlines.

The island of La Gomera is located in the Canary Islands, one of the island chains that make up Macaronesia. Jörg Bergmann. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Macaronesia is a group of archipelagos in the North Atlantic Ocean. off the coast of Europe and Africa. It consists of the islands of the Azores and Madeira, (part of Portugal) the Canary Islands (part of Spain) and Cabo Verde  (an independent group of islands formerly controlled by Portugal). Some of these islands are only a short flight away from many major cities in Western Europe and becoming more popular, leading to more development on some of them, but unspoiled wilderness remains prevalent. 

1. São Miguel, Azores

The Lagoa das Sete Cidades features colorful lakes in the remnants of volcano calderas on São Miguel. energeticspell. CC BY-NC 2.0.

The largest island in the Azores, São Miguel features numerous beautiful natural sights for hikers and/or tourists. Due to minerals in the water, the lakes on the island come in various tints of green and blue. At a more temperate climate than many of the other Macaronesian islands, São Miguel receives more rain, resulting in many waterfalls on the island. Some companies lead rappelling excursions at the waterfalls. The seas around São Miguel are also prime for whale watching.

2. Flores, Azores

Lush, green cliffs characterize the island of Flores in the Azores archipelago. Paulo Corceiro. CC BY-ND 2.0.

One of the more remote islands in the Azores archipelago, Flores literally translates to “flowers” in English. Its stunning lush mountains are well-suited for hiking and canyoneering, with trails leading to some unique geological formations. Some places on the island to visit include the village of Fajã Grande, which is tucked in between cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean, and the 7 lagoons, the remnants of ancient volcanoes. 

3. Madeira

The cliffs of Madeira. Kacper Gunia. CC BY-NC 2.0.

After a thrilling landing at one of the most challenging airports for pilots in the world, visitors step into a green oasis with dramatic mountains and steep drop-offs. In the past, Madeira was a maritime center with Christopher Columbus and James Cook making stops there on their voyages. Later, rich landowners built ornate summer estates on the island, such as the Monte Palace Madeira, which is a present-day vast botanical garden. Hiking trails criss-cross the island, with many built on the remnants of levandas, irrigation canals used to feed water to drier areas of the island. A strenuous hike to Pico Ruivo, the highest point on the island, rewards intrepid hikers with vast views.

4. La Palma, Canary Islands

The volcanic landscape of the island of La Palma. weberpal. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. 

The island of La Palma in the Canary Islands is fully operational again after the Cumbre Vieja volcano stopped erupting in December 2021. While it is still advisable to exercise caution around the eruption area, the rest of the island is free to be explored. Past volcanic eruptions have created unique rock formations underwater, making diving a popular activity off the coast of the island. Watersports such as kayaking and canoeing are also popular, especially along the sheltered coast of Fuencaliente. There is also an extensive network of hiking paths on the island, leading to a variety of unique landscapes.

5. Fuerteventura

Popular beaches and desert landscapes combine on the island of Fuerteventura. xavipat. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

The more southern islands of Macaronesia have a more arid climate, leading to more desert-like landscapes. Less than 100 kilometers from the coast of Africa, Fuerteventura consists of many popular beaches but also has quaint towns and rolling hills. As the first of the Canary Islands to be settled by Europeans, its first capital city of Betancuria was founded in 1404 and remains to this day and is a great place to learn about the island’s pre-Hispanic history. The island is also famous for its cuisine featuring majorero cheese and papas arugás with mojo (wrinkly potatoes with a local sauce).

6. Sal, Cabo Verde

The barren landscape of Sal is much more than what it seems. Phil Thirkell. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Another desert-like island, Sal is located in the northeast of the Cabo Verde archipelago and used to be the least populous island of the country until recent developments that have caused rapid growth. Like Fuerteventura, Sal has many beaches which are known as prime kiteboarding areas. Away from the beaches and resort areas lies what seems like a barren landscape, but tours on jeep and horseback can bring visitors to the remote interior to secluded areas. The island also has a legacy of salt mining, and it is possible to visit the Pedra de Lume area, which preserves the remnants of salt extraction operations.

Bryan Fok

Bryan is currently a History and Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame. He aims to apply the notion of Integral Human Development as a framework for analyzing global issues. He enjoys hiking and visiting national parks.

10 Quotes to Inspire You to Travel

Consider yourself an adventurer on a temporary hiatus? Life’s distractions make it easy to put travel on the backburner: financial difficulties, the dog ate your atlas, your significant other has a case of the measles. If any of these excuses sound familiar, you’re in need of a reminder why travel is rejuvenating for the mind and spirit. And, as we’ve discussed before, it can be low-cost! The following 10 authors, entrepreneurs and leaders lived in vastly different time periods, locations and social contexts. However, they shared one common interest: a love of travel. Still not convinced? Look at what they have to say.  

1. "Travel is like knowledge. The more you see, the more you know you haven't seen." — Mark Hertsgaard

Mark Hertsgaard is a contemporary journalist and author from the United States. As the environmental correspondent for The Nation, Hertsgaard remains an independent journalist in order to pursue any story that catches his attention. He’s traveled around the world twice and reported from 26 countries. With all his jet setting, you’d think Hertsgaard would be tired of it. Yet to him, every adventure is a reason to seek out more.  

2. “Take only memories. Leave nothing but footprints.” — Chief Seattle

Chief Seattle was a Suquamish Tribe and Dkhw’Duw’Absh chief during the 19th century. As a prominent figure among his people, Seattle sought accommodation over conflict when white settlers compromised the land. His message remains powerful today, especially when considered from an environmentalist perspective. From a personal perspective, one is reminded of the power of memory: travel lightly. Your mind is your scrapbook. 

3.  "I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world." — Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist at the start of the 20th century. Critics often describe his work as inherently “mystical,” which resonates with the analogy of widening circles. To live life in widening circles is to push against external limitations. One way to make this analogy a reality is to travel! Global exploration provides opportunity to connect with others and to strengthen social networks. The farther you go, the more you’ll feel at home in any location.   

4. “Traveling is like flirting with life. It's like saying, 'I would stay and love you, but I have to go; this is my station.'" — Lisa St. Aubin de Teran

Lisa St. Aubin de Teran is a contemporary English novelist. In her quotation, travel itself is the object of affection. Every opportunity to visit a new place is a chance to flirt with an unfamiliar slice of life. With the whole world in front of you, how can you ever get lonely? 

8. “It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves – in finding themselves.” – Andre Gide

Andre Gide was a French author who wrote during the early 20th century. His advocacy for adventure is a reminder of what helps us grow: the unknown. To set out on an adventure is to face uncertainty head on. It’s often in these moments when our true colors show. Adventure can be found around every corner. So get out there and explore! 

6. “I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” – Rosalia de Castro

Rosalia de Castro was a Galacian romanticist, writer and poet during the late 19th century. Although her quotation speaks to metaphorical travel, the sentiment remains: not knowing your destination is half the fun! You never know where a chance-encounter might lead. 


7. “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” ― Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist whose writing style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction. Like Rosalia de Castro, Hemingway is celebrating the journey. To begin a trip with preliminary plans is helpful: embracing the unexpected is what turns a trip into a journey!

8. “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd

John A. Shedd was an American author and professor who lived during the first half of the 20th century. Travel propels us outward – by land or by sea. If you have the motivation, what’s holding you back? Like ships at sea, humans are equipped for mobility. It’s difficult to experience the world from the confines of your neighborhood. Next time you think you should play it safe and skip the trip, remember what you’re capable of – don’t let it go to waste!   
 

9. “We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” – Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian at the start of the 20th century. In this quote, he makes a distinction between wandering and traveling. While both activities can be productive, Belloc says that travel will provide greater satisfaction. Travel with a purpose, even if that purpose is simply ‘to go.’ 

10. "Swim out of your little pond." — Rumi

Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet; his quotation speaks for itself. There’s an ocean of opportunity beyond the boundaries of your local pond, so dive in and swim! 

Sarah Sutphin

Sarah is an undergraduate at Yale University and a content editor for CATALYST. As a traveler who has visited 30 countries (and counting!), she feels passionate about international development through sustainable mechanisms. Sarah has taken an interest in the intersection between public health and theater, and hopes to create a program that utilizes these disciplines for community empowerment. She is a fluent Spanish speaker with plans to take residence in Latin American after graduation. 

Exploring the Wonders of Australia’s Wild and Remote Kimberley

The Kimberley region of Western Australia boasts a spectacularly diverse landscape offering both biodiversity and impressive geological formations.

Aerial view of the Kimberley. Drumsara. CC-BY-SA 2.0. 

Although Australia provides plenty of examples of nature’s extraordinary beauty, few compare to the Kimberley region. Situated in Western Australia’s northernmost corner, the Kimberley is a grandiose territory teeming with rich ecosystems. A plethora of microcommunities sprinkle across its sundry landscapes while towering hills spill into vast canyons neighboring pristine swimming holes. 

The region covers over 150,000 square miles, with only about 40,000 residents inhabiting the area. Perhaps the most famous part of the Kimberley is Broome’s Cable Beach, ranked as one of the world’s most gorgeous stretches of sand and sea. The beach displays nearly 14 miles of fine sand meeting glassy waters. The beach itself has an interesting history; the name “Cable Beach” comes from the telegraph cable placed there in 1889. For adventurers more daring, Tunnel Creek National Park houses the oldest cave system in Australia. Again, the history of the stop is fascinating; Aboriginal leader Jandamarra hid in the cave system but was later caught and killed at its opening. 

The swirling sky at Cable Beach in Broome. hmorandell. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. 

However, the history of the land tells a story drastically different than the extravagant serenity the region now boasts. 

Exploration of the Kimberley by Europeans was initiated in 1879 by government surveyor Alexander Forrest, who explored much of Western Australia. Upon arrival, Forrest made note of the region’s vast landscape which made it ideal for cattle grazing. From this point on, the resources of the land quickly became tied to conflict; diggers struck gold which led to a quickly fleeting gold rush, and conflicts over cattle grazing raged between the Indigenous population and newly arrived Europeans. In the mid-20th century irrigation projects led to the rise of extensive farming, primarily that of sugar cane and rice. Oil drilling and diamond mining are now conducted in the region. 

Today, the Kimberley contains residents as diverse as its wildlife; there are over 100 Aboriginal communities that share the region’s unmatched tranquility as well as its bustling economic opportunities. Due to the region’s iconic landscape, nearly 300,000 travelers visit every year, producing over $300 million annually. 

Tunnel Creek National Park. Nievedee. CC BY-SA 4.0. 

As with most dazzling spectacles of nature, the region boasts pristine weather that complements the untouched wilderness. The wet season extends from November to April and is characterized by heavy rain and humid, sticky air. From May to October is the dry season, which is characterized by sun-drenched days and cloudless, baby blue skies. 

Raft Point. Johnny. CC BY-NC 2.0. 

An exciting history and a dazzling landscape make Australia’s Kimberley region a powerfully adventurous destination. Surely any visitor will find their imagination stretched by the area’s countless wonders.

Ella Nguyen

Ella is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.