Summer is a traditional time of holidays and travel. If you can’t find a company for a trip, it doesn’t matter: traveling alone can be no less exciting and interesting. Many fears and stereotypes are associated with such trips, but it is better to prepare for the trip thoroughly instead of being afraid and sitting at home. We share tips and life hacks that will make your vacation alone easier and safer.
Take care of your safety
The main issue of concern to those who travel alone is safety. But traveling alone is not necessarily risky. Just follow a few simple tips. Before leaving, tell your friends or family about what you are going to do and where you want to go, or better, make a detailed travel plan so that they know where and what day you are most likely to be. And even if you want to take a break from everyone, it is worth taking time once a day to call or write a message to friends and family and let them know that everything is fine with you.
When choosing a place to stay, it is worth reading reviews (we think you probably do it anyway) and finding out more about the area in which the chosen hotel or hostel is located. If you are couch surfing, read reviews of the host you want to stay with; you can also see his social media profiles. You should not save on renting a safe in hostels and hotels: keeping money in it is safer and more reliable than hiding money in secluded places. If you are worried that someone will enter the room, you can take special gadgets with you; a doorstop or an overhead signaling device that makes a loud sound when someone outside tries to open your room door.
When leaving somewhere from the hotel or hostel, tell the staff where you are going; they will surely be friendly and will check if you return. If you need to look at a map during walks, it is better not to stop with it in the middle of the street, but to go to the nearest store or shop: pickpockets consider confused tourists an easy target.
Make copies of documents
This advice for solo travelers is of special importance: there is nothing worse than being alone in a foreign country without documents. To avoid getting into an unpleasant situation, it is worth making copies of all essential documents and carrying them with you; never take the originals. Another helpful tip is saving scans of documents on services such as DropBox and Google Drive or sending them to yourself by mail. So you will always have the opportunity to get a copy of the required document even if all your belongings are stolen.
Explore the place where you are going
Any self-respecting tourist tries to take a closer look at the place he is going to visit. But for a solo traveler, this is doubly important: it is worthwhile to find out in advance what place you are going to live in, which areas of the city are not safe to walk to alone, and where you can walk calmly, what taxi services are worth using, what about public transport and whether a solo tourist can calmly walk around the city in the evening.
If you are visiting the city for the first time, you should study it thoroughly: look at the places you want to visit on the map and try to remember the way to the hotel. The more confident and calm you feel on the streets when you follow familiar routes, the less you will look like a tourist and will not attract the attention of intruders.
Before the trip, it is worth researching social networks: on Instagram and Facebook, you can see the profiles of people living in the city where you are going, which are of interest to you, and see the places they visit. So you can find routes that are not obvious for tourists and cafes and bars that locals love: in this regard, social networks can be even more helpful than promoted services such as TripAdvisor.
Get ready to spend more
When traveling alone, you need to be prepared that the trip can be more expensive than if you were vacationing with someone. A single room in a hotel usually costs more than half a double room and splitting the costs for food, taxi or renting a car will not work: you have to pay for everything yourself.
The main issue in a solo trip is safety, so it’s better not to waste money and choose a convenient day flight so as not to be alone in a foreign city in the middle of the night. And be prepared to take a taxi instead of walking through an unsafe area in the evening.