Last night I watched Easy Rider and simply ached to travel. I have spent probably 5 years minimum of my glorious life working in the tourist industry. From working in costume at an internationally famous tourist destination, to working as a supervisor in a hostel, I have loved so many minutes of these five years that I actually find myself reading Trip Advisor reviews of hotels I have no intention of visiting in order to see what they are ‘really like’. So having travelled Canada and the US all by myself as a poor wittle female I am often very frustrated with women I speak to who have the itchiest feet that wanderlust can create, without any intention of actually travelling. I understand that everyone is not the gregarious loner who will happily take herself out for a Saturday night dinner and movie date, followed by a drink at the pub with ….the pub, but in this age of adventure based, age specific and culturally tailored tour groups (most with either the option of being matched to a same gendered room-mate or a minimal single supplement to ensure your own room), the lack of a travelling companion should not be an issue. Here are, in my opinion, 6 reasons why travelling by one’s single female self can be a vastly superior way to see the world. 1. It can be very onerous to travel with an arbitrarily chosen travelling companion. I know this, because I have done it. There are maybe seven days in a row that you can stand someone who has been really, deeply annoying you. Always the honest, untactful type who would rather have a screaming match than have to sit in silence wondering what the other person is thinking, I have on several occasions had to bite my tongue and/or lie in order to keep the piece with various travelling companions, in order to make the rest of the journey bearable. 2. There is nothing worse than arriving at a longed-for, dream destination to discover your travelling companion either hates it, or wants to do something completely other than what you have dreamed. Niagara Falls. You can go on the Maid of the Mist and get funny-smelling hair, and then find a pub to dry your funny-smelling hair in, or you can delicately photograph the falls from above and then sip cool drinks in the casino. If you like one of these options, chances are you will hate the other, and there is your whole day gone. 3. You will not get lonely. Well, you might. But chances are if you do, you might be looking for excuses. Or staying exclusively in hotels. There are hundreds of solo travellers journeying from hostel to hostel all around the world. Some are older than 40. Some don’t drink, and hate pubs. Some are shy, and love to meet quiet people because they find raving extraverts like myself both terrifying and horrible. Some are religious. Some are on a spiritual journey towards, while others are on a spiritual journey away from. Some you will spend a few hours with or, maybe even a night (mmmm hmmm. Yep.) Others you will email years later to ask them their opinion on the name you have decided to give to your unborn second child. Some are unbelievably, ridiculously unpleasant, and will afford you some great horror stories. Some will be sweet ladies and gents who you will go on day trips with and look at photos of years later and remember what they ate for lunch, but probably not their names. There can be kisses and memories and beer and…. Everything! 4. Travelling alone is dangerous for a woman, but these risks can be minimised. Realistically, everything is dangerous for a woman. This danger can be mitigated with careful planning. Register yourself on government websites, keep in touch when possible on Facebook or by email. Give a copy of your itinerary, no matter how rough, to someone back home. Book through a travel agent so you have a person to contact in case of emergency. BUY TRAVEL INSURANCE! Stay at hostels. Good ones will, if asked, check up with the next hostel that you are planning on visiting to make sure you got there, and will also at times help you get from a to b. Hotels are less personal. (Let me digress and say REALLY good hostel employees will trudge through the snow for hours looking for drunk Australian girls, pick them up out of the gutter and nurse them for the next three days in the staff quarters because they missed their plane. And get vomited on for their trouble. Yeah, if you read this, drunk girl, you ruined my shoes. Contact me.) This is also where the guided tours I spoke about can be a distinct advantage. If you are not comfortable with the idea of long journeys alone, or wish to go somewhere where there is a language barrier or that can be culturally adverse to women without a male companion, get your butt on a tour. 5. Tours are a brilliant way to both save money and see the best parts of where you want to go. “But tours are expensive!” you cry. Not really. The tour operators buy passes and hotel rooms in bulk, and then then pass these savings on. Look at how much your chosen tour is per day, then do some googling to find out how much a day on the tour would cost – accommodation, petrol, entry fees any included meals. Add in safety and security and how much you value that as well. Also remember that there is lots of free time on these tours, so you are not completely stuck with your tourmates 24 hours a day. That said, I do recommend not sleeping with a fellow tour mate before the second last night. You do have to see them again! 6. You will find yourself. “Oh shut up you dreadlocked greenie,” you cry, “I don’t need to find myself, I need to find a partner.” Well that can happen too. I have met several couples who met on tours, usually youth or adventure tours but others as well. I met my husband when I moved overseas by myself. It’s a proven fact (by me anyway) that you become exponentially more attractive when you have an accent, so you have that on your side. So if you are into hook-ups, you will have an international smorgasbord to tempt your lusty palate! But seriously, if you ARE looking for yourself, well, you might just be halfway up the Appalachian trail- or gazing at the Berlin wall, or even wilting in the shadow of Uluru. I always seemed to find myself wandering about lighthouses in Eastern Canada, but that’s just me. So please, don’t ever be the girl sitting in the café wanting so badly to visit the Hamptons, or some little town you read about in a James Herriot book once, upset because your bestie won’t go. Be the girl who makes it happen, before you settle down, before you have kids and become the girl who lies in bed feeling the baby kick and reading Trip advisor reviews of the Cook Islands. Because I want to travel NOW. And unlike you, it isn’t going to happen.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 10:22:01 +0000
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