My solo travel began at the end of my freshman year when I did something I’d been dreaming about for eight years: I booked a ticket to see one of my favorite artists live in Peru. Not a flight ticket, but a concert ticket. Once that was finalized, I didn’t care how I’d get there; I just knew I would.
I didn’t ask anyone to come with me. I told my parents the plan, and they suggested I add something more adventurous to round out the trip. That quiet confidence gave me the final push. That’s how I ended up combining a concert in Lima with a multi-day trek to Machu Picchu. Two wildly different experiences together helped me become a better version of myself. Solo travel changed how I see the world. From confidence to connection, here are five things I learned:
- If You Want to Do Something, Do It
-
When I bought that concert ticket, I had no flight, no travel buddy, no plan. I knew what I wanted, and I wasn’t willing to wait anymore.
Solo travel taught me that waiting for the perfect time, company, or plan often means never doing it at all. It was my dream to see this artist in that country, at that moment, so I did. Want to do something? Plan it and go for it. You’ll figure out the when and how.
- Don’t WAIT FOR CONFIDENCE
-
I didn’t feel brave booking the trip or navigating a foreign country alone. I was terrified of messing up, missing a flight, or getting lost. I even had a nightmare where I missed the concert. However, as I figured things out, finished the trek, and went to the concert, it built something in me.
Solo travel throws you into situations where you have to make choices, take risks, and trust yourself. You realise confidence doesn’t show up before you try, confidence grows from the experience. You earn it.
- Being Alone ≠ Being Lonely
-
Before this trip, I despised eating alone in public. I’d scroll on my phone, watch a show, or do anything to avoid feeling alone. But during the trip, I had no choice and I had to do everything alone. However, to my surprise, I didn’t hate it. Nobody knew where I was and what I was doing, so I didn’t have to think about the “why.”
Through solo travelling, I understood the difference between being alone and being lonely. Loneliness is the absence of connection, but being alone is about the presence of self. You can do what you want to do without trying to explain your actions and with no one else’s expectations shaping your decisions.
- Help Comes Without a Backstory
-
I didn’t know a single person in my trekking group. We came from different places, with different stories, but we all shared the same goal: to make it to Machu Picchu. That created an instant connection. People shared snacks, sunscreen, and checked in on each other. A woman gave me her gloves and a beanie when I was cold. Nobody owed anyone anything, but they still showed up.
At the concert, I was unsure if I was in the right place because of the language barrier. I asked someone next to me for help. She not only guided me but also translated everything happening around us. We stuck together through the whole show and stayed in touch after. At the end of the concert, I swapped photos and videos with other strangers around me, each of us wanting to hold on to a moment we’d been dreaming about for years.
Solo travel made me realise you don’t need to have people with you to feel supported; sometimes it comes from someone you’ll never see again. People you need will find you along the way, even if it’s just for a little while. You don’t always have to spill your life story or let your guard down completely to get the help you need.
- Nobody Cares (In the Best Way)
-
I was half-expecting to feel out of place as I sat down for dinner by myself or walked around unfamiliar streets with no one to talk to, but no one looked twice. People were living their lives, laughing, bargaining, wandering. I blended right in because nobody was paying that much attention in the first place.
That’s when I realised that the world isn’t as focused on you as you think it is. Solo travel made that clear in the best way. We spend so much time worrying about being judged, but once you realize nobody’s actually watching that closely, you stop overthinking and just live.
Ultimately, solo travel taught me that confidence builds through experience and action, not waiting. You don’t need everything to be perfect to take the leap, it’s about figuring things out as you go, and sometimes you get help from unexpected places along the way. When you stop worrying about what others think, the world feels less heavy. I didn’t need the solo trip to just fulfill my dream, but also to learn these lessons I’ll carry with me long after the trip.
Can’t get enough of HC UMass Amherst? Be sure to follow us on Instagram, listen to us on Spotify, like us on Facebook, and read our latest Tweets!