The number one thing people have told me ever since I went on a solo trip is that they either think I’m absolutely crazy or they think I’m the bravest woman ever. Many people scare themselves out of doing a solo trip because they are afraid of the potential dangers of being in an unknown city alone. But if no one is willing to take the trips that you want to do, why not create the opportunity for yourself?
Research
The most important part of planning your trip is knowing where you want to go and the potential risks of going there. Since my solo trip was in Europe, I will mainly focus on international travel, but you can easily do a quick solo trip anywhere within the United States as a beginner traveler. It’s important to know the political and social issues going on in the cities you want to visit so you are aware, can prepare, and potentially save yourself from a bad altercation.
For International, look at the US Embassy where they put out warnings and potential risks taken when going to a specific country. Look at social media (YouTube, TikTok, blogs) and see what people are saying about this country and what you need to look out for (for Europe it was mainly pickpocketing, scammers, and protests).
Personally, it was important to me to know the safety risks specifically for women from other women who personally experienced it so I fully understood what I could be getting myself into. As a woman, you cannot stop the daily harassment from men, but you can do your best to avoid and prevent anything bad from happening.
Quick Tip: Buy the Spy Escape & Evasion Tactical Pen by Jason Hanson and any Safety Alarm Keychain. These two things helped me always feel safe and you can easily take them anywhere.
Transportation
You should keep your mind open to multiple potential cities you want to visit and use your budget to help guide you to the best choice for you. I had a huge list of cities I would potentially want to visit and looked at flights in each city. I only used Google Flights to find all my flights (incognito), I used their map option to be able to look at multiple cities through a certain time to find the cheapest flight available going out of multiple cities (e.g. Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Orlando).
This will be the most stressful and tedious part because you never know what you’re going to find but be patient, it’s worth it! I thought I was going to have to go over budget for my flight home but one day the prices shot down from $800s to $300s and I was able to stay within budget (under $600 for all my flights).
Quick Tip: If you’re going to Europe use the Omio app, you can see all the different forms of transportation (train, bus, plane), and you can compare pricing along with having easy access to all your tickets in one spot which was super helpful throughout my trip.
Accommodation
There are a few options when choosing accommodation so continue to use your priorities to help guide you to the choice that will make you most comfortable. For me, I did a mix of Airbnb and hostels which I preferred since I am extroverted but also still enjoy my alone time. If you are very sociable and willing to be adventurous, I would highly recommend booking hostels through Hostel World, which is like Airbnb but for hostels. At hostels, I met some amazing people from all around the world who were solo traveling just like me vs. when I did Airbnb I had to go out of my way to meet people which can be difficult.
Quick tip: If you are a woman, there is a filter on Hostel World that allows you to look at hostels that have female-only dorms, which is what I did and loved it! If you have a bigger budget though, a hotel would be a great way to splurge and have that extra comfort of safety.
Activities
Once you figure out where you’re going, how you’re getting there, and where you’re staying, it’s time for my personal favorite part of planning, the experiences! The first thing I did for each city was look up all the free events/activities there are to do in the area first to see what I was interested in and add to my itinerary which I had already started to build as I reserved my transportation and accommodations.
From there, I did my side research to see what’s popular, along with what people don’t recommend doing, adding everything important to my itinerary. I mainly did my research through blogs, YouTube, Airbnb experiences, and TikTok which helped tremendously. Even during my trip, I would look for food, markets, and sunset spots last minute which led me to some of the best hidden gems. I used my itinerary a lot up until the end of my trip where I decided to just be more spontaneous and see where the day would take me, which I ended up liking more!
Pro tip: If you are staying in a hostel check on their website because they sometimes offer experiences like free walking tours or pub crawls which I would totally take advantage of as I was able to meet new people during the tours.
Other Tips
You can only plan so much as you never know where your journey is going to take you and what you’re going to take from it. I certainly learned things I will use for all my future travels.
First tip, keep checking on your transportation every day and have all your tickets together beforehand because you may get timing mixed up with something else or there may be alerts you didn’t see before. (I missed one train and one bus, but it could have been way worse)
Second tip, before you get to your destination, know how you’re going to get to your accommodation either by taxi, Uber, walking, train, or bus, and how long it’s going to take to get from point A to B.
For the third and final tip, I recommend exchanging your money before you leave the country as you’ll get the lowest exchange rates or exchange either in an airport or train station as those will be the safest options without getting scammed.