In 2017 I took trips to Miami, Canada, and Sweden. The trip to Miami was with a good girl friend, and the other two trips were solo trips.
There are great benefits to traveling both alone or with others. (From a single guy’s perspective)
I believe everyone should be able to travel alone so I’ll start with traveling alone.
Solo Travel
You meet more people.
The irony about solo travel is that you talk to more people than you do when you’re traveling with others. When alone you meet 10x the people and/or locals. It starts at the airport because many people are flying for vacation and everyone is in a good mood. It’s almost impossible not to meet a fellow traveler.
Tip: There are always plugs in between the seats to charge your phone. Why not charge your phone next to a good looking girl.
When you get to your destination, you are also willing to talk to more people. If you’re an introvert like me, when you’re alone you are forced to talk to the locals. I recently met at least 7-10 locals and tourist each day when traveling to Canada and Sweden. The people I met provided great diverse conversations every day. For example, I met a girl and her boyfriend from Vienna and learned about Vienna, cool guys from London, girls from Austraila, and many people from Norway, Sweden, and Estonia while traveling in Sweden.
When you meet locals, they can tell you about the city from a locals point of view. I met a Swedish girl in Sweden who took me to the best Swedish restaurant she knew of. This probably would not have happened if I was with anyone else. When you are solo, people don’t hesitate to come up to you and talk.
You can do what you want.
Doing what you want to do is probably the most obvious benefit of traveling alone. You can literally do what ever you want when you are alone. You can leave for your trip when you want, or even change your flight if you want.
You can stay where you want. For example, you don’t have to worry about if your friend likes nature and mountains, but you like the hustle and bustle of a downtown.
You can explore what you want during the day. You can go to the beach if you like the beach but hate malls. You don’t have to compromise when solo.
You can buy what you want
This is not that obvious, but when you are alone, you spend money how you want. This applies even if you’re splitting it 50/50. You can fly budget with 4 connecting flights for cheap, or fly non-stop business class. If you’re with someone, you must do the same.
Same thing with hotels. As a single guy, I can stay in cheaper places than I can if I’m with a girlfriend. Or, some of my guy friends stay in $40 youth hostels, but I wouldn’t want to.
Food is your choice too. If you want to spend the money to eat at 5-star restaurants every night you can. You don’t have to eat at McDonald’s every night because your friend wants to save money.
Learn about yourself
It is true you that you learn a bit about yourself when you travel alone. It’s partly because you feel better about yourself because you’ve seen a new part of the big world and have a better perspective. You may come back and think you are too spoiled after visiting a developing country, or you may feel deprived after seeing how bad American airports are compared to the world.
Also, when you travel alone you feel better about yourself because you did it all yourself.
Travel with others
You always have someone to communicate with.
When you’re with a friend or wife you are always talking. When you’re at dinner, coffee, the beach, museums, cathedrals, etc you always have someone to talk to. When you’re back in the hotel at night, you have someone to talk to.
Also, when traveling with others you laugh a lot more. You don’t find yourself laughing that much when you are alone.
Memories to share.
When you travel with someone, when you get back you can always reminisce about the experiences you shared. Also, when your video comes up on Facebook, you can say hey, do remember where we were last year.
Safety of stuff.
When you travel with someone you will always have someone to watch your stuff. You can go to the bathroom at the airport and leave your stuff versus rolling your luggage in the bathroom. Or, you can sleep in airports and trains and not worry about someone stealing anything.
Safety of Person.
When you are with a friend, nobody will mess with you. While I have no problem walking down a Vancouver street at 4 am, it would be safer if I was with a friend. Also, when you’re out drinking, someone has your back if you get too drunk.
Note: If you are a girl, walking down a street at 4:00 am in any country is not that smart.
Wingman.
If you travel with a cool guy friend, you have a friend for those times when you meet a foreign girl who has a friend. For example, I’ve literally had girls ask me if I have a friend for their friend when I’ve been out alone.
And remember, whether traveling alone or with others, the Bose QuietComfort 35 (Series II) Wireless Headphones, Noise Cancelling – Black
