So You’re Solo Traveling? Let’s go!
What You Need to Know About Traveling Solo For the First Time
So you are set on solo traveling to another country and know you wonder, what comes next?
I mean, aside from getting your packing list together, the next thing you need to do is mentally prepare for what it will be like to step and immerse yourself into new territory to you.
If mentally preparing is not something you worry about then, you go Glenn Coco!
But if you feel that prepping is NECESSARY because it’ll help you relax a bit, then I got you.
There are four things that you need to know about traveling solo for the first time. These are topics that I always emphasize when family or friends ask me for tips on how to make traveling less intimidating.
And I’m here to share them with you to help make your first solo trip less burdensome too:
What it feels like arriving at a new place
What to do about language barriers
How safe are you?
Culture Shock: Expecting the unexpected.
Solo Traveling for the First Time
ARRIVING TO A NEW PLACE
Ahh, there’s no better feeling than inhaling the smell of a city you’ve never been to before. But heck, it’s easy to feel lost! Navigating a new airport can feel exhilarating but terrifying as heck.
I mean, what if you take the wrong exit out of the airport and end up stuck in there forever, kind of like Tom Hank’s character in The Terminal?!
Well, okay maybe that’s not gonna happen but would you agree with me that some airports are needlessly confusing and like a big maze?
One of the things that always gets me frantic is stepping out of the airport and not knowing where to catch the right bus, train, or taxi to the city! Or even worse, not knowing where to find my uber driver 😭
And as confident as I sound in my other solo travel posts, I will tell you that THIS is definitely one of my nightmares— Missing my ride to my Airbnb and finding out I somehow have absolutely no other way to get there.
So my solution for remedying this when solo traveling is to always book flights or train rides that are early in the day; not those that arrive at the destination in the evening or later.
Arriving early in the day will feel like a blessing because if one of your methods of transportation doesn’t work out, you’ll have plenty of daylight and hours of operation to figure out what to do next.
It seems simple right?! Well sometimes it is & it’s awesome! But sometimes it isn’t. This brings me to my next topic…
LANGUAGE BARRIERS
Depending on where you’ve landed, this will be one of those things that you wish you could fix with a snap of your fingers! Well, the closest thing we have to finger-snap magic is…Google Translate.
It’s a pretty good alternative to help us understand and speak basic sentences but it won’t be reliable at all if you lack wifi or cellular data in your solo travel destination.
That said, language barriers can sometimes be a tough wall to climb no matter what! When you get to a country you’ve never been to before, for which the language is unfamiliar to you, it can get agonizing not being able to communicate easily.
It can be very isolating until you reach the point of feeling alone and lonely. So, what can you do?
Aside from learning key phrases or taking language classes prior to your trip, it seems like it isn’t much you can do about it, other than just accepting that those language barriers are bound to happen!
Take, for example, my trip to Spain…I speak Spanish but I had a really tough time understanding Spaniards. I was so embarrassed!
But in the end, I realized that the more I accepted that it was normal to deal with language barriers, the more confident I felt in trying my best to communicate.
SAFETY
Safety needs its own post so if you’re looking for more details, check out my solo travel safety tips!
When you think of safety, especially as a female solo traveler, you may think things like: I want to make sure I’m safe from harm, from theft, from stalking or any type of harassment.
Safety will mean different things to different people. In fact, some travelers will probably think it’s not something to worry about because they’ve always felt safe wherever they go.
But the reality is that your safety is ALWAYS a big deal regardless of who you are or how you might feel about it.
As solo travel women, we might feel pressured to follow through with our plans to prove ourselves. But really the only person you need to prove anything to is yourself.
If at any point you don’t feel safe during your trip, it’s okay to adjust your travel itinerary until you feel it’s better or safer. This could mean changing your accommodation, leaving a place if something feels off, or canceling an activity to chat with someone back home.
Or the opposite, what if you want to be spontaneous and do something you didn’t plan on? Go for it! But be mindful of the difference between doing something that has calculated risk and another thing that is just plain, regular risk. If you ask me, calculated risk is just more fun!
CULTURE SHOCK
The shock is real, girl.
Other travel bloggers tell you about culture shock and what you can do to mitigate the effects it has on you but you never truly understand what it is until it hits you.
To some of you it will just be like a slap in the face & then you’ll be able to go on about your day. For some of you, it might be like getting continuously slapped in the face while taking off a blindfold— Absolutely unexpected!
Perhaps you already experienced some of this shock when you first traveled with family or friends for vacation, but it most likely didn’t stop you in your tracks because you probably were younger, less aware, or at a tourist spot where you only got to see a modernized & international cultural pot.
So then, what does culture shock really feel like?
It honestly depends on how you receive and interpret new information. If you go on a trip with a widely open mind and ready to learn (whatever, anything!), then culture shock will most likely hit lightly and last a day or two. If you usually have a hard time with change & feel resistant to adjustments in your routines, then keep reading on—
Culture Shock is defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as:
“ a sense of confusion and uncertainty sometimes with feelings of anxiety that may affect people exposed to an alien culture or environment without adequate preparation”
I’m sure some of you readers saw the word “anxiety” & immediately thought ‘ok yah, this is going to be a no from me’ but no, please just wait a second!
The key phrase in that definition is “without adequate preparation”.
This means that even if you struggle to adjust to changes in your hometown and to your own daily routines now, you are NOT a lost cause. You can still travel and prepare against the effects of culture shock.
You also need to know that culture shock happens to millions of people every day and it can happen anywhere.
Whether you are a traveler, international student, or businessperson going from California to New York, El Salvador to Spain, or Japan to the US, culture shock will show up like your least favorite cousin.
How you react to it will determine whether you will have a good time or not.
You will be a foreigner no matter what but the goal is to assimilate as close as possible and accept that other countries and cities have different cultural values than you do.
I think I’ll touch up more on culture shock on a later post but for now, this is what I’ll share.
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