Travelling alone or not?

McIrish_

Do you prefer travelling alone or with a group of friends?


Last summer was the first summer in 3 years that I travelled alone. Basically, I decided to travel alone, because the summer before last proved to be an absolute nightmare, from start to finish. A lot of stuff went wrong, and money and disloyalty were strongly highlighted throughout the trip. So I decided to go solo this time, without any hastle at all for an entire 5 months.

I realized that I can't be around people for too long, especially in a foreign country, when things are not being done honestly and fairly. One bad summer really changes everything, and your best friends quickly become your worst enemies.

I guess I would travel in a group again,only with people that I can trust beforehand.

Do you have any horror stories about a bad trip/trips in the past?

What do you think about people travelling alone? Do you feel that you can get more done with a friend or on your own?

lisasimpson

your last trip sounds awful. for me its case of travelling alone a lot coz most of my friends now have that someone special or going with siblings. to be honest even though its scary at first its great you get to see and do what you want on a trip and you find yourself really open to meeting new people. saying all that there are times id wish I had someone special to share the experience with

conor_ie

I'm heading away in feb for 3 weeks on my own for the first time in 5 years... I travelled on my own before that and I had a great time and met people I'm still friends with now but as Lisa says there are times when you'd love have someone to share the journey with!

j.s. pill II

It's pretty amazing how easily tensions can get out of hand with your friends when you're traveling with them. I went on a road trip around England & Wales with a couple of my best friends from home; we were there for just 5 days but it ended in fisty-cuffs. Everything was totally cool when we met up in the pub the weekend after (group of males, needless to say).

I think it all stems from having to live in each other's space all day every day. I don't think it's any co-incidence that the best night I had was when I made some new friends on a night out in Bath and hung out with them for the night instead.

McIrish_

lisasimpson wrote: »

your last trip sounds awful. for me its case of travelling alone a lot coz most of my friends now have that someone special or going with siblings. to be honest even though its scary at first its great you get to see and do what you want on a trip and you find yourself really open to meeting new people. saying all that there are times id wish I had someone special to share the experience with

Awful is a good way of putting it, but thankfully it was only for 4 months. I can only imagine if I would have done the full year. A guy that I know is considering doin Australia next year, so if that's the case I'm going to sit down with him beforehand, and tell him that everything gets split 50/50, right down the middle. It's terrible how some people are such misers? Would you agree?

Do you have travel plans next year? Are you a regular traveller?

lisasimpson

going to san fran in may for a week with 2 housemates and another girl. haven't been away on a group holiday for a while. will probably do another holiday on my own somewhere too but ive yet to decide. Intrepid and gadventures have become good friends of mine the last few years

McIrish_

lisasimpson wrote: »

going to san fran in may for a week with 2 housemates and another girl. haven't been away on a group holiday for a while. will probably do another holiday on my own somewhere too but ive yet to decide. Intrepid and gadventures have become good friends of mine the last few years

Nice, I've never been. I've been to LA,but that does it for California.

Have you ever been to the US before?

Royale with Cheese

Did 5 months on my own because I was either going on my own or I wasn't going at all. Loved most of it, but there were definitely times I'd liked to have had someone travelling with me. It depends where you are too. Well worn backpackers routes like south east Asia are ridiculously easy to travel by yourself in, I found places like Japan much more difficult. I can't compare to travelling with friends as this was the only big trip I've done, but I'm pretty sure I'd want to kill anyone I'd spend 5 months travelling with. That's just the way I am.

Basically there's pros and cons of solo travel, more pros than cons I would say. I'd love to do another trip like that with 'someone special' though.

Daveysil15

I mostly travel alone as its the only option I have. The few mates I have are settled down or can't afford to travel, or else want to go to places I'm not interested in. I'm not a beach person and don't like the idea of sitting on a beach all day in costa del whatever, and then getting pissed every night which is some peoples idea of a great holiday.

I prefer city breaks. I particularly like Eastern European and Scandinavian countries. I've had some great experiences and met some interesting people, but admittedly it can get a bit lonely after a while. I wouldn't like to travel for months alone.

After I left school I went to Mallorca with a few friends. It was a bit like The Inbetweeners movie without the good stuff. Real grotty accommodation, blistering heat, and bad hangovers. Not an enjoyable experience. Also there seems to be a trend with young lads when they go on holidays together where they play nasty tricks on each other when they're asleep. I've heard horror stories of people having their eye brows shaven, carrots stuck up their arse, and shaving cream put on their balls. Fook that.

Strumms

Similar thing for me.. Most of my friends the last few years are settled and saddled up with big debts, kids etc so we never go away any more maybe once a year we all try and get over to the UK for a night or two and take in a football match.

That aside travelling is my main love I guess so I will go away maybe 7 times a year. In addition I often piggy back a little time for myself on the back of work trips. Almost always alone. Their is a great sense of freedom about it. You are not trying to please so one else's agenda and your time is your own. I will echo sentiments already expressed here that there are definitely moments where you think ' hmm it would be kinda nice to share this with someone '.

Either way I'd not be at all hesitant or afraid of going away on your own. You will usually meet cool people on your travels anyway at certain points you probably find yourself being more outgoing because you are travelling by yourself.

lc180

I've done quite a lot of solo travelling in the last few years, mainly short cities breaks, I haven't done any substantial trips yet but I'm planning 2 weeks in Japan/S Korea this November so that will be a big test of how I cope alone.

I can't express enough how good the sense of freedom is! You can do whatever the hell you want whenever the hell you want! I think solo travel has genuinely made me a more confident and outgoing person, which in turn has helped me with my career.

My only regret is I didn't start going solo earlier, I only considered it when I was 25/26 when friends started moving away/settling down. The way I see it I missed out on a few years of mini adventures, so go for it now as soon as you can!

Travelling with my 2 best mates for 2 years in Australia was the best thing I ever experienced in my life. Of course there was arguments here are there but my friends dad told us before we left if your ever sulking and fighting about anything, slap yourself in the face and realise where you are and what your doing. Best advice ever.

We are such good friends money literally means nothing between us. No 50-50 or anything like that and we never once fought about money. Who ever had money would help whoever didnt and that was the end of it. I literally can't imagine not travelling with these two lads. Planning our next 2 year trip to Canada and its gonna be more of the same cannot wait.

lisasimpson

McIrish_ wrote: »

Nice, I've never been. I've been to LA,but that does it for California.

Have you ever been to the US before?

been to New York twice that's about as much of the states ive seen, for my 2nd trip this year I just have to see what trip from my bucket list will I take

roro1990

Love travelling alone. Done the whole south east asia circuit alone for 6 weeks last year and would definitely do it again. So easy to meet people and you have such freedom.

fibix

Thinking about going somewhere this year. I literally think I'm missing out with work / home/ work / lazy weekends. I did some travelling when in college, J1 and stuff, absolutely loved it. Where do I start? How do I plan it? Are there any chat groups etc. where I can go and talk to people who done the travelling the proper way?

roro1990

fibix wrote: »

Thinking about going somewhere this year. I literally think I'm missing out with work / home/ work / lazy weekends. I did some travelling when in college, J1 and stuff, absolutely loved it. Where do I start? How do I plan it? Are there any chat groups etc. where I can go and talk to people who done the travelling the proper way?

Depends where you wanna go. There's a wealth of info out there on South East Asia such as travelfish or blog posts like this:
http://www.leaderofthefree.net/ultimate-guide-travelling-south-east-asia/

fibix

roro1990 wrote: »

Depends where you wanna go. [/url]

If only I knew:) I want to decide on a place and have something to look forward to, save some money, get holidays at work and go. It wouldn't be the longest trip with the work restrictions but damn, I want to start somewhere.

Thanks for the link. Clearly written from the man's perspective

lisasimpson

fibix wrote: »

If only I knew:) I want to decide on a place and have something to look forward to, save some money, get holidays at work and go. It wouldn't be the longest trip with the work restrictions but damn, I want to start somewhere.

Thanks for the link. Clearly written from the man's perspective

im restricted a bit with work too. but if you look at the likes of gadventures etc and all their tours if would give u ideas of routes etc

fibix

lisasimpson, this is looking good:) thanks!

keithclancy

When going on a trip with a group I create a spreadsheet in Google Docs and count all the costs on who paid for what. (Just ask people to keep the receipt)

This ends up with everyone paying what they owe at the end, you can't really argue if its written down.

Generally the one time i've suggested it and someone didn't want to do it was a good warning sign that they wanted to pad their costs into everyone elses (which I found out from another person was the case)