Would you go travelling on your own?

If it's what you want, try one trip abroad on your own to see if you like it. I never travelled but honestly I just don't have any interest in it. If I was to go, I'd feel a bit weird going on my own, I dunno I just see it as a bit sad. Experiences are better when they're shared I feel.

I often travel alone because both I don't have a lot of friends and the ones I have are tied in to contracts/children etc and cant commit. I would say though most people as they reach their 30s and beyond would have trouble finding a few people to go on long haul holidays so for the people who say they need people to travel with, I feel sorry for you as you are missing out on different experiences and a sense of independence.

I have travelled to Asia, America and Australia alone and it has many advantages like dictating your own itinerary, meeting new people and enriching your experience.

turnikett1 wrote: »

I've travelled by myself alone loads. The first time I went travelling I was 17, completely by myself, hitch-hiked from Norway to Spain with nothing but a bag of clothes and a €5er in my pocket!

Amongst continental craftsmen, particularly in Germany, there is the "journeyman" tradition where trainees finish their apprenticeship by setting off on a three-year adventure. They are not allowed return to within 50km of their hometown for any reason other than a dire family emergency, they're not allowed carry mobile phones, and (if they stick rigidly to the tradition), they must leave with 5€ to their name and return with not more than 5€ to their name. They live from day-to-day, are allowed collect contacts en route and do any work that comes their way, but they're not supposed to make definite plans.

From what I've read 10% of German journeymen these days are young women. I've met three of them wandering the byways of France - a tailor, a flute-maker and a baker, and listening to their stories, it makes young Irish emigrants seem like a bunch of molly-coddled softies! :pac:

There's something in that, but it's not always the case that "it only lasts the night and the following day". I picked up a couple of hitch-hikers a few years ago (Germans again) and brought them home for the Easter Weekend. They were trying to warm up after a month in the frozen wastelands of Scotland and northern England (the year of the bad snow) and SonNo.1 needed to practise speaking German for his oral, so it suited everyone. They've kept in touch, irregularly, but it's still more than a one-off.

The flute-maker mentionned above was another hitch-hiker. We might cross paths again in July as I'm on the organising committee of a instrument-makers' festival so I told her when and where it'll take place. When you're in a couple/group, your focus is inevitably on the shared experience - which is great for reminiscing about - but it does mean you can be distracted/dissuaded from taking a chance on something that might be nothing ... or a great opportunity.

Edit: I combine working away with solo travel. The weekend before last, I finished an hour later than I should have, so abandonned my plan to go to one event and went west to a dance instead. There, I met a Swiss girl who I'd met for the first time over a couple of weekends last autumn in a completely different part of France. Great dancer (former ballerina). She's got engaged since last year ... You'd be surprised at how often one-off encounters don't stay one-off ...

I'd certainly like to try it as I'm very comfortable with my own company and many people really sell it to you, but I wonder if it's not something more suited to a people person ironically enough!
I wouldn't relish constantly meeting new people and having to do that simply to have another human being to chat to. I've read enough travel books to know that solo adventures can be quite lonely experiences for the more naturally introverted person. Of course it would get you out of your shell and new experiences, new places and all that but I would much prefer to do it with long time friends. The craic would be 100% mightier for me personally. But as for many people just on the wrong side of 30, it's a bit of a pipe dream now.

op how narrow minded you are to consider people who like travelling alone as losers or imply they have no friends.
with that sort of attitude maybe you should stay put.

OP I'm kind of in the same boat as you, as regards wanting to travel but with no one to go with.
I have no experience of travelling, alone or otherwise, but from what I have read online in different forums and websites, including this one, that travelling alone does not mark a person out as being weird or without friends.
I'm a bit apprehensive about going alone as well, but the way in looking at it is, I want to go, I don't have anyone else to go with, so that leaves me with 2 options:
1. Go and give it my best shot and see how it goes, I will either not like it, in which case I can just come home whenever, or, it could be the best thing i ever do and could be the making of me.
or option 2. Don't go and always wonder what might have been if I had just been a little bit braver and taken the plunge.
for me I more or less have made up mind I'm going to go with option no.1.
I'm by no means a very outgoing person, but I try my best to fit in wherever I am and sometimes that means taking a bit of a leap and hoping for the best.
anyway that's my 2 cents worth.
I might have 2 possible candidates to go with but honestly either of those 2 would be very different type of people to me, and I'd rather go I alone than be playing second fiddle to someone else's plans, not to mention it would more than likely put a massive strain on the friendship being around each other 24/7.
Hope this helps

There's also degrees of 'traveling alone'. Just because you get on the plane from Ireland alone, doesn't mean you have to do your whole trip on your own.

New Zealand is a great example. Most backpackers who go there will end up on one of the backpackers' bus tours as it's one of the easiest & cheapest ways to see the country. They're hop-on-hop-off buses that let you travel at your own pace and pick up/drop off at a selection of hostels in each town. So people tend to end up staying in the same place and form natural groups if their schedules coincide. If you end up with a group of people you get on with you can stick together, if not you can do your own thing.

If you want even more of a structured holiday there are plenty of companies that do group tours for solo travelers. A friend of mine goes with Intrepid Travel* when she wants to travel to locations that are a bit off the beaten track and she wouldn't feel confident going on her own.

(*Beware, that sight is pure travel porn and I will not be held responsible for anyone blowing their life savings on a trek through the Sahara :pac:)