Ladies, would you travel solo?

Leann

Traveler
If you would have asked the 20 year old me if I would ever travel solo, the answer would have been an emphatic NO.

Forty-three years later and after many miles of solo travel for work, I have a different outlook. Now that I am inching closer to full retirement (I still do some contract work for my former employer but that is slowing down), my desire for leisure travel has replaced work travel.

I've got a few trips planned this year, all with family and/or friends but one that will be just me and I'll be going international. All of my prior trips to Europe have been work-related and I was always on someone else's schedule. So this time will be different. It's not for a few months but I've already spent a lot of time researching places, buying some travel-friendly (i.e. wrinkle-free) clothes and imaging what the sites, sounds and foods will be like.

So this one is for the ladies. Would you travel solo? Or, if you have, would you do it again?
 

I appreciate that it's one for the ladies, however... My elder daughter (unattached) has started to travel a lot in the past few years. Initially it was purely on business, but then she started to tag on a few extra days at her own expense for sightseeing. This has taken her to many cities worldwide - from San Francisco to Seoul (which she really loved).

Now she also travels for pleasure and asks Mrs. L and our younger daughter if they'd like to accompany her, so they have a girlie holiday. Next month they're off to Seville (Spain) and shortly afterwards, she's back to Spain for a conference in Barcelona. I'm glad to see her being so outgoing and seeing the world.
 
I have done it, but it also depends on the length of stay and the familiarity of the destination. If I am going to be traveling out of the country then No I would not travel alone, but if I am going to trevel to the beach for a long weekend then certainly I would travel alone.
 
I've traveled to Vienna, Austria, from Hawaii (where I live) once with my mother and three times alone. With layovers, it takes from 24 to 27 hours to get there. I have no trouble with traveling alone. I like having a traveling companion but I don't need one. At my destination there are relatives, but mainly I like sight-seeing by myself because I can spend as much time as I wish wherever I want to. I dine with a relative, friend or by myself. I enjoy each way. Being an introvert I live mostly inside my head anyway so I can be fine company to myself. :bowknot:
 
Yes, I have done it for many years and I still do it occasionally even now, when my husband can't get the time off work.. I have no qualms about going alone and flying to countries all over Europe
 
I feel the same way and I certainly wouldn't enjoy eating in a restaurant by myself either. I can get lost just driving out of my driveway.

My daughter described going out for a meal on her own in Seoul. She had gone to a restaurant recommended by the hotel , but found that everybody ate using chopsticks. Having difficulty using them, she asked with much sign language if she could have a knife and fork. Eventually they understood and a few moments later the chef and two waiters appeared with a knife and fork on a small cushion and wrapped in a pink bow. She said they treated her like royalty.
 
I’ll play the devil’s advocate this time around. Traveling for anyone can be dangerous. Not knowing your surroundings or not having what we in the aviation business call having “situational awareness “ is most essential. Predators can spot a tourist a mile away and you are the prey.

I would encourage you you to read the story of Nancy Ludwig. And, I’m still upset with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway and Amy Bradley. I mean, if someone can go missing on a cruise ship, how does that happen and no one knows anything about it. On a cruise ship, really??
 
When I was much younger, and had a job that involved traveling, and a lot of driving, I put about 1,000 miles a week on my little Mazda pickup, week in and week out.
I think that I would be much more hesitant to travel alone now, mostly because I am older and health is not what it was back then. But my self-confidence level is a lot lower now, too, as far as thinking that I can take care of myself in some kind of an emergency situation.
What I would like to do, is to take a cross-country train trip, and I think that I would feel very safe doing that alone.

I went to Hawaii (Honolulu) with my daughter last month, and I totally loved being there. She was there for work, and gone all day, and I had a great time catching the small tour busses that take you around the city of Honolulu, and if the opportunity was there for me to ever go back I would go, even if it were by myself.
 
I think if it is a location that I am really familiar with and is in close proximity to my home I would travel solo, but I am almost 80 years old and travelling to far way to an unknown place I think would be too risky alone.
 
I’ll play the devil’s advocate this time around. Traveling for anyone can be dangerous. Not knowing your surroundings or not having what we in the aviation business call having “situational awareness “ is most essential. Predators can spot a tourist a mile away and you are the prey.

I would encourage you you to read the story of Nancy Ludwig. And, I’m still upset with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway and Amy Bradley. I mean, if someone can go missing on a cruise ship, how does that happen and no one knows anything about it. On a cruise ship, really??
There's ports and pimps .....
 
There's ports and pimps .....
She went missing while the ship was at sea. I have no idea what pimps has to do with anything, unless you are referring to the fact that she may have been kidnapped and sold into slavery. But, even still, how did they get her off the ship without anyone taking notice?
 
I’ll play the devil’s advocate this time around. Traveling for anyone can be dangerous. Not knowing your surroundings or not having what we in the aviation business call having “situational awareness “ is most essential. Predators can spot a tourist a mile away and you are the prey.

I would encourage you you to read the story of Nancy Ludwig. And, I’m still upset with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway and Amy Bradley. I mean, if someone can go missing on a cruise ship, how does that happen and no one knows anything about it. On a cruise ship, really??
On a cruise ship? I would expect it more than on a city street.
You get pushed overboard and the ship has sailed 20 miles before anyone notices?
 


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