February 12, 2020
I’m a big fan of inspirational quotes, especially inspirational quotes about travelling alone. Here are my 12 all-time favourite solo travel quotes — and I’d love to hear yours. Also I’d love to hear about how travelling alone had changed your life — good, bad and ugly. Comment below, or email me! If you love these quotes and want to…
June 14, 2019
Everyone knows that travel is good for your health — mental, spiritual, emotional. You name it. Your brain is at its most creative when you are processing new environments and situations, having to problem solve. In a country where you don’t speak or read the language? Awesome! Trying to navigate the transport systems? Fabulous! In a supermarket and you don’t…
January 25, 2019
Apart from two trips — a short weekend trip to Dalat, Vietnam in 2017 and a longer one to Myanmar in 2018 — I have always travelled solo (apart from significant others, who don’t count). In 2010, when I initially started travelling, it was from necessity, but now travelling alone is my preferred way to travel. It was my trip…
September 13, 2016
I have been travelling internationally since 2010, when I took my first trip to Vietnam. It was challenging, exciting, awful and wonderful all at the same time. I’ve always wanted to go back to Vietnam and spend more time there, and that will be happening this November. I’ll be living there for at least three months, possibly more. It got…
August 2, 2016
Travel solo: so many benefits Confession time. I have never travelled internationally with anyone. Ever. I only ever travel solo. Alone. All by myself. Just me, myself and I. Yes, I join tours and meet people, but I have never actually left for an overseas destination with a travelling companion. I can’t imagine what it would be like having the…
February 1, 2016
I found myself using Airbnb for the first time ever on my return trip to Bali. I know, I know. I’m a bit late to the party. The thing is though, I’ve never really had a need. I’ve done group tours where the accommodation is organised, or independent travel where the accommodation is organised, or I’m only staying a few…
March 9, 2015
I am done. I cannot do another group tour. Ever. And I know I said that after my three back-to-back tours of Europe 2014, but this time I mean it. That’s not to say that this Explore tour has been bad—it hasn’t. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed it very much. I would have no hesitation in recommending Explore to…
The thing I like about travel—really like—is that it gets me out of my comfort zone. I’m sitting here waiting for my plane to Singapore and thinking about India, my destination. My emotions are roller-coasting, alternating between fear and excitement. My stomach is a ball of nerves and I feel the stress of venturing into an unknown destination. On my…
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,900 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people. Click here to see the complete report.
I’ve been travelling since 2010 and this is my first trip ever that I’ve done as a solo traveller. Previously, I’ve relied on group tours to get me around, and up until last year’s trip to Eastern Europe, I was content to be a relatively passive traveller. So what happened last year? This. Three bus tours back-to-back, packed full of…
The last time I was an independent traveller was in Hong Kong in 2011. I didn’t enjoy it. I wandered around aimlessly between a couple of organised tours, not knowing what to do with myself. Argh, I thought. I need to be on a schedule and have someone take care of all the organisation. I henceforth declared myself a terrible…
When I first started travelling, I didn’t mind taking a few minutes out of my travel time to help someone – usually a complete stranger – document their travel experience via a photo*. I thought it was the least I could do. A community service, if you will. Good karma, even. The I started noticing something. Not one of these…
It has dawned on me that travel makes you pretty good at connecting. And disconnecting, too, if necessary. Apart from the obvious (flights, transfers, tours etc.) there are the connections you make with other people while you travel. It could be a chat to someone while waiting for a flight, or while taking photos in a mosque, or when walking…
Why me? As if being harassed on my tour of Greece wasn’t enough, I unfortunately had to share my airport transfer with an Older Idiotic American Who Should Never Have Been Issued A Passport (OIAWSNHBIAP). He was was sooooooo annoying I had to say to him: DO NOT TALK TO ME! First: he said he didn’t recognise me (ah… that’s…
I boarded the Louis Olympia looking forward to cruising; after all, it has been a full-on few weeks with touring. I wanted pampering, rest and relaxation. My impressions of the ship, however, are less than favorable. This ship has passed its used by date: it is tired, old and shabby. It has certainly seen better days. The engine laboriously chugs…
Yesterday, I arrived in Athens, Greece, after a two week tour of Turkey with Globus. I’m having some down time before the next tour starts in a day or so, and am lying in bed, listening to the sounds of Athenian traffic, blogging. Thank the Lord for free hotel wifi! Turkey is an expansive country: it has a rich and…
The tour of former Yugoslavia had a high concentration of quite odd people. You usually get one or two odd bods, but this one had seven or eight. The oddness of these people really brought home the fact that tour guides are very special people – saints – with infinite patience. I could never be one because I would want…
There is something both terrifyingly alien, yet comfortingly familiar, about landing in a new country. I don’t know about you, but my senses work overtime to try and work out the new environment, and how I – as essentially a fly-by-nighter – coalesce with it. Sometimes the landscape – both natural and built – echoes my own: trees, gardens, buildings,…
I learned very early on that when I travel, I really, really, really like a routine. It’s not-negotiable for a number of reasons. A routine helps me sleep better*, which means I’m a happier traveller, and enjoy wherever I am much more. There is nothing so awful as wandering around historic and cultural sites like a zombie, close to tears…
I picked up my travel documents today from my travel agent today. Which means, of course, that I’m flying out in about eight days. And I’ll be out of the country (Australia, just in case anyone is wondering) for around seven weeks. And I’ll be gallivanting around eastern Europe. As I was driving home from my travel agent’s (yes, I…