There are so many different reasons why we believe that solo travel is incredibly beneficial. Advantages of solo travel include it broadens your horizons, forces you out of your comfort zone, gives you the opportunity to meet new people, and creates new memories. However, here at Flavours we’re not sure that there’s anything more exciting than travelling solo. The idea of travelling alone may be a daunting one at first but once you’ve made the decision to go for it, it can be one of the most exciting experiences you’ll have.
Flavours Holidays is a solo travel company that has many destinations you can travel to. Why not find out more about Flavours and where our solo guests love to travel to.
Not only are there a number of huge advantages of solo travel while you’re travelling, but once you’ve returned home, you’ll realise that many of the skills you’ve learnt and habits you’ve got into will become part of your everyday life too. To help you take the plunge and decide to go travelling by yourself, we’ve put together below some of the main benefits of travelling solo.
1. Solo travel helps you to know yourself more
Travelling solo forces you into making your own decisions, and take stock of exactly how you are feeling at a given moment. This means that while you’re travelling alone, you’ll learn more about yourself; about what things you feel comfortable doing and what things don’t, as well as what things you really find yourself wanting to do when the decision is completely up to you. As cliché as it might sound, there’s no doubt that travelling alone is a journey of self-discovery.
No matter how old you are, you will always discover something new about yourself
2. Travelling solo is cost effective
Travelling with kids or with a family is a lot more expensive than travelling alone. You cannot buy one gelato and share among 5 people. Holidays for single people are more cost effective as you can decide both on your budget and how you choose to spend it. It’s your decision whether you want to just grab a snack to eat on the go one day, or treat yourself to an indulgent meal for one. You can choose to have a day where you do fewer things to save money for later in your travels. It’s also far cheaper to find accommodation for one, as you only need one bed; you could even fit in a rented room of a studio apartment for example.
A very good looking budget that is!
3. You’re in charge of making decisions
When you travel in a pair or in a group, it’s natural that quite often people won’t want to do the same thing as you, or they want to do things at different times. However, when you are travelling solo it’s your decision what you want to do and no one else’s. Therefore, you’ll be forced to trust your gut, and do things based entirely on your own instinct. This certainly benefits you post-travelling as well, as your decision-making skills will be vastly improved.
I wonder what decisions you’ll make…
4. With solo travel, you can be as selfish as you want
A particular benefit of being in charge of making decisions while travelling is that you can do exactly what you feel like on any given day or time. When you’re travelling as part of a group or with a family, everyone’s needs and desires have to be taken into account, which can often lead to a lot of compromise. Travelling solo is your chance to be in charge, meaning that you can eat at the exact restaurant you want to, wake up as early or late as you like, or even decide to spend a day by the pool if you’re feeling tired.
Enjoy your own company and own decisions!
5. When travelling solo it’s easier to make friends
Undoubtedly one of the biggest benefits of travelling alone is that you’ll find yourself interacting with a lot more people than you would if you were with others, which can often lead to long term friendships. Even if the idea of striking up conversation with someone you don’t know sounds a little terrifying, within a few hours of travelling you’ll realise that it’s much easier than it sounds. Groups and other solo travellers alike are always keen to get chatting, and you might even find that you end up joining a group for parts of your travels if you really get along. There a huge number of stories of people who’ve met travelling and ended up being friends for life. You never know, this could happen to you.
There’s nothing more exciting than making new friends!
6. Your language skills will improve
When travelling as part of a group there isn’t much of a necessity to try and learn any of the native language as you can simply chat to your fellow travellers or get one of them to do the talking when needed. However, when travelling solo, there are bound to be plenty of situations where you have to try and communicate with people who don’t speak the same language as you. While this may seem tricky at first, over time you’ll start to pick up the odd word and phrase in another language, which is quite often enough to show what you mean. Who knows, if you spend a long enough time travelling you might return being able to string together the odd sentence!
7. It’s great for your well-being
There are well-known benefits of both travelling, and spending time alone, on your well- being. So, combining these is a match made in heaven. After all, sometimes there isn’t anything better than escaping your normal life and friends for a bit. Research shows that travelling alone is a particularly good thing to do in terms of your mental health as it both gets your endorphins flowing, making you a happier person, and helps reduce stress and depression. Over 80% of our guests at Flavours Holidays travel solo. Click here to book on to one of our all-inclusive holidays now.
Become the best version yourself!
A final top tip
You will be able to see the importance of your own company only once you’ve travelled somewhere alone. You will start appreciating your own company much more and enjoying the time you spend on your own. Being alone whilst travelling is also a great way to connect with yourself and enhance the relationship with yourself. At the end of the day, it is you against the world so why not explore it!
Interested in solo travel to Italy?
Flavours Holidays is a specialist solo travel company. We provide activity holidays across 6 different regions in Italy and also holidays over in Spain and Scotland. 70% of our guests a year travel solo.
Download our guide for solo travellers to read some stories from our previous solo travellers and find out about the top tips to travel solo.
Originally published 18th July 2017 | Updated 24th February 2022
Very informative. Alone time can lead to self-discovery and personal growth as you navigate unfamiliar situations on your own.