There’s something empowering about traveling alone—it can be a very liberating experience and is something I recommend everyone adds to their bucket list. But no matter if you are male or female, traveling solo can be intimidating, not to mention that it does come with more safety risks. If you are considering going on your own adventure, make sure you follow these tips before jet setting.
1. Notify Someone of Your Destination. By far the most important task you must check off your to-do list is tell somewhere where you’re going. It doesn’t matter if it’s a friend or family member, but someone needs to know of your whereabouts. Tell them exactly what country, city, providence etc. you are traveling to. You also want to give them details about what hotel you are staying at and let them know what day you are suppose to return from your trip. In case something happens and you don’t return on time, they’ll know where to start looking for you.
2. Do Research. Because you’ll be traveling alone, you may be subject to ploys by scammers and con artists. Do thorough research about everything, including the average price for a taxi ride from the airport to your hotel. You don’t want to get jipped for your money. While on this topic, you also don’t want to make it public knowledge that you are in fact alone—when traveling to a museum for example, and the taxi driver asks if you’re by yourself, say you’re going to meet up some friends or family members.
You also want to do research about the way your host city/country typically dresses. You don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to yourself by wearing flashy or provocative clothing. Dressing accordingly will help you blend better and will make you feel more comfortable to explore. Whatever you do, you don’t want to scream “tourist.” So don’t constantly keep your nose in your guidebook and lose the fanny pack.
3. Bring Multiple Forms of Identification. It’s every traveler’s worst nightmare to go to an exotic location only to lose their passport or I.D. Since accidents do happen, you want to make sure that you bring with you multiple forms of identification so that you can prove who you are. And of course, don’t keep all of these forms in your wallet or purse for example. If it gets stolen, then you’re up a creek without a paddle.
4. Use Your Intuition. Lastly, while you want to make sure that you don’t voluntarily put yourself in a bad predicament because you made a bad judgment call, i.e. you walked down a dark alley, trusted the wrong person, or got too wasted—in fact, drinking is fun but can get you into a whole heap of trouble if you aren’t familiar with the people or your surroundings. Bottom line, if something seems sketchy, trust your instincts. Also, also be aware of your surroundings—keep seeing the same person surround you? Go to a public area immediately and alert authorities.
Like stated before, traveling alone can be a really fun, self-discovery experience–think a la Eat Pray Love. Just make sure that you don’t let your guard down too much and take safety measures to ensure you return in tip top shape.
Author: This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for best online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com.
