Heres how to stay safe when travelling alone

Travelling alone offers lots of benefits, which include meeting new people, having enough time to reflect on your journey, being your own boss, avoiding or connecting with people if you wish to, and many more.

When you travel alone, you can do anything you want precisely when you want to because you’re travelling on your terms. Here are some tips to guide you on what to look out for when going alone.

Save Up

Right before you plan any vacation, you must have been saving up sufficient money to cater for your vacation. It would be a great idea to save up enough for your journey so that your trip would be fully paid for rather than being stranded in the middle of the journey. Moreover, it would be a bad idea to be financially down due to a vacation. Hence, save up for your vacation before you go. You are solo travelling, and no group would raise you if you go broke.

Know your budget

An important consideration when planning your journey should be your budget. There are some things you need to consider when planning your travel budget. These include deciding your destination, the flight/transportation cost to your destination, the currency of the city you are visiting and its exchange rate in respect to your residing city, cost of booking accommodation, etc.

Pack light

You must ensure that you pack light as much as possible when travelling alone. Aside from the fact that packing so much luggage would increase your flight and transportation cost, moving them around in your destination may be a daunting task.

Consider the right reason

When planning your travelling, you must also consider the season of the year that would be comfortable and beneficial to travel. You can either travel in the summertime or wintertime. Both seasons have their benefits and drawbacks. Hence, consider which of the seasons would be best for you to travel. Remember you are the boss of yourself and would decide what you want out of your journey.

Consider your strengths

Factor in your strengths when planning to travel alone. If you are a friendly person who likes being in the middle of everything, then lack of communication might make you go crazy. It would be better in such a case that you choose a destination where you can speak the language. However, if you are instead an introvert, lack of communication may not be a problem, you may forget about the language barrier. If you are the type that loves watching other people, you should consider vibrant cities, especially those with fantastic café culture.

Consider room rentals instead of hotels

When you travel solo, consider booking a room rental in an apartment or a homestay. This helps you to have more connections with the locals. You may have your host teach you some of the local languages, take you out on beautiful sightseeing, or teach you some local tips and important culture of your destination.

Though hostels may also be affordable and offer a ready-made abode, as a solo traveller, you might only end up spending more time with other travellers like you than with local residents. Remember mingling the locals is part of the fun.

Learn to say no

Sometimes when you travel solo, especially to a more hospitable destination, you may get a sort of attention that is awkward and can make you feel uncomfortable. Just learn to either say “No,” “No, thank you,” or “absolutely not” in the local language. This will help you a great deal.

Moreover, try to learn the nonverbal gesture for “no” of the local people; this may also be effective.

If possible, get important local help phone numbers like emergency and tourist police stored on your cell phone. You might never actually need them, but having them may in a way boost your confidence to deal with embarrassing situations.

Finally, try as much as possible to learn a little of the local language, at least the useful ones before you go travelling, don’t forget to keep memories by taking photographs and never forget to be mindful of your safety concerns. If you consider all the above tips, you would be getting the best out of your solo travelling.