On solo travel

This year has really enabled me to build up my solo travel portfolio. There truly is no better way to open yourself up to new experiences than to go solo, and it is something that I am increasingly embracing. My initial trips first started out as permutations of some sort, meeting friends and tagging a short solo segment onto the trip, or travelling to somewhere I know people so even though I am going solo there is some social interaction. But as time passed this year I started to go for trips fully solo. Whether you end up making friends and having others to travel with is really dependent on luck, but there’s always so much to explore and do. 

Of the places I’ve been to, the following are great to start out with for solo trips: (from perspective of a SG female)

  • Melbourne would be by far the best place to start solo travel! Getting from the airport to the city is easy via the shuttle (which can be booked on Klook), and you don’t even need to figure out the transport system from there - you can take a tram for free within the city centre and they mark out the free tram zone very clearly. If you are going beyond that just get a myki card from one of the tram stops. Language is not an issue, and the city is so international that one doesn’t feel too out of place. It is also convenient given stores open fairly late in the city (10-11pm).

  • Beijing, China is a close second. Booking attractions and train tickets take a bit more effort to figure out and take some pre planning, but as a solo traveller the safety is top notch. There are bag checks by security at every subway station. Systems are efficient. And once you figure out the local apps, China feels affordable and easy to navigate. And of course as a Singaporean Chinese, never have I ever blended in more during a trip.

  • Third to the list I’ll add Almaty, Kazakhstan. Although a bit more off the beaten track, and with a language barrier, Almaty is convenient and easy to navigate. Getting in from the airport to the city is cheap and easy. Sim cards are affordable and there is good connection. You can take Yandex everywhere affordably and booking via the app circumvents the language barriers. Almaty is an international city so you can get good coffee and cafes as well as international food. And the tourism is is developed enough that you can join short group tours if you want to get out of the city. Locals also do look Asian, so one doesn’t stick out too much (at least until they realise you can’t speak Kazakhstan / Russian).

There are various ways to start solo travel even if you’re hesitant to plunge right in:

  1. The easiest is group trips: joining a tour through groups such as G adventures and Intrepid Travel. In SG, we now also have many different agencies organising adventure trips for solo travellers, and this gives you a group to fly with from SG. For now, I’ve tried to book more with either local providers in the country or international organisations so that I get to meet travellers from other regions.

  2. If you are looking for a bit more flexibility, or for a more affordable option since full on tours can be expensive, you could also join shorter day tours as you go along, which allows for a mix of self exploration.

  3. Or the most flexible of them all: you could just wander and self explore. Staying in hostels is great for a way to meet people, while keeping things free and easy and open ended for yourself. Hostels vary in how social they are, but some of the best hostels I’ve been to organise walking tours or activities which make it incredibly easy to connect with other travellers. For example, one of my favourite stays this year was at Viajero Casco Viejo Hostel in Panama. The building itself is dated but the management and team is new. Their newly joined experience manager Jessie was fantastic, with a whole list of activities every day which guests could pop by and join if they so desired.