Easily Choose Your First Solo Travel Destination

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Choosing your first solo travel destination can be tricky business. Why?

Well, for starters, we tend to overcomplicate things. We often have a million questions in our head ranging from our safety to whether or not we’ll have fun to whether or not our IG posts will get enough likes. And before you know it…

We still haven’t chosen where we want to go.

If you’re anything like me, choosing a place to solo travel for the first time to travel to can be incredibly difficult for a few reasons:

1. You’re not sure what’s the best place for you, or
2. You literally want to travel EVERYWHERE and need help narrowing it down

Do you itch to solo travel but just have no clue how to get started and choose your first destination?

I thought so. Let me tell you, choosing your first solo travel destination is easy-peasy, and this post will tell you exactly how to do it.

Take a look at the list below and jumpstart your first solo adventure and choose your first AMAZING place to visit 🙂

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Uncover Your Solo Travel Preferences

Travel style can be a vague term. In this case, it means discovering what in a trip will make you feel the most happy and excited. To do this, you’ll want to ask yourself a few questions:

• What kind of weather do you enjoy?
• Are you flexible about where you stay?
• How comfortable are you with different modes of transportation?
• When you close your eyes, where do you see yourself? Beach, city, mountains, etc.

Evaluate Your Finances

This is a big one for any travel you do in general. Before you choose a place, you’ll want to take a look at your current finances and figure out how much money you have to spend on a trip. Once you’ve done that, you kind find a destination that fits within what you have available. There is a travel destination for every budget, I promise!

Not sure how much money you have to spend? Try creating a general budget and see where your extra money is. It can often be in hidden places like: that extra coffee you buy each week, the 3rd brunch you attended this month, or the bar crawl you went on last weekend.

Find Inspiration Everywhere

We’re so lucky we live in a digital age. For us, all we have to do is literally open up our phones and find inspiration at our fingertips. And if digital means aren’t your thing? Not a problem. There are still tons of ways to find that inspiration.

Here are some of my personal inspirations that help when choosing solo travel destinations:

• Pinterest and Instagram
• Shows, series, and documentaries (some of my favorites include: Parts Unknown and Chefs Table)
• Books (both travel guides and stories with elements of travel)
• Nature
• Youtube videos (interviews, travel vlogs, etc.

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WHY SHOULD YOU TRAVEL THE 🌏 SOLO?! Girl, there are SO many reasons why, you’d have to tape my mouth shut to get me to stop going on and on 😂 (wait please don’t do that…I like you guys). When I was first thinking of traveling solo, these were some of the perks that convinced me to finally take the jump: ✨ PURE FREEDOM – you get to do what you want, when you want, and no one is going to stop you! Which leads to… ✨ EXPLORING CURIOSITIES – there’s something so invigorating about seeking out the things in life that make you itch with excitement and jump around like a fool (yes, guilty). Solo travel gives you the time to slow down and really tap into the things you love…or maybe the things you’re just curious about that could become your loves in life. ✨FEELING HUMBLED – every now and then we need that reset that reminds us how how beautiful the world can be. Not everything will be great all the time, but being in the presence of something bigger than you (even quiet literally sometimes) puts you back in check. Still not convinced? Download my new guide to get close to your first solo trip! Before you know it you’ll be saying HELLO WORLD! ✨ Link in bio. . . . . #shesnotlost #femaletravelinspo #citizenfemme #dametravel #travelinladies #ladieslovetravel #solotravelgirl #wearetravelgirls #womenwhosolo #girlsthatwander #womenwhoexplore #mindsetmatters #womenwhotravel #WonderfulIndonesia #visitbali #travelspirit #growthmindset #asiatravel

A post shared by Hannah • Solo Travel • Empower (@onewaywander_) on Jan 10, 2019 at 9:04am PST

Create An Experience

Sometimes we get into this mode of choosing a place simply because it’s “on our list.” Don’t get me wrong, that’s completely fine, but if you want to take it a step further and get more out of your adventure, this tip is really going to help you choose your first solo travel destination!

The next time you find yourself interested in a place, try digging a little deeper and envision an experience you would like to have while you’re traveling there. This helps you determine if you are choosing the destination because you REALLY want to (versus picking it just because it’s trendy) and also get a head start on exactly what you want to do once you’re there.

What does an “experience” look like? Here are some examples:

• Traveling to Thailand to learn how to scuba dive
• Visiting Budapest to attend the Sziget Music Festival
• Flying to Tokyo for the Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) that only happen once a year

The experiences you can create are honestly endless!

Catalogue Your Travel Interests

Somewhat like traveling for an experience, your passions, interests, and intellectual curiosities will help you determine where is the best first solo travel destination for you.

Interested in medieval history? Want to learn how to cook food from a specific country? Have you found yourself drawn to a specific culture and you’re itching to find out more? Or maybe you’ve been dreaming of learning how to surf somewhere warm and tropical?

When I traveled in Sri Lanka, I tagged along with some new friends who are architects. Architecture is literally their life. They eat, breath, sleep, and think it. So what did they do? They planned their entire trip around exploring the architectural marvels of Bawa, a Sri Lankan designer whose works mainly reside on the island. Let’s just say…the trip was extremely eye-opening and meaningful.

Try this out: write down a list of your personal hobbies, interests, curiosities, and passions. Once you have these nailed down, you can start finding places that match those. Have a few that fit? Guess that just means you’ll have to see them all sooner or later 😉

Follow The Hot Flight Deals

This is by far one of the best ways to find a destination if you’re overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. If you head over to airline and budget travel websites, you can often find the latest deals and steals for all kinds of flights – domestic and international. Not sure about you, but when I find a place that looks interesting AND affordable…SOLD! Where my plane tickets at?!

One of the best travel sites out there is Skyscanner! You can head over to their site, enter your estimated travel dates or month, and search “Everywhere” (LOOOOVE…because yes, Skyscanner…I do want to go everywhere. Thank you for confirming). This pops up a list of all the destinations from least to most expensive. Plus, if you’re flexible with the time of year you travel, you can even search by cheapest month!

For other helpful travel resources, check out this page.

Think About Solo Travel Safety

While you’ll want to take things you hear about safety and female solo travel with a grain of salt, it is still a reality of any trip you take. You want to make sure to choose a place where you’ll feel safe and like you have a good handle on what’s going on there.

How can you do that? Head over to your country’s embassy or consulate website. They often have notices and information about anything you should be aware of in the destination you’re thinking of, including general safety.

If you’re from the United States, check out this website for travel safety information.

If you’re from Canada, check out this website for travel safety information.

Another great way to think about safety and your destination is to do a little bit of research. Again, the internet…you should be using it fully! Poke around a little bit and see what you find about common scams, crimes, health issues, and anything else you can be aware of before going.

Are you really interested in visiting a place where you’re just too sketched out by the safety concerns? Try reading up on other females solo travelers experiences there to get a better idea of what it might be like.

Have An Open Mind

Last but absolutely not least…if you are working on choosing a destination, be sure to keep an open mind about places you haven’t considered before. As hard as it might be, try not to fixate on just one place you have your heart set on. Instead, think more about the process, what you want to get out of your trip, and how you want to feel.

Your dream destination isn’t falling in line with your current finances? No problem. You can easily find another destination that meets your budget AND has the experiences you’re excited about. And don’t worry, you will absolutely go to your dream destination that you’re hardcore visualizing about sometime soon. Just don’t let the idea that you’re not going there yet stop you from your first solo travel adventure.

Having an open mind will get you far in life and especially in choosing your first solo travel destination. When you welcome other possibilities, you allow yourself to be flexible, adaptable, and open to new experiences, people, cultures…and let’s be honest…to things you didn’t even know existed!

So, where are you going to travel to first? Let us know in the comments below!

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