Travel Solo or Nah!: I’m for the latter – even the meals don’t taste the same if it’s just you. I’m pretty comfortable being on my own but to fly solo in a foreign country is one of those uncomfortable things I cannot get used to.
When Google translate or a translating app fails, when your phone battery dies & you are far from your accommodation, when GPS tells you you have arrived and you clearly have not. You need a travel buddy to get lost with, people watch with & be plain silly with. When you are a solo traveller, you are pretty much banking on going some place, loving it & finding cool folks to kick it with. It works out great if things go according to plan (although the irony is that solo travellers tend to deny ever making plans). However, if you don’t immediately love a place, traveling with someone or some people could help in feeding off of their energy and vibe.
You might say, I’ll meet cool peeps there, it’s all good and well when this does happen, kudos to you for making the first move and speaking to strangers. If you are like those who shan’t make the first move, you might be in trouble. But even for those keen on making the first move & introducing themselves around a bonfire at the backpackers lodge, how about a scenario where you are the only person booked there for the night? How about there is a tightly knit group that won’t let you in for one reason or another? What then solo traveller?
The only way out for solo travellers is booking a guide, believe me, I’ve rescued quite a few in Harare who call on the day they realise they can’t go it alone anymore and need someone to show them around and help make sense of the city. For this, I have an orientation guide that I typically design for our Tiritose Sustainable Travel volunteers, interns and study abroad students. So, even as I write this while in Berlin for a conference (ITB Berlin & Berlin Travel Festival), finding the best place to have breakfast was a challenge, Facebook eventually showed an event where I met two Germans & it turned into brunch! Call it luck or what? At that moment, I was tempted to say I’m all for solo travel. But as I sit on the S-Bahn writing this very line, I’m seeing so many things that would only make sense with some human contact and conversation to explain the meaning behind them. In Zimbabwe, every place is some mystery and has a legend attached to it , which you cannot understand just by looking and you certainly can’t find it on the internet (if you have service or data).
I appreciate that ‘to each his/her own’ and I have given my story and I am sticking with it. I would like to hear your thoughts on your travel preferences in the comments.
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