If you have always thought about solo travel or wondered why traveling alone is such a great thing to do for yourself,  here are twenty-three impactful reasons to travel solo at least once in your lifetime.

You’ll focus more on the destination.

When you travel alone, your attention is solely on the destination and all that it has to offer. You are like a sponge soaking up all that is around you. The culture, the people, and everything that surrounds you are yours for the taking.

While traveling with someone can be great, you often spend more time focusing on each other rather than the destination. 

There are so many reasons to travel solo and so many great destinations, it’s hard to decide where to go.

You’ll meet lots of people.

Traveling solo makes you so much more approachable than when you are traveling with someone, or with a group of people.

You’re also much more apt to talk to other people than when you are by yourself. 

It builds confidence.

It’s a great feeling knowing you can do anything you put your mind to, including traveling alone. 

Doing research, preparing your itinerary, and all the other decisions that go along with traveling solo builds your confidence and reinforces what a strong, self-reliant, incredibly smart, and self-sufficient person you really are.

You are forced to put yourself out there.

It is often easy to stay inside your own little world. When we travel alone, we are forced to put ourselves out there and mingle with strangers, ask questions, and make new friends. This is another great reason you should travel alone at least once in your lifetime,

You’ll learn new languages.

Is there a better reason than this to travel alone at least once? Learning a new language in a foreign country is so cool.  Being able to communicate amongst strangers in a captivating new city while traveling solo is really empowering.

You’ll become more grateful. – What a great reason to travel alone!

Traveling solo at least once in your life can really open your eyes to the beauty all around you and in everyday life. You learn to appreciate the little things and what truly matters. With every sunset, you appreciate the beauty in the world. You cherish the warmth of a stranger’s smile and adore the elegance of nature.

Incredible memories

You will never forget the first time you travel alone.

The flooding of mixed emotions followed by the feeling of triumph is one of the best experiences you will ever know. 

You can stay within your budget.

Another great reason to travel solo at least once is the fact that you and only you are the captains of your ship!

You get to call all the financial shots of your journey which allows you the freedom to stay within your budget. Choosing to spend your money on a fancy dinner, or a quick snack from the grocery store, a lavish hotel, or an inexpensive hostel.

Let’s face it, traveling can be very expensive if you don’t budget and travel within your means. 

Traveling solo gives you the freedom to travel within your means.

You’ll learn to get incredible deals.

One of the many perks of solo travel is flexibility.

Flexibility can lead you to score some incredible travel deals.  Google Flights has a great search engine for awesome airfare deals.

Airfare and lodging can take up a huge chunk of your budget, so being able to take advantage of some great deals can lead you to incredible savings.

Savings that can lead you to go on more trips! 

Reflection

Nothing leads to reflection like traveling alone.

Reflection can be so incredibly insightful to personal growth and inner peace.

Traveling has a way of enabling you to evaluate and give serious thought to things going on in your life.

It stretches you outside your comfort zone.

Stretching out of that comfort zone is the key to finding what inspires you, what excites you, and what makes you happy.

Traveling solo allows you to get out of your comfort zone and become the person you were meant to be!

Freedom

So often we put other people’s needs in front of our own.

One of the great reasons to travel alone just once is that we get to do just what we want to do. The freedom of being able to go anywhere. To be able to eat when we want, to change plans on a dime, or to sit and relax. Perhaps it’s a crazy new adventure we want to try.

The freedom of traveling solo gives us the ability to pamper ourselves and just do whatever we want until our heart is content.

Self-discovery

When we travel alone we get to learn so much about ourselves! It’s an excellent time to become the person we want to be and live our best life.

Learning about who we are and what makes us tick is not an easy process for everyone.  When we travel alone we can get to examine the fears and doubts we have as well as our insecurities and our self-imposed limitations. We also get to analyze our dreams, our likes, and what we want out of life.

Only when we can figure out what is holding us back from living our very best life, can we move forward and become the person we want to be.

There is a saying, “ It’s easier to see the picture when you are outside the frame.”

Traveling alone takes us outside our frame and allows us to look in and see the picture of our lives clearly.

Solo travel allows us to regroup and be just who we want to be.

Traveling solo is very empowering.

Is there a better reason than empowerment to travel alone just once in your lifetime?

Who doesn’t want to be stronger, more confident, and in control of your life? Traveling alone empowers you as nothing else can. It changes you for the better.  The strength and confidence that comes from it will completely change your life for the better.

You and only you are in charge of your one, crazy, wild, and fabulous life!

Empowerment is the main ingredient in the recipe of you.

It changes your perspective. 

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Traveling alone at least once in your life will change the way you look at yourself and this beautiful world. 

We see firsthand what a tiny speck we are in this life and how similar we are on the inside. While our appearance, customs, and culture may be very different, we are all basically the same on the inside with the same needs and wants.

Solo travel enables us to see the world and ourselves from a truly different perspective.

You become more assertive.

Traveling solo forces you to become more outgoing and in charge of yourself.

You learn to stand up for yourself and take charge of what you’re doing and where you are going.

With every step you take on your solo trip, you will gain the confidence and the voice to take charge of you.

You’ll meet other people who will inspire you.

Recently while on a hiking trip, I met someone on the trail who really inspired me.

She was what I wanted my future self to be like. She exuded confidence regarding traveling alone, she was full of wonder and excitement about her life. I was in awe of her already designed future trips she was planning for herself.

Meeting inspirational people can open your eyes to things you have never thought of. You will get awesome ideas that will keep you moving in the right direction.

People that inspire us usually have experiences that we don’t have and can provide great insight into what works and what doesn’t. That alone is a great benefit for the person traveling alone.

You get to meet people from all over the world.

One of the greatest gifts of traveling solo is the ability to meet and interact with people from all over the world. 

On a recent trip to Italy, I had the pleasure to meet some pretty incredible people on the train. I made new friends that I still keep in touch with, and met some amazing people from Belarus and Australia, and got to learn so much about them and their culture. 

It was just an incredible and eye-opening experience.

You will thank yourself.

As you get older and look back on your life,  there are definitely some experiences that stand out and you realize what great moments they were and you are so thankful for the experience.

Taking the time to travel alone is going to be one of the memories that you look back on and thank yourself.

Because you always wanted to.

Now is the time to do it! There will never be another today so stop making excuses and start finding reasons why now is the best time to travel by yourself.

You don’t have to travel the world, you can start small and go away for a long weekend. The point is to just do it.

Life is too short. Plan that trip, have that glass of wine, and buy those shoes!

There’s more to life than working 9-5.

Do you ever think to yourself what in the world you are doing with your life and wondering that there has to be more to life than working that 9-5 job?

We work so hard trying to make a good life in hopes of retiring someday and then being able to finally live the lives of our dreams by taking trips and going places we’ve always dreamed of.

What if that never happens?  What if we don’t make it to retirement age or our health fails us? Why can’t we fully enjoy things now?

There are so many remote job opportunities that enable you to work from anywhere in the world.

Even if you are unable to escape the 9-5 job, what about taking the time you do have off and start crossing off the items on your bucket list today?

Solo travel is very liberating.

Living in the moment on your solo trip and the feeling of being independent is one best feeling in the world.

There are so many wonderful reasons to try traveling alone just once, and the better version of you that returns is the best reason of all.

Here is a Pinterest-friendly pic….so you can pin it to your Travel Board!