The Downsides To Solo Travel That No One Will Tell You About.

Editor’s Note: This editorial draws on more than 25 years of independent travel, first-hand experience and publicly documented evidence and regulatory changes. Many of these editorials were written years before the issues became mainstream, and have been updated to reflect current developments while remaining true to their original arguments.

Solo travel is one of the best ways to explore the world, and after more than twenty-five years of travelling independently across well over 150 countries, I still believe everyone should try it at least once.

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

Like anything worthwhile, solo travel comes with challenges as well as rewards. Most people spend so much time talking about the freedom, confidence and unforgettable experiences that they forget to mention the difficult moments too.

That’s a mistake.

Understanding those downsides doesn’t make solo travel less appealing. It makes it easier to prepare for them, easier to recognise them when they happen, and much easier to realise they are a normal part of the experience rather than a sign you’ve made the wrong decision.

You Will Spend Time Alone

Yes, I know, that is kind of the entire bloody point of solo travel, but there is quite often this view that as soon as you start travelling solo that you are in a race to meet people, and so many people still view being alone as a negative when it really, really shouldn’t be!

It is absolutely true that you will meet plenty of other people on your travels, you really will. All the other posts where I have talked about how easy it is to meet people when travelling alone weren’t exaggerating, they were absolutely true. The problem arises when people start travelling solo thinking the entire objective is to meet as many people as possible as quickly as possible. It isn’t. Not at all.

Yes, you will meet other backpackers and locals and you’ll inevitably spend time with them when you want or need to, but you’ll also inevitably spend time by yourself too.

But that isn’t a bad thing. In fact, by seeing it in the negative you are missing one of the great benefits of solo travel. Learning to be comfortable in your own company is one of the greatest lessons travelling alone can teach you. It builds a quiet confidence and self-reliance that stays with you long after the trip itself is over, and you’ll probably be surprised by just how much you enjoy those quieter moments once you stop trying to avoid them.

Take that time where you are alone and use it well. Wander through a city with no real plan, sit in a café watching the world go by, read a book in a quiet square or simply enjoy the fact that you don’t have to compromise with anyone else’s plans for a change. That freedom is part of what makes solo travel so special.

Too many people spend their lives trying to avoid being alone, constantly filling every spare moment with noise, distractions or other people. You don’t have to. Sure, it’s great spending time with other people, but what is the point if you can’t enjoy spending time with yourself too?

Modern life rarely gives us that opportunity. Solo travel does.

You Will Get Lonely

There is a huge difference between being alone and being lonely. A huge difference. And it is something people need to understand before they set off on their solo adventure.

This is one of the genuine downsides to travelling solo. You will get a little lonely from time to time, and when you do it is never particularly pleasant. Remember though that this is completely normal and can happen just as easily at home. We are human after all, and most of us are social creatures. It is almost inevitable on any long-term trip or gap year, but it is important to remember that it won’t be all of the time.

The important thing is not to mistake a temporary feeling for a permanent problem. Every long-term traveller has days when they miss home, miss familiar faces or simply wish they had someone to share the day with. Those moments pass, often much more quickly than you think.

When you feel like you need a bit of company or someone else to talk to other than the voices in your head, do something about it. Say hello to someone in your hostel, join a walking tour or organise dinner with a few other travellers. Call home or arrange a video chat with friends or family. Backpacking isn’t like it was twenty-five years ago when you had to hunt down an internet café or queue to make an international phone call. Staying connected with the people you care about has never been easier.

The irony is that the people who are happiest travelling alone are often the ones who make friends most easily. They aren’t desperately looking for company because they’re afraid of being by themselves. They simply enjoy meeting people when the opportunity naturally arises.

So enjoy the times where you are alone, but take steps to avoid being lonely too.

You Will Wish You Could Share Some Of Those Experiences

At some point during your travels, this will happen. You’ll find yourself standing in front of an incredible view, watching an unforgettable sunset or stumbling across one of those wonderfully unexpected travel moments and instinctively thinking, I wish they were here to see this.

That reaction is completely normal. Human beings are wired to share positive experiences with the people they care about. Psychologists have long recognised that sharing good news or meaningful experiences with someone else actually helps us relive them and often makes them feel even more rewarding. That’s why one of your first instincts after something amazing happens is usually to reach for your phone and tell somebody about it.

Solo travel doesn’t change that instinct.

The good news is that it probably won’t happen as often as you think. You’ll meet other travellers along the way and quite often end up sharing incredible experiences with people you’ve only known for a few hours or a few days. Some of my favourite travel memories involve complete strangers whose paths happened to cross with mine for a brief moment before we all carried on in different directions again. Backpackers are generally a friendly bunch, so don’t be afraid to go over and say hello.

There will still be occasions, though, when you wish somebody specific was standing beside you. A partner, a close friend, a parent or another loved one back home. Those moments can be bittersweet, but they don’t have to diminish the experience.

Instead of focusing on who isn’t there, immerse yourself in the moment. Put the camera away for a minute, stop worrying about taking the perfect photograph and simply experience what is in front of you. Those are often the moments that stay with you the longest, precisely because you allowed yourself to be fully present rather than seeing everything through a screen.

When you do speak to the people back home, you’ll find that sharing the story afterwards can be just as meaningful. They may not have been standing next to you when it happened, but they’ll still be delighted that you experienced it. More often than not, the people who love you aren’t wishing they were there instead of you. They’re simply happy that you were brave enough to go and experience it in the first place.

You Will Miss Your Loved Ones

Often this goes hand in hand with those moments where you feel a little lonely. At some point during your travels you’ll miss your parents, your friends, your partner or even your dog. Especially your dog, because dog cuddles really are awesome.

It happens, and it happens to almost everyone. There isn’t really all that much you can do about it because it’s simply part of being human. If you care about the people in your life, of course you’re going to miss them when you’re on the other side of the world. That doesn’t mean you’ve made the wrong decision or that solo travel isn’t for you, it just means those relationships matter.

The important thing to remember is that the feeling comes and goes. There will be days when you’re so busy exploring somewhere new that it barely crosses your mind, and there will be evenings when something reminds you of home and you wish you could spend an hour catching up with the people you love. Both are completely normal.

Thankfully, staying in touch is easier than it has ever been. Arrange the occasional video call, send photos of where you are or share the ridiculous story about the overnight bus that broke down in the middle of nowhere. At the same time, don’t forget to ask what’s happening back home too. Relationships work both ways, and keeping up with the lives of the people you care about helps you feel connected even when you’re thousands of miles away.

Like everything else, there is a balance to strike. Stay in touch, but don’t spend so much time living your life through a screen that you forget to enjoy the adventure unfolding right in front of you. The people who love you want to hear your stories, but more than anything they’ll be glad you’re out there creating them.

Unfortunately, no one has yet invented anything that can replace a dog cuddle. Scientists really need to get on that.

You Will Have To Eat Alone, And It Is Hard… At First

A big part of travelling the world by yourself is that, at some point, you’ll have to eat. Alone. You’ll walk into a restaurant, ask for a table for one and immediately become convinced that everyone in the room has stopped what they’re doing to stare at you.

They haven’t.

Honestly, this is one of the biggest hurdles for first-time solo travellers, and almost all of it happens inside your own head. Psychologists even have a name for it: the spotlight effect. We naturally assume other people notice us far more than they actually do, when in reality they’re usually far too busy thinking about themselves, their own conversations or what they’re having for dinner to pay you the slightest bit of attention.

The first meal can feel awkward. The second is a little easier. By the third or fourth you’ll wonder why you were worried in the first place.

The truth is nobody really cares that you’re eating alone. If they notice you at all, they’ll probably forget about you again five seconds later. And on the rare occasion someone does notice, they’re just as likely to be thinking good for them as they are anything else.

Once you get over that initial mental hurdle, eating alone becomes one of the unexpected pleasures of solo travel. You get to order exactly what you want, eat where you want, stay for as long as you like and never have to negotiate over where to go. Fancy dessert? Have dessert. Fancy ordering three local dishes because you can’t decide? Go for it. Nobody is judging you except yourself.

It’s also one of the best ways to slow down and absorb the place you’re visiting. Sit outside if you can. Watch the city go about its day. Listen to conversations you can’t understand, watch families interact, notice how people order, eat and socialise. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about a destination simply by sitting quietly over a meal and paying attention.

The only genuine downside comes in food courts, where you suddenly discover that having nobody to guard your table while you collect your food is a surprisingly significant logistical problem. Apparently looming over somebody and silently willing them to finish their lunch isn’t considered acceptable behaviour. Not that I’ve ever tried that, obviously. Jus learn the old packet of tissues on the table method.

You Will Get Bored

Let’s admit the big one here.

You’re travelling the world, visiting places most people only ever dream about, seeing incredible landscapes, exploring ancient cities and eating amazing food. You’ve invested all that time, money and effort into the adventure of a lifetime, so how on earth can you possibly get bored?

The simple answer is because you’re human.

Travel isn’t one long highlight reel, despite what carefully curated social media feeds would have you believe. There is a lot of ordinary life in between those extraordinary moments. You’ll spend hours on buses, trains and ferries, wait around in airports, do laundry, figure out public transport, get caught in the rain and occasionally have entire days where nothing particularly exciting happens.

That can come as a surprise at first. When people imagine travelling the world they picture standing on mountain summits, wandering through ancient temples or watching spectacular sunsets. They don’t imagine spending half a day waiting for a delayed bus or trying to find somewhere that will wash their clothes. The reality is that travel, particularly long-term travel, is still life. It just happens to take place in some incredible locations.

I’ve lost count of the number of travellers I’ve met who started feeling guilty because they weren’t excited every minute of every day. They thought something was wrong because paradise had somehow become… well… normal.

Nothing was wrong at all. In fact, what they were were experiencing was something psychologists call hedonic adaptation. Put simply, human beings naturally become accustomed to even the most exciting experiences over time. The first sunset over a tropical beach might leave you speechless. By the twentieth, you’ll probably still appreciate how beautiful it is, but it won’t create quite the same emotional reaction because your brain has adjusted to it. That isn’t a failure, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’ve fallen out of love with travelling. It’s simply how we’re wired.

Understanding that is incredibly liberating because it removes the guilt. You stop expecting every day to be life-changing and start appreciating travel for what it really is: a mixture of extraordinary moments and perfectly ordinary ones. In many ways that’s exactly why long-term travel feels less like a holiday and more like real life, just in constantly changing surroundings.

The trick isn’t to fight that feeling, it’s to respond to it. If you’ve spent weeks lying on tropical beaches, head for the mountains. If you’ve been racing through cities ticking landmarks off a list, slow down and stay somewhere for a week instead. If you’ve been constantly sightseeing, give yourself permission to have a day where you don’t do anything at all. One of the greatest freedoms of solo travel is that you never have to justify changing your plans to anyone else.

Use those quieter days well. Read the book that’s been sitting in your backpack for weeks. Learn a few words of the local language. Sit in a café and watch the world go by. Wander aimlessly through neighbourhoods that aren’t in the guidebook. Or, if you’re completely exhausted, book yourself a private room, sit around in your pants and binge-watch something utterly mindless for an evening. There are no rules.

Ironically, those quieter days often become some of the most valuable. They give you time to recharge, reflect on everything you’ve experienced and rediscover your curiosity before heading off on the next adventure. Once you stop feeling guilty about being bored every now and then, you’ll often find that boredom disappears altogether, replaced by an appreciation for the slower moments that make the extraordinary ones stand out all over again.

Not Everyone Will Understand

It’s true. Not everyone will understand why you want to travel the world on your own, and that’s perfectly okay.

At some point you’ll tell somebody about your plans and they’ll look at you as though you’ve just announced you’re selling all your possessions to go and live on the moon. They’ll ask why you’re travelling alone, whether it’s safe, why you don’t just wait until someone else can come with you or why you can’t simply go on a normal holiday instead.

Some people will genuinely be curious. Others will quietly think you’ve lost the plot.

The important thing to remember is that most of those reactions have very little to do with you.

Human beings naturally compare other people’s choices against their own view of what is normal. Most people build their lives around careers, mortgages, relationships, families and the occasional annual holiday. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but when somebody chooses a different path, particularly one that involves travelling solo or taking a gap year, it challenges those assumptions. For some people that’s inspiring. For others it’s uncomfortable.

That discomfort often comes out as criticism, scepticism or endless warnings about everything that might go wrong. Sometimes people are genuinely worried because they care about you. Sometimes they’re simply projecting their own fears because they can’t imagine doing what you’re about to do.

You’ll also find yourself under surprising pressure to justify your decision. People will ask why you’re going, why you’re going alone, whether it’s safe, how you can afford it, whether you’ll get lonely and a hundred other questions as though you’ve somehow made a life choice that requires public approval.

Here’s the thing though.

What has it got to do with them and who the hell are they to judge?

You don’t owe anyone an explanation for how you choose to live your life. If travelling the world is something you’ve worked hard for, dreamed about and decided is right for you, that is all the justification you’ll ever need. Other people’s expectations of how your life should look are exactly that. Their expectations, not yours. That makes them irrelevant.

I also found there was a strange double standard as a solo male traveller. Mention you were heading off to Thailand on your own and you’d often be met with raised eyebrows or some fairly insulting assumptions about why you were going. It says far more about the person making those assumptions than it ever does about the person buying the ticket.

The funny thing is that many of the people who questioned your decision before you left will often be the first to tell you how amazing your adventures looked when you get home. Some will even admit they wish they’d done something similar themselves.

So let them think you’re weird if they want to.

While they’re busy thinking of you all the reasons you shouldn’t go, you’ll be wandering through ancient cities, climbing mountains, watching the sun rise over places they’ve only ever seen on television and collecting stories you’ll still be telling decades from now. Chances are they’ll still be sitting in the same office, in the same town they’ve never left, wondering what it would have been like if they’d been brave enough to do the same.

Frankly, I know which side of that equation I’d rather be on.

You Will Say Goodbye… A Lot

One of the greatest joys of solo travel is the people you’ll meet along the way. Sometimes you’ll share a drink in a hostel bar and never see each other again. Sometimes you’ll spend a few days exploring a city together before heading in opposite directions. Every now and then you’ll meet someone you’ll end up travelling with for weeks, and occasionally you’ll make friends you’ll still be speaking to years later.

There is something very different about the friendships you make on the road. You’re not spending months gradually getting to know someone through work or your normal routine. You’re sharing new countries, unfamiliar cultures, missed trains, terrible overnight buses, unforgettable sunsets and all the highs and lows that come with travelling. Experiences accelerate friendships, and it’s amazing how quickly somebody you met three days ago can feel like someone you’ve known for years.

The downside is that travel is built around movement. Everyone is following their own route, their own budget and their own timetable. Eventually somebody’s visa runs out, somebody books a flight, somebody heads north while you’re heading south, and your paths separate. It isn’t anybody’s fault, it’s simply the nature of travel.

At first, constantly saying goodbye can be surprisingly difficult. There will be people you genuinely wish you could have travelled with for longer, and there will be evenings when waving goodbye at a bus station or airport is a little harder than you expected. You quickly realise that one of the prices of constantly meeting amazing people is constantly having to leave them behind again.

Over time, though, your perspective changes. You begin to realise that not every friendship has to last a lifetime to be important. Some people come into your life for a few hours, a few days or a few weeks, but they still leave a lasting impression. They become part of your story, just as you become part of theirs, and the fact that those friendships were temporary doesn’t make them any less meaningful.

Of course, not every goodbye is forever. Keeping in touch has never been easier, and you’ll probably end up with friends scattered all over the world. Some you’ll meet up with again years later, some you’ll exchange the occasional message with, and some will quietly drift away as life moves on. That’s perfectly normal too.

The important thing is not to let the knowledge that you’ll eventually have to say goodbye stop you from saying hello in the first place. Some of the best friendships you’ll ever make begin with nothing more than someone asking if the seat next to you is free or whether you fancy grabbing a beer.

That’s the deal with solo travel. People come into your life, share a tiny piece of your journey and then disappear off to continue writing their own story. Some you’ll meet again years later. Some you’ll exchange the occasional message with. Some you’ll never hear from again.

And that’s okay.

That’s one of the beautiful contradictions of solo travel. You set off on your own expecting the experience to be about independence, only to discover that so much of it is actually about the people you meet along the way.

So don’t be afraid of the goodbyes. They’re simply proof that saying hello was worth it.

It Can Be More Expensive

Let’s be honest about this one because it is a perfectly reasonable concern. Travelling alone can sometimes cost more. If you’re booking a private room, hiring a guide, taking a taxi or renting a car, there isn’t anyone to split the bill with. In some destinations you’ll also come across single supplements, where hotels or tour operators charge solo travellers more simply because there isn’t a second person sharing the cost.

That sounds far worse than it usually is.

The reality is that those additional costs only affect certain parts of your trip, not every part of it. Accommodation is often the biggest example, but even then the difference is frequently much smaller than people expect. Tours can often be joined as part of a group, public transport is almost always cheaper than private transport, and it is incredibly common for solo travellers to team up for a day or two to share the cost of taxis, guides or excursions. After a while you’ll probably find yourself doing this almost without thinking.

There is another side to the equation that rarely gets talked about, and in many ways it is the more important one. Travelling with somebody else doesn’t automatically mean better value. Yes, you might save money by splitting the cost of a hotel room, but you also spend a surprising amount of money compromising. You stay in a nicer hotel because that’s what your travel companion wants. You eat in restaurants outside your budget because they fancy it. You pay for attractions that don’t really interest you because they’re on somebody else’s itinerary, or you skip experiences you were genuinely excited about because somebody else isn’t.

When you travel alone, every penny you spend goes towards something that matters to you. Every decision is yours. If you’d rather stay in a cheap hostel so you can afford a scuba diving trip, you can. If you’d rather spend more on incredible local food than on luxury accommodation, that’s your choice. You’re never paying for somebody else’s priorities, which often means solo travel represents far better value, even if a handful of individual expenses cost a little more.

It is also worth asking yourself what the real cost actually is. I’ve met countless people over the years who postponed travelling because they were waiting for a friend to save enough money, waiting for a partner to get enough annual leave or waiting for someone else to decide they finally wanted to go. Months quietly became years, and years became decades, all because they were waiting for somebody else’s circumstances to line up with their own.

Seen in that light, paying a little extra here and there for the privilege of travelling on your own terms doesn’t seem quite so expensive. The occasional single supplement or taxi fare is easy to calculate. The cost of putting your dreams on hold for years while you wait for somebody else is much harder to measure, and far greater in the long run.

It Is Scary

Let’s not pretend otherwise. For many people, the idea of travelling on their own for the first time is genuinely scary. It is one of the biggest reasons people never take that first trip, because the thought of arriving in a foreign country alone, navigating unfamiliar places and relying entirely on yourself can feel intimidating when you’ve never done it before.

The problem is that fear has very little to work with except imagination. Before you’ve travelled solo, your brain fills in all the blanks itself. What if I get lost? What if I don’t meet anyone? What if something goes wrong? What if I can’t cope? Because you don’t yet have any experience to balance those questions, every unknown starts to feel like a potential disaster.

That’s completely normal.

Psychologists have known for decades that uncertainty amplifies fear. When we don’t know what to expect, our brains naturally imagine worst-case scenarios because they are trying to protect us from potential threats. The irony is that those imagined situations are almost always far worse than the reality. Once you’ve experienced something once, it stops being an unknown, and the fear attached to it usually shrinks dramatically.

That doesn’t mean everything will go perfectly. You’ll probably miss a bus, take a wrong turn, misunderstand directions or have the occasional day where nothing seems to go according to plan. Every experienced traveller has. The difference is that you’ll also discover something equally important: you’re capable of dealing with those situations. You ask somebody for help, you adapt, you solve the problem and you carry on.

That is where confidence actually comes from.

It doesn’t appear before your first solo trip. It isn’t something a handful of naturally adventurous people are born with either. Confidence is built afterwards, through experience, by repeatedly discovering that you can cope with situations that once seemed intimidating. The first time you do something alone it feels daunting. The tenth time you barely think about it.

That’s why the idea of solo travel is often far scarier than solo travel itself. Once the unknown becomes familiar, most of the fear disappears with it. What felt overwhelming before you left home gradually becomes part of your normal routine, and before long you’ll find yourself doing things without a second thought that once seemed completely outside your comfort zone.

Solo travel is scary at first. There is no point pretending otherwise. The mistake is assuming that feeling scared means you shouldn’t do it, when more often than not it simply means you’re about to discover you’re capable of far more than you thought.

The Downsides Are Worth It

None of this is meant to put you off travelling solo. Quite the opposite. Every one of these downsides is real, and almost every solo traveller will experience at least some of them. You’ll feel lonely from time to time, you’ll miss the people you love, you’ll occasionally question yourself, you’ll say goodbye to some incredible people and there will almost certainly be moments where you wish somebody special was standing beside you to share an unforgettable experience.

That’s the reality of travelling alone.

The mistake is assuming those moments define the experience. They don’t.

They are simply the price of admission to something extraordinary.

The confidence you gain from solving problems on your own, the friendships you make with people from every corner of the world, the freedom to follow your own curiosity wherever it leads and the quiet satisfaction of realising you’re capable of far more than you ever imagined all outweigh those occasional difficult moments many times over. In fact, many of the downsides in this article are simply the other side of the same coin. You miss people because you care about them. Saying goodbye hurts because the friendships mattered. Travelling alone feels daunting because you’re doing something unfamiliar. Every challenge you overcome becomes another reason you’ll look back on your journey with pride.

Solo travel isn’t perfect, and neither should it be. The very things that make it difficult from time to time are often the same things that make it so rewarding. If everything always felt easy, comfortable and predictable, you probably wouldn’t come home having grown very much at all.

So don’t wait until the timing is perfect, until somebody else can come with you or until you finally feel completely ready. If you do that, you’ll probably still be waiting years from now. Book the ticket, embrace the uncertainty and take that first step, because the hardest part of solo travel is almost always making the decision to go.

More than twenty-five years and over 150 countries later, I can honestly say that deciding to travel solo remains one of the best decisions I have ever made. It changed the way I see the world, but more importantly it changed the way I see myself.

I hope, one day, you’ll be able to say exactly the same.