# Travelling alone



## tvdxer

Over a year ago I made a post about eating alone, and I was pleased to see the the thread bumped a few weeks ago, now with nearly 100 posts. Now I want to propose another question, somewhat similar but also quite different...

How is "solo travel", done for recreational purposes, perceived in your country?  Is it seen as odd or adventurous for an individual to visit some foreign country on his or her own?  Are there differences in how a man travelling alone and a woman travelling alone are viewed?  

In the U.S., it really depends. Business travel done solo is completely normal - nothing odd about that. Recreational travel is something different. On one hand, from looking at the media, internet, etc. it seems totally normal, something many people do, whether to have more freedom exploring new land, for an incentive to meet locals and speak their language, or to "discover themselves". Yet in my own day-to-day experience, people are surprised if they hear me say I went to some city alone or was planning to do so, and when I look at other people's travel pictures on sites like Facebook they are almost always with other friends. So it's kind of a nuanced situation I think.

How about in your country?


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## sokol

Travelling alone - not only business, but private holidays too - is completely normal here in Austria.

However, apart from business travels most people tend to travel in couples or pairs or groups - most people think that they would have less fun if travelling alone, and they do think so of themselves and of others too.
(Meaning: it could happen that you tell someone you're flying to Island, alone, and that you get answers like 'Oh, so none of your friends wanted to travel with you' or similar.)

Further, there's a difference in the perception of men and women travelling alone in countries considered dangerous: if a man were to travel alone to Irak he might be seen as 'adventurous' and 'risking his life', a woman doing exactly the same mit be seen as 'irresponsible' and 'risking her life'.
So, no big difference, but _some._


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## sureño

Traveling alone is seen as a bit odd if it’s for recreational purposes here.
The first thing that people think is whether the person traveling is a poor guy who doesn’t get even a friend who accompany his/her, or the person is a hermit.


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## Alice.F

sureño said:


> Traveling alone is seen as a bit odd if it’s for recreational purposes here.
> The first thing that people think is whether the person traveling is a poor guy who doesn’t get even a friend who accompany his/her, or the person is a hermit.


 
Same here in Italy. Althought if the person is a woman, she could be seen as a libertine sometimes


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## AntonyM

So... I have the dream of an extended solo walking trip in Italy. Solo. Alone. I hope to speak lots of Italian and talk with many locals. I am married (my wife will join me later) and I have plenty of friends. But is someone walking along the paths and smaller roads of Italy a freak?


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## troncomóvil

I can tell you that travelling alone in spain is seen as odd among young people, although many people here think that it is a matter of boldness.


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## gurseal

tvdxer said:


> How is "solo travel", done for recreational purposes, perceived in your country? Is it seen as odd or adventurous for an individual to visit some foreign country on his or her own? Are there differences in how a man travelling alone and a woman travelling alone are viewed?


 
Some introverts probably wouldn't see this as odd, and the adventure would probably have to do more with dealing with the reactions of family and friends than with surviving the travel.


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## Wobby

Like *gurseal* said, it could just be an introvert/extrovert thing, where introverts are likely to prefer to be more independent at times. Or, if you wanted to travel the world, your friends may not be able to afford to go with you or may be busy, and you might rather not go with family, because it would seem more likely a family holiday than exploration. Adventurous, perhaps, but I wouldn't say strange. It depends a bit on age as well, because you would not exactly be surprised to see a teenager or older walking on their own, but for anyone much younger, you would wonder where their parents are. If it were a particularly young woman, you might be more inclined to see it as perhaps a little precarious, but if it were an adult woman, you may just think she is just an independent career woman.


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## alexacohen

troncomóvil said:


> I can tell you that travelling alone in Spain is seen as odd among young people, although many people here think that it is a matter of boldness.


It is not seen as strange or unusual in Spain, unless travelling solo through some remote back of the outback.

What do we do, now?


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## mirx

Completely out of the question if you are Mexican travelling within México, completely acceptable for foreigners in México, that is non-Mexicans, or for Mexicans travelling abroad.


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## gurseal

mirx said:


> Completely out of the question if you are Mexican travelling within México, completely acceptable for foreigners in México, that is non-Mexicans, or for Mexicans travelling abroad.


mirx, care to explain why?


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## federicoft

AntonyM said:


> So... I have the dream of an extended solo walking trip in Italy. Solo. Alone. I hope to speak lots of Italian and talk with many locals. I am married (my wife will join me later) and I have plenty of friends. But is someone walking along the paths and smaller roads of Italy a freak?



I'm sure most people here would consider it as an erratic way of travelling.

They couldn't infer you are alone though. They would guess you have decided to take a separate trip from the rest of your group, or your wife is slightly ill and decided to remain at the hotel for that day, or whatever else people fancy in this kind of situations. 

If you tell them explicitly you are travelling alone to a country which is 3,000 km far from your home, that's quite another matter.


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## TraductoraPobleSec

Alice.F said:


> Same here in Italy. Althought if the person is a woman, she could be seen as a libertine sometimes


 
Guarda cara che io ho percorso la tua bellissima isola da sola parecchie volte  What I've surely noticed is that Italians do never travel alone. I worked as a tourist guide here in Barcelona for some years and, during that long period, I only met an Italian person (a man) traveling by himself once.



troncomóvil said:


> I can tell you that travelling alone in spain is seen as odd among young people, although many people here think that it is a matter of boldness.


 
I don't know whether I agree with you. I am a Catalan and do it all the time. I know of others that do it, too. Nowadays we are all busy engaged with our jobs and personal lives and sometimes it is hard to find a time of the year that suits a bunch of friends to travel together. I rather travel alone than stay at home because I have not found anyone whose vacation time coincided with mine.


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## mirx

gurseal said:


> mirx, care to explain why?


 
Gurseal.

I forgot to clarify that I meant people travelling alone on leisure. If the purpose is business or other matter (medical, religious, visiting relatives) then it's ok. 

Why you asked?
I don't exactly know why, it is seen as a bit freaky that one is alone in those kind of situations. I for one don't know of anyone who goes to the beach all by himself. We are still a somehow conservative country in many aspects. I was just thinking that it aslo depends hugely on the place you are travelling to, if you go to towns you will most definitely be interrogated as to why you are there, in a friendly manner I mean, people feel curious about strangers in town. If you go to cities people won't even bother.

What I meant by "out of the question", was from a lone-treveller's friends point of view, your friends will ask you why, why there, why not wait until someone else is available, ect.

Regards.


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## gurseal

mirx, thanks for the clarification.

On the issue of non-beach travel, I once traveled alone to Mexico City because I wanted a few days of sorely lacking immersion.   In keeping with that, I stayed at a hotel where, it turns out, there were only Spanish speakers, and the hotel was more than a mile from the Antropológico and the Zócalo.  I did a lot of walking and getting turned around (lost), but the result is that should I return to stay in Juárez, I will probably find it easier to find my way around.

The only English I spoke was during a 5-minute conversation with a teacher, from the neighboring state of Mexico, who wanted to practice.  She approached me as I was leaving the National Museum of Anthropology, which I didn't get to finish visiting because of its size.

Now I have at least two reasons to return _alone_: one of them is to revisit and "finishing" visiting that particular museum; the other one is to familiarize myself with another area of the city.

Also in keeping with the immersion, the hotel was in an area whose theme was auto repair, auto parts, auto dealers (well, I only saw a Chevrolet dealership), and I learned a little of that theme's lenguaje as I strolled the colonia's streets.  There was a funeral home across the street from the hotel, but I resisted the urge to act on curiosity (Does this seem weird or morbid?).  I got tired of watching from my hotel window to see if there would be a procession on foot behind the hearst similar to what I had seen years ago in Granada City, Spain.

As for culture and Mexican icons, the flying men (I don't remember their group name) put on a show outside the museum.  I previously had not known of their existence.  Hah!  My niece and nephew saw the same group later, but only in an educational video in their Spanish class. The sidewalks occasionally buckled, but not because of the growth of tree roots!!!  They were, I think, a sobering reminder of that 80s earthquake.


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## Alxmrphi

I'm currently travelling in Australia now, I couldn't come alone, I thought I could but I was lucky enough to find someone who also wanted to travel with me.

While here however, nearly all the people we've met have been travelling alone, we've moved in with 3 people in a long term accomodation stay and they were all travelling alone.

A lot of late-night hostel chats give many different individual reasons for this but oh my god I just couldn't leave and do anything by myself, no-one to laugh with, to feel secure around, to rely on, it'd be so weird and creepy.

But it seems a lot of people do like to travel alone, and then meet up with a lot of other travellers and have good friendships, I don't understand it, only met 1 English person travelling alone, I haven't met any Spaniards or Italians, they really do go in secluded groups I think, as they don't really seem to socialise with the Dutch/Germans and English, about 90% of the people I've met in my months away.

I don't think we think it's "odd" just very bold to do so, I'll ask around and hopefully get a better insight from solo travellers and post it back here.


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## alexacohen

Alex_Murphy said:


> (...) I haven't met any Spaniards or Italians, they really do go in secluded groups I think, as they don't really seem to socialise with the Dutch/Germans and English,


Spaniards do travel alone. A lot, but possibly not through Australia. But there are lots of Spaniards travelling through Europe on their own. 
And Latin America.


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## troncomóvil

alexacohen said:
			
		

> It is not seen as strange or unusual in Spain, unless travelling solo through some remote back of the outback.
> 
> What do we do, now?


Nice point of view, but we are approaching the issue from different perspectives.  As I said, travelling solo is perceived as odd amoung young people, let's say 20-30 years old.  One possible theory is that as you grow older in life, the possibilities of sharing free time among partners and friends usually decrease.  Which motivates to consider travelling alone.  
As for the spanish case, this can also be true since we are a society which is not characterized for being typically individualistic.



			
				TraductoraPobleSec said:
			
		

> I don't know whether I agree with you. I am a Catalan and do it all the time. I know of others that do it, too. Nowadays we are all busy engaged with our jobs and personal lives and sometimes it is hard to find a time of the year that suits a bunch of friends to travel together. I rather travel alone than stay at home because I have not found anyone whose vacation time coincided with mine.


I agree with your motivations to travel alone, but again I think that among young people it is seen rather strange.  
Again, I think it is a mix of both:
a) a matter of life complexity which permits to have more spare time in common among young people.
b) the cultural traits of the spanish society which is regarded as little individualistic.


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## MayeH

That's an interesting conversation! 
It is not seen as odd or weird to travel alone in Belgium. It might be less common for girls to travel alone, but in both cases (boys and girls), I think it would be seen as adventurous people in search of a new challenge! Moreover people traveling alone quickly meet other loners in backpackers or hostels and will not stay alone for a very long time. 
Where I live now (Pretoria - SA), traveling alone is really unusual, although sometimes done by foreigners (who would stick to backpackers and "organized" travel - no hitchhiking!)


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## alexacohen

troncomóvil said:


> Nice point of view, but we are approaching the issue from different perspectives. As I said, travelling solo is perceived as odd amoung young people, let's say 20-30 years old. One possible theory is that as you grow older in life, the possibilities of sharing free time among partners and friends usually decrease. Which motivates to consider travelling alone.


No, we are approaching the issue from a _personal _point of view. Because I have travelled alone through Europe when I was twenty, twenty-one, thirty (I'm sooo old, you see), and so did my sisters, my cousins, my friends, my workmates, my fellow students at the University, and now their children.

Being able to travel alone means freedom. I've found many Spaniards travelling alone, and no one has ever thought we were _odd_.


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## fIvaNNa

In my country and countries in the region it is not really accepted travelling alone. As I read some threads here, somebody mentioned that sometimes, even if you don't want to go alone, you can't find people who are available and can afford the trip. So i think it's better to go somewhere, than stay home. For me, personally it's not odd travelling alone, but it is not really pleasant all the time. There are situations when you want to go to some concert or some performance, where you see a group of friends, drinking, having fun, and on the other side you alone
So people from here usually go travelling with somebody.


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## shaloo

Travelling alone for recreational purposes is not a popular idea here in India.
Even if its for the sake of adventure, a couple or a group of friends, pairs might go together.
And travelling with family happens a lot when we visit historical places or temple towns (there are tonnes of them in India!)

Travelling alone isnt considered a very great idea here. It might pick up in future, though.


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## Tezzaluna

I have raised more than one eyebrow when I've told people that I spent the greater part of June 2007 in France by myself.  I don't think it was because I was woman traveling to Europe by myself, but rather because it was ME...That was very uncharacteristic of me.

However, en route and there, no one even gave me a second glance.

Cheers!

Tezza


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## Mate

*Moderator note*: 

This is, indeed, a very interesting thread which has to be closed since most of the last messages are mainly personal anecdotes and fail to address the original question. 

Thank you for your understanding.


Mateamargo
Moderator


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