This topic has been done to death but I though I’d have a crack at it once again based on my recent experiences having a friend with me for the past month and a bit.
- Sense of accomplishment – There’s something to be said for being able to handle yourself in a foreign land and meeting each day’s challenges can leave you with a great sense of accomplishment. My friend has worked as a tour guide for a couple of years and is more of a leader type than I am so I tend to let her take the lead most of the time. It suits me just fine (I’d organise everything and she’d get it done) but I sometimes miss the challenge of working things out for myself.
- Time to myself – I haven’t had any time to myself over the past few weeks and I’ve missed it. I’m happy in my own company and can spend hours on solo hobbies or just chilling out. My friend is the complete opposite and has no hobbies that don’t involve sports and gets bored if she doesn’t have other people around. Going solo means I can have my alone time without feeling guilty.
- Get to decide my own timeline – Deciding what we wanted to do each day was never an issue since I’m prety laid back about that sort of thing but the pace at which we did things would often lead to us both becoming frustrated. I’m a big fan of slow travel, I love my sleep, and I’m not too bothered if I miss out on a so-called ‘must see’ attraction. My friend is the type who wants to get up super early and cram as much in as possible which meant that I was often either dragging her down or being dragged along.
- Healthy living – When I travel alone I’m less likely to be lured out on the booze every night and more likely to eat well. I have a very twisty arm and travelling with a partner in crime means that we both tend to lead the other astray.
Despite my love of travelling solo, I really loved having my friend around and I’ll highlight some of the reasons why in my next post. Stay tuned!
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