independent travel

How to Meet People When You’re Traveling Solo

by Ekua on October 10, 2011 · 8 comments in d.i.y. travel,listastic,solo travel

I tried to play it cool at the beginning of my first big solo trip, but I was pretty nervous about the whole thing.  While I value my alone time, I can also be a very social person. Going into that trip, I was worried that I wouldn’t meet anyone that I would click with and that I could have a lonely month ahead of me. Once I arrived, however, it wasn’t long until I found myself meeting all kinds of new people and forgetting all about how fearful I was at the beginning of it.

A few months ago, I wrote a post entitled 7 Reasons to Work Up the Nerve to Travel Solo. One of the reasons I offered was “To meet people you would never otherwise meet,” one of the aspects of solo travel I enjoy the most. To me, making great connections when I go abroad on my own now seems like a given, but I definitely remember what it felt like to be unaware of the possibilities you can open yourself up to when you travel solo.

In a series that aims to give people the courage to try solo travel, ideas on ways to ensure that you make friends along the way seemed like the best fit for the second post. Here are my suggestions for making your solo trip a very social trip:

» Stay in hostels.

You are undoubtedly going to meet more people if you stay in communal accommodations. When you’re by yourself, hostels provide you with several other people who are doing the same thing and a set up that makes it easier to connect with those people. I prefer smaller hostels rather than larger ones because the atmosphere tends to be more homey and community oriented. You’re likely to meet more people in hostel if you stay in a large room with a lot of bunks, but if you’re not interested in that, quite a few have smaller and single rooms available if you book in advance.

» Travel slowly.

Flitting about from place to place is sometimes necessary, but meeting new people is much easier if you stay in one place for as long as you can. The longer you stay, the more likely locals and expats will want to invest their time in getting to know you because they’ll see that you’re not just passing through. When you establish yourself at wherever you’re sleeping, you’ll begin to feel comfortable and that will lead to easy conversation with other people who are staying there. Traveling slowly also allows for time to do things like taking classes or working on an organic farm which will further enable you to meet new people.

» Become a regular.

When I stay in one city or town for five days or more, I find a spot I like (usually a cafe) and go there regularly. This is a great way to connect with the staff and also to meet locals who stop by daily. I find that eventually (if not immediately), they’ll be curious about you and strike up a conversation with you.

» Network online before you go.

I’ve made some great real life connections through travel blogging. If you read someone’s blog and enjoy it, chances are that the person will make a good tour guide or show you to really cool spots if you end up in their town. Of course, when it comes to meeting up with bloggers, it’s really helpful if you have your own online presence so that the other person feels comfortable with meeting up with you.

And of course, there’s Couchsurfing. I’ve never been active on it, but I know a lot of frequent solo travelers live by it and regularly use it to stay with and/or meet people wherever they go.

» Be open and bold.

There are often times when the people I deem to be unlikely friends at first glance turn out to be some of the most fascinating individuals once I get to know them. So even if there’s a big age gap, cultural difference or other seemingly huge difference, try breaking out of the boundaries that you inadvertently set for yourself at home. The more open you are, the better your chances will be of meeting people you really connect with.

People may approach you, especially if you’re smiling and look happy to be wherever you are, but sometimes you have to begin the conversation. With fellow travelers, the classic coversation starter is, “Where are you from?” It’s super generic, but it gets a conversation going, especially because über-travelers love to chat about places.

» Join a short tour.

Joining up with a tour group for a day or a week is a good way to make insta-friends and take a break from making your own arrangements. Tours often get a bad rap because of those gigantic ones that cart you around constantly and never give you enough time to really experience a location. They’re not all like that; there are plenty of them that arrange your transport and accommodations while leaving you free to do what you wish during the day. There are a lot of places that are really easy to travel independently where I wouldn’t bother with a tour, but I think tours make sense for some destinations and certain experiences are difficult or impossible to do without one (example: exploring the Amazon Basin in Bolivia). Tours can be hit or miss, but if you’re lucky enough to end up with the right tour group, it can be an extremely rewarding feat.

» Keep in touch.

Add new friends you meet on the road on Facebook or exchange e-mail addresses. Even if you part ways with new travel friends, you have a greater chance of linking up with them again in another city later on your trip if you have a way to contact them. Also, you can end up with great contacts all over the world who you can meet up with on your next solo trip. Maintaining friendships with fellow wanderlusters I’ve met abroad has been one of the most rewarding aspects of travel for me.

» Be patient.

It can take time to gain the confidence required to meet people on the road. Even with following all these tips, you may find yourself hiding out in your room, wondering why you decided to go on your trip alone. But it gets easier with time and soon enough, you’ll find that starting conversations with strangers has become easier and making lifelong friendships with people you didn’t know the previous week feels natural. You will be intrigued by the possibilities.

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Deciding Where to Go Next and How to Take the First Steps Towards Getting There

by Ekua on May 15, 2010 · 6 comments in d.i.y. travel,female travel,general travel,listastic,safe travels

Oh, the places you can go. It can be overwhelming to think about how much world there is to explore.

If you are lucky enough to be in a position where you have time and funds set aside for travel, it can be tricky to figure out how and where you should use them. And then once you’ve decided where to go, beginning the planning process can be a challenge, especially if you’re doing it yourself.

Last summer, having the opportunity to coordinate a month of independent travel helped me figure out how to go about that process in a way that allowed me to keep my anxiety level to a minimum. Here are some tips:

» Deciding Where to Go

Weather

Weather may seem like a no-brainer, but I am amazed at how often people overlook things like seasons being reversed on the other side of the equator. If you have to travel during a set period of time, consider potential natural disasters or the affect weather might have on your ability to move around the country you visit. If a place is likely to get flooded or have roads wash out during heavy rain, you don’t want to travel there during the height of their monsoon/hurricane season. Some weather situations can be tolerable, even if uncomfortable, but it doesn’t make sense to travel to a place at a time when predictable extreme weather can lead to natural disasters.

Find out if there are any serious travel warnings.

New Zealand has one of the more user-friendly and less fear-mongering travel advisory websites. It breaks down the countries in to Extreme Risk, High Risk and Some Risk and has the most recent important news on its front page. For each country, it also provides links to the travel advisory sites of Britain, U.S.A., Canada and Australia.

Figure out your travel style.

Know what kind of activities you want to partake in and the level of comfort you want in order to narrow down your potential destination list. Do you want to do adventure sports? Check out some nature and wildlife? Be a beach bum? Observe a unique culture? Which culture’s food, music, art, religion or history appeal to you the most? Are you willing to rough it or do you have higher travel standards?

How much time do you have?

If you pick a spot you want to visit, think about whether or not there is somewhere nearby you’d really like to visit as well.  If you’re itching to see a lot of places in a relatively small area (South East Asia, for example), you may want to visit when you have a large chunk of time. If you have a short amount of time, you’ll probably want to limit the amount of places to see. No matter what your travel style, jam-packing your trip can make travel stressful and take away from your overall experience.

Watch travel TV and documentaries and read travel memoirs.

I tend to get a lot of ideas about where I want to go this way. Shows and books can take you beyond the limitations of what you learned in school and beyond the well-known destinations to find out about interesting cultures, subcultures and landscapes you’ve probably never heard of.

Remember that pictures only tell part of the story.

It’s easy to look at a wonderful photo of a location and say, “I am dying to go there!” Popular destinations can often be photogenic but are not always as impressive or worth the money and effort when you see them in person. Reading recent travel blogs and articles about someone’s actual experience is great way to go instead of relying solely on pictures.

» Taking the First Steps Towards Planning Your Trip

Buy a guidebook.

I’ve started to buy guidebooks before I book trips because it helps me get acquainted with possible itineraries and get a sense of more specific locations I want to visit. Guidebooks are also great for figuring out how to get from one destination to another and finding out if the route you are planning is feasible. I spend a lot of time flipping through the “how to get there” sections and pay attention to whether or not a bus goes by where I want to go, how long it takes to get from place to place, etc.

Talk to people who have been to where you’re going.

Talking to people who know the destination has been the most helpful thing I’ve done before booking a trip. It’s even better if it’s a person who knows you well and/or someone who has a similar travel style to you. Talking to these people can be the best way to get a sense of which places to go, which places to skip, and how much time you should stay in a certain place. And both parties benefit because people are happy to help like-minded people discover the places they’ve enjoyed and they love having a chance to relive some of the moments they had there.

Keep in mind that you can’t see it all.

When I start to get a sense of all of the places I can visit in a destination, my first instinct is to start cramming my schedule. But that is not a fun way to travel, and trying to stick to a concrete schedule with limited time can drive you crazy when you’re abroad. I recommend coming up with a list of the places you’re super pumped to see and the places that you’ll logistically need to visit for flights or stopovers. Organize your schedule accordingly, leaving room for error and for visiting other places that sound interesting to you. Then leave the rest to the wind…

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Atravesando Fronteras

by Ekua on October 6, 2009 · 4 comments in Bolivia,Peru

July 30, 2009

Overland border crossing is all about formalities and symbolism. Real border crossing happens when you dive into a country’s customs, food, or any other aspect of a culture that pushes you to do something you haven’t done before. Nevertheless, I’m always intrigued by borders. Years of imperialism led up to lines in the middle of  nowhere; lines that can be very significant, but often seem trivial when you cross them.

Leaving Peru, entering Bolivia

The drive to Copacabana was scenic as promised. There were wonderful views of the sparkling blue Lake Titicaca the entire way. When we arrived at the border, I hurried ahead knowing that I would take longer than most because I had to get a visa. I didn’t want to be left behind.

Getting stamped out of Peru was fairly easy. The only person who had trouble was a guy from Columbia. They eventually let him through, and he explained later that they wanted a copy of his criminal records, just because he had a Columbian passport. He said it was not the first time he had issues like that at customs.

I walked across the border. The only noticeable difference were the red and white flags replaced with red, yellow, and green ones. The process for U.S. citizens to get a Bolivian visa is pretty detailed. It’s all about reciprocity. But the governmental issues don’t seem to trickle down to the ground level. The Bolivian border officials were friendly and laid back. They asked me where I was from and responded with an “Ah, Americana!” and a smile. Their one request was that I make copies of everything– my visa application, yellow fever certification, passport pictures, and passport. There was a cheap place to do it next door.

Car blessing in Copacabana

As I was finishing up with the visa and getting stamped into Bolivia, I bumped into the one other American in the group. He and his friend from England had forgotten to get stamped out of Peru and had to go back across the border.

We all got back on the bus. The driver assumed everyone was there and began to drive.  Suddenly there were shouts from the back, “Americano! Americano!” We almost left the American guy behind. A few days later I heard similar story from another traveler. I think it’s not uncommon for buses to leave people behind at the border. The man ran on to the bus, very frazzled but clearly happy to have made it on.

When we arrived in Copacabana, I was ripped off by a taxi driver. I asked to be taken to a hostel I’d found in my guidebook. It took under a minute to drive there and the taxi driver charged me way too much. But it was a trivial amount by American standards so I let it go. The hostel turned out to be really shoddy and looked like a place where I’d freeze at night. Realizing that Copacabana wasn’t very large, I decided to walk through town where I found a hostel that was recommended by two English girls.

Parade Rehearsal

It wasn’t very nice either, but it wasn’t as bad and it was right on Copacabana’s main street. I spent the rest of the day wandering through Copacabana. I passed by a gleaming white church where I saw people getting their cars blessed for safe travels. Bolivia is notorious for its bad roads, including the most infamous, “The World’s Most Dangerous Road.” Car blessing includes washing your car, decorating it with flowers, spraying it with champagne, pagan and Christian blessings, and firecrackers. I kept walking and came across a parade rehearsal, the first of many parades and rehearsals I would see in the days leading up to Bolivian Independence Day.

Puno turned out to be drab, so I was happy find that Copacabana had an aesthetic sense. It’s a charming little town with colorfully painted buildings and flowery courtyards. But of course, this doesn’t compare to the natural beauty of Lake Titicaca. Before heading to a dinner of wonderful Lake Titicaca trout, I watched the sun drop down behind the seemingly never ending lake. I enjoyed the quiet and solitude. I was content– I’d made it to Bolivia and sensed that my adventure was just beginning.

Lake TiticacaLake Titicaca

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