Here’s the TRUTH: When you travel alone for the first time…it might be scary.
I mean, you’re doing it, SOLO. No BFF. No boyfriend. No mom and dad.
I know how you feel because I’ve been there.
Years ago, I chucked up the courage to plan my first solo trip to Sri Lanka, where I would travel alone for the first time.
Solo traveling in Sri Lanka was the most anxiety-inducing experience of my life! Hilarious now to think about it, but I was petrified at the time.
I remember waking up in the middle of the night (about one month before departure), thinking to myself, “What the hell am I doing? I can’t go by myself! It’s so far away! I can’t do this!”
Fortunately, I woke up the following day and got rid of those fearful thoughts. FAST. And a few weeks later, I was on a plane headed to Sri Lanka.
I got to hike an ancient rock fortress, swim in the Indian Ocean, and try lots of delicious Sri Lankan food.
But the best part of my trip was attending a traditional Sri Lankan wedding, where I got to wear the most glamorous green sari.
I met many great people from all over, and I’m still in contact with some of them today – over seven years later.
That wouldn’t have happened if I had backed out because I was afraid to travel alone for the first time.
This guide will help you gain the skills and confidence you need to solo for the first time.
Step 1: Create a Trip Budget
What’s fantastic about having a budget to stick to is that it provides guideposts to follow when arranging your trip details.
When planning your first solo trip, you’ll do a balancing game where you swap out certain aspects of your trip to stick to the initial budget you created.
For example, you should choose between booking an adorable fancy-schmancy Airbnb versus a hostel or taking a cheap red-eye flight instead of a pricey afternoon flight.
Believe me when I say there’s nothing worse than being in a destination (where you’ve been drooling at the mouth to go for months), going over your budget, and realizing you don’t have the cash to do an activity that you want to do, especially if you’re traveling alone for the first time.
It isn’t fun!
In addition, I don’t want your first solo trip to interfere with your regular life, as in, you don’t have money to pay your bills, go out with friends, or even get your nails done – all because you want to travel!
Planning your first solo trip should be fun, not stressful!
So, grab a pen and paper and answer the following two questions:
How much money do I feel comfortable spending on my first solo trip?
How much can I realistically save?
Step 2: Apply For a Tourist Visa
You should find out if you need a tourist visa before booking your flight because if you need one, that additional fee might cause you to change your destination!
It costs a pretty penny to get into some countries. A tourist visa can be as low as $30 and as expensive as $125.
In some countries, you can apply for a visa upon arrival. However, for many countries, you must complete the application and be approved before arriving in the country, or you’ll be sent back home. Even if you can apply when you arrive in the country, I suggest you do it before your trip while at home.
If you are from the United States, use Travel.state.gov to determine if you need a visa for the country you want to visit. If you are not from the U.SYou can use VisaHQ.com.
Once you determine you need a tourist visa, call or go to the website of the embassy nearest you to find out how much it will cost.
Step 3: Determine If You Need a Vaccine
Another task to do before purchasing your airline tickets is a quick internet search to see if you need to get any vaccinations to enter the country you’re visiting.
Certain countries require specific vaccinations to prevent you from getting illnesses that are common in that country.
Check out the CDC’s website or Travel.State.Gov to determine if you need any vaccinations for your destination of choice. Select the country you’re visiting, and they’ll let you know which vaccines are mandatory and which ones they recommend.
If you discover that you need to get vaccinated to visit your destination, call your local travel clinic and find out how much it will cost to get those vaccines.
Step 4: Buy Affordable Travel Insurance
Whether solo traveling or with a large group, you must protect yourself with travel insurance.
While I’ve purchased travel insurance for years and have never had to file a claim (fingers crossed), I continue to buy it because life happens.
When I say “life happens,” it doesn’t have to be anything severe like being hit by a car, getting food poisoning, or breaking a leg.
It could be something simple like spraining your ankle while dancing the night away, or your flight was delayed, and you need a room for the night. Fixing both situations will cost you unless you buy travel insurance.
Think of travel insurance as a safety net.
There are many travel insurance companies to choose from, which can be overwhelming.
I’ll save you the runaround and recommend World Nomads Travel Insurance.
It’s the go-to travel insurance for solo travelers and has been my travel insurance from the get-go.
World Nomad Travel Insurance leaves no aspect uncovered, and I’ve heard they have very supportive customer service (again, I’ve never had to make a claim).
You can purchase World Nomad Travel Insurance here.
Step 5: Buy Your International Flight
The cost of a flight will significantly impact trip planning because if a flight to your desired destination is out of your price range, you might have to cancel your trip and choose a different country. Here are 3 key strategies you need to book a cheap flight anywhere.
Strategy 1: Use a Quality Search Engine
To find the best flights, start your search with Skyscanner.com and Google.com/flights. It’s an excellent search engine, and I use it to buy almost all of my flights.
Both sites offer a calendar option to view all the flights departing in a particular month. It’s interesting to see how prices change from day to day!
Here’s an example of a round-trip search for a flight to Paris:
When I’m feeling particularly adventurous, I use Skyscanner’s cool feature where you can enter the dates you want to travel, select your destination as “Everywhere,” and check out the neat destinations Skyscanner will show you as the cheapest places you can fly to from your current location!
Here’s an example:
Strategy 2: Fly When Most People Aren’t
The difference between a flight costing you your right kidney and getting a flight at a steal is the time of year you choose to travel.
Peak travel season is different from country to country, but here is a summary of the busiest times of the year for Americans:
- Public Holidays: Watch out for those long holiday weekends that include holidays such as Labor Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc.
- Peak Summer Months – June-August
- Thanksgiving Week – Everyone’s visiting family!
- Spring Break – College, university, and public school students usually have around ten days off sometime in early spring.
- The Holiday Season – Mid-December through New Year’s
Strategy 3: Book Flights 6-12 Weeks Before Departure Date
It’s best to book flights 6-12 weeks in advance. I recommend 8-12 weeks beforehand for international flights and at least 4-6 weeks ahead of time for domestic flights.
Here’s my theory: 6-12 weeks in advance is just enough time for airlines to give in and lower prices but not so late that they see the desperation in customers and respond by jacking the price up.
BONUS Ninja Strategy: Search Flights in a Private Window
Finally, use your web browser’s private window (incognito) when purchasing your flight. When you search for a flight at least once, your browser saves that information. Often, the flight cost might increase when you search for that same flight again.
To ensure you don’t overpay, open up a new private/Incognito window when you’re ready to purchase/look up new flights.
Step 6: Sign Up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program
Now that you’ve purchased your flight and know the exact dates of your trip, the next task you need to do when traveling alone for the first time is to sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program.
The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program is a free service by the Bureau of Consular Affairs. It connects U.S. citizens traveling abroad to an embassy in the country they are visiting.
You’ll need to create an account with your personal information and submit the details of your trip (dates and location). You’ll be asked to provide the address of your accommodations so they can easily connect you to the nearest embassy.
The embassy will know how to find you if you’re in danger because of a terrorist attack, earthquake, government coup, etc.
Step 7: Book Somewhere to Stay
You may already know the type of accommodations you’re comfortable with, and if so, you can jump to that section.
However, since you’ll travel alone for the first time, be open to all three types of accommodations, I’ll discuss below.
1. Hostels
Hostels are a gift to solo travelers! A hostel is a budget-friendly accommodation typically geared towards young travelers on a tight budget. It cuts the cost of lodging because you split the cost of the facility with other guests.
It’s kind of like the UberPOOL of accommodations.
Even though I almost always choose to stay at an Airbnb when I travel, I sometimes get a hostel just for the social aspects. Socializing is the main reason travelers want to stay in a hostel!
Since you’re solo traveling, you’d enjoy staying at a hostel because hostels are full of other solo travelers interested in making travel buddies!
I’ve met travelers who can afford to stay at a hotel or rent a room at an Airbnb but choose to stay at a hostel instead.
Many hostels cater to people traveling alone by offering free events. It’s a ton of fun to meet travelers from all over the world and get lost in conversation over a morning cup of coffee or a drink during happy hour. You won’t find that kind of atmosphere at a hotel or Airbnb.
You’re bound to find a hostel in one of Hostelworld.com’s 35,000 properties in 170 countries.
The cost of a night at a hostel depends on the country, the time of year, and the overall quality of the hostel.
You can expect to find a decent hostel on Hostelworld.com for between $15-$40 ($25 average) a night for a shared dorm room.
2. Airbnb
Airbnb.com is an online marketplace where you can find properties to rent while traveling.
You can rent an entire home, a spare bedroom, or a shared bedroom (similar to a hostel).
While Airbnb offers your run-of-the-mill apartments, houses, and even cabins, you can also find unique properties such as treehouses, retro airstreams, and even castles!
You can benefit significantly from booking a private room at an Airbnb. You’ll live with a local who’ll help you navigate in the new country. They’ll also give you tips and recommendations you won’t find on the internet.
And honestly, it’d be nice to come back to your accommodations after a long day of solo traveling and have someone to chat with.
Staying at an Airbnb also gives you that homey vibe – it’ll feel like your home away from home.
Like hostels, it’s difficult to tell you what you can expect to pay for an Airbnb, but I usually find that I can rent a room in a major city for around $45-$75 a night.
3. Hotels
I’m sure you’re familiar with booking a hotel so I won’t bore you with details.
However, let’s talk about booking a hotel when traveling solo.
Hotels are the most expensive option of the three different lodging accommodations, and if you’re on a tight budget, I’d say stick with booking an Airbnb or hostel.
Though hotels cost more, I genuinely get the appeal of wanting to stay in a hotel during your trip.
First off, it does give you that vacation feel. I mean, why else would you be staying at a hotel?!
Secondly, hotels have amenities that your average hostel and Airbnb can’t offer, such as a pool, jacuzzi, sauna, and room service.
If you’re solo traveling to get away from EVERYONE and spoil yourself for a few days, then by all means – treat yourself and book a hotel room!
My new favorite hotel booking site is Hotelscombined.com. Hotelscombined is a-ma-zing because it combines the best-of-the-best hotel booking sites in one place. It searches big sites like Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Agoda.com, and one of the best parts is there are no booking fees!
Step 8: Find Things to See & Do
As a solo traveler doing it all alone, my best advice is to keep yourself BUSY by creating an itinerary full of fun and exciting things to do. Don’t get me wrong, you need to schedule some downtime as well.
And yes, I said itinerary – a rough plan of action that you’re excited about would make you feel in control and give you things to look forward to at the same time.
Make a rough trip itinerary, but make sure you leave a day or two free for spontaneity.
You should book one big, super-duper, awesome activity and center all your other plans and activities around that. This will give you an outline when creating your travel itinerary.
The best place to start looking for things to do is on TripAdvisor.com. TripAdvisor is the best comprehensive travel website to find something to do like shows, sites, monuments, classes, tours – you name it. There are also thousands of reviews and ratings, so you’ll know if you want to do an activity or dine at a restaurant.
You can also book a tour or class from Getyourguide.com or Viator.com if you want to get social and learn something new. You can find excursions or classes for any interest, like cooking, wine tasting, hiking, etc.
There is an endless variety of things to do and see while traveling. I can’t even begin to list them all because it depends on your destination and interests. So have fun and get excited about your trip by researching things to do!
Step 9: Figure Out the Cost of Traveling Within The Country
The cost of traveling while in your destination country is the sneakiest part of any trip budget because it’s the easiest one to forget to about – well, at least it is for me.
Numbeo.com is a site I’ve used for YEARS to gauge how much it costs to get around in any particular destination I’m visiting, and it also offers a ton of other helpful country information.
You’ll get the cost of taking public transportation, the cost of taking a taxi, and how much it’ll cost for gasoline if you choose to rent a car.
Here’s a screenshot of transportation costs in Paris:
This is great if you’re like me and like to mix up your modes of transportation. I like to use public transportation, and sometimes. I want to hop in a taxi!
The biggest cost you must remember to budget is the ride to and from the airport, along with the unexpected, late-night taxi rides.
Step 10: Determine How Much You Need For Meals
Your first step in creating a food budget is to determine what meals you’ll be eating at your accommodations (if any) and what you’ll be eating out.
This part will differ from person to person, but most of us eat three meals a day and like to snack between meals.
I recommend cooking one meal at your lodgings and going out to eat for the other two meals. It is also wise to buy snacks in bulk, so you have them to eat throughout your trip.
When traveling, I almost always cook breakfast for myself and go out to eat lunch and dinner.
On the first day at my destination, I go to the local grocery store and buy the items I need to cook breakfast and a few pick-me-up snacks to carry in my purse.
Use the Numbeo.com database to see how much groceries cost.
Here’s a screenshot of food costs in Paris:
You can also use sites like TripAdvisor, Timeout, and other restaurant sites to get a list of great places to eat while also getting an idea of what meals typically cost there at the same time.
These numbers are GOLD! Use them to create a daily food budget and add it to your budgeting guide.
Alright, that’s everything you need to do when solo traveling for the first time.
I know your first solo trip will not be your last — this is just the beginning!
I bet you’ll be booking your next trip abroad before you even start doing the laundry from your first trip.
I’m so excited for you to start planning, and I can’t wait to hear about your trip!
