Boldly Go Solo

Holidays for solo travelers from the Mail in Great Britain

Here's a fun read on solo travel from the Mail Online, a British Web site. The writer rounds up "the best" (that's subjective, though, isn't it?) "holidays for solo travellers." That is, the "best vacations for solo travelers" in American English (just taking the mickey, that is, kidding the British friend who gave me the heads up on this article).

Not all of the trips will make sense for Americans because they're based on British pounds and are geared to travelers starting in England. Nevermind. The article is a good basis for ideas and a reaffirmation that going solo can work out well for all types of travelers, including those who leave spouse and children behind.

Besides, how often do you hear about people vacationing in the Isles of Scilly, off the Southwestern tip of Great Britain, or hiking the Atlas Mountains in Morocco? It's a fun cultural experience for Americans and other non-Brits just to read the article.

I also like sharing articles like these so I can have other people say what I've been saying all along: that things often work out great when you take the risk of traveling solo.

In the article, a 29-year-old court reporter went snowboarding on her own in the Canadian Rockies because she was "fresh out of a relationship" and had no desire to go on a singles tour. " I thought it would be all couples, but there were only a few. It was really good fun and very bonding."

A 46-year-old divorcee who went to a health sanctuary in Thailand: "At the end of my stay there were six of us eating together – a German headhunter, New York museum curator, Italian lawyer, Greek fund manager and a lecturer."

I bet she stays in touch with at least one or two of these new-found friends.

Photo: Ellen Perlman. Thai buddha.

Top Ten Train Rides and the lure for solo travelers

Travel writers have come up with a list of their favorite train rides and it has set my mind to wandering. And daydreaming. About past and future trips. The only train ride they list that I've actually been on is the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad that chugs through Colorado's two-million-acre San Juan National Forest.

As the coal-fired, steam-powered locomotive climbed its way to Silverton, I got to know my compatriots on a week-long Backroads bike trip through the Colorado Rockies. The views out the windows were spectacular - forest, mountains and steep drops to a river below. 

When we arrived in Silverton, described on its Web site as, "a gritty little mining town with Victorian pretensions," it had clouded up and I was freezing. A quick visit to a souvenir shop - and there are many, trust me - for a Silverton sweatshirt solved that problem. (I loved that sweatshirt but lost it on some other adventure...)

That was a great bike trip and the train ride, though I remember it going on a tad long, was part of the allure.

The only other two train rides I'm a little familiar with are the Rocky Mountaineer, because I wrote about it in September after interviewing a big fan of the train. And the Flam Railway in Norway. Sadly, I never made it to Flam when I was in Norway years ago. I was hitchhiking with a friend on that trip. Our five-week journey started in the Netherlands and continued on to Bodo, a town above the Arctic Circle.

For five weeks, we went where drivers took us. We didn't have much in the way of plans other than to see the Midnight Sun. Mission accomplished.

 But we did get driven East to West (or was it West to East?) between Oslo and Bergen, a bit south of Flam. I can attest it is one of the more stunning regions on earth. So I'm sure a train ride into those snow-capped mountains with their many waterfalls is just as spectacular.

I'd really love to get back there and see! "Ja, vi elsker dette landet." (The national anthem of Norway. It just happened to be a clue in Sunday's NY Times crossword puzzle.)

Tonging for oysters, making moonshine or painting watercolors may appeal to solo travelers in Canada

Four Canadian provinces are offering unusual and interesting activities that might draw goal-oriented solo travelers. 

You can "Live Like an Islander," on Prince Edward Island, learning to tong oysters, make moonshine (legally), be a lobsterman or try harness racing. There are dozens of island experiences such as these. Most, if not all, involve meeting up with a guide or other guests, lessening any potential feelings of isolation that traveling solo might kick up.

In New Brunswick's cultural capital, Fredericton, you can choose from classes in painting, photography, fiction writing, jewelry making, pottery and quilting. And then explore the riverfront city on your own. Or, perhaps, with people you meet in a class.

If you want to explore Newfoundland and Labrador for a week, an outfitter offers a seven-night iceberg-tracking trip.  

Many travel destinations have classes and day adventures that provide a way to find companionship, as I wrote here. It's just a matter of finding them.

Photo: Back Roads Folk Art. Prince Edward Island

Top 10 most exciting ferries in the world

Travel writers of the U.S. and Canada have come up with a list of the world's top 10 ferry rides, and you don't necessarily want to argue with people who travel for a living. (But of course you can, if you want.)

Can't say I've ever seen a poll ranking ferries. But I like this list. And, I was glad I'd ridden two out of the 10: the British Columbia ferry system and the Staten Island ferry (I grew up in New York). Seems, however, I've got a ways to go.

The number one ferry, by vote of the Society of American Travel Writers members, is the Star Ferry in Hong Kong, "crammed with views and people to create the cheapest multi-cultural, multi-sensory cruise experience in the world," writes travel journalist Chris McBeath.

Number two are the ferries from Sausalito to San Francisco, California.

I loved the sound of this one: "The Alaska State Ferry system's 'blue canoes' allow overnight passengers to pitch their tents on deck, surely one of the most unusual camping experiences," according to journalist Janet Fullwood.

I want to do this! Tell me, solo travelers, you wouldn't end up talking to people "camped" around you? Of course, you would. (But how do you bang your tent pegs into the deck??)

Interestingly, ferries ply the waters of the most urban landscapes and the seemingly most out of the way places. They can be high speed or lumbering giants. And they can be a great, often inexpensive and sometimes downright dirt cheap way to tour cities and vast and beautiful wilderness areas.

My most memorable ferry ride was somewhere in the waters of the Inside Passage on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. I'd finished a sea kayaking trip that I'd joined as a solo traveler (had a fantastic time and a great tent mate) and had a couple of days to explore the area on my own.

I took the ferry that plied the vast waters up there, to an island famous for its totem poles. On the way back, I dozed off and awoke to someone pulling gently on my sleeve. "Is this your stop?" Oh lordy, thank goodness she'd heard me ask someone if I was on the right boat back to Vancouver Island. She did me a real favor waking me up.

I had visions of ending up on some outer island with no way to get back until morning. But you know what? That could have been the adventure of a lifetime and a great story to tell. I don't go anywhere without a credit card, so someone, somewhere would have put me up.

Still, I was grateful for her watchful eye and it once again reminded me that in general, people watch out for one another. Especially when they see you're on your own.

Photo: Ellen Perlman. The clipper ferry from Seattle to Vancouver Island.

The narrowest "street" in Canada is in Victoria

 Enjoy a stroll down the narrowest "street" in Canada via the video below. It used to be a gambling district, filled with opium dens along with its shops and restaurants. 

I HAD to go alone. It was too narrow to walk side by side with anyone! Luckily, I was in Victoria on my own, exploring the nooks of the Vancouver Island city.

Download Fan Tan Alley

Three- and four-day active vacations in France's Loire Valley, the Canadian Rockies, the San Juan Islands and more

Backroads, an active travel company, has come out with an idea whose time has come...but whose price is high: Short getaways. As in, three- and four-day trips.

Biking in the San Juan Islands. Hiking and biking in Bryce and Zion national parks. Biking part of the Natchez Trace, a route from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Biking in France's Loire Valley.

 

Maybe life's too hectic sometimes to take off for a full week but you can grab a long weekend here or there. Or maybe it's easier for "newbie" solo travelers to go on a short vacation if they don't feel like they'll be "stuck" for a whole week. 

I envision these offerings as trips you can tack on to one end or another of a business trip. Or as a way for a solo traveler to enjoy the company of strangers for a few days and then wander off on his or her own, feeling comfortably familiar by then with the destination.

I seem to recall that when VBT Bicycling Vacations was called Vermont Biking Tours  (or something like that), they also offered biking weekends in Vermont. I don't see those shorter tours on its Web site now. Perhaps it didn't work as a business model or just wasn't as popular as week-long vacations. We'll have to see how Backroads experiment works out.

The problem for me with the Backroads trips is the price. A three-day weekend of biking in Banff and Lake Louise, in the Canadian Rockies, costs $1,598. Another $500 for the single supplement. Plus travel to and from the starting point.

Canada: The dinner companions just appeared

I travel solo with the assumption I'm on my own. But often, companions appear from nowhere. On my last night in Victoria, B.C., I went searching for a new take-out fish place I'd read and heard about. It's called Red Fish Blue Fish and it is down at the Broughton Street Pier.

Couldn't find it. I entered the Blackfish Cafe - right protein, wrong color - and asked. No wonder I couldn't find it. It's hidden off the side of a ramp that goes into a parking lot. Of the seaplane airport. You can walk right by it from above, thinking the only thing down there is the sea and a dock.

The restaurant is only about the size of a metal shipping container. Actually, it's exactly the size of a metal shipping container. Because it IS a metal shipping container.

It's the ultimate in recycling. Don't throw out and melt down and recombine materials into something else. Just use objects as is. Which is what Red Fish Blue Fish did. Impressive, in a mighty funky way.

I walked up to the "window" and ordered a smoked tuna tacone and a salmon tacone, with a side of "mushy edamame" - soybeans smashed a bit instead of whole - and coleslaw. (In Britain, I think "mushy peas" are a familiar dish, yes?)

The shipping container concept was highly amusing so while I waited for my food, I took photos from all sides. A man sitting on the pier with his wife, waiting for his fish and chips, asked me if I wanted a photo of me in front of the restaurant.

Three trip suggestions for solo travelers, in Canada, Ireland and Italy

The title of a story in yesterday's Calgary (Canada) Herald was, "Solo Travel Not So Lonely After All." The writer describes three separate trips: cooking in Sicily; hiking in Ireland and going to a spa on Vancouver Island.

ALL of them appealed to me. Now I just need the time off work and the money to pay for them all. The usual problem.

In case the link to the story goes dead, the Web sites for the trips are: Sicily, Italy; Ireland and Vancouver Island, Canada.

Photo: Ellen Perlman

Da train, da train...riding the rails in Canada

Talk about the Wild, Wild West. While traveling across rugged and mostly rural Canada, Al Stewart shot a bear. From a moving train! Just this year!

Okay, so it was with his camera.

And, maybe it wasn't exactly from a moving train but from a car in a park in Whistler. Standing still. Details, details.

The point is this. Stewart, who is retired, loves train travel. In particular, the Rocky Mountaineer. If you've never heard of it - and I hadn't - it's because you're not Canadian.

The Rocky Mountaineer is owned by a Canadian company, and it travels coast to coast through Canada. The train, that is, not the company. It sounds spectacular, when you consider the natural beauty of that part of North America. Photos on the Website give you a taste of the possibilities.

For Stewart, the draw is the chance to take photos. "I have no problems traveling alone. The big thing is, I want to get pictures. I want to get pictures at 5 a.m. and be out there before the sun comes up. So traveling alone's not bad."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bucket_List

The Seaweed Lady welcomes solo travelers and others to her ocean garden on Vancouver Island, Canada

When I think about seaweed...and no, I don't think about it all that often...I think about that gross green stuff that wraps around your legs in the ocean. When "The Seaweed Lady" thinks about seaweed, she thinks about an ocean garden full of 700 species of a beautiful plant in varying colors.

I traveled solo to visit Diane Bernard in Whiffen Spit, near the town of Sooke, British Columbia. She took me wading out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca off the West coast of Vancouver Island. In gum boots. What Americans call rubber boots. What the British call Wellington boots, or wellies.

About 12 herons live in the 'hood. And at least one aggressive eagle who dives down, zeroing in on the otters and yanking the fish right out of their mouths. When we waded in, she kept her voice down. She didn't want to bother the heron on a nearby rock. It was nesting time for the grand birds.

The Seaweed Lady knows tons, not only about seaweed but about the wildlife and the mountains around her ocean. And she's good at dispelling myths about the often-maligned plant.

Continue reading after video...