Boldly Go Solo

A Times Square moment

New York City is in a class of its own. And while it is someplace I like to go with others (I grew up just outside the city and often visited my grandmother, who lived on the Lower East Side), it's the kind of place that will wrap itself around you even if you visit alone.

In fact, it can be difficult to stick with your friends or family because the sidewalks can get so crowded. And yet it's a great place to walk and gawk and shop and buy hot pretzels on the street and people watch and just stare in awe at what city planners have wrought.

Today I had a few minutes on my own in Times Square, where the ball will drop on New Year's Eve, as always. From a flagpole at One Times Square. I took these photos in just a one-and-a-half block area. It's hard to convey the sensory bounty of it all via still photos, when practically every billboard has moving parts or flashing lights!

Solo travel that goes on and on and on

I'm a working stiff who has a few weeks vacation a year. So I choose the easy road to solo travel. I go on active adventure tours that organizers have planned for me. I usually wander on my own for a few days before or after, trying to pack in as much walking, museum going and "highlight attractions" viewing as I can.

But you know that if you've been reading this blog for any length of time.

On the "extreme" end of traveling alone are the people - often from Australia and New Zealand - who take a "gap year" before or after university, or travel for months on end at some point in their lives after quitting a job. Or before getting one. I met several of these folks while I was teaching English to Spaniards last year.

If that's something you dream about, you should look into the Web sites that focus on getting your act together for long-term travel. One such travel site is How to Travel the World, written by an experienced solo traveler who offers advice for long-term solo travelers.

Rolf Pott's Vagabonding is another site with stories and tips. And I'm sure there are many more. Safe travels to those who are going to be on the road for a long, long time.

You can't shop for "surprise" gifts when you bring the recipients along.

When I wrote about my youth hostel stay in Pennsylvania a couple of entries ago, I didn't mention the great shopping I did the day of arrival.

If anyone lives within a couple of hours of New Hope, PA, and still has Christmas shopping to do, you'll just HAVE to go alone. You can't bring the people you're buying for now, can you? And you don't want to be slowed down when there's so much to see. And buy.

New Hope is this great town with one long street of gallery after gallery, boutique after boutique, with artists galore. Stores selling handcrafted glass boxes and lamps, Florentine leather, hand-painted kitchen tools. The best thing is that the town, and those nearby, try desperately to woo and retain independent merchants rather than chain stores.

Always a plus in a world where Starbucks and McDonald's worm their way in just about everywhere.

Like it or not (in terms of political correctness), you won't find a sign saying, "Unattended children will be sold as slaves," in your neighborhood Abercrombie, as I did in one of the tchotchke shops there. The independents always offer something, whether oddball humor, offbeat charm or great finds.

In all, 280 shops, restaurants and galleries. That's one large artists' community. If it's too late for the holidays, there are always birthdays to buy for.

Art:

Peter Petraglia, "Forward Approach."

Hugh Breckenridge, "The Valley."

 

It's never too late to start traveling solo

Suppose you really, really wanted to travel to do something. Say, go to the Superbowl. Or the inauguration of the first black U.S. president. Or to the Olympics. Would you stay home because you had no one to go with?

Yes, many people would. And do. But not a 76-year-old woman named Marlene who I had breakfast with the other week at a Washington DC, bed and breakfast (and blogged about here.) She has traveled to DC from Atlanta eight times, to treat herself to one of her favorite things: the opera.

And she went to Europe on her own last year. It's not that she's opposed to having a travel companion. But a good one's not that easy to find. "It's fine if you're compatible with your likes and dislikes but where I'm from, 'opera' is a foreign word."

Marlene likes staying at the Embassy Circle Guest House now that she's found it. "I like the personal relationships you build sitting around the breakfast table together." She usually stays pretty quiet though, listening to others, as she did mostly when I was at the table. Until we all turned to her and asked her about her travels.

Turns out her husband died in 2000. They had raised two children together and couldn't always afford to travel. When her life radically changed eight years ago, and she was left on her own, she started traveling immediately. Solo. 

And get this. She has a terrible sense of direction, and yet she's out and about without hesitation. And gets lost all the time. She relies on people to get her turned in the right direction. "I'm not embarrassed to ask questions any more."

A lot of people she runs into can't believe she travels on her own. They ask her if she's afraid. "What's there to be afraid of," she says matter-of-factly. Excellent question, Marlene. What exactly is there to be afraid of?

Photo: Interior of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where the Washington Opera performs.

Away from the marble and museums of official Washington is a friendly guest house ideal for solo travelers

  I had breakfast the other day with people from Lebanon, Israel, Belgium, Georgia (the American one, not the former Soviet state) and California. These guests at the Embassy Circle Guest House, a bed and breakfast on R Street, NW, in Washington, D.C., were engaged in a lively discussion about public education when I showed up.

The owners, Raymond and Laura Saba, were nice enough to welcome me to breakfast after I explained over the phone a week earlier that I write a solo travel blog. (Even though I wouldn't be paying to stay the night.)

So I rolled out of my own bed and showed up to join their paying clientele.

Even had a flaky croissant from an organic market. And some fruit salad that included raspberries and pomegranate seeds, along with melon, bananas, pineapple and other fresh fruits. Because I was busy "working," I didn't have time to really scout the food selection. So I missed the smoked salmon, the cheese, the hard-boiled eggs, the cereal, the scones and the other goodies in the continental breakfast.

But I was bowled over (no cereal pun intended) by the intellectual discussion. What do you expect when you show up at a dining room table in an international city? Where guests show up for things like neuroscience conferences, law enforcement conferences and the Washington Opera.

The conversation went from the quality of education in various countries, to one guest's admission that she'd like to start her own bakery business, to growing up in an orphanage and being schooled by French priests to someone's passion for photographing old U.S. theaters with Middle Eastern motifs.

In the short video that follows, the people around the table introduce themselves. Just trying to give you a sense of what I experienced. Keep reading after the video:

A Geyser Blows in Iceland...

My friend Sheara recently sent me a short video she took in Iceland of a geyser (geysir in Icelandic) gushing up from the ground. What a great souvenir of her trip there!

Iceland's a great place to go solo. Half-day tours are offered for pony trekking, soaks in hot springs, lava tube sightings, extinct volcano exploration, Northern Lights viewing, dog sledding and so much more you simply will not find in your own backyard.

All with guides. And hopefully, fellow visitors to keep you company.

If you don't want to have to think at all about vacation planning, Icelandair is always good about offering interesting packages, although I see on their Web site it's all priced at per person double occupancy. (No surprise there.) Currently, they're offering a winter wellness getaway and a Christmas adventure.

I love this write-up on their site:

"The highlight is the funny new "Let's Talk Christmas" skit where you will learn about both Icelandic Christmas traditions and the Thirteen Yule Lads from their mother, Gryla the Troll!"

Yes, many Icelanders believe in elves and other "hidden people." Seriously. It's a hoot, and charming.

Or you can make your own arrangements to Iceland. There's a youth hostel right in the capital, Reykjavik. And there's couchsurfing and bed and breakfasts to be found.

Meanwhile, enjoy the quick video. (You may have to download software to view it. Mine worked in QuickTime)

Thanks, Sheara! And Jared, her son, who did the actual filming.

Download Geyser in Geysir

Five fun activities for solo travelers in Miami

These days, when I run into the tourism marketing people, I always say the same thing: "Nice destination, but is there a way for solo travelers to meet other travelers or local people while there? After a spell, we can get tired of traveling and touring on our own." 

The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau came through with flying colors recently. Jennifer Haz, the assistant media relations manager, sent me a list of ideas, three of which would serve well as "isolation breakers" during, say, a week-long trip that includes Miami, Florida. I've included the other two in case they're of interest.

Her suggestions:

1. Find an "ecoadventure" through Miami-Dade Parks.

Naturalists will guide you through parks, wilderness areas and historic sites. You can go snorkeling and kayaking in Biscayne Bay, canoeing through mangrove creeks "teeming with native wildlife," or biking along the barrier island.

Also offered are "wilder" activities, including marine wading tours and hiking trips into wilderness areas of the Everglades, Big Cypress National Preserve and coastal parks. If there are others on the tours, you will have people to talk to. If not, there's always your friend, the guide.

2. Swim with dolphins.

The Miami Seaquarium is the place to interact with the "Flippers" of the world. The program brings you to a classroom for an interactive presentation. Then you suit up and head out for dolphin encounters. Surely, people in the "class" will be giddy and share their excitement with everyone in the room. Including you.

Here's the Web site patter: "As a ‘Dolphin Odyssey’ participant, you’ll have the opportunity to kiss, hug, dance, rub and get up-close to these friendly mammals."

(Don't you drink the ocean if you try to kiss a dolphin?)

 3. South Beach bike tour

Since so much of what's unique and cool about Miami is the South Beach art deco area, a bike tour would be a great activity. I've walked around the funky area but biking would be so much more efficient and fun.

South Beach Bike Tours offers a half-day bike rental (on one of those cruiser bikes), a helmet and "refreshments." Bike and Roll offers a two-hour tour for $39. Again, there will people on the tour to chat with, or if not, a guide.

These next two don't seem as conducive to mixing and mingling but could be fun things to do while you're there.

The Top Ten Solo Traveler Destinations - says one company's "adventure consultants"

Bora Bora in French Polynesia. Serengeti, Tanzania. Phi Phi Islands, Thailand.  All destination favorites of the folks who book the tours at iExplore. Take it with a grain of salt, naturally. It's likely to be biased because it's put out by a company promoting tours to certain places. And yet...it IS a list of great places. 

What they say about Antigua, Guatemala: 

"With more language schools per capita than anywhere else in the world, it is no wonder Antigua is a favorite stop on the gringo trail for solo travelers. When not studying, you can climb volcanoes, hike, go drinking, and visit with the remnants of the Mayan culture."

A friend of mine toured Antigua with his wife last year and he noticed students of all ages sitting on lawns in the front of houses practicing Spanish one on one. Presumably with hosts they were living with for the week or month while they went to language school. It's high on my list of places to go to learn Spanish.

Another friend, who I went to Thailand with, traveled solo to the Phi Phi Islands (pre-tsunami) after I flew home from our trip together. She raved about the excursion. She's a pretty outgoing person and that helps. But the Thai people I met wherever I went in the country were friendly and welcoming.

Santa Fe, New Mexico, another recommendation on the list, would be a great place to go to a spa solo. Eat Tex-Mex. Buy silver jewelry and belt buckles. Mix with the one-third Angle, one-third Hispanic and one third Native American population that lives there. Relax in the adobe splendor of it all.

I went solo to Santa Fe before joining a hiking and biking tour with The World Outdoors, which I think was called Roads Less Traveled when I went with them. I didn't love the group on that particular vacation, so I couldn't wait to be on my own.

There you have it. A few more vacation spots to ponder.

Photo: Mount Otemanu in Bora Bora by PHG

Barack Obama sets travelers free

President-elect Barack Obama will be very good for solo travelers. For all travelers. What, you ask, does the incoming president have to do with solo travel??

It's about likability. Both his and ours, as Americans. I recently got this email from my niece who spent a semester in London and has traveled in Europe in the past two years:

"Yay we can finally travel again without apologizing for our country and president!"

So true. I was in New Zealand on a multi-sport adventure, the week Bush won the second time (I voted absentee ballot!). When it was over, I toured Christchurch on the South Island, on my own. I was in a souvenir shop at one point and the proprietor heard my American accent. He made a comment about the election. Along the lines of, "how could you?" You being America. I indeed felt the need to apologize. 

It's been like that whenever I've been abroad over the past few years. I feel sheepish. I want to shout out, hey sorry about the wars and the other stupidity on our part.

This is very different from when I was a student abroad my junior year in England. People were enamored of the U.S. Oh, certainly they were critical about many things but they admired a lot too.

So it was nice the day after the election of the first black president, to hear the people in many countries who were impressed by our "shining city on the hill" example once again. I can't wait to go abroad now and walk around with a smile. And stop trying to fake some other accent...(no I did not, but maybe if I had been better at it...)

Photo: Getty Images

Vacation layaway. Reserve a spot on a cruise or a tour, then pay in dribs and drabs.

Speaking...again...of grim financial news...

If money's tight, or you don't feel comfortable dropping a lot of cash right now, how about paying for your next vacation in increments?

Were you ever the type to put money into a Christmas savings account (do they still have those?) or buy clothes on layaway? Now you can do it with vacations.

At least with the two travel companies that came up with the idea. You reserve the vacation you want with Gate 1 Travel or Gutsy Women Travel, (see my previous post on Gutsy Women) a year or more in advance, with a small down payment. Then you pay in bits, whatever amount you want, up to 45 days before the tour departs. That's when full payment is due. It's more like four months in advance if you reserved a cruise rather than a land tour.

Meanwhile, you get to lock in the price and the date you want. Of course, you're up the creek if something happens to the company between now and then...unless there's something in the fine print that says otherwise. Be sure to read carefully.

I've never been the type to plan that far in advance. But I have friends I know would jump on this type of offer. So here it is, for all you plan-way-in-advance solo travelers.

For the rest of you, tell me what you think. Gimmick? Or great idea?