Why did Shannon spend her Thanksgiving break solo? “I wanted to go with someone but no one wanted to go. I just went.”
That’s the spirit!
Shannon’s family is in California and she lives in D.C. It doesn’t make financial sense to fly to California at the end of November and again for Christmas just a few weeks later. That means Thanksgiving isn't a family event for her. “I never go home for Thanksgiving."
And where we work, Thanksgiving is a four-day holiday, so why not zip off for a little rest and relaxation somewhere new?
"It looked cute."
Shannon happened upon Quebec online. "It looked cute," and it was French-speaking and she thought it would “feel like you’re in a foreign city,” without the effort and expense of flying to someplace in Europe. In fact, the official website reads, "Quebec City: So Europe. So close."
There are people I know who will jump out of perfectly good airplanes or ski double black diamond slopes in Utah who are afraid to dine out alone in a nice restaurant. Afraid!
When chilling out at home with a bowl of popcorn gets old, I opt for the solo dining experience – the next best thing to a bubble bath, except you’re doing it in public.
She describes the "pangs of terror" at the thought that people view you as "a friendless loser."
I've often thought about how psychological this whole solo dining thing is. Think about when you're going to meet someone at a high-end restaurant. You walk in, they're not there yet. Maybe you go to the bar and order a drink. Perfectly relaxed.
Now think about going into that restaurant alone without anyone to meet. The stress emerges. Perhaps you wonder what people think about you or if anyone is noticing your lack of an "other."
How can you not like a place where you can order cullen skink and Dalchonzie tart at dinner, have a stare-down with a falcon and discover that you weigh in the single digits?*
I was in Scotland last week reveling in the Scottishness of it all, starting at the The Gleneagles Hotel. Gleneagles is hosting the Ryder Cup in 2014, exciting news for golf aficionados.
The baggage carousel at Glasgow Airport is to golf bags as Denver's baggage carousel is to ski bags. Every other piece of luggage was an odd-shaped case containing clubs.
Not being a golfer - except the kind where you rent a single club and putt through 18 Astroturf holes - I was more interested in the country pursuits offered.
Green and white awnings and a small sign are all that distinguish the Richmond home of Maggie L. Walker from neighboring duplexes that have been carefully restored to their appearance circa 1925.
What distinguished Walker in her day was her skill at overcoming all the obstacles society could place before a black woman living under Jim Crow segregation laws.
It was cool taking the walking tour in Richmond and learning some of the black history of the Southern city. Including about Bill "Bojangles" Robinson who was born in Richmond.
Which doesn't mean you can't celebrate tomorrow, November 28.
Pour yourself a cuppa, relax and treat yourself to some nice biscuits -- or cookies -- depending on your nationality. But if you find some McVitie's Digestive biscuits, all the better. Covered in plain or milk chocolate? You, my friend, are living large.
The British drink 165 million cups of tea daily, according to the Traveldudes' post. But tea for the British is often about more than the steaming brew in the cup.
It's about the atmosphere you drink it in. What you have with it. What you get to take a break from when brewing and drinking it. And nostalgia.
Tea doesn't have to mean something fancy. The way the fine hotels in London serve it. Yes, that's nice. But that's not typical. Plenty of down-to-earth tea shops and inns all over the country serve tea in an ordinary or even rustic atmosphere, without the bone china cups and saucers.
Fellow travel writer Laura Byrne Paquet ended up in Amsterdam's Red Light District doing...well...not what you think. Paquet and her husband, tourists from Canada, had arranged a special meeting.
Paquet chose dinner at the home of a couple who wrote on the site that they loved to cook traditional Dutch food. She whipped out a credit card to cover the cost for a four- to five-course dinner and voila. She had a "reservation" for dinner. At someone's home.
One of the highlights of such a dinner, in my mind, is learning about a neighborhood in richer detail than you can from a guidebook. Paquet's host described a project to restrict prostitution in the famed red-light district and encourage upscale businesses to move in.
Over multiple glasses, the foursome also talked about the intricacies of Dutch politics. We get some of those stories here in Washington, D.C. I would have enjoyed hearing a Dutch point of view.
You can't have the same experiences you get while traveling solo if you go as part of a pair. So says Elizabeth Gilbert, in a recent CNN travel piece on Eat, Pray, Love, the book she wrote that came out as a movie this past weekend.
Anyone who has traveled solo knows this. Traveling solo compels a traveler to open up more. See more. Explore more.
And be distracted less by conversations that could, and should, have been held at home because they weren't about the place being visited.
A story on the website Gadling says the movie has caused a surge in solo women's travel. "Suddenly, it's viewed by mainstream America as 'okay,' " the writer Laurel Miller says.
It almost seems as if solo travel is becoming the vogue.
The Los Angeles Times has a story on 10 vacations for solo travelers. It covers just about every option you can think of, from road trips to special-interest vacations to choosing villages over big cities.
Another highly useful LA Times story suggests ways to avoid the single supplement, from setting up a Google alert using the words "single supplement waived" to booking with companies such as Adventure Life to letting a tour company pair you with a roommate, which many will do.
A story in the Guardian offers strategies for traveling alone by a veteran solo traveler. And the rationale. "You travel alone, you do exactly as you want," says author Jenny Diski. Being on vacation with others makes her anxious. "Are they comfortable, happy, restless, bored?"
I totally get this. You feel selfish if you don't consider others' needs and yet you've paid all this money for a short time in a vacation place. Compromises make you feel resentful.
My absolute LEAST favorite words while on vacation are, "Do you mind if..." If I've had to say those words it means I've had to ask permission to do something I want to do.
Not permission, exactly, but I've had to let someone else know I want to do it and hope they come along happily or want to do the same. If not, I find myself thinking that I'm boring them or keeping them waiting. And how many times am I willing to do that? Argh.
Solo Friendly offers five reasons for solo travelers to take an organized tour. They include the ability to socialize, letting someone else do the driving and navigating and hearing the interesting stories of locals who are hired as tour guides on these trips.
National Geographic says it chooses these tours for the "outfitters' commitment to authenticity, immersion, sustainability, and connection."
One example is a tour in northern India that "has you riding camels, rickshaws, rafts, and jeeps
to observe leopards, rhinos, monkeys, mongoose, and more at five
national parks and wildlife refuges." Er, except that it costs more than $7,000 for the 19-day trip.
My rich friends, please tell me how fabulous it was when you return!
The reporter went on a Caribbean cruise specifically to check out the solo sailing on a cruise line has taken notice of the solo traveler market.
Norwegian Epic offers private rooms on a seven-day cruise for $1,271-$1,409. It would cost nearly twice as much for a solo traveler to book a double room, as they have to on most cruise ships.
The Epic "shows promise of being great fun for those who travel solo," the reporter says.The 100-square-foot studios are, however, a "small shock,"althoughthere was plenty of storage space for her stuff.
And the size didn't seem to bother other folks who took advantage of the low price to stuff two people in the room.
The writer met other solo travelers who told her they chose the ship not for the destination but for the solo cabins. Still, Epic could lose up to $5 million in the first year due to the lost revenue of two people in a cabin.
I sure hope they find some major advantage in offering benefits to solo travelers. And that other people in the industry take note.
I don't want to rewrite the whole story here but I was amazed to read that not only are solo travelers freed from the nasty single supplement, they actually get special treatment. Like a lounge for solo travelers only.
What a great way for people traveling alone to connect. I'm impressed.
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