This is the second year that fall has come around and my thoughts have turned to...Guadalajara.
The foods, the family I lived with there for a few days and the Guadalajara sights.
The San Juan de Dios Market. (I just recently finished the vanilla I brought home from there, which reminded me of my trip every time I baked with it.) The Corona Market in Guadalajara's city center. And much more. My nice teacher at the IMAC Spanish language school in downtown Guadalajara.
I was in a class with about five others, who ranged in age from teens to probably 60's. I loved the fact that la maestra couldn't revert to English to explain things (she didn't speak it well) and that I was able to follow along in Spanish pretty well.
I've never skied in Europe. It's such a romantic notion, though. I imagine skiing into huts mid-mountain for hot soup or buttered rum. And skiing right into town at the end of the day, perhaps directly to the back door of my chalet?
I base my fantasies on one spring visit to Zermatt, Switzerland, where these things seemed possible, although I wasn't skiing there. I was staying at the Zermatt youth hostel (I was definitely a youth then) and several fellow hostelers had skis stored against a wall near the door. A few bucks a night for a room near the Matterhorn? Not a bad deal, whether you're skiing or not.
I'd like to add two others, only because I've personally tested them. Skip the skating at the expensive and packed ice rink at New York City's Rockefeller Center and head straight to the skating rink in Central Park.
You get views of the city but also feel the spaciousness of the park around you.
The Travel Belles post on 7 solo travel lessons is filled with luscious photos of the Loire Valley in France that I've borrowed (with permission) to use here. I practically cry, wondering how I could get my photos to look as stunning.
Her tips are good too. For instance: "Always leave room for a change of plans. They are going to happen anyway."
So true. Everyone had told the writer she needed to get to the Chateau de Chenonceau first thing in the morning. As soon as it opened.
She made plans to do so. But her innkeeper told her it wasn't necessary and that she should relax and take her time and go to the chateau at lunch when everyone was outside in the garden.
That she should visit the local market in the morning instead. It turned out to be a worthwhile change of plans. Would a travel partner have tried to talk her out of it? Would she have caved if she weren't solo? See other tips, and especially, more photos, at The Travel Belles blog.
As for tips for single-bag travel, many of the tips are common but it's worth a read to be sure you know them all.
The writer's reasons for why to take only carry on luggage had me nodding my head in agreement.
"No more long lines to check bags, no more wondering if your luggage will get lost along the way, no more waiting in line at baggage-claim areas, no more keeping track of large bags and small bags and no more fees."
Amen to that. I've had bags not show up. For days. At least twice while on vacations and once while on a business trip. One bag was lost for all time.
I used to check bags because it was easier than lugging my stuff through airports. The point is, then, to take less stuff. I get better and better at it. So can you.
So pack well and pack small. Save a lot of aggravation both coming, going and when the credit card bill comes. And the baggage fees are missing.
I landed on this chat about a traveler wanting to find a place to ski that offers rooms for one without a single supplement.
The comments range from "Singles are losers to be exploited" to "unfortunately the economies of being a hotelier make it difficult to achieve what you want" to "I travel on my own mostly and do not find it difficult to get single rooms in hotels and do not pay a supplement."
One of the people who posted about the "great single room debate" says she travels in a group of four people, none of whom want to share a room. I don't blame them. You hit a certain age and lifestyle...
She says she and her friends have managed to find hotels that charge either a small single supplement or none at all because they have single rooms.
She mentions hotels in the the ski resorts of Pila, Italy (Hotel Europe), Val D'isere, France
(Chalethotel Moris, no supplement as they actually have single rooms),
Sallbach, Austria (Bergers SportHotel) and Ischgl, Austria. (Hotel Alpenrose). Write these down for the future.
You might find it interesting to read the varying points of view, many resisting the idea that solo travelers are a group to be catered to. And the notion that it all comes down to cold, hard cash for the tour operator or the hotel. No news there.
The final comment, last time I read the thread was: Get a better job / marry a rich man / win the lottery / rob a bank, as suits and stay in nicer accommodation.
Okay, gotta go buy a dual-purpose ski mask. First using it to rob a bank. Then to enjoy my week on the slopes in Europe.
I enjoyed this story from worldhum on introverted travelers. It showed me how the other half of solo travelers explore the world. The introverts, that is. Clearly without gabbing with a lot with strangers:
"I am terrible at striking up conversations with strangers and I am happy exploring a strange city alone."
The writer doesn't seek out people to talk to but says she loves people watching. Fair enough.
It's worth reading this other story on solo travel, a story on solo snowboarding in Chamonix, just for the writer's take on his trip. Funny guy. As in this nugget:
"As with all snowboarding trips, there seems to be a self-destructive desire to finish yourself off if you haven’t already collapsed from exhaustion or been carted off in an ambulance."
Hm, and I've always wanted to try snowboarding. I don't consider myself self-destructive. I hope this doesn't mean I'll be terrible at the sport.
I have a beef, though, with how the writer envisioned what he'd find when he arrived for a solo vacation:
"It’s easy to build up stereotypes of the kind of people you expect to meet on a solo travellers’ trip. But instead of a bunch of socially inept nerds, those in my group are actually fairly normal."
Nice to know one man's view of us solo travelers. Thanks, buddy.
Over the next several posts I will run some of the entries I received for the contest to win a foreign-language phrase book. I love the following story from B, who did not want his name used:
"My parents lived in Indonesia for a year while my dad was advising a company there.They were sent an Indonesian phrasebook to study before the trip.I distinctly remember (in English) two highly useful phrases in this book that every traveler should know:
1. "You idiot! Just look at this pocket."
2. "Quick, the Commodore's son is coming!"
I can't help wondering how often the Commodore's son showed up and what were the repercussions of that visit, since it was considered important enough to be an item in a phrasebook.And, geez, how often did something terrible happen to these people's pockets?Soo funny. Thanks B.
Women traveling alone in Europe likely will get stared at, groped and talked to by foreign men. But guess what? So will women traveling with others. I know this from nutty, annoying experience. So don't let that be the thing that prevents you, if you're female, from traveling solo.
At reidsguides.com there's a funny post called "Ciao, Bella, Americana Girl," where Reid explains what to expect from "Italian Romeo wannabes to overly gallant Frenchmen to icky Greek shopkeeps." Was he with me in Europe when I was in my 20's and 30's? Because, check, check and check on those Italians, Frenchmen and Greeks.
In Italy I traveled with my friend Adele. In France I was on my own. In Greece I was with a boyfriend. And in each place, I ran into men behaving badly.
I went to Paris alone. I was in my 20's and I wanted to learn French. Classes at the Alliance Francaise would be my ticket to fluency. But I knew no one in Paris.
I spent the first few nights in a cheap hotel, sharing a hall bathroom.I wandered the streets in wonder. I practiced French I'd learned from tapes, and stuffed myself with croissants and pastries from patisseries.
I got friendly with a young English guy staying at the hotel. We walked along the Seine one night, enjoying each other's company. A lot. I made my way to the school and found lodging advertised on a bulletin board. I arranged to stay for the month at an apartment offered by a woman named Evelyn. In the chichi 17th arrondissement, a short walk from the Arc d'Triomphe.
Two other Alliance students, one British, one Italian, also rented rooms there.
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