Boldly Go Solo

Solo travel - day tour strategy

Short tours can do wonders for alleviating loneliness when you're vacationing alone. If, after flying to your dream destination, you start to feel lonely, you can join a group activity for a day or two and have real live conversations. Something beyond, "Does this bus go to Sintra?"

I recently went on an "urban foraging" walk in downtown Victoria, British Columbia. (My cousin asked if that meant dumpster diving!)  My tour guide Kathy and I tasted our way through a tea shop, a French cafe, a BBQ place called Pig, a chocolate store and more, talking the whole way along.

Usually she won't go out unless she has a minimum number of people, but it was early in the season and she made an exception this time, me being a travel writer and all.

Short tours can do wonders for alleviating loneliness when you're vacationing alone. If, after flying to your dream destination, you start to feel lonely, you can join a group activity for a day or two and have real live conversations. Something beyond, "Does this bus go to Sintra?"

I recently went on an "urban foraging" walk in downtown Victoria, British Columbia. (My cousin asked if that meant dumpster diving!)  My tour guide Kathy and I tasted our way through a tea shop, a French cafe, a BBQ place called Pig, a chocolate store and more, talking the whole way along.

Usually she won't go out unless she has a minimum number of people, but it was early in the season and she made an exception this time, me being a travel writer and all.

Visiting volcanoes in Ecuador

 

Volcanoes abound 

It's not often one gets to experience a volcano. But there I was in Ecuador, a decade or so ago, watching a plume of what looked like smoke--but had to be ash--spewing from Tungurahua, translated as throat of fire. 

In Riobamba and other towns nearby, people were constantly sweeping a film of gray off steps, sidewalks, the front of churches. More ash kept settling down.

Obviously, volcanoes can be dangerous but it was far in the distance and an adrenaline rush to witness. Seems Tungurahua, located along Ecuador's Avenue of the Volcanoes has been showing a lot of activity again these days.

You can take that one of two ways, depending on your personal risk meter. Either it's hey, time for me to go see an active volcano for myself-from a safe distance, course. Or heck no, I'm staying away until things settle down-which way to the Galapagos?

Traveling solo is often better than traveling with companions

In this story on why it's better to travel alone, the fourth reason is my favorite: deep immersion.

You simply are not going to see or notice as much if you're walking with a friend or partner, while in Paris or Tokyo or anywhere else, gabbing with each other about what you just saw or where your next meal will be or something you remembered about your lives at home. You've stopped absorbing what's around you at that moment.

That hit home for me while I was in Paris on my own for a month-long French immersion course the summer before grad school.

Although the rule in the apartment I was staying in was French only, I had an English-language novel with me. I realized early on that reading in English was pulling me away from a full immersion in French language.

It demonstrated my brain's inability to focus as well on learning French when I mixed in some English. I put down that book for the summer. Soon after, I awoke from a dream with a French phrase in my mind first thing. Immersion was working!

Singles tours to Ecuador, Ireland, Italy and Peru

I now throw out the idea of "singles" travel for those who might be interested in joining a tour composed solely of people traveling alone, who are presumably not married.

I have not gone with the group Singles Travel Service, but I'm on the email list and they recently sent me a newsletter on some of their future trips.

Such as: Ecuador, a multisport and multicultural adventure; the Inca Trail in Peru,including Machu Picchu, of course; Ireland's Cities - including Dublin and Galway; and an Italy Cultural tour, that includes Rome, Florence and Venice.

Solo travel Valentine's Day ideas include Ecuador, Moscow, Tucson

Since I didn't start musing about what might make a good solo Valentine's Day trip until yesterday, these ideas obviously will have to hold until 2012 or beyond.

Solo travelers seeking roses should book a flight to Ecuador, the rose capital of the world. One airline, I don't remember which, handed a large, perfect rose to each woman leaving the airplane. And it wasn't even February.

I've never been to Moscow. Do they celebrate Valentine's Day there? I'm thinking it's either too cold or too dark or the restaurant service is too poor to make it a great place to go out for a romantic dinner. So it would be a good place to avoid the hokey Hallmark nonsense. But it sure is a long way to go to avoid a silly "holiday."

What about a ranch? I've loved all my visits to Arizona ranches. Do cowboys do roses? Either ranch hands will pay special attention to solo female travelers or the day will be celebrated at some kind of big barbecue event with families, couples and singletons. Just like any other day. Either way, I'm guessing there won't be the red-rose twosomeness of a city slicker Valentine's Day.

Those are my rambling thoughts. Any other fun or funny ideas for a solo Valentine vacation? I can collect them for next year.

Photo: Ellen Perlman. Chocolate and candy hearts.

 

Ripley's Believe It or Not on solo travel. Walk the Amazon anyone?

Some solo travel is a tad more difficult than I'd care to do. For instance, a British ex-Army officer is in the midst of walking the length of the Amazon River in South America.

That's, um, 4,000 miles. As the crocodile swims. But longer, really, since the river widens in many places and Ed Stafford can't always take the shortest route. By February, Stafford had passed the halfway point. 

He's accompanied by a guide named Cho, so though he started out solo in April 2008, he now has someone along on the trip.

When I set out solo, I usually go to some cushy place with all the amenities. And often meet up with a guide, too. Stafford, on the other hand, has had to deal with venomous snakes, flooding, electric eels, piranhas and jaguars.

Solo travel and solo camera work in Cartagena, Colombia

This travel guide to Cartagena, Colombia entertained and intrigued me for two reasons:

1. I've thought many times about visiting Colombia, ever since traveling in Ecuador several years ago. But I've never seen a travel video of Colombia to know much about what it looks like.

2. After watching the Colombia travel guide for a few minutes, I realized a solo traveler made the video. Yes, the solo traveler you see in all the shots.

At first, I presumed a fellow traveler was filming because there are several shots of the subject walking away or toward the camera.

But then I started to see that funny hold-camera-at-arms-length type of shooting and I realized he'd done this all by himself, setting his camera up at various places or walking along with the camera aimed at himself. I was impressed by what he managed to pull off to record parts of his trip.

(I think my arms are too short for this style. The few times I've tried it I looked rather grotesque. But after seeing this video, I might have to try again.)

Solo travelers can find unique transportation methods around the world

Until I saw this article on "10 Unique Transport Modes Around the World," I never thought to add up all the different ways I've traveled. We're not talking planes, trains and autos here. More like camels, elephants and tuk tuks.

So I was amused to see what the writer had experienced and to learn that I'd traveled five of the 10 modes she mentions. I can make a list too! And I'm sure you can.

And, though I haven't ridden atop a bamboo train in Cambodia, as the writer has, I have ridden on the roof of a train in Ecuador.

You can read more about the train ride through the "Avenue of the Volcanoes" on my website. Here's one little piece:

"The train took us to the Devil's Nose, a steep portion of the ride where the tracks zigzag repeatedly to enable the train to make it down the steep slope. The mountain walls were so close we could inspect them for cracks."

But the important question here is, what different modes of transportation have YOU ridden. Ones other than the ones listed in the "unique transport" piece? I'm going to add pony trekking in Iceland, snowmobiling in Canada and inline skating in the Netherlands.

Who's got others?

Photo: Ellen Perlman. Avenue of the Volcanoes, Ecuador.

Solo female travelers shouldn't let safety concerns put the world off limits

I've often been terrified before traveling to foreign countries outside of the "safety" of Europe.

I planned a trip to Ecuador and worried for weeks before going. Someone told me about a woman he'd met in Brazil who'd been harassed in Ecuador. I read about pickpockets and thieves and how careful women had to be at night.

The same thing happened before going to Egypt. All I could think of was the massacre I'd remembered that had taken place there 15 years ago. As if the next one were planned for the very time, place and day I'd be at, say, the Valley of the Kings or the Pyramids at Giza 15 years later.

And people around me freaked out when I said I was going to Mexico last fall. They'd read too much about kidnappings and drug-related killings. As had I. Although in that case, I wasn't very concerned. Can't explain why.

But while staying with a family in Guadalajara, Mexico, taking the city bus to Spanish classes and sightseeing around the downtown, I have to say, I didn't see one person carted off by a drug cartel member or shoved into a car and driven off for a ransom call.

Life seemed pretty normal despite the horror stories in the paper. Which are mostly about the border states, in any case, not all of Mexico.

This kind of thinking is understandable (I've GOT to say that, don't I, since I engage in it sometimes) but also not particularly rational.

I live in Washington, D.C. I watched the smoke from the 9/11 plane that crashed into the Pentagon rise into the sky as I made my way home that day. Terrorists had attacked within two miles of where I worked and within five miles of where I live.

Find a city's markets: farmer's, arts and crafts, holiday and more.

'Tis the season of the holiday markets, known in Europe as Christmas markets. They can be found in cities all over the world. 

I was just in New York City for Thanksgiving with family and stopped off at the Grand Central Terminal Holiday Fair for a quick peek before catching a train upstate. This is the fourth year out of the past 10 that I've made it to one or another of New York's holiday markets.

Score! A velvety black scarf with a colorful, artistic pattern and a gold necklace, choker length. What do you mean, who am I buying them for? Me, of course.

The two other great holiday markets I've been to are the Holiday Shops at Bryant Park and the Union Square Holiday Market. There's one at Columbus Circle I've yet to explore.

We're talking hundreds of artisans and vendors. New York's markets are fashioned after the Northern European holiday markets that set up in public squares and piazzas. (Bring your scarf and mittens, even if you plan to buy more. It's usually cold out there.)

Markets of all kinds appeal to me as a solo traveler. They're good for people watching, buying unique local gifts and getting a sense of the locale and its residents.

I've sought them out in Saquisili and Otavalo, Ecuador, where I didn't recognize half the exotic fruits. (More on Ecuador here and here.) There was El Rastro, the flea market in Madrid. Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. The leather stalls in Florence, Italy. And so many more. I'm itching to go shopping as we speak!

And right here in Washington, D.C., we have Eastern Market, the last of Washington's 19th century markets to remain in continuous operation. It has a flea market, a food market and arts and crafts and jewelry galore.