Solo travel has a reputation problem. It's framed as something you do when you can't find someone to come with you — a consolation prize rather than a deliberate choice. This is wrong.
Going alone is faster. You move at your pace, stop when something is interesting, skip things that aren't, eat where you want, and don't negotiate any of it. The trip becomes a direct expression of what you actually want rather than a compromise.
The loneliness that people worry about rarely materialises in the way they imagine. Traveling alone makes you available to the place and to conversations in a way that a pair or group never quite manages. You become permeable to the trip.
The one practical thing worth sorting before a solo trip: let someone at home know where you are and when to expect to hear from you. That's not paranoia, it's the basic logistics of not being missed when you're somewhere without signal.
adv.entu.re editorial