Traveling is always an enriching experience and is all the more memorable if done alone. The trend of girls and women traveling alone is on the rise and shows no signs of slowing down. According to statistics, in fact, the search volume of “solo female travel” (ie “solo female travel” ) has increased by 62% in the last three years.
Being a woman and traveling alone can be a challenging as well as liberating experience. At the same time, however, it can also be daunting; especially if it is the first time. In fact, a survey revealed that nearly half of the women who considered traveling alone did not actually do so due to concerns about their safety. Of course, these are very important considerations, but traveling alone – especially for girls – has many benefits.
The ability to step out of your comfort zone, meet new people and find out more about yourself are just some of the well-known reasons why women travel alone. The advantages of female travel alone are many, and discovering them will make you want to immediately pack your suitcase and buy a plane ticket.
1. It will make you discover a part of yourself that you do not know
Who are you once you get on that plane and take off your clothes as a student, daughter, sister, friend? When traveling alone, you have time to reflect and reconnect with yourself – you can really focus on who you are and what you want.
Traveling alone will allow your mind to wander: you will think about your goals and those you have already achieved, you will learn to value all the little things in life and you will re-embrace your true self to become the wonderful woman you can be.
You will realize what you really like and, above all, you will learn to enjoy your own company.
2. Traveling alone is empowering
Traveling alone is empowering. Dragging a heavy backpack from one place to another, wandering around new cities and learning to handle all kinds of problems: traveling alone will help you find in you a strength you didn’t know you had.
You will challenge stereotypical gender norms and abandon all those archaic ideas that define what women can, can’t or shouldn’t do. You can do what you want, without anyone questioning your choices or changing your mind. You will learn to be independent , both financially and emotionally.
It is essential to experience this sense of independence at least once in a lifetime.
3. It will boost your self-confidence
Traveling alone will help you acquire valuable skills and transform you into a more self-confident person. This type of experience will test your limits and your ability to cope with the obstacles you will find on the road; it will make you a stronger and more confident person in your own abilities.
Just being on the road alone is a challenge in itself and all the other things you have to organize will help you understand that you can only achieve everything you set out to do if you go your own way.
4. You will free yourself from social expectations
A lone traveler has nothing in mind but herself. Her persona is at the top of the priority list, which is subversive even in Western societies today.
Solo travel is often considered a pastime reserved only for carefree single males, but in reality all the girls who go away benefit enormously from solo travel. Travel alone is in fact the epitome of the modern “taking time for yourself”.
Not only that: traveling alone is a great time to forget about that “mandatory maintenance”. You can leave the razor, the hair straightener and the mascara at home. You can take a break from the treadmill, insidious body shaming, diet culture, and fashion trends to be whoever you really want to be .
5. Traveling alone improves your well-being
Various researches have long demonstrated the many benefits to one’s well -being both of traveling and spending time alone. So, combining these two activities is the best choice you can make.
Studies show that traveling alone is particularly good in terms of mental health, as it makes endorphins flow, making you happier, and helps calm the body, reduce stress and depression. Traveling alone also helps us remember one of the most important reasons we live on this planet: to reunite with the natural world and be educated spectators of every beautiful place on Earth.