About My Journey

For years I wanted to travel and see the world, but I didn't want to head out there by myself.

I’m sure a lot of you reading this can relate to the fear of Solo Travel, not just from a safety perspective, but also from a social aspect. I wanted to have these incredible once in a lifetime experiences, but I also wanted to have people to share them with.

After the pandemic, I think we’ve all found ourselves relying more on our home comforts, and this can be a barrier when wanting to set off and travel. After planning to travel after University, Covid sadly got in the way, and my relationship ended. This led me to looking towards friends as travel partners, but timings and budgets just simply didn’t align.

In August 2022, I came across a group tour on Facebook that had one space remaining, and I quickly took the plunge to join and start off my travels!

I’m incredibly grateful to this trip, and to myself for being brave enough to embark on a month which subsequently changed my life.

Moving forward I am much more confident, much more aware, and much more willing to embrace new life experiences.

Don’t get me wrong, the trip certainly had its ups and downs, and the transition from the tour ending and my two weeks solo beginning was really tough. However as you can find out below, everything definitely happened for a reason, and led to the most amazing outcome.

The solo challenge

Once I booked onto the tour, I connected with five wonderful girls via Facebook who were also on the tour. We decided to book flights together, and left ourselves two weeks after the tour ended to continue exploring Bali together. I knew I wanted to make the most of my time out there, and not wanting to go off alone, this presented as the perfect solution.

Unfortunately, as every girls holiday isn’t without complications, three days after the tour finished, I ended up being left on my own as some of these girls wanted to continue the trip in their own directions and were not great at communicating this with me.

With a ticket booked to Gili T, no accommodation, and no travel companions, I had a major freak out.

The Solution

I was left with two options; I could either book a flight home, or get on that boat and try my luck solo. (Here I have to thank Sophie for convincing me to continue my trip, I am eternally grateful!) I had to change mindset changed from fear, to recognising that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I couldn’t miss out on!

I quickly booked a room at Atlas Hostel through HostelWorld, and set off for Gili T.

After a very unpleasant boat ride (which you can read more about on my Gili T Post) I arrived on the Island, and dragged my suitcase through the dusty streets, in 40 degree heat to my first Hostel (at which point I was questioning all my life choices again).

As soon as I checked in, I was greeted by multiple other solo travellers who were more welcoming and chatty than I could ever have hoped for!

The afternoon was met with a group Hostel sunset boat trip, and followed by a sh*t shirt night which led us to the Islands best beach bars. Within 24 hours, I had gone from a complete breakdown, to having one of the best nights out since freshers week at University.

As I continued my week, I met people from all over the world who embraced me, and who I made incredible memories with for the rest of my time in Bali. People who I never would have met if I didn’t go SOLO

SOLO Travel doesn't have to mean being SOLO

I hope that my experience can be an inspiration for a lot of you, and that the outcome can give you the final push you’re looking for to set off on your own travels. The world if full of other travellers just like us, all eager to share cocktails and take each others Instagram photos. So try not to let fear stop you from embarking on what will hopefully be a trip of a lifetime!

Where I am now:

After my amazing Bali adventure I got the infectious travel bug! In February I embarked on a 4 month journey of South East Asia, and this time I travelled there completely SOLO! I was lucky enough to visit Thailand, Vietnam and The Philippines. Travel guides for each of these can be found in the ‘destinations’ section on my website when they launch!