Why you should consider solo travel this year

We think it’s time you started to treat yourself to some well-deserved me time. Forget having to call out the check list to your partner as you leave the house for the airport and wave goodbye to multi-way online chats to try and find a date you and your friends can all do. Independent travel opens all the doors to allow you to venture on your own agenda, with only yourself to worry about. The one sport you’ve always wanted to try or the bucket-list location begging to be ticked off can now be yours with no questions asked. 

Thailand is a great destination to develop a new skill among some of the world’s most magical natural landscape and kindest people. Cookery and yoga schools are aplenty in the northern beauty of Chiang Mai, while heading to the idyllic island paradises of the south is an great way to enjoy scuba diving at world-renowned reefs. Costa Rica also offers towering cliffs covered in lush greenery, interrupted by cascading waterfalls falling into turquoise rapids. Finding hidden gems, like the Rio Celeste in the Tenorio Volcano National Park with its impossibly blue shade, is easy for a solo traveller on their own itinerary. 

For the foodies out there, we recommend New York, a haven for lovers of experimental cuisine where diet restrictions just make for another reason to create a unique and compelling recipe. Discovering the downtown urban cafes or the eclectic neighbourhoods across the Brooklyn Bridge immersed in a population of more than 8 million pedestrian crossing evaders, will ensure you don’t feel lonely. 

If improving your mental wellbeing is a priority, a fitness retreat can be the perfect place to dip your toe in the shimmering waters of solo travel. From yoga schools and bootcamps to detoxing havens, why wait about for a companion looking to achieve the same goals as you when these retreats were designed for independent fitness journeys. Have a read of our top picks of the most luxurious retreats around the world here. 
 

Holly Bailey, from Health and Fitness Travel, has seen an array of benefits to the mental wellbeing of solo travellers. “The confidence gained from making decisions based on your own gut when travelling alone is truly powerful,” she says. “You are the number one decision maker and therefore the one to hold accountability to. Travelling solo stimulates your problem resolution capabilities, preparing you for anything which can come across your path in the future. 

“Learning a new language can also build brain cells and contributes to confidence and overall mental health. Learning a new skill is a way of developing memory and even helping to keep illnesses like dementia at bay. Above all, you can choose with whom you interact and enjoy the deliciousness of spending time alone, realising that actually solo time is both healing and calming.”