Solo Traveler

 

I haven’t traveled solo much in my adult life, but I do plan to do it a lot more now.  I love to do things alone and traveling is one of those.  I recently returned from a birthday trip to Las Vegas that I did all on my own and I absolutely loved it.  It was super low stress for me because I pretty much did what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it and I only had to concern myself with and about myself.  It was lovely.

 

In past travels I’ve always been hyper focused on safety, sticking to an itinerary and making sure everyone was fed, rested, comfortable and having a good time.  It was always a lot of work to plan it, pay for it and make it happen.  If I’m being completely honest it made it so I wasn’t having as much fun as I could have been, I always felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation, but I wouldn’t change those experiences whatsoever.  I’m so glad my family got to go places and do things.  Now however, I get to change the way I enjoy travel.

 

One thing I did very differently this time when I traveled was that I didn’t take any pictures.  I left my laptop at home.  I didn’t take a suitcase, not even a carry on.  I packed light with only what I could put into a backpack.  I didn’t drive anywhere, opting to use a shuttle service to get me from the airport to the hotel and back and I used my feet.  I did a ton of walking.  I didn’t walk around looking at my phone at all either.  I allowed myself to be present.  I enjoyed the moment and took it all in.

 

This year I had no travel budget so I did this trip on a shoestring.  I booked it far in advance plus I traveled on the “off” days so I got cheap airfare as well as hotel rates.  The disadvantage of booking in advance is that they often change airline schedules, which did happen but I just rolled with it.  I refused to get stressed about it and everything worked out just fine.

 

I also booked ahead a show to go to on my birthday and a quick search online gave me a promo code to save even more on my booking.  Other than that one show I didn’t plan anything else.  I just allowed myself to wander and do whatever I felt like at the moment.  I had no itinerary.

 

With the money saved on travel I was able to scrape up enough money to enjoy meals out and a little shopping while I was there.  My trip turned out better than I could’ve hoped.  I had a great experience and came home well rested and happy and I didn’t break the bank or incur any debt to do it.  Now I need to get busy and plan my next adventure!