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I thought it was high time I wrapped up what I did on my June New York trip. You already know I stayed at the Pod Hotel, ate at Thai 51, and spent some time in Brooklyn with my cousin.  I’ve also written about my travel takeaways from my trip and my experiment with going carry-on only for the trip.  What else did I do?  Here it is, my four day weekend in the Big Apple: Continue reading →

It’s no secret to anyone reading this blog that I started out as a solo traveler by necessity.  I didn’t have anyone else to travel with, and my options were a) travel alone or b) don’t travel.  I decided travel was important to me, so I decided to go alone. Surprise–I now love solo travel.  My guess is most people who are married and/or have children wouldn’t dream of traveling solo (except for work), but perhaps they should.   I am very pleased to introduce today’s guest blogger, Brian Searl, who explores some reasons why solo travel is an idea worth considering even for those with families.

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Why travel solo?

It’s a question that many of us ask ourselves. For many it can even be described as a fear. Why should we travel alone when we can experience the world with friends, family or our children?

I won’t presume to know your reason for traveling.  Everyone is different and everyone has a different reason for wanting to see the world.  Any attempt to categorize everyone into a few small groups would be a mistake and one that I’m not prepared to make.  Only you can know your own personal reasons but one can assume that those reasons are born of a basic understanding of travel itself.

To be sure there are plenty of advantages to traveling with friends, a partner or even a larger group. When you get back you have someone who understands the experience you just shared. Perhaps you travel in larger groups for the discounts or travel with your children to open their eyes to new and exciting cultures.  I’m certainly not advocating that you stop. What I am saying is. . .why not do both? Continue reading →

The Brooklyn Bridge

I just took my fourth trip to New York City this summer.  It was only my second time setting foot in Brooklyn.  I finally did what so many New York tourists are encouraged to do: Walk the Brooklyn Bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the country (finished in 1883), and is nearly 1600 feet long.  My cousin, who moved to Brooklyn this summer, was more than game to join me, as she hadn’t walked the Bridge yet, either.

I highly recommend the walk.  As long as you’re in reasonably good health, it doesn’t take that long (20-25 minutes if you’re not stopping to take photos every few minutes, but you probably will be).  You can walk across from Manhattan and then take the subway back; take the subway to Brooklyn and walk back; or do what my cousin and I did: Walk both ways. Continue reading →

Old Montreal

Recently I wrote about 7 Things About Travel That Stress Me Out.  Little did I know how prescient that post would be for my trip to Montreal that weekend, where I experienced numbers 4, 5 and 6 from my list of 7 stressers.  I also realized I missed one:  When the unexpected derails your best-laid plans. When travel throws you a curve ball, the most important thing to remember is: Don’t panic.  The second most important thing is to (try to) learn from your experiences.  Here’s what I took away from my weekend in Montreal:

Lesson #1:  Always assume the drive will take longer than you think.

I kind of knew this one already, but had never experienced it on this particular drive. Normally, it takes 2 hours to drive from Burlington to Montreal.  Between a 30 minute wait at the border and a 30 minute delay due to an accident on the highway going into Montreal, my drive took three hours.  Had I been on a schedule, I’d have missed it by a mile.  Thank God I stopped to pee halfway there. Continue reading →

Do you have a negative perception of solo travel because you’re single and spend a lot of time alone in your everyday life anyway?  Maybe you think “Why would I want to travel alone, I’m alone enough as it is!”   Don’t write it off so quickly.  Single living and solo travel aren’t necessarily the same.

I’ve been thinking lately about how ironic and odd it is that I love solo travel so much when I have also concluded, after too many years doing it, that I don’t particularly like being single.  (Though it’s certainly better than living with the wrong person.)  Still, you’d think if I like one, I’d like the other.  So why is the experience of living alone so much less fun than traveling alone?

When I  travel alone, the emphasis tends to be on the benefits of being able to focus on a fascinating new place and any new people I should meet along the way, not the drawbacks of living alone within the same four walls 365 days a year.

I love traveling alone.  I love having the ability to go where I want, spend what I can afford to spend, and focus on what interests me, without having to worry about whether my companion is having a good time.  If I want to stop and take hundreds of photos of something or sit at a coffee shop and write in my journal, I can.  If I want to spend an entire day in the same museum, I can.  I might have the occasional pang of loneliness, but usually, I’m too busy exploring, seeing, and experiencing new things to think about the lack of a companion.  Since I can only afford to travel three or four times a year, we’re only talking about a month of “alone time”; I think that’s a healthy amount to indulge in for anyone, partnered or not. Continue reading →