Traveling: Alone or Together?

A trip, whether a short or a long one, is usually a very full and interesting experience, and so, a very important issue to deal with while planning a trip is your traveling partner. While many travelers enjoy a lone quiet walk in the forest, others will feel an overwhelming need to point out this bird or that bush to their group. Some cannot leave home without their second half, while others feel "the vibe" only when they are surrounded with their high-school buddies or life-long best friend.

"What kind of person am I? What kind of traveler will I be?"

Many start their trip with a small group and split up after a while. Others start their trip alone, and group up with many different people along the way. Think about yourself, and what your type is. Use past experiences to judge on which occasions have you felt best. Be aware, that what ever answers you might come up with, things change on the beaten path, and you may find out a lot about yourself, and that things tend to look a bit different when the backpack is strapped tight and your walking boots lead along the trek.

Traveling alone – Pros and Cons

PROS:

While traveling alone you will have a chance of:

1. Getting to know ones self in a way never before. A trip is an excellent way of getting to know ones self. While traveling alone, a long way from home, on your own in an unfamiliar environment, you will discover many things about your personality. From the way you handle day-to-day issues like organizing lunch and shopping, to the way you deal with "travel-only" situations, such as a broken tent in the middle of a 5 days trek, when a rain storm had just started.

Being away from the group of people who have learned to know and accept you in a much defined way, the way you project yourself to the people you love, your friends, your family, and even the clerk in the bank, all these things are "on trial" as you embark a long journey. One might say you get a fresh start, as you get to see and examine, willingly or not, the way you project yourself to the people you encounter. Those short relationships you have with random travelers from all over the world, different cultures and costumes, will give you a fuller spectrum of insight on yourself, Your "true colors" and the way people back home see the "you" in you.

2. being free of "reporting"

On your everyday life, you find yourself answering to the needs of others, whether it suits your wishes or not. You need to let your parents know when you are coming back home, or let your roommate know when you wane bring home a special someone. While being on your own, you can decide for yourself, selfishly considering only yourself, and no one else. Off course that doesn’t mean you will bring the pub back to the very much occupied and very deeply sleeping 12 beds dormitory, but you WILL be able to wake up in the morning and change a hostel just like that, or going out on a bicycle tour all alone with out even leaving a note. You will not have to wait for anyone – if you are hungry NOW, or want to go out NOW, or you prefer to take the 7:30am bus and not the 12:00pm one, it's takes only YOU to make the call, as you are a "lone traveler", and the others know and understand that. They will see you there when they get there, but it will be a few hours later. And hey, you will already be a "local" on the new location.

3. Meeting new people while traveling in a known group of friends, of with your better half, you are "less attractive" to other travelers, while you will usually find the cultural diversity extremely attractive. While traveling with a group, you will usually share the experiencing inside the group, and if traveling with your other-half, you will usually be a bit more open, but almost only to other traveling couples.

Traveling on your own will give you the opportunity to experience the amazing and intriguing cultural bash that leaves the biggest mark on your gradually growing Travel-memories bag, as you will see that when describing a trek you did in Patagonia, you will almost always begin with "… 2 Australians, a French girl, 3 British dudes and a Japanese with 3 cameras…", or something similar. Another amazing thing is the new and other-wise almost impossible deep bonds you create with people all over the world, as you find yourself planning your next visit to Turkey to meet that dude who shared a 20 hours bus ride with you and taught you backgammon tricks, or to Russia, to stay as a guest with the Russian couple that traveled Salar de Uyuni with you, and made you promise to come and see them and stay in their guests room in Moscow.

CONS:

1. Hard beginning Getting to a new and unfamiliar place all on your own could be a little strange, especially if you are landing in a whole new country, and even more so if you don't speak the language. Having to pass this experience alone is sometimes a little scary, and thus many people chose to BEGIN there travel with another person they know, so the getting-there will be easier, and the first few days of acclimatizing. Many people post on the web and in travel shops in their home town, looking for "Someone to LAND with", and it could be a nice start-up point for those of you who want to travel alone but know that they need the time and could use a few days to get used to the new surroundings. Besides, many new and interesting friendships are created that way, and it Is actually a nice way of starting your trip a little bit before actually doing it, as you meet a new person already, and you pretty much only talk about travel.

2. Lonely dinners.

By traveling alone, occasionally you might end up doing things on your own, just in those moments you wish you had someone to share it with. This happens usually in the beginning of the trip, when you are still not sure of how to approach others, and didn't get used to the flexibility and the free approach all those people on the road seem to have. While traveling, people usually get to be in a more easy-going state of mind, and as soon as you get used to communicating daily with complete strangers, you will gradually find out you are hearing many "Yes's" and very few "NO's". You might actually, as most of us lone-wolfs do, fall in love with this constant flow and verity of faces, voices and conversations, that you might find yourself remembering your "lone-wolf" attitude here and there, and actually need to "hide" so you can go get your quiet dinner, just you and your thoughts.

3. Someone to count on.

Sometimes while in a trip, as everything is packed up in your precious back-pack, and your valuables never leave your body, you need someone to give you a hand. You gotte go the the toilets, simply HAVE TO, but it’s a 45 minute line to buy tickets to that train, and you have been standing for 15 already. "Can I trust these people behind me to watch my bag?" "Jeez, I just gotte go, I'm leaving it and que sera sera.." Or even – "forget this train, I don't care, I GOTTA GO!!!!"

Having your "life-supporters" packed in that huge backpack could sometimes be hard, and you are not always as flexible as you wish you could be. I have seen people get into arguments and fights with their backpack, loving it for the service it provides them, and hating it for not having legs… The beautiful thing is that in time, you get to learn how to trust your fellow travelers. The dipper you are in your travels, the more you are open minded to "the vibe", and get the feel to recognize – "is this person trustable?". You end up landing money, and getting money lent to, and it is beautiful to find out you can trust "strangers".

To sum it up, many might disagree, but I personally recommend traveling on your own. Much different then traveling ALONE, traveling on your own gives you a wider and more fulfilling experience, while all those little things that you feel the need to share, well, there is always another backpacker around. And you can bet on them feeling the same as you.

Happy travels.

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