When people talk about solo travel, they usually picture “adventure” such as backpacking through Europe, navigating a crowded fresh market in Southeast Asia, or figuring out foreign train systems.
But the real challenge – and gift – of solo travel is something most travel guides never mention: being comfortable with your own solitude and silence.
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It’s not glamorous, it’s not Instagram-perfect, it’s not easy and I’m certainly not gonna get viral traffic writing this. But in my years of traveling solo, I’ve learned that alone time is a superpower that transforms the way you connect with a destination.
And as I get older, I seek transformation over short term thrills and bucket list travel.
Read How to plan your first solo trip and hurdle your fears of solo travel
Why traveling alone feels hard… at first.
Table of Contents: Protect your Belongings: 11 Anti-theft bags for travel in 2025
- 1 6 hidden benefits of solitude in solo travel: Dealing with the alone in solo travel
- 1.1 How to Get Comfortable With Alone Time as a Solo Traveler
- 1.2 6 Hidden Benefits of Being Alone in Solo Travel | Alone but NOT Lonely
- 1.3 An Ultimate Capsule Wardrobe Essential: One Shirt, Seven Outfits | Packing with Unbound Merino
- 1.4 Planning Your First Solo Trip: A Step-by-Step Guide to Solo Travel for Women
- 1.5 8 Free Airlines in-Transit Hotels for Long Layovers
- 1.6 10 Reasons to Eat More Street Food When Traveling
- 1.7 Finding your Solo Travel G-spots & ME-gasms
- 1.8 What to Pack for Pakistan | Packing List for Female Travelers to Pakistan
- 1.9 Don’t Go Missing: Advanced Solo Travel Safety When Crossing Country Borders
- 1.10 Are you Real ID Compliant for U.S. Domestic Travel in 2025 (Starting May 7th)
- 1.11 Digital Privacy Tips: Preparing Your Phone Before Arriving at U.S. Airport Security
- 1.12 U.S. Airport Security is Changing- Here’s What You Need to Know about Phone Searches & Biometric Scans
- 1.13 When Cheap Travel is Unethical: Why We Should Ditch the Word “Cheap”
- 1.14 Florence on a Shoestring Budget | Why Florence Should Never Be Missed
- 1.15 How to Apply for a Pakistan Tourist Visa for U.S. citizens
- 1.16 Complete Guide to Free Airport Layover Tours | City Sightseeing Tours for your Layover
- 1.17 Hynes Eagle 42L Rolling Backpack Review: Best Rolling Backpack under $100
- 1.18 A List of 32 Airports with Airport Sleeping Pods for your Layover
- 1.19 Protect your Belongings: 11 Anti-theft bags for travel in 2025
Most of us live in a world that doesn’t tolerate silence. We fill every pause with Spotify playlists, Netflix, scrolling through Instagram or TikTok. So when you land in a new country – and it’s just you – the silence can feel loud.
I remember my first solo trip to Thailand (read my good, bad & ugly lessons), sitting alone in a restaurant waiting for my food. My instinct was to pull out my phone or guidebook, but then I laid the brakes into myself. Why was I trying to escape or divert this moment of eating alone? Why was I uncomfortable that I wanted to distract myself and fill my time with something not Thai? I looked out the doors and noticed the rhythm of the street outside: a thai street food vendor calling out their service, motorbike horns honking, Thai kids laughing, running down the street. That moment taught me that silence isn’t empty – it’s a doorway to connection.
Similarly with my first morning in Myanmar. I was enjoying my guesthouse’s traditional breakfast of pe byeok (chickpeas and naan) and chai, watching little monk boys walking the streets for alms, when a male traveler asked to join me.
Read my 50 tips to staying at hotels as a solo traveler
1. Solitude lets you truly hear the destination
Traveling solo without constant chatter means you notice the details most people miss.
• The way street vendors greet their regulars.<
• The sound of temple bells layered over traffic.
• The difference in how people gather in cafés in Paris vs. Seoul vs Southeast Asia.
When you stop filling the silence with your own noise, the destination fills it for you. And that’s when you realize solo travel is about listening as much as it is about exploring. It is unfiltered, because you don’t have anyone between you coloring or buffering it. It’s you and the destination.
Deepening my travel-yoga practice
I love listening to music as a soundtrack for passing scenery and inspiration. So many travel with their earbuds in, ignoring the sounds of the outside world. It is a way of silence and connecting with yourself.
But over the years, I sought ways to built on top of that practice… why put earbuds in and drown the outside sounds with playlist music? You can channel your outside sounds to take you higher in your self-awareness, even into a spiritual plane. Take India where there are horn honking mixes with the bells of temple music. At my yoga ashram in India, I’d rise to mornings with bajan music floating through the air from a neighboring temple to eventually singing yoga chants to set the meditational energy for practice. I’ve enjoyed the pedestrian sounds of intermittent Muslim prayer calls throughout the day in Pakistan and Morocco.
The outside sounds when I travel is music! It is music I would never hear anywhere else and I wanted to soak it in, savor it, acclimate to it, spiritually climax to it and be in its rhythm to deepen my experience of that destination.
If it sounds a bit like yoga, it is. It is yoking your body, mind and spirit to your surroundings. Entraining your vibe to the rhythm that’s around you so you are 100% Zen with it.
Tip: Leave the music playlist at home. Find it in the streets when you travel.
Read Is solo travel safe for women?
2. You give yourself permission to slow down
Giving myself permission to slow down allows me to find my unique rhythm of connecting to a country.
Group or partner travel is often about compromise- someone wants to rush to the next attraction, someone else wants to shop, someone’s hungry again. I don’t mind balancing the occasional group setting, but group decisions can be frustrating and annoying when you just want to do your own thing and people are being indecisive! Also, when you travel with others, you unconsciously set your rhythm and pace to match theirs. You’re not hearing your own.
Alone, you set your own pace. You can choose activities by what your soul yearns for and you can indulge in it without feeling like it’s lame or your companion won’t be entertained.
In Karachi, I once spent a day in my guesthouse, because I was overwhelmed and just needed to hibernate and rest. I just completed my first GRRRLTRAVELER group tour, was still planning my next jump into India and Karachi felt overwhelmingly big and hot. I was just grateful to have made it there and to be lying in an air conditioned room with a bed.
Enjoying “down time” and “being boring” is something I could never do if I were with a group or with a companion.
At first, I felt guilty, like I should be checking off a “must-see” list. But that slow moment became one of my most vivid travel memories. I eventually walked along the beachside and ended up at a huge mall where I didn’t have to worry about finding foods to eat. Being alone allowed me to follow joy, not obligation.
3. It builds confidence you cannot fake
Traveling solo forces me to sit with myself, face my own thoughts, my fears, my boredom, and still be okay.
That confidence in being okay with being me, doesn’t just stay on the road – it follows me home.
Whenever I return from a solo trip, I find myself more decisive in everyday life, from choosing where to saying No to events (and people) that drain me. Or to go to a crowded event and be comfortable with myself just being there without a companion. Alone time is a training ground for self-trust. Check out Me-Gasms and Finding your Travel G-Spots
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4. Creates more authentic relationships
It sounds backwards, but being alone makes it easier to connect with locals. Without the safety net of travel companions, I’m more likely to ask for help, start small conversations with locals, and stay present.
I’ve had strangers walk me to bus stops in Korea, Nepal, Thailand, Japan etc.., families invite me to dinner or share a meal with me, and grandmothers show me how to eat street food – all because I was alone, open, and quiet enough to be approachable. When I’m traveling with a friend or group, I become insular and forget to look outside of my bubble.
5. Solitude lets you live in the moment
We’re always thinking about the future or the past when we go through our lives. Often we’re rushing through the present because we cannot wait for surprises ahead. But when I’m traveling alone in silence, I’m being present in the moment. To actually live, enjoy, laugh, smell, taste, cherish, soak in those present moments is powerful. It reminds you of why you are here.
6. Solitude allows you to be silent, intuitive and safe
In this crazy world growing with noise wars of people colliding and competing to get their voices and egos heard, the benefits of solitude is silence and safety. Being silent is grounding and centering.
When you are not silent, it’s easy to get swept up into strangers’ dramas and not see beyond the surface. You cannot always see or hear your intuition when a stranger has bad intentions, because you are easily influenced by others.
When you are silent, you can hear your intuition better. You are not doing, which helps connect with your center and to see the real intention motivating strangers’ actions — whether they are coming from a place of unconditional love and thoughtfulness or ego, drama and selfishness.
You are centered to know you are not part of the drama and this gives you a choice of whether to react, respond, or avoid and release, which in turn helps with safety. Read top travel scams to avoid
How to Get Comfortable With Alone Time as a Solo Traveler
If you’re new to traveling alone, silence might feel awkward or even scary at first. Here are a few ways to turn it into your greatest strength:
• Start small
Have a solo meal without your phone. Sit on a bench in a public square and just observe.
• Journal
Writing down your thoughts when traveling alone turns silence into reflection.
• Embrace slowness.
Let yourself linger at one place without guilt.
• Start a meditation or yoga practice or structured retreat
Self practices and yoga-meditation retreats that enable you to connect to yourself and silence is powerful and centering. It gives you reasons to travel alone. Tip: I recommend Booking Yoga retreats to find a destination workshop
Most people think the biggest solo travel flex is being “brave” enough to book a trip and yeah, I’ve said that also, because on an actionable level it is. Read 5 tough challenges of solo travel
But the real flex is being at peace with your own company. The older I get, the more I see solitude as a lesser known destination or secret gem of travel that more travelers should know about, because the transformational benefits.
Silence isn’t empty. Alone time isn’t loneliness. It’s the rare chance to have an unfiltered experience with a destination… and with yourself.
When you learn to embrace it, that’s when solo travel stops being an escape and starts becoming transformation
Let me know your thoughts about the benefits of solitude in solo travel and please share if you agree!
