If you asked me a couple years ago whether or not I would solo travel by myself I would have probably said, “What would you do? Wouldn’t it be lonely? It must get really boring since you don’t have a companion to share the experience with.” Those were exactly the type of answers I told myself whenever I was asked this question. As a person who’s somewhat of an extrovert I loved the idea of traveling with friends and mingling with people. The thought of eating my meals abroad alone scared me.

To be quite honest I thought people solo traveled because they had no one to go with. What I found out is that people solo traveled because they couldn’t wait on the perfect companion to go with them or friends would bail on their trip last minute. I won’t lie, I was terrified when I booked my first airplane ticket and realized I was going by myself. I started having doubts and questioned my willpower to carry through with the trip. Without giving it a second thought I booked a long stay hostel in South Korea.

Solo Traveling is Dangerous

Ironically my friends and family would be the ones who made these remarks. When I told a couple of my friends that I was going to be living in South Korea for quite some time the question about safety came up. Honestly this was days before the trip. Me being a little self conscious of myself I actually started rethinking my plans and whether or not the trip was way too long.

Waiting for my Friends

Before the thought of even solo traveling was on my mind I actually asked a couple friends that were interested in traveling to South Korea at the time. When the time came to book the flights I booked the flights but my friends didn’t. This left me going to South Korea alone. If there’s one thing I learned from this experience its that if I wait on people all my life I’ll probably never be able to go anywhere.

In the event that my friends traveled with me there’s also the uncertainty of activities and food that people want to eat. One person may like chicken and beer in Korea but another person might argue that we have fried chicken and beer back in the states. Activities will most likely be dictated by a person’s liking and not everyone has the same tastes as you.