• Take advantage of your solo status and be willing to change your plans. One of the greatest things about traveling alone is that you get to do whatever you want to do, all the time. Make an impromptu side trip to the beach. Add an entire country to your anticipated itinerary. Stay in bed all morning on a rainy day. Revel in the joy of not have to compromise.
• Treat yourself to small luxuries like high tea at an elegant hotel or a manicure.
• When graciously offered, accept spontaneous invitation and hospitality, especially from women or families. Be careful, however, not to overstay you welcome or create a hardship on the family.
• How do you handle eating alone in a restaurant? Choose a bistro, café, or lively place. Go prepared with reading and writing materials – postcards, letters, and your journal. Comfortably dining alone is a learned skill. Eventually you'll find yourself enjoying watching people and eavesdropping. And you won't always stay alone after being seated in a restaurant. I have often been invited to join other travelers or vice versa.
• Don't be afraid to eavesdrop. It's a great way to identify interesting people with whom you might share something in common. Find a sneak way to join the conversation.
Tips for overcoming that lonely feeling
• I am often asked, "Do you ever get lonely, and what do you do about it?" I am surprised by how rarely I do get lonely. Remember, just because you are traveling alone doesn't mean you’ll be more lonesome than at home.
• Fear of being lonely is common and can stop you cold in your tracks. To assuage fears, keep in mind that loneliness is a bit like PMS – predictable, irritating, and temporary.
• Different moments in your trip will require different approaches to coping with loneliness. Sometimes it's important not to sink into your loneliness. To counter loneliness, stay active. Take a walk in the park, eat in lively, crowded restaurants, initiate conversation with strangers, and shop for gifts for your friends and family. Other times giving in to your mood is the best possible medicine. At time like this, I become reclusive, reading, listening to music, writing in my journal or to friends and family.
• When you're feeling low, I don't recommend calling home. It can make you feel worse. But writing postcards or sending an e-mail from a cybercafe is uplifting.
• Take care of yourself. When I start to feel lonely, it's often because I haven't eaten or slept enough or I've had too much caffeine. If I stay well fed, fit, and rested, then depression, loneliness, and illness are usually avoided.
• Treat yourself. I will pamper myself with a hot bubble bath, buy a new book and dig into it, or have a massage or manicure. In India and Thailand I bought garlands and richly fragrant flowers for my room. In Chicago I got dressed up and went to a posh hotel for a drink and hours of people watching.
• Write in a journal. When you find yourself missing your best friend at home, write down everything you want to tell her in your journal. Don't just put down what you saw that day – include how you're feeling about yourself and your trip. If you want to go home, write about it! Periodically read back over your journal and see how your journey is unfolding. Take yourself out to dinner when you realize how fabulous you are!
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For more travel tips by the author, visit www.gutsytraveler.com.Excerpted from Gutsy Women: More Travel Tips and Wisdom for the Road by Marybeth Bond. Excerpted with permission from Travelers' Tales. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced except with permission in writing from the publisher.
