On most of my travels I have been on my own. But I have also had many great experiences when travelling with a friend. So which is better? Here are a few thoughts to help you weigh up the pros and cons (or show it to your friend and let them decide for you…).
Advantages of Doing It with Someone Else:
- It’s safer
- It’s cheaper (sharing rooms, taxis etc.)
- It’s less stressful (you share the haggling with touts and answering the same questions a million times from curious locals. You can keep an eye on each other’s bag while one of you nips into a shop or toilet)
- Shared memories to reminisce over when you are old
- Someone to laugh with
- Less daunting and scary heading to strange and unknown places
- Less gear to carry (share a tent, guidebook, medicines)
- Easier to ignore the weirdo on the 24 hour bus ride who is determined to sit next to you and tell you their life story
- Less boring or lonely
Advantages of Doing It Solo:
- More of a challenge
- You meet more people
- Less bickering
- You can do what you want when you want
- More exciting
- Less time talking about Eastenders: you’re more immersed in the experience
- You realise you are capable of more than you imagine
- Great for self-confidence
- Less faff and trivial discussions about what flavour jam to buy
- Solitude
- Strangers are kinder to you
- Freedom, real freedom. Arriving in a place where nobody knows a thing about you is liberating.
- Greater sense of achievement.
- More peace and quiet, time to think, read, write, take photos.
- Easier to tell outrageous lies about your adventures in order to impress girls…
My over-simplified conclusion is that travelling with someone else is more fun but going solo is more rewarding. What do you think? Am I wrong?
Voice your opinion in the comments below!
you should combine the two. travelling alone for a week and then meeting up with long lost friends in a strange place gives you a sort of feeling you can’t help but long for for life.
I agree with mixing the two as well. Although if it really came down to it I liked travelling alone for the independance and because it meant I got the do more interesting things and go to more interesting places, since all my potential travel companions are less adventurous than me.
Also, I found travelling with someone else to be generally more expensive since I am more low budget and others more mid range so I have to compromise. I’ve basically only travelled with my brother and my friends from school, uni etc, rather than people who are genuinely travellers.
Your list is fairly comprehensive but somewhat personal as well in a few cases. You list “solitutude” as a positive thing but others might disagree.
I’ve travelled solo a lot… and never actually been alone.
I’ve found that I acquired transient travelling companions – who accompanied me for a few days, and then went their own way.
The next place I stopped, I’d find someone – or someone would find me.
I love the random way that lives touch – and may never meet again… although there are a few people that I’ve met in this way that I’m still in touch with.
I agree with most of what you say here Al but I have to disagree with meeting more people if you’re alone. I’ve always wondered how Paul Theroux met so many interesting people to talk to (and write about) on his trips because when I travel on my own I invariably stay on my own partly because of a natural diffidence in myself. When I’ve travelled with small groups of friends (no more than three of us say) however, I’ve found that much more conducive to getting banter going with strangers.
Love the photo at the top of this article!
Agree with your pros and cons in general, but I’ve also found that travelling with someone can improve my writing. It gives me someone to bounce ideas off. Travelling seems to bring out the philosopher in most people, which means deeper conversations than you’d get back home – and thus deeper writing. When I’m alone in a foreign country, my writing can have a tendency to turn inwards a little too viciously!
I also find that when I’m travelling with the right person, we really push each other to go further and be more adventurous.
Both are wonderful experiences but I far prefer travelling alone. You meet interesting people from wild and wonderful parts of the world doing crazy things, you talk to ladies in the markets, you accept offers to cycle around Mongolia, homeless people and rich people all merge into one thing when you talk to them – just someone trying to survive this crazy life. There are times alone and times of silence but these allow time to sit and think and look around at the colours, the life, the culture, at who I am and where i’m going… And there are times I want to meet people and no one comes along…and that’s ok. And there are times when there’s too many people in my space, and that’s ok too. I have beautiful friends at home who welcome me back whenever I arrive and create a safe space and this makes me eternally grateful… and then I’ve made extraordinary lifelong nomadic friends all around the world, these are the people ‘who get it’ and these are the people who make my heart pump with excitement of what the world holds.
That’s a lovely summary, Michelle.