Solo female travel is becoming an increasingly more popular travel style. More women than ever are taking the leap to embark on their first solo adventure. If you’re wondering about joining the community and taking your first solo trip, here are some top tips for your first trip as a Solo Female Traveller so you can safely enjoy your time.
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1. Plan ahead
One of my top tips for your first trip as a Solo Female Traveller is to plan ahead. For your first trip, I think it’s always better to over-plan rather than under-plan. This partly depends on your personality – some people are more into planning and others are more into just going with the flow. However, even if you’re a go-with-the-flow type, I’d advise planning a fair amount of your first solo trip.
The most important part to plan ahead is your accommodation on your first night, and also how you plan to get there from the airport. I love the rush of excitement when you first step off a plane in a new place, but it can also be scary and overwhelming as you try to work out transport options in another language. Having a clearly researched plan of how to leave the airport, and knowing you’ll have somewhere nice to stay on your first night, are really important.
After your first night’s sleep, you’ll feel much more ready to take on the challenges of your first solo trip and explore. If you want, you can go with the flow a bit more from here. Or there’s nothing wrong with keeping on planning your whole trip, if that gives you a sense of security and ensures you don’t miss out on any of the top things to do.
2. Choose an ‘easy’ destination for a first trip
The world is huge and there are so many amazing places to visit, so it can be difficult to choose where to go for your first trip as a solo female traveller. I’d recommend choosing somewhere fairly ‘easy’. Of course, what is considered easy will vary for different people, and different people will have different experiences.
If you’re from the USA, you could think about visiting the UK as they will speak English, which can definitely make things easier. Or most destinations in Europe are generally considered safe and easy in Europe – places like Vienna, Prague, or Berlin. Just watch your handbag in the crowded big cities.
Australia and New Zealand are great options too, as they’re really welcoming to all travellers and have some great sights. Or South-East Asia is a great option if you’re looking for somewhere where your budget will go a bit further – Bali is really popular so you definitely won’t be the only solo female there, or Thailand can be great fun too.
I’d advise trying a shorter trip for your first solo trip. Backpacking around South-East Asia for 6 months sounds amazing, but maybe try a long weekend or a week long trip by yourself first. By trying a shorter trip, you’ll get to know yourself and what you like and dislike better, which is really useful when you go away for longer. Also, a shorter trip is a lot less daunting for a first time solo traveller. Once you’ve done a few shorter solo trips, you’ll be ready to take on more!
Read more about my tips for the top European destinations, and also the top worldwide destinations for solo female travellers.
3. Think about joining a small group tour or day tours
Another of my top tips for your first trip as a Solo Female Traveller is to consider a group tour, or just a day tour from your hotel/hostel. While some people might argue that this isn’t ‘true’ solo travel, I always think that if you join the group alone, you’re a solo traveller. Plus, if you enjoy it, who cares what anyone else classifies it as.
Small group tours give you the chance to see places that aren’t as easily accessible on your own, and you can often pack in more sights in a shorter amount of time than if you’re trying to arrange your own transport. I’m not keen on hiring a car abroad on my own, so joining a group tour means you can explore the scenery more than if you rely on public transport. Plus, you’ll have a ready-made group of friends, all with similar interests. I’ve met some great friends on small group tours.
I’d recommend companies like G Adventures or Intrepid. Both of these limit the group size to around 16 people so you can easily make friends but it doesn’t feel like you’re on a big coach tour. Contiki can also be good but tend to focus more on the younger, partying crowd – which isn’t really my thing, but if you’re into that then Contiki would be a great option.
If you don’t want a full group tour, you can look at doing a day tour from your hotel/hostel. Most hotels/hostels have recommended trips you can join. These are great if there’s just one destination you want to see and you don’t want to bother arranging your own transport. You can make friends easily on these trips too, although the advantage of these trips being only a day long is that there’s less pressure to be sociable if you’d rather not.
You can read more about small group tours in my blog here.
4. Tell family and friends where you’re going
It’s always a good idea to tell your friends and/or family where you’re going, just for basic safety. Solo female travel can be really safe with the right precautions, but make sure someone at home is aware of your trip. You can give them a list of the hotels/hostels you’re staying at, and arrange to message every other day or something just to check in. If everything’s going well, you can just send them a few photos from your day and make everyone jealous!
5. Stay in hostels to meet others
The best way to meet other travellers is through staying at hostels. A lot of hostels offer female only dorm rooms, which is my personal preference while solo travelling. Mixed dorm rooms can be fine, and some people say that they can be friendlier and cleaner than female only rooms. But I just prefer female only dorms. A weird girl in the corner of a room isn’t anywhere near as scary as a weird guy in the corner. But it’s your choice.
Most hostels also give the option of your own room, which can be great if you want your own space. However, it can be easy to hide in your own room, especially if you’re an introvert and find socialising difficult, and then you lose the social advantages of a hostel.
In some hostels, you can instantly connect with others and even plan day trips together. However, don’t expect every hostel or every room to be the same. Sometimes, you can just get unlucky and end up in a room of people who aren’t that interested in talking. But usually, if you start a conversation, most people are happy to reply.
6. Embrace eating at restaurants alone
Eating alone in restaurants is one of the most difficult parts of solo travel for me. It’s the time I feel most awkward and conspicuous, and it can be easy to feel lonely if all the other tables are full of couples and groups of friends.
But embrace it! If you want to eat that food, go to eat that food and don’t care what anyone else is thinking. You can take a book or read something on your phone so you don’t have to make eye contact if you want. But honestly, people aren’t judging you anywhere near as much as you fear. Who knows, that girl sat with her boyfriend who keeps looking at you, she might be wishing she was brave enough to eat at a restaurant on her own and be admiring you.
7. Allow yourself some alone time if you want
Another of my top tips for your first trip as a Solo Female Traveller is to allow yourself some alone time if you want. So much of what you read about solo female travel focusses on meeting other people and having experiences together. But it’s ok to be on your own as well. If you’re an introvert, or if you’re taking this trip to get away from people and have some time for self-reflection, then embrace the alone time. When you’re truly alone, you learn so much about yourself and can realise how capable you are. Even small things like finding your way to a museum on your own can massively boost your confidence and self-esteem. It’s so important to enjoy our own company as well and be content just spending time with ourselves. So embrace the solitude at times as well.
8. Be careful with alcohol
Another safety tip for solo female travellers is to be careful with alcohol. If you want to go out for a drink, then by all means go and enjoy yourself. But seriously, know your limits and know when to stop. A drunk girl in a foreign country is incredibly vulnerable, and it’s just not a good idea to put yourself in that situation. In an ideal world, of course it should be fine for women to drink as much as they want and do whatever they want and not be at risk. But unfortunately, we don’t live in that ideal world, and bad things can and do happen. So just be careful.
Also, don’t drink so much one night you end up feeling too rubbish the next day to do anything.
9. Get a local phone SIM card
One more safety tip for your first trip as a Solo Female Traveller is to get a local phone SIM card, and make sure your phone works. As well as giving you a way to contact home, Google maps is a complete life-saver. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve got lost somewhere and relied on Google maps to find my way back. Also, I’m a lot more comfortable checking a map on my phone rather than getting out a guide book or a paper map. I just feel like holding a paper map makes me so conspicuous as a lost tourist, which can make you vulnerable. If you just stop to check your phone, no one is going to look twice at you, so you can just focus on getting to your next destination and enjoy the sights along the way.
10. Have fun and take photos
And the final and most important of my top tips for your first trip as a Solo Female Traveller: have fun! Solo travel is an incredibly brave thing to do – so many women will never travel alone, so what you’re doing is amazing. Take photos of your trip so you can remember it. And don’t worry if you end up with loads of bad selfies – taking photos of yourself is difficult when you’re travelling solo! Just make sure you record some memories. I’ve got so many bad selfies from my trips, but what I really notice from these photos is my smile; these photos bring back my memories of how happy I was at that moment, and how proud I was of doing something so amazing.
Don’t put too much pressure on your first solo trip either. Some things might go wrong – this is travel, things rarely all go as planned, but sometimes the best moments are the unplanned ones. Enjoy the good times, and learn from your mistakes ready for your next trip.
Be proud of yourself for taking your first step for your first solo trip. And have an amazing time! Make sure you check out the Rays of Adventure Guide to Solo Female Travel for all the tips you’ll need for your solo adventure (affiliate).
Enjoy your first solo trip! If you’re looking for ideas of places to go, Europe is great for your first trip as a Solo Female Traveller. Why not check out Prague or Vienna for a fun city break, or if you’re looking for some gorgeous scenery head to the mountains in Austria or volcanoes in Iceland. Make sure you also check out my top low budget travel tips for solo female travellers, and also my blog about small group tours for solo female travellers.
