It's been a week since I returned from my solo trip to Isla Mujeres, Mexico.  This is the second vacation I've taken on my own to a place I've never been before.

I've encountered enough people who were surprised or mystified by my choice to travel alone that I thought it was worthwhile to share my experience and offer advice to others who want to travel alone but aren't sure how to do so. In this post, I’ll talk about picking a destination.  

Where should I go?

If this is the first solo trip you're planning, then pick the place you've always wanted to go-- your dream destination.  You’ve waited this long to go; now that you’ve made the decision, do exactly what you want to do.  My dream trip was Barcelona.  I've wanted to travel there for years.  During grad school, I had no money for travel.  Shortly after grad school, I had an income, but I never had a significant other or friend who was in a position to travel with me.  I finally got tired of waiting-- who says we must travel in pairs?-- and started researching Barcelona.  (More on researching later.)  Where have you always wanted to go?  


How does my destination affect what I’ll do on vacation?
(Am I sure I want to spend a week, 10 days, etc., doing what’s done where I’m going?)


Going to an old European city? 

During last year’s 10-day trip to Barcelona, I spent most of my time taking in art and architecture.  The point was exploration.  I spent a lot of time walking the city (I always prefer to walk).

Barcelona is a big city and there’s easy rail access to daytrip destinations so I knew I’d have plenty to keep me busy.  In addition to spending several days in the city, I took day trips to Figures (to the Dali museum) and Montserrat (a monastery in the mountains).  None of those required advanced planning, but I did know before I left the US that I had plenty of options. 



Going to a beach?

Isla Mujeres is a 4.5 mile-long island off the coast of Cancun.  It’s a quiet alternative to the grandiose all-inclusive resorts of Cancun.  The island is a small Mexican village full of restaurants, homes, small hotels, and shops.  There is precisely one Mayan ruin.  The point of this vacation was relaxation.  I packed more books that I could possibly read in 7 days.  

In Barcelona I was busy; in Isla Mujeres I was lazy. One thing you have to consider when traveling on your own is how easily you get bored and how adventurous you are in finding things to occupy your time.  I was never bored in Barcelona-- I always had options. 

After two days in Isla Mujeres, however, I was not *quite* bored, but I was worried about getting bored.  Seven days is a lot of time to spend reading and walking along the beach by yourself.  On my third day, I happened to meet two women who were on vacation from NYC.  We did a few things together over their last two days in Isla Mujeres.  Nothing that eventful, but it was nice to make some new friends and spend some time in conversation instead of in a book.  By the time they left, I had two more days on my own.  I was content to spend that time on my own again.  Were I to plan another solo beach vacation, I would probably opt for a shorter trip-- 7 days was a little too long.  

Another way to think about this is to ask yourself if you like to be alone.  Or, how do you like to be alone?  Anyone is capable of traveling alone, but whether or not you’ll enjoy it depends on how you approach the prospect of spending a lot of time without your regular friends and contacts, and perhaps around a lot of people who don’t even speak your language.  If you’re all-out gregarious and confident, then you’ll have no trouble.  I’m more of a timid extrovert-- I am very curious about people and the world, but I’m also guarded and cautious.  I don’t let this tendency stop me from seeking new experiences, but it does mean that in order to feel confident, I like to know as much as I can about a new experience ahead of time.  Doing so gives me enough footing to withstand my wariness.  

(In other words, you don’t have to be Rick Steves or Rudy Maxa or that Lonely Planet guy who eats fire with locals in Papua New Guinean hostels in order to have an amazing travel experience.)  

If you absolutely know you’d be miserable on your own, then you probably shouldn’t take a trip by yourself.  If you’re wary about it but want to try it anyway, then this advice is for you.  

Researching your destination


Before you book your trip

Perhaps the biggest factor in committing to your dream trip is the cost-- Can I afford this trip? 

You don’t need to do detailed research at this point.  Instead, you need a rough idea of your two biggest expenses: airfare and lodging.  When researching flights, I like hipmunk-- they search all the major carriers (but not airlines like Southwest) and you can open several windows if you want to do a few different searches (put in different travel dates, look into different airports).  The flight options are presented in a reader-friendly infographic that quickly shows you prices, flight times, and flight durations.

When researching hotels, tripadvisor is fantastic.  (It’s also great for restaurants and local attractions.)  You can search for a list of hotels in your destination-- you can view the list in order of aggregate user ranking or by price.  You can select for key descriptors (eg. “trendy”, “romantic”, “on the beach”).  Each hotel page provides contact information and links to several major booking websites (eg. Orbitz, Expedia).  Once you’re on this page, look at the user ratings, comments and photographs. 

Read enough reviews to learn about the main things visitors have liked and disliked.  I don’t pay much attention to really angry reviews-- people who are really angry are more interested in airing their grief than offering useful property information.  


Forums

This tripadvisor feature isn’t evident unless you stumble upon it-- in fact, I can’t even give you instructions on a trail of links to follow to get there.  What I can do is tell you that if there’s something specific you’re wondering about where you’re going to stay, type it in the search box.  I searched “solo traveler Isla Mujeres” and found several links in the forums.  As a solo female traveler, I like to make sure that I’ll feel reasonably safe, and reading through these discussions left me with confidence about the hotel I ended up choosing.  

Booking & preparing for your trip

Once I knew the airfare and what I would need to pay for the kind of hotel I wanted, I was able to decide on the trip.  In both cases, I booked the flight first. (Don’t put off booking your flight-- prices usually increase as the travel date gets closer.)  Then I booked my accommodations.  

Once I had booked these two components, I had plenty of time to read through all the tripadvisor forums on my destination.  From the forums, I learned about the MapChick maps/guides.  Her maps are gorgeous and contained more information than I could use on attractions, restaurants, and transportation options.  I would never have found these maps without the forums.  

I also read some recommendations about yoga classes on the island-- it hadn’t even occurred to me to look into yoga on vacation, but the forum contributors suggested a few different instructors.  I googled one that was close to my hotel, found her website (Meg DeClerck), and her schedule of classes while I was there. 



Both of my solo vacations have been wonderful because I've been able to use these tools to create an experience that was new but not disorientingly unfamiliar.  I hope some of this information will help you plan your next trip.  If you have questions, feel free to ask!