Going alone
doesn't mean
going lonely.
Seven of my trips have been solo. Some were planned that way; some happened because the friend backed out a week before. All of them changed the way I travel.
The cities below are the ones I keep recommending: walkable, warm to strangers, easy to navigate on your own without ever feeling small. If you're standing on the edge of a first solo trip and just need a push — these are the places I'd send you to start.
№ 01 · The seven citiesThe trips I took alone.
Cold pints, warm strangers, and a city built for walking alone.
I landed in the middle of a national holiday and didn't leave a single restaurant alone.
Scooter, monsoon, the wrong street, the best food.
Six days of tiles, port, and one rooftop I keep going back to.
More beautiful than its reputation. I'd send any solo traveler.
Walk it like a novel. Read in cafés. Drink at the river.
The next one is being plotted — Scotland, alone again, late summer.
№ 02 · What I've learnedFour habits I never travel without.
Pick the hostel kitchen
The bar is for posing. The kitchen is where you make a friend by dinner. Cook something simple, offer to share, ask what they had today.
Walk the morning
Get lost in a new city before 9am. Cafés are open, locals are commuting, nothing is trying to sell you anything. The map of a place reorganizes in your head.
Eat alone, gloriously
Bring a book. Sit at the bar of a real restaurant — not a touristy one. Order what the locals are ordering, ask one question, leave full and happy.
Tell one person
Family, friend, hostel desk — somebody always knows where you're going that day. Drop a pin to the same person every evening. That's the whole safety system.
The first time you eat a full meal alone in a country where nobody knows your name — that's the part you don't forget.