As a working woman, your travel might be relegated to one of a corporate traveller – that is, restricted to team offsite, product launch or cross-country team building events or meetings.
Or you might be taking family holidays with your family/relatives. What do you do, when you want some time off to yourself, or if your family schedules don’t match? You take off on your own.
Even when you are travelling for work, you may want to explore nearby places. For instance, a trip to Helsinki entails a day trip to Tallinn, an inbound tour to Delhi would entail a day trip to the Taj Mahal in Agra and so on.
Point being, that it is quite often, that we undertake solo female travel even when we are traveling for work. We are here to recommend some do’s and don’ts, safety tips, some tried and tested destinations.
Solo female travel tip 1: Go for group tour packages
Our number one tip for the solo traveller is to align with a packaged group tour, even if it is a simple one-day sightseeing. Simply because there is safety in numbers when you are in an unknown place. An unfamiliar language on signages even when taking a bus can be very daunting eg waiting for the train station name which is announced in German, or looking at Hindi bus numbers can cause panic in boarding or alighting. There are plenty of inbound travel companies or inbound tour operators in whichever city you might be visiting. Joining one of these will help you knock off the most important things first, considering these will be right on top of the group tours list. These tours are not hard to find, especially in touristy cities. If you cannot handle uncertainty, then another option is to check with the outbound tour operators in your own native city ie the city of departure – reason being that you will have the comfort of speaking to someone in your own city, plus they are bound to know of the important attractions or things to see in the city you are visiting.
Solo female travel tip 2: Be Aware. Always.
Be aware of your surroundings – women often have a pair of eyes at their back, they know if someone is checking them out, they have a sense of safe or unsafe.
Avoid getting into a group of strangers who know each other from before – sometimes groups of people can con you into buying drinks or expensive food.
Be aware of your phone and at the same time don’t be ‘on the phone’ while you need to be alert – when on the phone, we appear distracted and therefore more vulnerable.
Be aware of your purse & luggage.
Basically stay connected and be aware of things around you, so that are you prepared for any surprises. Stay connected with someone who can keep track of your whereabouts raising an alarm in case of emergency.
You’ll of course, have to keep the mindset of being mentally ready for anything and everything, taking the uncertainties of travel in your stride. Schedule for spontaneity because you never know what fun opportunity comes up.
Solo female travel tip 3: Blend in.
As far as possible, try not sticking out like a colourful parrot. The most nondescript you look, the easier for you to un-self-consciously move around. This also means dressing appropriately for the locality or the occasion. Some places in Cambodia or Thailand frown upon sleeveless shirts. Some places of worship consider bare-legs disrespectful (for men and women both), Gurudwaras, Mausoleums, Shrines and Tombs will ask you to cover your head with a scarf or a large handkerchief. Sticking out or standing out from others might put too much attention on you as a solo female traveller. Therefore, blend in.
Solo female travel tip 4: Start small.
Don’t go putting yourself in the middle of Columbian drug dealers or the Chinese massage extortionists or Turkish-knifed muggers. Do short, safe and small adventures first, until you feel confident doing this. You can do this by first attempting safe domestic tour packages, then moving to safe / women-friendly international tour packages, before you move on to solo backpacking in the Amazonian jungles.
Solo female travel tip 5: Insurance!
When you are travelling alone, you are dependent solely on yourself – you have no one else to turn to. In case of an accident or illness where you are incapacitated, you definitely want to have insurance cover. Being in a health or safety emergency is bad enough, having that emergency in a foreign country is the absolute worst thing ever. Often, feigning confidence or the body language of a confident person puts you in a safer position so definitely do that. Still, why put yourself in high risk without testing the waters. Everything cannot be risky. Try traveling light so that you don’t have to lug a visibly large and inconvenient suitcase. Avoid letting people know that you are alone. Stay in hostels or hotels of a group tour. Now if you have a travel agent handling your tickets then they might even buy SoTo tickets ie international flight ticket booking but not issued from your country of travel. Eg buying your Vietnam ticket from Thailand and that might save you money. It also ensures that you have the travel agency to fall back on, in case of an emergency or urgent rescheduling. We hope the above tips will help you in your solo travel adventures!