5 Tips For Traveling Alone As a Woman
I'm cleaning my camera equipment, and it's boring. But cleaning helps me clear my mind and figure out what to write next.
I love traveling alone, and I recommend it, but I've noticed that women are more apprehensive about solo travel. The main concern is safety. However, you'll be surprised how many women travel alone, and I learned a couple of tricks from them that I use. Below are some tips if you're a woman that wants to dabble with solo travel. Please note: I have another article on safety travel tips. You may want to read that one too.
1. Join a Women's Travel Group: There are groups of women that meet online and travel together to a given location. Women travel groups have the flexibility of solo travel and the safety of a group. Many of these groups are on Facebook (Solo Female Traveler Networkand Girls Love Travel). See if a group is going to the desired location and link up. There are also travel groups for minorities too.
2. Make sure your phone is always connected (i.e. cellular/4G and not just Wi-Fi): When traveling alone, your phone is sometimes the only way to communicate with other people. Get a local SIM card or an international phone plan if traveling overseas.
3. Always use ride sharing services: Make sure your travel destination has services like Uber or Lyft readily available. Especially at night, walking around or trying to hail a taxicab invites more risk. Instead, after the restaurant/bar/club, have the Uber meet you out front and travel back to the hotel to mitigate this risk.
4. Get the necessary gear: Some gadgets can make traveling alone safer. Place the portable door lock in your hotel door, so you can sleep safely at night and make the frat boys scurry with a keychain alarm. I'm not going to recommend any specific gear because I haven't used it. To find the best product, buy a couple of brands from Amazon, see which one works the best, and return the others.
5. Be smart when enjoying nightlife: Stay close to the staff at a bar or club. For example, sit next to the bartender or near a bouncer. Also, do not leave drinks unattended. Either finish the glass or bring it with you. That "napkin on the drink" trick is not protecting you from anything.
Bonus:
6. Save all emergency numbers and contact information on your phone beforehand: Especially when traveling outside of the United States, know the country codes needed to make a phone call. Then, in the unfortunate situation that anything happens, just dial the saved number to get help.
