Key Takeaways
- Kristin Addis from�?Be My Travel Muse�?writes our regular column on solo female travel. It’s an important topic I can’t adequately cover, so I brought
- Your partner thinks it would be selfish of you to travel without him/her. Your parents are worried for your safety. Your friends want to go with you b
- Just like you, I had a lot of misconceptions about traveling alone before I went overseas. I thought it might be dangerous, lonely, too much work, or
Kristin Addis from Be My Travel Muse writes our regular column on solo female travel — an essential topic we’re proud to highlight with expert insight. To ensure women travelers receive accurate, empowering, and practical guidance, we’ve partnered with a seasoned solo traveler who shares her firsthand experience and evidence-based perspectives. This month, we tackle some of the most persistent myths surrounding solo travel for women.
Your partner thinks it would be selfish of you to travel without them. Your parents worry about your safety. Your friends want to join but are tied up with work or family commitments. News headlines paint the world as inherently risky for women traveling alone. And that quiet inner voice questions whether you’ll feel isolated or out of place.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Like many others, I held several assumptions before embarking on my first solo trip overseas. I feared it might be dangerous, isolating, logistically overwhelming — or even send the wrong message about my social life.
And honestly? The idea of experiencing breathtaking destinations completely on my own felt less like freedom and more like a compromise — at least at first.
Then reality set in: no one else had the time or flexibility to go when I did, and waiting indefinitely meant potentially never going at all.
So I booked the ticket, packed my bag, and set off alone — only to discover that nearly every assumption I’d held was inaccurate. I wasn’t lonely. I didn’t encounter serious safety issues. And in many ways, solo travel turned out to be richer, more transformative, and more socially rewarding than group trips ever were. The autonomy, personal growth, and meaningful connections I formed wouldn’t have been possible within a fixed travel group.
For anyone still hesitating due to outdated ideas about solitude, risk, or excitement, here are eight widely believed myths about solo female travel — thoroughly debunked.
Myth #1: Solo traveling means being lonely often.
The scariest thing about traveling by yourself is the thought that you might be alone for your entire vacation, right? Who wants to travel to the other side of the world only to sit by yourself watching the majestic red sunrise over Angkor Wat?
I was really worried about this before I started traveling solo. Thankfully, I came to find that I made more friends in one week on the road than I had in a whole year back at home.
The best thing about traveling solo is that you’re not the only one doing it. More and more women are considering the concept of solo traveling to be realistic these days, and I couldn’t believe how it’s encouraging to see so many other solo female travelers out there traveling by themselves!
Thanks to the power of social media and the sharing economy, you can easily join online communities that are created specifically for solo female travelers, where you can gain and give support, share your travel plans, and connect with other like-minded solo female travelers.
I also find that it’s easy to talk to and meet other travelers — they’re friendly people! I rarely felt alone during my years of traveling thanks to this.
Myth #2: Solo traveling is only for those who are single.
Before I started traveling and meeting people with all kinds of different stories and backgrounds, I figured that if you’re traveling by yourself, it must be because you don’t have a significant other. People who have commitments like a family or partner don’t just go traveling on their own.
It must mean there’s a problem in the relationship or that they’re escaping their commitments, right?
I came to learn that plenty of people who are in relationships travel alone, and for all kinds of reasons.
It could just be that they have different interests, something many relationship experts say is totally healthy. Maybe their partner can’t get time off from work, or maybe both parties made a conscious decision to do some soul-searching on a solo adventure, even just for a portion of the trip, and meet back up again.
Many solo travelers are single, but there are many more who are in relationships too.
Just because you’re not single doesn’t mean you can’t have an awesome trip by yourself.
