As most people here said travelling alone is wonderful. I've been away for almost 3 months now and still have 9 months to go. If my best friends from home told me they wanted to come travel with me for the rest of the trip I'd tell them no. I love being on my own because you meet a lot more people. Also you never have to compromise. You do what you want, when you want and you change your mind whenever you want (I do that a lot). I paired up with people for a few days at time but I'd never join them for the long-run because there are always point of friction (ie: budget, type of accomodation, pace of travels, place to travel to etc). Compromising on these things for a year would make the trip unejoyable for me.
Having said that, it can get a bit heavy to be alone when you are off-the beaten track in a country where almost no one speak english (I've been in China for 7 weeks...). Sure if you stick to the main backpacker's route you'll always find someone to talk to but it's not true if you're going to some national park in Western Sichuan that is not mentioned in any guidebook. After a few days in those places, I get the urge to go to somewhere more touristy just to meet someone who speak decent english and have a conversation that doesn't involve me gesturing to a phrasebook or me trying to talk in my toneless mandarin. Maybe that is going to be less of an issue in places where a higher proportion of the locals speaks english (I'm heading to Pakistan/India in a few days so I'll find out) but that is the only downside I've seen of being alone.
Also I found that when I meet other people, the ones I get along the best are those who travel alone or in couple. They seem in general more curious, culturally aware and have more interesting stories. Maybe it is because solo travellers have to take care of everything for their trip so they read more about the country they'll travel to. Often in groups there is one person who plan and reads while the rest just tag along. Also most people who travel just to get drunk in different cities every night tend to travel in group because they couldn't be bothered to open a book and these are the travellers I want to avoid as much as possible (hence why I avoided SE Asia, OZ and NZ). That is of course a generalization. I've met incredibly interesting people who travel in group and incredibly boring or annoying solo travellers.
Reply to this As for me, I like travelling on my own, but meeting new people too! One of the best ways I have found to travel alone is to go on a pre-planned vacation with others from around the world. I went on a two week vacation this summer with Contiki Holidays. We travelled around Europe on a luxury coach, with air conditioning to get us through the hot hot heat wave going on! It was nice because I was in a sense travelling alone because I didn't know anyone going into it, but I left with a lot of new friends from all over the place, which I liked a lot better than being lonely along the way. I was also nice because I didn't have to worry about missing a train, or not knowing a good place to eat, all those secrets were given to me along the way so I didn't have to waste time trying to find it on my own. If you want to see more of what I did and how I liked my trip feel free to read my blog: http://katedoescontiki.blogspot.com/
Reply to this I'm a pretty selfish kinda guy, so it's really tough for me to spend too much time sharing a trip with someone else. (A typical refrain will be something along the lines of, "You want to do WHAT? When? WHY?") I need to have my freedom, especially when I'm traveling - even if it's just to spend an afternoon getting lost down the back alleys of some foreign city. The best scenario is something along the lines of what I found in Mexico/Central America last year. A lot of backpackers were more or less following the same route, so I'd either meet up with the same people every few cities, or travel with someone for a few days until we felt it was time to go our separate ways. You can develop incredibly strong bonds in a short amount of time...knowing that you can have a happy goodbye before you start to get sick of each other. Heh heh.
The loneliness can certainly be very hard to handle at times. Hell, I can get lonely when I'm at home, surrounded by friends. Getting lonely in a foreign country is about 52 gabillion times worse. When it happened a few times on my first trip, it really felt like the end of the world. I called a friend in tears, practically convulsing about why I never should've left home, and what was I thinking. Ha. I've certainly come a long way. Now, I know that there are times when - in spite of my best efforts - I'm going to feel down, and I won't be able to strike up that one conversation that can boost my spirits. But in a day or two it will pass, and I can get back to the business of having some amazing adventures.
Chris
Travel better. Travel Gator.
www.TravelGator.com Reply to this It's fan-f#*king-tastic.
Travelling on your own is the only way to go. You have the freedom to make all of your own decisions: to stay as long or as short as you want, to spend as little or as much as you like, to pick the direction, to change the plan, whatever!
And, remember, it's not as if you'll be alone. When you want company, there are always others to eat with, drink with, or travel with for a day a week or a year. But, when you want to be alone, you can be, and that's the beauty.
Have fun out there!
Reply to this I just wanted to add on this subjet, I hooked up with some new friends and had a good few weeks travelling as a 'group' It was fun and made travelling easier, then as we went our own ways again, which for me was tough at first, especially as I spent a week alone in my room with a case of tonsilitus, but I'm travelling through SE Asia and have really taken again to being on my own
For instance today I drank tea and rice whiskey with some locals here in Savanahket (Laos) and very often when I go out for a meal I end up chatting away to a complete stranger. But I like the 'control' stay as long or little as you like, and if you do meet people, as I did, with a good idea for a trip then no harm in joining up and seeing how it goes.
Reply to this Just to add to this discussion, I'm over 7 months into my trip (home in 2 days, but I'm going away again in january thank goodness) for all the early anxieties the solo travel things has become natural, and linking up with people has also become a natural/automatic process, like when you get dropped off at a bus station at 5am and need to get into town in the dark, somehow I just always end up sharing a taxi and meeting nice new people, approaching people just somehow is not the awkward process it might of been 7 months ago.
Another interesting thing is that when I was travelling in Pacific/NZ/Australia the main source of new people was the backpacker tours, and mostly the shared dorms. So I remember when in August I entered Asia with it's guesthouses where you have your own room being worried that I'd be on my own all the time, and for a while i find it a little tricky to meet new people (if I hadn't met them allready elsewhere) but in the last few months on buses/cafes/even on the street I've found a new level of confidence to approach and get to know people, which again, was just not there when I set off.
And also I've found I'm actually far less afriad of being on my own! Back home in London I'd never eat out alone, but here you have to sometimes, so you adapt, and that's the key, on the road in the big wide world you learn to adapt in a way you just don't have to at home, and it's amazing!
Reply to this I'm thinking of traveling by myself, but I'm a little worried as i am a girl, and I've heard a lot of bad stories about other female backpackers (rapes, sexual herassment etc.) Any females here with inputs?
Reply to this 
