Traveling alone is both the best and scariest thing a person can do but it is life-changing for the better, in my opinion. I have traveled 3 times solo on my own, all international and the first time I traveled, I had immense anxiety. The first place I traveled to was Novafeltria, Italy where it is the countryside and no one speaks English well or at all. I was there for five weeks and during my internship, I took Italian classes almost every morning. But, how did I adjust to the different culture and environment?

Take a day to relax. I remember waking up early and going to the grocery store by myself and it became an occurring thing for me. The grocery store was about a 10-minute walk and it allowed me to just take in the scenery and then I went to the local cafe and even made lunch in the house I was staying in. Taking that adjustment time allowed my anxiety calm down. After that moment, I went place around the small city by myself and felt at ease. I still had my kitty defender keychain with me but only experienced one possibly uncomfortable situation. Aside from that, I had a wonderful time and felt I could go anywhere and still feel good.

Travel with caution. I don’t mean to feel like someone is looking over your shoulder every second of every day but to take precautionary measures, especially in a new place you don’t know until you become a little more comfortable. When I travel, I generally have a backpack with essentials, a carry-on, a checked bag, and my fanny pack. Because everything would be inconvenient to grab in case of something happening, put all of your needed essentials into the fanny pack. I will be posting what they are very soon!

Just take it all in. The best thing about what I did in all the places I visited is just taking a moment to sit and really take in that I was in a new country with people I didn’t know at all.

Get lost. By get lost, I mean have an offline version of Google Maps downloaded with your hotel/hostel starred so that if you don’t know your way back, you have a map with the roads and can follow that.

If you have any questions about traveling solo, leave them down below! I hope that this helps. I may do a sequel to this in the future.

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