5 Reasons To Go Solo Now (Instead Of Waiting For A Flaky Friend)

For a long time I thought most travel would be with other people around.

That is what a lot of people seem to expect anyway.

Friends or family or maybe a partner.

It feels like solo travel is what you do when no one else can go.

But that was not how it worked out for me at all.

If I had waited for someone to travel with, I would have missed some of the most important experiences of my life.

I am glad I did not keep waiting like that.

Some of those trips ended up being the best ones.

It seems like people treat it as a last resort sometimes.

Here are five reasons I’m glad I stopped waiting, and decided to go solo now.

Should You Travel Solo Instead Of Waiting For Friends?

If travel is important to you, waiting for friends can sometimes delay trips indefinitely. Solo travel allows you to travel on your own timeline, build confidence, and gain experiences that may never happen if you keep waiting for schedules to align.

1. Life Doesn’t Pause While You Wait

My first overseas trip was with my cousin.

The travel bug bit on that trip.

I came home excited about travel and convinced I knew what the next stage of my life looked like.

At the time, I was focused on studying law.

I had missed out on getting directly into the degree after school, completed a year of Justice Studies, and successfully transferred across.

I even found out I’d been accepted while I was travelling.

It felt like everything was falling into place.

Instead, about six weeks into the degree, I realised I was miserable.

The path I’d been working toward for years suddenly didn’t feel right anymore.

After a teary phone call with my parents, I decided to drop out.

But I had no idea what came next, so I just focused on working and saving.

Eventually I made a decision that surprised almost everyone around me.

I moved to England by myself.

Not because I had some grand master plan.

Mostly because I needed space to work, travel, and figure things out.

If I had waited for somebody else to make the same decision, I may never would have gone.

Sometimes life changes before everyone else’s plans align with yours.

Looking back, life did exactly what John Lennon warned about. While I was busy planning one future, another one arrived instead.

2. Your Friends’ Lives Will Change (And That’s Normal)

One thing nobody really tells you is how quickly life starts pulling people in different directions.

While I was travelling and figuring out what I wanted from life, many of my friends were finishing university, building careers, getting married, and starting families.

Others moved back to the rural area where we grew up.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those choices.

They just weren’t the choices I wanted to make.

Over time, our lives naturally became very different.

The older I get, the more obvious this becomes.

People have careers.

Mortgages.

Partners.

School holidays.

Family commitments.

Their availability isn’t necessarily a reflection of how much they value travel.

They’re simply living their own lives.

If I had spent years waiting for schedules to align perfectly, I suspect I would still be waiting.

3. Perfect Timing Doesn’t Exist

One of the easiest traps to fall into is believing you’ll travel later.

When work calms down.

When you have more money.

When your friends are available.

When life feels more organised.

The problem is that new reasons to delay have a habit of replacing the old ones.

There’s always something.

Travel doesn’t require recklessness.

But sometimes it does require accepting that conditions may never be perfect.

Some of my best decisions happened because I stopped waiting for perfect timing and started working with the opportunities I had.

4. Confidence Usually Comes After The Trip

One of the biggest misconceptions about solo travel is that confident people travel alone.

My experience has usually been the opposite.

The confidence comes afterwards.

Before my first solo experiences, I was nervous.

Before moving overseas, I was nervous.

Before plenty of trips, I was nervous.

That’s normal.

Travel has a way of expanding your comfort zone one decision at a time.

You navigate a train station.

You solve a problem.

You figure something out.

Then suddenly things that once felt intimidating become ordinary.

Waiting until you feel completely ready can be another form of waiting forever.

5. You Might Discover You Actually Like Travelling Solo

This is probably the most unexpected lesson of all.

People sometimes ask why I don’t travel more with other people.

The simple answer is that our lives are different.

I’ve also realised that liking someone and travelling well together aren’t necessarily the same thing. People have different budgets, priorities, energy levels, and travel styles.

Sometimes the people you care about most simply want different things from a trip.

These days, I actually enjoy the freedom that comes with planning my own trips.

I can choose where I go.

I can change plans.

I can spend three hours wandering through a neighbourhood that interests me.

I don’t need to negotiate every decision.

That’s not because solo travel is better.

It’s simply because I’ve learned that I genuinely enjoy parts of it.

Ironically, the more comfortable I’ve become travelling alone, the less important it feels to have somebody else available before I book a trip.

Sometimes The Best Travel Companion Is The Decision To Go

This isn’t an argument against travelling with other people.

I have had some great travel experiences shared with others.

But waiting indefinitely for the perfect travel companion can become a reason not to travel at all.

Life changes.

People change.

Plans change.

If travel is important to you, there may come a point where the best option isn’t finding the right person.

It’s deciding to go anyway.

You might be surprised by where it leads.

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