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Why alone?

To travel alone implies a continous exposition to the local people and culture. Once you came back from a succesful solo travel, the tendence is to wish to go solo again for the next one, without even bothering about looking for a travel-mate. While traveling you'll come across plenty of other solo travelers. In any youth hostel or backpacker's hostel, there is a message board packed with announces about travelers asking to share anything, from a car trip to a lunch. This includes eventual temporary company for a trip. Since Italians, Spaniards and in a way Frenchmen too, tend to invade other's people space, therefore it should taken into account to avoid imposing ideas, if embarking in a non solitary trip. Solo traveling women tend to adapt very quickly and they usually don't hesitate to join a fellow traveler when in need. I'll give you an example. When crossing Montana to reach Yellowstone N.P. in the U.S.A., once arrived in Bozeman, there were no vacancies in youth hostels and cheap hotels. On the bus there was an Australian Teacher named Terry, a fan of the actor River Phoenix. She had my same problem so we joined forces and found a cheap motel with a double room to share. Nothing happened between us, as we were only meant to share a roof for a few hours. She left a note thanking me, and left very early in the morning.

When traveling alone it's unavoidable to meet masses of people of any kind of social level. When traveling in a group, instead, people tend to deal with their group most of the time, filtering customs and culture of the locals trough the group collective perception. When I was in U.K. for my first language travel in 1990 I demanded to be assigned to a local family and I insisted in being the only Italian student. The colleges instead, are characterized by a useless and negative "school trip" flavor. You speak italian or spanish all the time, therefore it's better to take an English course in Italy.

I think traveling is a rather personal matter. To do it with just another mate, requires us to compromise almost all the time. The intercourse between you and your mate, or mates, will invariably influence the journey, clouding the purity of this remarkable experience. During both my Inter-Rail travels, I couldn't avoid to argue with my two travel mates, Enrico and Pierpaolo, two of my former classmates. Once back home, all was well again, and we are still friends nowadays, but I can ensure you that having an argument in front of the Sagrada Familia or the Tower of London is not good at all. A travel mate could contribute, involuntarily of course, to isolate you from the context. When traveling with a mate or in a group, you are no longer a human animal but a "social entity" or "social unit", that automatically prevents others from joining or sets barriers between fellow travelers or locals, and you. Life could force you to separate from the closest friends or loved ones. I choose to travel alone to suck the marrow of a journey and avoid annoyances and missed opportunities.

The freedom.

The immediate enormous advantage of going solo, it's freedom. You can choose where and when to go, how to reach the place, whether to stop here rather than over there, without having to ask permission to someone else. This might be intimidating at first, but after a few days of adjustment, you'll be literally gliding trough, facing all kinds of challenges and unexpected events.

The self esteem.

When I came back from my solo Round the World, I felt an enormous sense of well being, self reliance and success. According to my experience, if something goes wrong, and you face it and solve it all alone, your self esteem will reach the highest levels. While traveling alone you'll be forced to give your best at all times, imposing a strict discipline to your normal easy going daily routine. Unknown aspects of your personality will surface, hidden energies will spring and once back home, everything will be easier.

Superb passage from Paul Theroux, to furthermore state my case.

"…It was, mainly, my other fear: the distortion of companionship. I did nont want to see things with anyone else’s eyes. I knew this experience. If they point you out something you have seen already you realize that your own perception was rather obvious; if they indicate something you missed, you feel cheated, and it is a greater cheat to offer it later as your own. In both cases, it is annoying. Oh, look, it's raining is as bad as Costa Ricans have their own unity of lenght…the vara.I wanted to concentrate my whole attention on what was out the window; I wanted to remember the valley, this river, these mountains, the breeze freshening the train, the fragrance of the wildflowers that grew next to the track. Pretty flowers, I wrote."

Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonian Express