how I am planning a long term solo trip, and your suggestions!
I must be crazy, right?
If you have been a fan of my other posts on this blog, you already know I love solo travel. For years, I have dreamed about booking a one way flight with no expected return. 2025 is the year. My year. Now, I understand how daunting a task like this can seem! With the right amount of planning and preparation, you, too, can make your travel dreams a reality. Planning trips gets easier with each booking, however, planning a long term solo trip can feel very overwhelming. I’m here to help generate some clarity!
Consider this my big announcement: I am going long term solo traveling beginning in October, 2025! Am I crazy? Perhaps. I will credit my confidence boost to the brave ladies and gentleman who came before me. The vacationers, 9-5ers, and digital nomads. Endless deep dives into YouTube rabbit holes and miles of travel blog scrolling have all led me here. Planning a long term solo trip has consumed all of my free brain space for the last year. How do I pay for it? Where should I go? What time of year should I start? How long should my trip be? Will I get lonely? Alas, the spiral begins.
The next 10 months of my life are sure to be a whirlwind of organizing, preparing, and budgeting. My goal in this post is to keep my readers updated and get your suggestions and insight as I plan my trip. Additionally, I hope this post helps you plan your own long term solo trip. For this post, I’ll focus on the Where.
Planning a long term solo trip- for beginners
I still do not consider myself a travel expert, by any means. While I have been to a fair amount of countries, I have only ventured out completely solo a handful of times. Getting my feet wet with smaller solo trips has given me the confidence to tackle navigating more international destinations on my own. In order to do this, I must start by deciding where I want to go and researching each destination to see what interests me there.
Where Do I go?
You are probably thinking, “How do I decide where to travel? There are 195 countries!” And this is valid! This is the first question I needed to answer for myself, and here’s how I narrowed it down.
First, I simply looked at a map of the world. I used Google Maps and Google’s “Explore” option under the Travel tab to help me logically choose what area of the world made the most sense with my budget. In other words, I needed to figure out how far my money would go in order to keep me on the road. For example, a one way flight to Bangkok may cost $600, but I can live there for around $20-$30 USD per day comfortably. A one way flight to Barcelona is only $200 but daily costs can soar to almost $100 per day!
Organize your thoughts
Here are a few ways you can choose destinations based on a few different parameters:
- Budget. This will be most travelers’ biggest limitation. For example, how far will your money go in France vs. Thailand? I recently stumbled upon an amazing blogger Lauren of Never Ending Footsteps who has detailed and up to date insight on how much it costs to travel in many countries.
- Bucket List Items. Ah, the good ol’ Bucket List. But the list has a purpose for those who see it as not just a dream, but work toward the items on it as reality. Make a list of ten, or twenty, (or a hundred!) things you NEED to see in your lifetime and start chipping away.
- Counting Countries. Those of you who have a quota to meet, per se, might want to have a look at doing a European rendezvous. This won’t be the cheapest continent to travel, but you can easily take trains or inexpensive flights between EU countries.
No choice is the wrong choice!
There comes a point where you need to commit to a starting point! Your adventure will grow from there, I promise! As said by Henry David Thorough, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life which you have imagined.” I am committed to embracing this sentiment wholeheartedly as I move forward this year.
where am i planning to start?
Drumroll please! I am planning my first destination to be………………… Japan! Why Japan, you’re asking? Because in recent years, we have seen a decline in the strength of the Japanese Yen. So much so, that it is at its weakest in over 30 years. Now, I’m not trying to exploit this beautiful country’s weakening currency, but it does present a unique opportunity for solo travelers like myself to visit a notoriously expensive country. I have long dreamed about wandering through the bustling streets of Tokyo, visiting the brightly colored shrine gates of Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine, and slurping ramen every chance I get. Also, Japan is known to be one of the safest countries in the world for traveling alone. I listed Japan as one of the best value countries to visit in 2024 in my post: BUDGET TRAVEL 2024: 5 CHEAP COUNTRIES TO VISIT THIS YEAR.
Length of stay- deciding where and what to see
In my case, the limiting factor for my solo trip will be budget. Like so many others, I want to get the most for my money and make every penny count. Of all the countries I’ve considered for this trip, Japan will likely be the most expensive. This will be my first time traveling to Asia and I want to start with a country that is easy to navigate and has a well-established transportation system. The promise of hot ramen and fresh sushi on every corner never hurts, either!
I have decided to stay for at least three weeks in Japan with a budget of $3,000. I plan to extend this time should my budget allow. In order to stick to this budget, I will be staying in a mix of hotels and Airbnb-type accommodations and using only necessary transportation between cities, walking wherever I can. After all, I do love to get my steps in!
How to get the most of my time in Japan?
I must admit, I like some touristy things, because, well- I am a tourist! Japan has so much to offer, one cannot possibly see everything in just three weeks. Alas, this is the point of my planning journey at which I currently sit. I know I want to see the sleepless streets of Tokyo. I absolutely must visit the shrines of Kyoto. While I’m at it, why not say hello to the snow monkeys bathing in the Onsens, peep Mt. Fuji, and pay respects to Hiroshima as well? I HAVE to eat as much sushi as possible, and experience a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, stay in a traditional ryokan, bathe in an Onsen- ugh! The list never ends! I fully intend to see a few can’t miss sights, but also immerse myself in culture and learning.
How would you spend three weeks exploring in Japan? Please leave me your suggestions in the comments!
Are you planning a long term solo trip?
Or have you already been on a solo trip longer than 30 days? I would LOVE to hear your experiences and your must-do and definitely do-nots of long term travel.
Though I am specifically interested in your travels through Asia and Southeast Asia, I would love to hear about any long term solo travel. If you are a woman over 30, even better! Lots of my research and planning involves hours of YouTube videos and reading other blogs, as you may have suspected. Surprisingly, I have not found much content specific to solo female travelers over 30! Perhaps I am late to the party, but I firmly believe it is never too late to start following your wildest dreams.
This is the beginning of something bigger than myself.
What follows is a passage I wrote nearly one year ago. I have read and re-read it several times and never shared it with anyone until now. I hope it resonates with you.
“In my clear mind, I stumbled across a thought. A series of thoughts, rather. A set of poignant and self-discovering questions: What if I have never completed any of my long-term goals because they were too simple or mundane? Too small. Not challenging enough, underwhelming. What if my dreams were not grand enough, resulting in a premature departure from the original path? My lack of ability to finish something long-term that I had once targeted is a regretted recurring theme in my life. Where do I fit in, and why does chasing a long-term goal make me feel so restless? Now I believe I have detected a small piece of the answer.
Travel. I need to travel as long, far, and wide as I can in my lifetime. I need to have experiences beyond my wildest dreams, with spontaneity, kindness, and trust in my heart. That is my purpose. I believe my purpose is to help others set their souls free. To help them begin to see the world as a wondrous and sacred place that we must be united in protecting. Perhaps, if we all took one trip around this planet in our lifetimes, we could see that the human race is not supposed to exist divided and at war. Perhaps we could all thrive in harmony within and alongside our fragile home. Nature and humans are one and the same, and we absolutely must proceed as such.
In order to seek this purpose, I will pursue a goal at great length, for there may be no ending and no timeline. I will be relentless in my preparation, practice of kindness and humility, and live a genuinely minimal life. I will make sacrifices, big and small. I am only one being among billions in this immense world. I only get one tiny, insignificant life. What happens with my tiny, insignificant life is only up to me. I choose a full life, even if it scares me. I choose adventures and experiences and learning about how others live and survive. I strive to part ways with possessions as status symbols and sever the tethers of consumerism. I will become rich with experiences that run my cup over, spilling into all those I aspire to inspire.”