Traveling alone?

[TerokNor]

You know my problem right now is, that while I found some people who I can do some traveling with on the weekends on the North Island of NZ, I can find no one, who wants to do the following things: Traveling for about 10 days in January 2012 to places on the South Island, flying over to Australia for some days next year, no specefic date yet, flying to the Cook Islands for some days also no specific date yet.

Everybody I asked so far either has vacation time to a different time than I or gets visitors from home (the parents, the boy-friend...) and than will do traveling with them, or as for Australia and Cook Islands, only wants to do NZ and nothing else, because of the money.

Now my hosts said, if I cannot find somebody else for exploring the South Island for some days (Or Australia/ Cook Islands) I just should do it by myself and stay at backpacker hostels and there I will meet enough people, so that it does not feel alone.
I never did something like that before... I mean I traveled alone, but I met friends there...like I traveled alone to Scotland and to the USA but I knew before that I will meet X and X and X there and that we will spend our time together.

Going like the backpackers do would be traveling to somewhere and hoping to get in contact with someone, that I don´t know yet.
I am not quite sure if that fits my personality. On the other hand I really want to see also the South Island...and Australia..(well a smallish bit of it) and some Pacific Island. So it would be stupid, only because I don´t find no one to come to spend all my vacation time in the Auckland area.
Well I only have 16 days vacation time, but still....

So my question..did one of you ever traveled all alone and got to know people on the way, just doing this and that together and then traveling on alone? How was it? Isn´t that dangerous? Can´t it happen that you just end up alone, because other people do other things or already have enough people to travel with or you just do not fit into (like I am no partying type and don´t drink alcohol)...I just want to see the nature, hiking and some easy cayaking and seeing whales and some places like Dunedin and such things.
Would you travel alone?

TerokNor

 

[iguana_tonante]

The only time I travelled alone was for work (conferences, research trips, etc.), so I'm afraid I cannot give any useful advice. But, if you cannot find any travel mate and you want to do a bit of sightseeing, I say go for it! The places you mention seems pretty safe, so I wouldn't worry about that. I you are afraid of getting lonely, maybe you should look into organized activities (like hiking and cayaking) and tours: you can meet people without having to worry about finding a way to approach them. If they are cool, you can try and organize for a second meeting (grabbing a bite, drinks, etc.), if you don't like them, you can just ditch them at the end of the activity.

 

[StolenThunder]

I've travelled alone here and there. I was in Hong Kong a couple of months ago and had a great time. Admittedly never done a weeks' long holiday by myself, but I'd imagine Australia and New Zealand would be easy places to be a single traveller. Go for it!

 

[Australis]

I love travelling alone. Yopu don't have to sort out a schedule with someone else.

Plus, just post in the meet up threads where you'll be and I'm sure one of us will wander along to say hello. I know on here there's candlelight in NZ, and someone else just moved there but I forget who, and there's Mitty and Melbourne and myself and one of the admins, and I think Shran, in NSW.

If you're ever feeling lonely, just put the word out. But travelling alone, as long as you're prepared and careful, can be pretty good.

Take a camera, When you get back home, tell your friends, "See the awesome you missed out on by not coming with me?"

 

[SmoothieX]

Traveling to me is so much fun because it's something my wife and I do together. But there are time she is out straight at work or out of town for a conference, that I've considered doing so for a few days.

I'd probably just find someplace quiet and scenic to camp and hike.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

I travel for business more than 150 days a year and almost always alone. I actually like it and the lack of a traveling companion can be compensated by befriending hotel clerks, wait staff in restaurants and the employees of the companies that I am training.

That said, I've never taken a true "vacation" away from home by myself. With a wife of 34 years, sharing experiences has become a must for me. If I think back to my single years, almost all vacation time was absorbed by visits to family or solo projects at home. I do believe, though, that if I were alone now, I could enjoy traveling by myself on a holiday for the same reasons I can enjoy business travel. It all depends on your comfort with yourself and your sense of adventure vs risk.

 

[Count Zero]

It so happens that I end up travelling alone almost every time. I guess I'm a bit of a loner. Hostels are indeed a good way to meet people, though it may not always translate into communal activities but having someone to talk to in the evenings or so is also pretty nice. I'm actually more in favour of doing stuff on my own because what I like to do is usally not very popular (spending huge amounts of time in a museum) but if you're into more normal sightseeing stuff even finding people in a hostel to do it with shouldn't be much of a problem.
I've travelled alone even before I turned 18 and never experienced any problems. You sound like a sensible person so you don't have to worry about it being dangerous. In short, I agree with your hosts.

 

[SmoothieX]

Hostels are indeed a good way to meet people, though it may not always translate into communal activities but having someone to talk to in the evenings or so is also pretty nice. I'm actually more in favour of doing stuff on my own because what I like to do is usally not very popular (spending huge amounts of time in a museum) but if you're into more normal sightseeing stuff even finding people in a hostel to do it with shouldn't be much of a problem.

Unless you are doing the old backpack through Europe thing while a broke college student, avoid hostels like the plague. They are disgusting. I got stuck in one unknowingly (part of the itinerary) when we went to Iceland last month, and it was one of the most awful lodging experiences ever.

They wanted me to take my own sheets and linens to the laundry room. Are you serious? Fuck you, you're getting paid to do that. And we had to shove two twin sized beds together just so my wife and I could sleep in same bed more or less.

I'm cheap, but not that cheap. Do NOT stay at a hostel.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I'm actually more in favour of doing stuff on my own because what I like to do is usally not very popular (spending huge amounts of time in a museum)

Ha, we should travel together, CZ. I usually spend entire days in museums when I am in holidays, and I'm not happy until I have seen every single item and read every single label. They had to forcefully drag me out of the British Museum.

 

[SmoothieX]

^We're the opposite of you then. I can see an entire museum in half an hour and feel like I've seen it all.

You practically have to drag me off a trail before nightfall though.

 

[iguana_tonante]

The very idea of hiking as a leisure activity is completely alien to me. If you want me to walk for hours in the middle of nowhere and spend the night in a cold, wet, uncomfortable tent, you'd better be prepared to pay me good money for it.

 

[SmoothieX]

^It's not a vacation to me unless something is pulled, torn, or broken by the end of it.

In the past year while traveling, I've torn a pectoral muscle, gotten a blistering sunburn despite using SPF 110, and a good old ear infection from a natural hot spring.

When do we leave?

 

[Lindley]

spend the night in a cold, wet, uncomfortable tent

If it's cold, you didn't bring an appropriate sleeping bag. If it's wet, you're doing something very wrong.

Uncomfortable, sometimes.

 

[iguana_tonante]

^It's not a vacation to me unless something is pulled, torn, or broken by the end of it.

I usually reserve that kind of expectations for very good sex and cosmology conferences.

If it's cold, you didn't bring an appropriate sleeping bag. If it's wet, you're doing something very wrong.

That's probably true. I slept in a tent exactly two times in my live and I was bloody drunk both times.

 

[SmoothieX]

spend the night in a cold, wet, uncomfortable tent

If it's cold, you didn't bring an appropriate sleeping bag. If it's wet, you're doing something very wrong.

Uncomfortable, sometimes.

A good tent will eventually get wet but it takes a while.

I've camped in enough shitty weather that I've accumulated quite a few toys from lessons learned. Hell, my wife and I started dating in a tent when it was about 15 or 20 degrees and the water froze. We decided the whole body heat thing was kinda nice and made it a habit.

 

[Count Zero]

Well, that might be considered TMI.

I'm actually more in favour of doing stuff on my own because what I like to do is usally not very popular (spending huge amounts of time in a museum)

Ha, we should travel together, CZ. I usually spend entire days in museums when I am in holidays, and I'm not happy until I have seen every single item and read every single label. They had to forcefully drag me out of the British Museum.

A man to my liking.


As for the hostel thing, I haven't had any negative experiences to date, and I've been to a lot of them all over Europe. Yeah, quality and cleanliness varies but I've never been grossed out or anything, and actually, you get that with hotels, too. Come to think of it, the two times where I thought the place I was staying at was kind of icky happened in two hotels, one in France and one in Spain.

 

[SmoothieX]

I think the hostel thing is foreign from a North American perspective, and we were taken aback by things, being used to a different lodging experience. I really didn't like it.

Worst place I ever stayed was some pit along the Trans-Canada highway in SK somewhere. Moldy rooms, burn holes in the sheets, people coming and going at all hours, and slippery water that smelled like petroleum.

 

[Lindley]

I've stayed in hostels, though it was many years ago and I was young at the time. I didn't mind it so much. In fact, the one I stayed at outside Copenhagen was built to resemble a castle, complete with moat, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

 

[SmoothieX]

I stayed in several farmhouses in Iceland. I thought they were the cat's ass.

 

[Pingfah]

I stayed in several farmhouses in Iceland. I thought they were the cat's ass.

Is that good, or bad?