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I love solo travel because of the freedom to do what I want on my schedule. I admit I tend to be a spontaneous traveler who does minimal planning, but there are some tried and true resources I use for planning a solo trip.
Research Resources for Planning a Solo Trip
1. My favorite printed resource is Moon Travel Guides. These guidebooks are so helpful because they provide very detailed first-person experience travel tips. Moon Guides has all types of books, from USA National Park guides, US Road trips, and even a Civil Rights Trail book.
I used the Moon Guides European Road Trips guide to help me when I took a solo trip to Nafplio, Greece. Although UnTours arranged for most of the logistics and some help with my itinerary, I used the Moon Guides book to find some additional places of interest.
Some of the guides from Moon even have a pull-out map which can be helpful to plot out your routes for the day.
2. I also create a Pinterest board for the trip and add interesting pins to the board. I reference the Pinterest board when I’m ready to plan out an itinerary.
3. I use apps and websites like Trip Advisor and Greenbook Global. Trip Advisor is great for providing recommendations of things to do list with first-person accounts. Greenbook Global is a great app to help Black travelers have a better understanding of what experiences they may like to have that align with our culture and life experiences.
4. I use Viator and Air B n B Experiences to find tours and local experiences like food tours or cooking classes. I like to incorporate cultural experiences like this into my itinerary because spending time with a local will always provide a more in-depth connection to a place.
Creating a Solo Travel Itinerary
When planning a solo trip, curating the itinerary doesn’t have to be stressful.
List out the main touristy things you think you might want to see. Next, add some things you may have discovered from the guidebook or from the other online travel research you have collected.
Break up those activities across the days you plan to spend in the destination. I try to have a balanced day so that strenuous or super long activities are limited to one per day and then supplement with a more chill and relaxed activity. A travel planning spreadsheet is helpful if you are a visual kind of person.
Most importantly, remember the itinerary is a guide. Unless you need to reserve something in advance, everything else is flexible. I build in plenty of downtime to rest and also in case I find out about some experience from a local while I’m there.
Solo travel shouldn’t be stressful. It should be fun. Remember that you are the only person you have to please on this trip.
Accommodations for Solo Travel
1. Booking.com and Expedia are two of my go-to sites for finding hotel rooms. I also like the benefit of the One Key loyalty program.
2. Hotels Tonight is a site to show deals for last minute stays. This is useful in case you are road-tripping and have more flexibility in your stay.
3. I am also a big fan of Trusted Housesitters to find accommodations for a longer term solo travel stay. House sitting is an underrated travel hack that allows you to stay somewhere nice in exchange for taking care of someone’s home and usually their pets and plants.
General Advice for Planning a Solo Trip
Here are my other solo travel planning tips to ensure a safe, fun time while mitigating as many risks as you possibly can.
1. Practice safety when you travel. Using things like a door jam, carrying a high decibel whistle, and being aware of your surroundings are ways to stay safe when you travel. Check out my detailed solo travel safety guide.
2. Create a shared folder using something like Google Drive to share documents like a copy of your passport, your travel itinerary, and any other important information with family and close friends.
3. Turn on location sharing on your phone or use other apps that provide this feature. When I travel I share my location using the iPhone with my core group of close friends that I like to call the “Taken Crew”.
4. Purchase travel insurance using a policy that will cover you for health emergencies while you are away.
5. It’s so important to have an emergency credit card that you can use if you get into any kind of unexpected situations.
6. If traveling overseas as a US citizen, register with the STEP website through the US State Department. This will let them know a US citizen is abroad and should make it easier for the embassy to contact you in case of an emergency situation in the country while you are visiting.
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