REVISITED in 2025 – Episode 5 – To Travel Solo Or Not?

to the Winging It Travel Podcast, your weekly ticket to the world. Dropping every Monday and hosted by me, James Hammond, proudly part of the Voy Escape Network. This is a travel podcast that throws out the itinerary and dove straight into the raw, real and unpredictable essence of global exploration. Chasing moments over milestones, those spontaneous encounters, immersive sounds and unforgettable stories. Whether I'm hiking up volcanoes in Guatemala,

or camping under the stars in British Columbia.

met incredible people, seen breath taking places and collected unforgettable stories. I now get to share them with you, alongside some of the most diverse and well travelled guests from around the world. Expect engaging conversations that bring fresh perspectives and inspiring travel tales. There are also raw, reflective solo episodes where I share personal insights, practical tips and honest stories from the road. This is a podcast for travellers, streamers, backpackers and anyone who's ever thought, what if I just went for it and travelled. If you're looking for stories to tell, tips to share,

and experiences to inspire, then you're in the right place. There's so much travel content coming your way, it might just spark that trip you've been dreaming about for years. You can find Winging It, a more fantastic travel podcast from around the world at voyescape.com. The link is in the show notes. Let's go and explore the world. Hello and welcome to the Winging It podcast episode five to travel solo or not. Thanks.

to some previous guests who come on, Rachel and Adam, for providing their insights into their travel history and their stories. It's been great to hear those and get those on record and get them out there. And there's been some great reactions to some of the stories and I can't wait to get more from other guests lined up the next coming weeks or months. And we've got some pretty cool people coming on. So stay tuned for that. Today's is just me by myself, James, and I'm going to talk about

whether you should travel solo or not. And the bulk of it is going to be giving you my experiences from doing solo traveling to traveling with a friend or group of friends and also traveling with a partner. They all have their pros and cons. But one thing that we find that stops people is if there's no one to go with and traveling solo can be quite daunting. So hopefully I can allay those fears and get you out there.

Thank you for the downloads. I think I'm approaching 300 and I can't believe that many people have actually downloaded and listened to these podcasts. It's pretty humbling and I hope I can create more content for you to keep interested. It's going to get better in terms of how, how can I get where the professional gets. There's going to be some theme tunes come along. I'm going to do some editing and probably we'll link it to my YouTube channel, which I've

started. So look out for that first post on there. And yeah, it's pretty exciting times. Lots of ideas and plans and hopefully we can get those to you as soon as possible. So traveling solo is daunting. I hear you. I also appreciate that traveling solo as a female and male is completely different. But I've got some feedback from some female

solo travelers about their experiences in different countries and also I can provide you with my experience traveling solo in South America and the Caribbean.

This is something that I've been asked to do. So I felt like let's have a bit of a stop gap from guests and I'll be coming on next two weeks with my own little one here. And yeah, it's something that some people want me to talk about and provide some experiences and some advice. And hopefully I can advise you and pretty well to get out there next year when COVID disappears. And also, yeah, you know, like it shouldn't really stop you. You can learn a lot. There's only

converting his travel budget from China where he lived at the time to actual money in other countries. It's a bit funny about taking money out of their countries. So he couldn't go to certain places which required me to go on my own which was absolutely fine. And then unfortunately had to fly home early when I was in the Caribbean. He had to fly back to Norwich. So I had to plan ahead on my own and I sort of took it in my stride. So the countries that I actually traveled solo in

where Bolivia or bits of Bolivia, ⁓ bits of Chile as well. And also Trinidad, Antigua, St. Kitts and Nevis. I think I went to Puerto Rico and I went up to Toronto and North Bay in Ontario, in Canada, New York and Iceland. All very different countries with different experiences, I must admit. So

When Lewis told me that he couldn't accompany me on my trip, so fair enough, I will plan accordingly. And the first country I really got to where I had to go on my own was Bolivia in South America. So I arrived from Bolivia through the salt flats and then across Lake Titicaca. And I actually met a group on the tour from the salt flats, which

included a board across the inter Bolivia through to La Paz and there's a mixed group of friends. They were a mix of Australians and English and Polish as well. So I managed to kind of like go along with them for a bit, but not exclusively. I have my own ideas of where I want to go. So when you travel solo, one of the great advantages is you can actually decide whether to attach yourself to a group for a week or you can just go and do yourself some solo traveling.

and be yourself with no qualms, no rules, nothing to hold you back. So that's one of the advantages of going solo and you can obviously decide to go to a CAF or to do a tour or to do nothing as you wish. And there's no one there telling you we should go here with enough time, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, I attached myself to that group and I managed to go to the PAZ and meet up with some of our friends who are new there as well.

And we managed to do some tours like Death Road and, ⁓ see the paths for what has to offer. And I become pretty good friends with this group is Australian group. we went to Sucre as well. and saw some sites there, but we were departing separate ways when we got to Potosi. I was there for a bit with them. And after that.

I was going to Peru to fly out to Trinidad with Lewis. We're just going to meet back up with him. Yeah, this one is a key moment in my travel history, if you like. So I had to travel on my own in Bolivia and South America because Lewis couldn't get in. And due to reasons, I think for his money, he was living in China at the time. It was tough visa wise and all money to have anything to travel with. So I was forced to do that. And it was like, okay, it's going to be a big moment here. I'm going to be on my own.

Let's see how I go. I was kind of thrown into the deep end a little bit. And the first experience of that, when I learned that Lewis could not go into Bolivia was actually the salt flats. And I booked a tour, which kind of covered the salt flats and crossing over into Bolivia. And as luck would have it, joined six or seven people in this Jeep, mix of Australians, Polish and British travelers. And I quickly thought, you know what, this isn't too bad. These are pretty cool. I'm enjoying my time. We've got three nights, four days in this amazing area of the world. A bit overwhelming.

but adapted quickly. I thought this ain't too bad. Maybe not as easy as I went on as South East Asia, where I found meeting people much easier because Latin America and South America is so vast. So you're going to meet people, but maybe not on the same trail because there's so many options of places to go to. I enjoyed it. I haven't moved back to Latin America as a solo traveler until last year in Central America, in El Salvador, Guatemala, and then popped into North America, technically in Mexico. And that was a cool experience.

back in one of my favorite places in the world. And it's unbelievable. I didn't go back until 10 years later. That was great to experience. I love being solo. It's the ultimate freedom of choice. You can choose to do something or nothing, go wherever or whenever you want. Ultimate freedom. I think what you need to be careful of is getting lazy. I think you still need to put yourself in those situations, in those experiences because it's so easy just to go, nah, I'm going to chill and watch TV on my phone or whatever it is. So think you have to push yourself a little bit. So book those activities.

And I think everyone should try solo travel at least once in their life or do it more often because you do learn a lot about yourself, the place that you're in, and also the other people that you meet. At the very least, try it as part of group travel. So where you go as a solo traveler, but you join a group and you make new friends or you don't, you've got to try out and see how it goes. I've kind of answering my first question here, but it doors about whether you should travel solo or not. Yes, you should. Maybe plan a little bit ahead, pick a country and just go for it and see what happens.

and Louis for his day after, but actually it was the day we were in. So he had to get a move on and get out of Trinidad. So there from Trinidad, I went to Antigua and I was on my own Antigua for 10 days. And it was the first time that I felt like a minority. So when you go to Antigua, the cruise ship comes in mostly and it's...

You know, the classic Western tourists stay on the cruise ship and don't go out of the duty free zone. But for me, I was there to see the islands. So I booked a car out and the hotel, the Chubas hotel could find, and I decided to drive around the island, just take off as many places as possible. And I think the locals were a bit surprised that I was kind of like just doing this. I think they're just used to tourists just kind of sticking to their own little bubbles. I mean, what is that traveling? mean, it's not for me.

So when I, for example, would go into get lunch in the, town, um, to set John's the capital, I would be pretty much the only guy, white guy traveling around in town with a car. And I think they, it took them a bit used to get used to because I was to stay on my own. Um, but I enjoyed it as I try to interact with as people as possible. I picked off different areas of the island that I want to see. And the great thing about Antigua is.

Every beach is public. So no matter if there is a massive hotel there, you can request to go to the beach. So I knew Sandals, that grim chain where you can get married. They had a great beach. I think it's off Dixon Bay in Antigua and it's got like palm trees and all that sort of stuff. And said, I'll kind of just go to the beach and they let you through. And yeah, I just spent a day there and I spent a different beach. It's got 365 beaches in Antigua.

you want a beach you should definitely go there. But the local beach near my hotel had no one on it. It wasn't high season, it was the shoulder of the rainy season. Some days were rainy, some days not. But literally no one on the beach, I was on my own. Pretty weird really. So done a few hikes, got around to different bits of beaches. The hotel stay was interesting. I had accompanied me a missionary group from the US.

a little story here was that I was sitting at some breakfast and the lady comes through, can't remember her name, and their job was to enlighten the locals to obviously get the Bible out and believe in God and the way they do this is the girls and the boys were separated, great start, and the girls would be

involved in dance classes and they would teach dance to the locals and then the guys would go off and teach baseball to the locals. And she comes through and she says, Oh, hello. I'm blah, blah, blah. What's your name? James. said, Oh yeah. Nice to meet you. And she's like, Oh, are you here as part of a mission group? I was like, no, no, no. I'm just here traveling on my own. She's, Oh, wow, wow, wow. Where have you been? I said, Oh, I kind of like had a bit of a long trip, but real often places.

Said, oh yeah, lived in Australia for a year. She goes, oh, I can't stand Australia. I said, oh, why is that? She goes, oh, we tried to go there as a group, as a missionary group, and they didn't like us and they wanted us to leave. And I said, right, okay, that's their belief, that's fine. She goes, well, it's not because they're wrong. I was like, oh, I don't want to get into an argument, but yeah, fair enough, that's what you think. But I put on record here and I said to her, I said, Australia is the best country in the world to bring your kids up. And she wouldn't agree with me and I said, no.

It's got that carefree lifestyle. It's hot. It's got a beach lifestyle. It's a great economy, great schooling system, et cetera, et cetera. And I think it's one of the best places to live in the world. And she couldn't get her head around it. And then obviously it brings the obvious question. Whether I believe in God and I said, ⁓ I don't, you know, I'm, I'm an atheist. And she went, ⁓ no. I've asked the atheist once. I went, yeah. She goes, then, you know what?

gave up trying to avoid the obvious and I got into God. was like, okay. She goes, all these people that an atheist said, just giving up. like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyways, she hands me a Bible and says, just read this and just see how you get on. So straight away I was like, okay, yeah, so the first page. So God created the world, the universe, whatever, in seven days. Quick going, so like Ricky Gervais style. No, no, no, no, no, fast forward. That's a bit hard to read that bit.

just go forward and start from here. I was like, ah, if you want to skip the most important parts, so I that and I'm not interested. Anyway, she kind of laughed at me and we kind of got on all right. And then, the phone was on the line, I was in the hotel and the dance competition for the girls was at the hotel. So, locals would come along and I thought, do know what? I'll show them my support. I'll just sit there and watch and, you know, talk to the locals and talk to the guys that were teaching this stuff and...

The locals were sitting there and I think they were from down the road and they said, are you part of the group? nah, just here on my own, just here to support you guys, you know. And, oh, right, okay. But you're Christian, right? I went, nah, no, I'm not. And they like sort of like laughed their heads off. There's like three old, like middle-aged women with their kids there and they're laughing. They're like, no way, no way. I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not. They went, but you do at least believe in God, don't you? I went, nah, as soon as you're dead, you're six feet under and that's it.

And they just cracked up laughing at me and couldn't believe it. I said, we'll pray for you. We'll pray for you. I Oh, yeah, yeah, Thank you. Whatever. So that was my Antigua experience. Um, despite seeing all the idyllic beaches and, and sites and, uh, the hikes I was doing. Yeah. I've got a bit of, a bit of missionary group action there as well. Um, I think that's a one off. It's not obvious there. It doesn't happen all the time, but that's my experience. And then I went on a bit of an island hop and tour. I went to set kits and Nevis.

I have no idea why I chose to go there. And the first bit I'm going to revisit is actually the start. I'll talk about being humbled by 300 downloads. I guess up to that point, not many people tuned in compared to now. I was going to add theme tunes later, link to a new YouTube channel potentially, and hope to get more professional. So what actually happened? How far did I come? How's the evolution of the brand, the content, the audience, and the confidence binder might come along. So for sure, what a journey. Thousands and thousands of listeners and listens.

Yeah, this Antigua story is a bit wild really. And I think there's a key lesson here when you do travel solo about cultural awareness, how you need to reflect on maybe being the minority, navigating local reactions, how different groups of people, privilege and respect of the local customs. think for me that has definitely matured as a much older traveler and podcaster. And it all comes down to how comfortable you are being in a country where you don't know the language, you limited knowledge of the customs.

but you're willing and humble enough to learn. Because let me tell you, you delve into countries that are not the same as your culture, it's going to be a big, big learning curve. And you've got to be adaptable and be vulnerable. Because yes, it's hard to trust people, but you've got to trust people to learn new things about where you're at and ultimately survive and have a great time. So since Antigua, I tried to test myself as much as possible on this in different cultures around the world. I like that nervous feeling in different countries where I'm proving to myself that I can adapt and travel anywhere.

I appreciate this may not be fun for a lot of people, but I like to push the boundaries and I like to go to places I've not been to. I don't think I've been to anywhere that's really, really unusual, but I've been to some edgy countries where things have happened and I had to adapt. So you need to put your privilege, ego and entitlement to one side, to learn cultures, be open to conversations with local people and just accept that there are different ways of doing the same thing from your own country in that country. And trust me, you'll learn a lot about yourself, the country you're in.

the people you converse with and ultimately the key to travel. It's an absolute must of getting yourself into countries where you're in a minority, completely different culture. And it's like, well, what am I doing here? Culture shock, let's go. Honestly, you won't regret it. If you hated it, at least you learned something about yourself in the meantime. So go and do it. And I went to kits in Nevis and stayed into this guest house, but I book a car. And I quickly found out that in set kits you need a car.

But luck would have it. I bumped into Bobby Hazel. People going, who's Bobby Hazel? Yeah. Same question as me when I first met him. You know that time when you meet people and this is classic footballers as well. You say, I'm James. yeah, Bobby. He's like, do like football? went, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's what I've switched. And, ⁓ I guess he goes, yeah. I played at Portland road a few times. went.

And went, what? What? As a kid, as a mascot? nah, I used to play there back in the day. And he kind of felt like, aw, what is he talking about? Is he just trying to mug me off here? I said, oh yeah. And he said, oh yeah, I used to for QPR back in the day. I said, really? He goes, yeah, yeah. I'm Bobby, Bobby Azel. I'm like, sorry, Bobby. I do believe you, but I don't know you that well. He goes, not a problem. I've got to go, but I'll catch you in the guest house soon. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he wanders off. Now I've got a QPR friend, Mr Ian Arnold. I thought, do know what? If someone's going to know a QPR legend or even an ex-player, it's got to be Ian Arnold. I got a Facebook message that said, I don't suppose you know some called Bobby Hazel, do you? He's played for QPR. Yes, QPR legend. Scored in the FA Cup final in the, can't remember if it late 70s or early 80s against Spurs.

I went really? I just bumped into him at a guest house. He's like, yeah, he's absolute legend down at Loftus Road. went, oh, bloody hell. So when Bobby came back, yeah, I sort of like got to know him and he had a car and he had a family wedding on the island. And he said, do you want to come and go for a ride on the island for a few days? We can go to a few beaches, have a few beers. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. So he sent me around the island to set kits and he said he's got family that are rooted here. And yeah, we traveled around and had a few beers on the beaches.

This is the sort of thing I mean when you travel solo that you can just say, yeah, yeah, you're hopping. You better know the guy, but you kind of trust your instincts, right? About is he okay? Yeah, I'm sure he is. You take little risk and you know, got to talk to Bobby about his footballing history and his career and the places and the people that I want to ask questions about like, oh, this footballer, what about him? And he told me some stories and I don't want to put him on record, but.

That was what happened in Set Kits and yeah, I Bobby is doing all right. He's a good lad, a huge lad. He's big guy, but Bobby Hazel in Set Kits. I love the story. I'll keep this one short, but there's a little bit of regret in the story and explain why. So I love it because I arrived in Set Kits in Nevis on my own, started backpacking. I was like, I don't really know much about this country. I was picked off a map, arrived in Basseteer, the capital, checked into a guest house and in comes this tall striking guy.

introduced himself as Bobby. And I think I told a story on the podcast, but on the TV there was ESPN and there's like throwback to FA Cup and League Cup and Premier League and all this sort of stuff. And on this TV screen was a cup final and he's like, Oh, that's me on TV. I was like, what? Yeah. It's Bobby Hazel, ex-footballer of QPR, scored in a cup final against Birds. I was like, this is a bit too much. Anyway, he was great to me. Took me under his wing. We went to couple of beaches and set kits. He bought me some beers. We chilled out on the beach, had a good chat.

Got to know him, learned about his football career, which is pretty cool for me. love football. However, my biggest regret is that he invited me to a family wedding and I said no, and I should have said yes. And I should have gone and had that experience. Big regret. I think he would have loved it if I came along. Again, I've been a massive minority, probably the only white guy at this wedding. I should have gone in there, had a few beers, got chatting to people and had a good time. So that is my one big regret. I normally say yes to everything, but occasionally I've said no.

And this is one that comes to mind where I thought, you know what? I made the wrong decision. Hopefully I'll bump into Bobby one day, say hi and let's see if he remembers me. But anyway, what a guy, Bobby Hazel, top notch. Yeah, that was a interesting meet. And then I flew to Puerto Rico and at Puerto Rico, it was a real strange time. ⁓ so many weird things happened. ⁓ for example, so was on my own, booked into a hostel in San Juan, the capital and

My idea there was just to see the islands and it was the cheapest place to get to North America out of the Caribbean because technically if go to US it's internal and even Canada's US is really cheap so I thought it's the easiest way to get to Toronto from the Caribbean but you know I'll check it out it's got a fort there it's got this cool like Spanish history there these little run bars like down these like cobbled streets and I thought it'd be cool to check it out so check into this hostel no one here

and it's absolutely pissing down with rain. So fair enough, I'll just go for a bit of food and I'll just have a sort of like a relaxed one. So I come back to the hostel dorm. I'm sitting there as pissing down with rain and bang, the door goes, hostel dorm. And I think someone checked in earlier but I obviously didn't see them and this girl comes bursting into my room. She is absolutely soaked. She's crying her eyes out like,

Uh, what's going on here then? I was like, uh, yeah, I'm James. I don't remember her name. She goes, yeah, I had an awful time. said, oh, really? What's happened? She goes, oh.

I'm on spring break and my friend sort of come over here with me and she's like, oh yeah, let's all go together with your boyfriends. Okay, fair enough. So I don't think it spring break actually, it must have been like a break in university. But anyway, all this hell in the summer, but she comes in and she goes, yeah, yeah, we'll, we kind of checked into this hotel and we all went out for dinner. So right, right. And then.

She goes, I actually set out to meet another friend. I was like, right, okay. And then those two went back to hotel and I said, I'll meet him later. So I called, fair enough. She has got back to the hotel and walked into the room and yeah, I found out having sex together. I was like, bloody hell. She goes, that's my best friend and my boyfriend. was like, ah. She goes, I'm devastated. I can't believe it. I think they've been lying all along. I think they've been doing it for ages. She's been cheating on me. What do do? She's been hysterics. I'm like, oh my God.

So that was kind of the first introduction to Puerto Rico. And I think I was then planning to go out for dinner. I said, look, do you to dry up, get some clothes on that are dry and we can just go for like some dinner and a coffee and just talk about it, whatever you want to do. like, yeah, yeah, okay. So then she starts telling me these stories about now she's thinking back and she feels a bit stupid and all this sort of stuff. So I'm trying to calm her down at this restaurant. I learned, behold.

the couple actually walked past holding hands and she went storming out the restaurant and chased after them. I God, what have they themselves into here? Anyway, I went out and tried to calm it down and I said, I'll just leave them and go back. that was my introduction to the first hostel in Puerto Rico. Next day, some American lads checked in and another lady checked into the hostel. So it's like four or five of us here. And this is really

Strange Irish guy popped in. He's a lawyer, but he was absolutely boozed up all the time. And this lawyer was on the phone giving advice to, I guess his junior barrister, I don't really know, back in Ireland saying, yeah, you should do this. don't worry about this. And this guy was just saying, makes a living out of common criminals because they'd always steal or do whatever. And they come in, it's easy money. They can't afford a lawyer. I go in, represent them. They lose the case and I get some money.

I just couldn't believe it and this guy was constantly boozed up. And it's just like weird dynamic in this group of us went out for a night out and we checked out San Juan in the day, saw the sights, went out to some rum bars and some tequila bars in the evening. Went to a few night clubs and we're dancing away. It's just all this stuff going on. And these American lads were funny. They were pretty brash, but they kind of liked having a British guy with them and us ripping his piss out of each other a little bit.

Yeah, that's a pretty weird dynamic and a cracking night out and they checked out the next days and they had a great time with them. I don't remember ending their names. I just remember having a night out a day with them, seeing the sights of Puerto Rico. So that's my Puerto Rico experience. Yeah, Puerto Rico, such a strange experience. Bit crazy this story. And this is kind of reflective of hostile life, if you like. A bit of chaos, community boundaries, stories, travel going in the most

unusual direction. mean, when I arrived in Puerto Rico to set the scene, it was pissing down with rain. It felt like the low season, hardly any travelers about. Every hostel I booked into, no one was there on the whole until late on. And I thought, you know what, this is going to be a lonely experience in Puerto Rico, but I will go with the flow and see what happens. And out of nowhere, one of the nights, I mean, there's many nights here where this stuff happened. But on this night, this crazy and unexpected story happened where checked into the hostel. I was like, okay.

Not much going on. Checked into my dorm room. No one in this dorm room apart from me. Result, paid a cheap price. one there. When this guy arrived in hysterics, I was like, okay, that is a throw off. I'm like, okay, I don't know what to do here. Did my best to adapt and offer any advice. And as the story unfolds, she caught her boyfriend cheating on with her best mate and then caught mad at it as well. And she kicked off and ran off and is pissing her around and she's soaking wet.

got no stuff on her, whatever it is. I think these types of stories in Puerto Rico in hostels happen when you throw yourself into those sort of events because you're in that mode of hedonistic travel. That could be controversial. But what I'm saying is when you're in hostels and you're younger, you're with people who are the same age and you tend to get involved in all sorts of parties, experiences, traveling together. And it all is kind of yes. If you know what mean, if you're going to do this, yeah, I'll go do that.

Let's do this. Yep. I'm up for that. yes. So if you say yes, I'll learn a lot of stuff. And it's not always PC stuff. Like when they're traveling to Southeast Asia or other parts of the world, could be drugs involved, drink, whatever it is. Things tend to happen. So Puerto Rico was a bit strange because I wasn't really in that sort of mode, if I'm honest. I mean, the weather wasn't really conducive to that. Hostels are quiet. Out of nowhere. Yeah. This story happens. And I think you have to go into the podcast episode to hear the story. However, though, towards the end, when we were having dinner,

And her boyfriend and the new girlfriend walked past arm and arm and she ran out into the rain to confront them. I was like, what is going on here? The hysteria, the carnage, the chaos. I just couldn't believe what was going on. And add to that the crazy Irish lawyer that was in the hostel giving professional advice over the phone. So I presume some criminals who are needing advice in the police station. And he was a couple of beers deep, absolutely wild, couldn't believe what was going on. It was a bit much to be fair, constantly joking every minute, enjoyed it.

can get tiresome. The San Juan in Puerto Rico is just one of those places where I did not expect anything to happen, but loads of stories happened and you never know when these things come along. Maybe it's a full moon. I don't know. And final thing on San Juan in Puerto Rico is I had the best Oreo cheesecake at Starbucks. have all the stuff that happened. I just remembered that one thing. I think how good is this? So finally on this point, get stuck into your hostels if you're young enough and you want that experience. You never know what can happen. Make friends, say yes to everything and see what happens.

The worst case is you have some great stories for later in life. So then I was traveling solo to Toronto. And Toronto is a big city. I checked into a hostel and a tour of Niagara Falls. And when you travel solo, like things can go wrong. I didn't realize that there was probably some event going on and I couldn't book a bus for love, no money or even a train to New York. The next stop.

And I was stuck. I was like, Oh my God, I'm stuck. I can't get out Toronto. All the accommodations getting booked up. There's no hostels there. I was like, Oh my God. But luckily my friend Alex from Bangkok. Said, Oh, just come to North Bay for the weekend until this festival weather was over. And then you should be able to go and go to New York. I Oh, great. She come pick me up with a great catch up. And she invited me to a wedding that she was going to the weekend and she gave me somewhere to stay.

That was a big relief. So those sort of like connections you meet early on in the trip. And that was like probably nearly almost a year and three quarters ago that I met her and me and Mike had a great time in Bangkok with her and her friend Steph. And yeah, she bowed me out on that weekend. So I got to see a town called North Bay in Ontario. It's really small. It's one of those towns that everyone knows each other. Went on a night out, went to a wedding. Everyone knows each other. A bit strange, but had a great time there.

Toronto, I'm forever grateful in this part of the episode for my network. I think making friends is key in travel and that comes with just being nice, being reliable, having a laugh and not being too serious because you never know when your travel connections might come handy in places that you're stuck around the world or just even need a favor. So this story is I was in Toronto, winging it didn't work as planned this time, trying to get a bus from Toronto to New York all sold out. I think the

baseball was on, other events were going on, I was just completely stuck. So I messaged my friend in North Bay who said, yeah, you can come save us and then book your bus on the Monday and go to New York. And it worked out absolutely fine. But the key point here is contacts around the world are crucial. Now, whether you have those one-off experiences, I get it. It's weird, isn't it? You have a great experience of one or two days. You never actually see them again, but if you keep in contact, you know, stay connected through WhatsApp or social media, or even an email address if you want to go old school.

Just keep a list of those contacts around the world. Try and stay in contact with your message and you never know when you might need them. And if you have those and you're traveling about and you're really, really stuck, I promise you they will help you to an extent. So the key thing here is be vulnerable, make friends, be yourself, be nice and get those travel connections. Cause honestly travel connections are the best type of connections you can make. So traveling solo for me was meeting so many different people.

I kind of picked and choose whether to stay with some people, whether or not I could book where I want to go. No real time constraints, maybe a finance constraint, but yeah, I had a rough idea what I wanted to do. I got stuck, someone bailed me out. So there's thing, no, really to panic about here. So I would highly recommend going solo. And New York for me is such a huge city and there's so many things to do that you never get bored that you can do like one thing after another each day.

And I spent, I think I spent eight days there just seeing all the sights. ⁓ but the cons of so doing is for my time in New York, I spent eight days. I didn't really meet many people there. If any, and I saw a good friend, Mitch, who went to school with, ⁓ like a breakfast. think it was, but I did find myself a little bit lonely in New York and that idea of being a huge city. There's only so many days you can just do a tourist attraction.

Go for coffee, get food, repeat. Be on the phone a little bit, try to catch up. There's only so much you can do with that. And I feel like when you're traveling solo in some of the Southeast Asia, like there's this one hostel after another, you meet so many people. Whereas on like New York, could be, I guess, pretty lonely, but love my time there. So yeah, the cons would be that you can feel a bit lonely, but it depends on yourself. Like you can always learn something new about yourself when you're traveling solo. It's only positivity.

So you either go with new friends, meet new friends, or you just go alone. It's that choice and that freedom to do what you want. You cannot underestimate that. And I feel like if that is stopping you from traveling solo, nah, get out there. Book roughly what you want to do, but don't book too much. Have a little bit of freedom, no time constraints, and just research places you want to go to, do some due diligence on the places that you're going to. ⁓

⁓ don't read too much into it cause people can make it sound scary and it really is. And for me being a male soloing was okay. Female solo traveling is I guess a little bit different. I met some people in India who are traveling solo and Rachel on the last podcast episode was explaining that, you know, think a couple of the bad things happened that were not ideal, but I guess ignorance of youth, you just get through it and you just plan ahead and.

Again, I on the whole it's okay, but I can't really speak for the female. So just do your research on places that you want to go to. And I think you're absolutely fine. I loads of female travelers in different parts of the world and they seem to be getting on great. And I love that independence. Like they'll be like with our group for like maybe two days and they're off again. So that was brilliant. I found that absolutely awesome. So I don't think there's anything to fret, but

with someone on your own. I want to have a plan B, but just kind of be aware that things can potentially go wrong and always have like ideas of where to go next or who to contact if you know anyone in the area. So the flip side of this is traveling with friends or partner. Great fun, I must admit. Some of the sporting events I've been to, me and Mike in our six month trip.

in Southeast Asia, went with friends Scott and Stuart in India for three months. You can only have like kind of good times. And I think the most important thing, even travel with friends or partner is you're going to find out some pretty in-depth stuff about them. And for me, I'm quite relaxed. Mike and I, booked our trip together, not really knowing each other from uni. We were in the same class and probably played in the guitar together a few times, but

not really knowing each other that well. Bad as luck would have it, pretty chilled. Never really got annoyed. Apart from either when we're hungry or we played intense games of shithead. We played shithead so much, like any break in either travel, waiting to check into a hostel, a flight, get the cars out and get shithead on the go.

to the point where we just came like absolute experts at it and any new rules like nah, we're sticking to our rules. So we threw ourselves into loads of situations. I think, as you know, we met so many people on our trip and we were never like, no, you can't join us. We met Jack and Lara in Southeast Asia and they joined us for probably around six, seven weeks. And obviously they like traveling with us and it was a good dynamic of having a chilled, but obviously a purpose and where we want to go and what to do.

Also, you've got to understand that you both have probably different ideas of what you want to do. And I think it needs to make clear that if one of you wants to go separate ways for a week to go somewhere that maybe you're not interested in, that's absolutely fine. And you've got to have that flexibility. Like traveling with me and Emma, we have kind of traveled last two or three years and we've kind of like agreed places that we want to take off. Like she's not done all the activities that I've done.

but we've stuck together and it's been like pretty good fun. And it's like these memories that last forever, right? Get the photo, get the photos out, get the camera out, document it. You can't beat it. And we were also never like adverse to people joining us for like a few days. And we met quite a few couples on the trip. If you're with a girlfriend or boyfriend and you're on a trip, you're more than likely to kind of like stick to couples and that kind of complements the dynamic.

I know Jack and Laura joined Mike and I and there's a guy called Johnny as well. And there's a few of us thrown around. They were the only couple, but for example, they went for a week somewhere to celebrate Jack's birthday. That was already pre-booked and we met up with them afterwards. So you get all those type of niches when you're traveling. And I think when you travel with friends and with a partner, you can just recall things that you don't remember. So Emma would like, Oh yeah, I wrote that down for...

So that's my experiences with traveling with friends or a partner. And I really don't want people to stop traveling. If that means going on their own, you can always book a tour. ⁓ a classic thing that people do when SCA were kind of still in business. A lot of people who are traveling solo book onto those kind of like pre-approved pre thought out plans. So that could be like a three, three or four week.

experience in any part of the world. So for example, me and Mike, I know we're together, but we've done the Q experience. And I know a lot of people who travel on their own on the Q experience, booked that in for three weeks and you make friends forever, lifetime friends. So there is that option if you're traveling solo. And I think solo has loads of flexibilities in terms of flights, where to go next and what to do.

So to summarize, get out there. Don't let, don't think that you'll be bored or you'll be too lonely if you're traveling solo. You're always going to meet people on these routes. Even if you don't meet people, you're going to learn a lot about yourself. It can only be positive. So keep that in mind. Be flexible. Get yourself out there. Get yourself vulnerable to meeting people and then you join along for a ride for a couple of weeks and you just won't regret it. You really won't regret it.

I have as much fun recording my times with Mike or with Emma as well as I do with being on my own. Even had a completely different experiences. So that's my podcast today and I'm going to finish with a couple of quotes but before I get to the quotes, thank you for the feedback. Please visit jameshammond.org. I upload all my newsletters and my podcasts on the website and at the minute.

podcasts are available on Spotify and Google and Spreaker, et cetera. I think it's going to be Apple and potentially Amazon in the next few weeks. I'm still waiting to hear back from that. And also I would love you to get in contact on my Instagram page, James Hammond travel. I'm trying to keep all my travel stuff linked to that page only. So if you follow me personally, please get onto that page because I'm going to transition different types of posts and

creations and stuff to the travel page because I want the other page to a bit more personalized. So just keep that in mind and I look forward to the next podcast, which will be with Angemin Aurora, my good friend here in Vancouver. We actually recorded it yesterday. So looking forward to getting that out there. And I'm to leave you a few quotes. So my first quote is Jessica Hula. She's one of the like leading most inspiring entrepreneurs by the even standard in the UK.

And she says this, just consider the possibility that the biggest obstacle between where you are now and where you want to get to is your opinion of how possible that is for you.

The reason I'm giving that quote is because at the minute I'm trying to read and listen to a lot about trying to set my own business up. I don't want to do these office jobs forever. I want to do my own thing. I'm interested in which is travel. How do I get there? How to improve myself in terms of being a creator and being a writer, being a podcaster, being trying to write music, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm reading all these books and I think that's a great quote from someone who's obviously

started really well in entrepreneurial life. So that's great. And I've got one last quote, which is a travel quote, of course, from a blog and author named Rachel Walchin, who says, if we were meant to stay in one place, we'd have roots instead of feet. Yeah, great quote that. Life is not meant to be lived in one place. That's a quote I've kind of like put on my pages and stuff because, especially if you're British, like,

background is travel, isn't it? We always got boats and trying to get out there and see the world. So I think it's kind of in us to travel. And I understand some people not interested in travel, but with that quote at the end there, just have a little think about that. Get out there, out of your comfort zone and try and see the world. So my final takeaway for this episode is do you go solo or not? I think my ultimate answer is yes.

Go solo, be flexible, stay open, don't over plan too much. And even though I'm a bit older and I travel in a slightly different way, I would add that I concur with all this advice. Nothing has changed. I want experiences. I'm still as motivated to see as many places as possible. want to meet as many people as possible, want to learn about different cultures. That is still the same. If you want to go solo, there are many ways to do it. You can go completely on your own off grid and just do it yourself. You can join the part of a tour group, like I said earlier.

and be a solo person in a tour group. You might make some friends, you never know. And also if you're used to traveling with friends or you have a partner or you have a travel buddy who you always go with, don't be afraid to also go on your own because there may be times when they can't go and it's easy to say no. So you need to go when you can and make that jump. Honestly, it is the best. But I do plan more these days personally because I'm creating content. I need a bit of a storyline which requires planning.

You know you can never do it again, but you learn something about yourself. If you do it once and you love it, then you might plan more in the future without waiting for people to be available or having the ability to travel. And it just might waste your time if you wait. So don't wait. Get out there. Travel solo. Don't be scared. You can always book a flight home if you speak English. Most people around the world speak English. And if you get really, really stuck and you've got some internet, you can also find out some information on your phone.

off your list, but no dramas. You can listen to it today with an upgraded modern look at this episode. I'll catch you next time. Cheers.

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