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Welcome to the Travel Transformation Podcast, the podcast where we talk all things travel and all things transformation. My name is Jessica Grace Coleman, and I'm going to be your host, and today it's going to be just a quick solo episode. 

I am still in the Basque Country, I'm still right next to a road, the construction work has stopped, but we still have cars going back and forth and quite fast – and a lot of trucks as well – so if you can hear that in the background, I'm sorry, I'm just going to power through. 

This was going to be a quick solo episode anyway, but it's actually going to be an even quicker episode because I just spent ages recording an update to a podcast episode that's going to be coming out soon called The Ballad of Colin the Donkey. I'm updating it as I go because it's a sort of ongoing thing, ongoing saga, that I hope to have had at least some kind of closure or completion to by the time I leave here. I've still got a week and a half left here, but there's all kinds of ups and downs and updates and I've been recording every few days to give an update. So, the podcast episode will be sort of happening in real-time when you listen to it.

It will make more sense when it comes out in a few weeks, but I spent so long sort of prepping for that and recording the podcast and prepping for a meeting to do with Colin the donkey that I've kind of run out of time a little bit. And I'm going to try and get this done before one of our family dinners, which will be happening soon.

Okay, so the topic today is why solo travelling doesn't have to be lonely. On quite a few episodes, actually, I've sort of mentioned it. I've talked about it in relation to my own travels and things like that, but I just wanted to do an episode focused solely on this because I think a lot of people get put off solo travel because they think ‘I'm going to be really lonely.’ They worry that they're going to be alone all the time and also that they'll feel really lonely.

This can be the case, don't get me wrong – sometimes people do feel lonely. They don't make the effort to connect with other people, so they are alone and they might give up and go back home. And it's okay if you do that. Obviously, you do you. If you try it and you don't like it, it's absolutely fine to call it quits and go back home. But I really believe that solo travel doesn't have to be lonely.

And this is coming from an introvert, so I do enjoy my own company, I like my own space, I like booking my own room so I can retreat and recharge when I need to after being around lots of people. And I know extroverts don't necessarily need to do that – they get their energy from being around other people – so it will differ depending on what kind of personality you have. But I really think it doesn't have to be lonely and there are several things you can do to make sure it's not lonely. But, also, there are several things that just happen when you're solo travelling – happen naturally – that mean you're not going to ever really feel lonely for too long.

And, like I say, it does happen and that's fine, but there are ways around it and there are plenty of things we can do and keep in mind as we travel solo. So, I've made a few notes and I'm just going to run through them quickly. Again, I spent too long on the donkey stuff so I've not got much time here, but hopefully you'll still find it valuable and I'll still get through everything I made a note on. 

So, the first thing is that even when you're travelling solo, you're never solo for long. You might get on the plane on your own and physically travel somewhere on your own, but I mean, you might even make friends on the plane if you're that kind of person. I tend to keep to myself on planes. I like relaxing, watching movies, sleeping if I can. I don't sleep that much really on planes, reading and just chilling basically, but some people strike up conversations with the person next to them and make lifelong friends on flights. 

So it is possible, but even without that, you meet so many people when you're travelling and especially when you're solo travelling, because I think it gives you that extra push to go and meet people, to strike up a conversation with people, and it gives you a sort of excuse really to do that. Because if you're on your own in a restaurant or something, it makes sense for you to try and talk to people, whereas if you're in a group of friends, you might not even talk to anyone new the whole holiday. It's that kind of thing. 

But you meet so many people through travelling, whether you're staying in coliving houses, hostels, if you're on a longer group tour, or if you go on like a day tour or an evening tour. I met some great people just on one evening tour that I then hung out with for the rest of my trip when I was in Valencia and Paris. I've talked about that on the podcast. Group tours in general are great for meeting people because you'll probably get some solo people there as well, and even if you don't – even if they're in couples and friendship groups, or families – you can still connect with people and hang out and make plans for the rest of your holiday or the rest of your travels or whatever you're doing.

Another point is that as a digital nomad now roaming free, I have visited friends and family up and down the UK more in the past year since I started this than I have in several years previously – not including the pandemic, obviously. It really does encourage you to visit people in faraway places if you are travelling around. When you’re a nomad, you’re expected to go to different places and to go back and see people you might not have seen for years. So it's been really great. I've visited people up and down the country last summer in particular, and it’s the epitome of travelling solo but not being lonely because you're actually reconnecting with really important people in your life, which is great.

Another point is there are so many online groups, forums, clubs, masterminds, courses, and communities all about travelling solo, and with several of these, you can use them to meet up with people in different countries if you're alone. You can use them to ask for help if you're alone. So you never have to feel alone because you know that there's always someone on the end of a message or on the other side of the screen that can help.

Some of the good ones on Facebook are the Solo Female Traveler Network. They also have their own community, mailing list, their own sort of forum, I believe. And they have another Facebook group, which is the Meetup group. So, you can use it specifically for meeting up with other female travellers, which is really, really handy. I've also recently heard about Her House, which is an app and community that’s kind of like couch surfing, but for digital nomads and just for women. So, if you want to, say, go to Austin, Texas, you can search if there are any hosts in Austin, Texas. And it will be women, maybe who live alone, maybe who live with other people, but they want to host female travellers in the home and they will sort of look after them, show them around. They can use that as a base to travel.

It's a really, really good idea. You have to pay for membership and the membership isn't always open, but I will put the link in the show notes just in case, and I highly recommend it. I think it's such a great idea, and the founder seems really really cool as well. 

You can also go to meetup.com. It's not just for when you're local or staying at home. Use it if you want to meet people when you're on the road; see if there are any events you can attend. You can seek out other solo travellers, like if you're staying at a coliving or a hostel. Or, if you're a digital nomad, you can go to digital nomad events, conferences, and other meetups. And these are great because you're going to meet a lot of people who will share your lifestyle and probably your values too, so you're going to have things in common and there won't be as many awkward silences. There'll be plenty of icebreakers. You can ask them where they've travelled to, where they live, where they're from, what languages they speak, what they do, all that good stuff.

You can also even try something like WiFi Tribe and Remote Year, which is coliving but on the road. And it's a bit pricier, so I've never done it personally, but I know people who have. That means you'll be travelling with a group of people and getting to know them on a deep level while working. So it's for digital nomads, but this kind of travel becomes the most sociable connected type of travel or any way of living, really, that there is. You don't connect with people like this in daily life, at least. 

It's like staying in the coliving. We have family dinners every night and we often play games. We get to know each other. We had one that went on for like six hours, like three rounds of prompts that helped us get to know each other, and it was really fun and really interesting and I just never do that with anyone back home, really. Your coworkers, your friends, your family, you just kind of hang out and talk about what you've done or moan about stuff or talk about TV and that kind of thing – which is great, obviously, but I’ve connected with people on deeper levels while travelling than I ever have at home. And I think that's such an interesting point and something to point out to people who might not realise that colivings and these kinds of group tours and group situations where you live with people can be amazing in terms of really, really getting to know someone on a deeper level and feeling like you're a part of a community. 

And, talking of community, when you're at home – whatever that means to you, whether you have a base, a house, a hometown, a home country, or anything else – you can be part of a local community, which is great, I love it. But as a digital nomad or frequent traveller, you can become part of a global community with friends from all over the world. And I think that's such an amazing thing to be part of. I always find it amazing, like staying in colivings, especially Sun and Co.

They have the pop-up, they have the main house. You make so many connections with people and you hear about stories they have of staying in other colivings with other digital nomads, and then you end up meeting those digital nomads, and you feel like you've already known them because you've heard so many stories about them. There are so many connections between colivings and digital nomads, and you see them on Instagram in their stories, or you see pictures of them, and I came here and I felt like I knew quite a few of the people here, even though I'd never met them, because people I've met through Sun and Co. have lived with them at different points, and I've heard stories about them. And it's a really weird but really cool thing, and the world really is very small, but it's just such an amazing community to be a part of, and it really does feel like a community, especially with Sun and Co. So, it's really just like one big family, just a bit bigger and a bit more spread out than most.

Talking of colivings, loneliness is always a possibility, of course, and I understand that you can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely, and that is definitely a thing. But colivings are a great place to surround yourself with wonderful like-minded people that are on your wavelength and living a similar lifestyle to yours, which I think really helps when you're trying to make connections with people.

And, honestly, it's hard to feel really lonely when you're living with ten to 15 other people and when you're having regular things like family meetings and family dinners and connecting on a deep level, like I said. In this way, I think travel and coliving can actually be a cure for loneliness, especially if you keep in touch with the people afterwards and meet up with them again in the future, which is what I've done from my past stay, and I'm pretty sure I'll be doing it again with the people I meet here. Now, there are also some people from here that I know from other places, and I'm already planning on meeting up with them in the future in their home country or mine.

Like I say, it's like a global community, and once you know you have that, it is hard to feel lonely as a traveller – even if you are travelling alone – and I think that is a wonderful thing. So, the next time you suggest to someone that you're going to travel solo or you admit that you'd love to do some solo travelling, and they say, “Oh, my God, I'd just be so lonely, or I'd be so bored, or I couldn't do it on my own with no support,” those are all excuses. They're not true at all. 

You'll have more support, you'll meet more people, you'll have deeper connections, you'll make more friends, and you will have a wonderful time. And I think solo travel helps you push yourself outside your comfort zone, boost your confidence… all of these are good things. You're not going to get anything bad out of it. And, like I say, if you try it and it's not for you, you can just go home. There's no shame in that.

I hope this gave you some value. I hope it encouraged you to try solo travelling if you haven't already done it and if you've been considering it. Sorry, it's a bit shorter than usual, but as I said, I've got important donkey business to attend to.

So, yeah, let me know if this helped! DM me on Instagram @traveltransformationcoach or send me an email at info@traveltransformationcoach.com and I will reply. And, yes, I always love hearing from you, so let me know.

Thank you for listening and, until next time, I'll catch you on the flip side, bye! 

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