The People you Meet When You Travel Alone!

One of the biggest surprises of traveling solo has never been the places - it’s the people you meet.

For the past few years, I’ve done a lot of traveling on my own. Sometimes for work, sometimes by choice, sometimes simply because life unfolded that way. At first, I thought the challenge would be navigating unfamiliar places by myself - airports, trains, maps, languages. But what I discovered instead was something much more meaningful.

When you travel alone, you meet people you would never otherwise meet.

One of the experiences that stays with me is a walking tour I did through the English countryside in the Cotswolds. Each day brought new faces. Some people walked with me for a few miles. Others joined for only a short stretch. One couple and I ended up having lunch together - we laughed, shared stories, and then continued on our separate paths. We never stayed in touch. They were simply meant to be part of that one perfect day. And somehow that felt complete.

On a river cruise from Switzerland to Amsterdam, the connections went deeper. I met two Canadian couples who I still exchange messages with today. We check in from time to time, share updates, and smile at the thought that a chance meeting on a ship halfway across the world turned into real friendships. I also met a woman from Australia who was traveling solo too - and yes, we still text and share travel stories.

In so many ways, my world has expanded through people I would never have met if I had simply stayed home.

When you travel with the same people and follow the same routines, life is comfortable - and great in its own way. But traveling solo opens your eyes to how differently people live, think, and experience the world. You sit beside strangers at dinner and leave with new perspectives and even new ideas to set you off on another adventure. You hear stories that remind you just how interesting this world really is.

There is one downside to solo travel, and I won’t pretend there isn’t. When you come home, there’s no one sitting beside you on the couch to relive the memories. No laughing over the photos. No “remember when…” across the dinner table.

And yet, somehow, the connection stays.

That’s probably why I started sharing my travels online in the first place. The blog, the photos, the little stories - it’s my way of bringing people along for the ride.

When a picture pops up on Facebook or a memory appears on my phone, I often find myself reaching out to someone I met along the way. A couple from a cruise. Someone from a walking tour. A fellow solo traveler sitting across the dinner table one evening.

For a brief moment, we were part of each other’s story.

And that’s the funny thing about traveling solo. You might start the journey on your own, but you rarely stay that way for long.

There’s another freedom I love about traveling alone - you get to choose.

I’m not a big museum person. I enjoy them… until I don’t. I’ve traveled with people who want to spend six hours in a museum when I’m ready to leave after one. When you’re traveling alone, you don’t have to negotiate.

If I want five minutes in a gallery and an hour in a bookstore or café, I get to choose.

• No guilt.

• No pressure.

• Just enjoying life as it comes.

I do enjoy traveling with others, and perhaps one day I will have that opportunity again. But right now it’s Jackie Doing Jackie - traveling solo, collecting stories, meeting new people in unexpected places, and trusting that this is exactly where I’m meant to be.

And who knows…

Maybe we’ll run into each other somewhere along the way.

About Jackie

Jackie Doing Jackie – Life in New Shoes is a reflection on starting over, choosing momentum over fear, and building a life one honest step at a time - without waiting to feel ready. www.jackiedoingjackie.com