[00:00] I've been solo traveling for about 10 years now and I have made my fair share of solo travel mistakes. So if you're new to solo traveling you're about to take your first solo trip or you're interested in traveling alone and then keep watching because in this video I'm going to be talking about eight
[00:15] solo travel mistakes not to make. The first mistake is geotagging your location and posting on social media in real time. I know we all want to get those beautiful travel picks and we want to update our family and friends of where we're going through photos and videos which is all good and fine but
[00:31] you don't want to do this in real time. You never know who's watching and you don't want people to know where you are. Even if you don't have a large following and your account is private if at any point in your trip you're using an open Wi-Fi so a Wi-Fi that doesn't need a password for
[00:45] example like if you're at the airport or a hotel and you're jumping on a Wi-Fi that isn't password protected and your stuff is pretty much free and open and anyone can gather your information your account information and even your location. And I know this might seem far-fetched and the
[00:59] chances of this happening are pretty low but when you're traveling alone safety is your top priority and you really don't want to just put where you are and where you're located just out there for anyone to see. You want to make sure that if you are posting on social media and you are tagging your location
[01:14] that you're doing it a couple days after you've been to that place or even after your trip is done or you moved on to a new city entirely. The next solo travel mistake is not keeping track of your stuff. I had to learn this one the hard way and I was this close to losing my Mac laptop.
[01:31] So I'll tell you what happened. I was in London at London Heathrow Airport. I was leaving leaving the city and I had a lot of stuff in my hand and I was in a rush which is no excuse to not keep track of your belongings. I had so many things. I had duty free bags. I had my laptop, my
[01:48] luggage. I had a heavy coat in my hand because this was winter but I remember being in a rush I was so incredibly hungry and I didn't have any snacks with me and I stopped at one of those kiosks to get something to eat. It just left security and when I was at the kiosk paying for my sandwich or snack
[02:04] or whatever it was that I got I must have put my laptop down and then once I paid I just walked away. I was you know over by my gate sitting there and then that's when I was making sure I had all my stuff
[02:17] and realized I didn't have my laptop. I ran back to the kiosk fully out of breath and thank god I you know it hadn't been that much time since I noticed and the sweet sweet girl that
[02:29] was working behind the kiosk just lifted my laptop and was like forgetting something. I was so close to losing my laptop which had everything on there. You definitely want to make sure that no matter
[02:42] how many things you have no matter how hungry you are no matter if you're in a rush you want to make sure that you're keeping track of all of your belongings because again you're by yourself. There's no one there to watch your stuff there's no one there to make sure you've done a checklist
[02:56] and you've got your phone your keys your wallet all that stuff you want to make sure you're doing that for yourself and you want to make sure that you're keeping track of all of your belongings. Next mistake is making yourself a target but when you're traveling solo and even when you're traveling with other people
[03:09] you want to make sure that you are stopping you're observing and you're seeing what people who live in that city who are locals to that city or that country or wherever you are look at how they dress and look at how they behave and try to blend in try to avoid wearing flashy jewelry or flashy clothing
[03:26] there's a really big logos on it and you also want to try not to make a scene. All of these things are going to draw more attention to you and make you a target for crime. Another thing you don't want to do is be distracted and I know that I have been so guilty of this in the past when you're
[03:39] walking down the street during the day or whatever try not to have headphones in or be on your cell phone that's going to make you a target and that's going to make to the locals around you stand out that you're not from there and and again if you don't see the locals doing it don't do it. The next solo
[03:52] travel mistake is not trusting your guts. Women and men but women we have got that female intuition we know what's up and we know when we get that feeling that something isn't right you got to go with that.
[04:07] You know I feel like sometimes as women we can be socialized to be overly polite to be over accommodating to kind of stuff that feeling down and just go with whatever whatever is around us. If you have that feeling inside that something isn't right get out of there no matter where you are
[04:22] no matter who you're with try to get out of there as fast as you can. You don't have to apologize you don't have to be polite you don't even have to explain yourself and I also want to note that this isn't just for when you're traveling this is also for when you're planning and accommodation for example
[04:38] right and I'll give you an example I am going on a solo trip in a couple of months and I was planning everything out trying to figure out where I was going to stay. I wanted to stay in a hotel and I was having a little trouble with some of the hotels that I was looking at because they were all very
[04:52] expensive. It just wasn't expecting the hotel prices to be that expensive and so I looked into Airbnb which is something I travel with a lot. I had ended up picking this Airbnb simply because
[05:04] it was cheaper and I booked it but as the days passed I just kept thinking and even as I was looking that looking at that Airbnb initially I just kept thinking something doesn't feel right. I just
[05:20] don't I can't pinpoint what it is but something about this Airbnb just doesn't feel right and so after a few days I ended up canceling it and just booking with a hotel even though it was more expensive. So sometimes especially when you're frugal you know I'm a frugal person so I want to try to be
[05:35] mindful of your money. I totally get that because I'm the same way but you don't want to cut corners and go for something that's cheaper just because it's cheaper when you have that intuition and that feeling that something isn't right then go with the more expensive option because that's just
[05:49] going to make you feel better it's going to help you sleep at night and something that could potentially be keeping you very safe. Now I have no idea why I felt that way about that Airbnb and it could have been totally fine and I'll never know because I canceled that that booking I had to go with my intuition so
[06:05] if you're loving this video so far and you find it helpful then like this video and subscribe to this channel. Next mistake is not planning your arrival and departure in the daytime so when you're traveling with friends it's probably okay to take that red eye flight or take a night train into a
[06:20] city but when you're traveling by yourself I would suggest planning your arrival flight plane bus and you're departing by plane bus in the daytime. So you're arriving into your destination in the
[06:34] daytime and you're leaving your destination in the daytime. Again when you're traveling by yourself safety is top priority and anything can happen during the daytime. Crime happens during the daytime all the time but I feel like when you're coming in especially at night you're increasing the
[06:47] chances of something happening and you also want to take into account getting lost because if you're coming to a new city no matter how much you prepare there's still a chance and a possibility that you might get lost. If you have to take public transport if you're walking you want to be doing all
[07:02] of this in the middle of the day so that if you get lost if something goes wrong you have the sunlight in the daytime to help you navigate where you're going you can read street signs clearly you can ask for help if you need to and not feel like your your safety is at risk and honestly in some cities one
[07:18] wrong turn one wrong street and also during the day is where some of these in some major cities like tourist boards and information centers are open next mistake is not doing your research and
[07:32] this is particularly true for international travel. Now I know there's some of you out there that are free spirits and that maybe don't want to plan as much as I do or don't want to go to the links that I do and that's totally fine do you but there are a few things that you want to make sure you're researching.
[07:48] For example you want to know what the common scams are in that country what are the cultural norms in that country especially for women do they have views that could be different from your home country are there some things that I do in my home country that are considered normal that might be
[08:01] habitual for me but in other countries are considered rude or disrespectful there are a lot of scams that are centered around airports money exchange cell phones ubers you want to research these things
[08:14] and know them up front before you arrive in your destination the next solo travel mistake is telling people that you're traveling alone when you're traveling solo you'd be surprised at how many people you meet and how many friends you make I have made so many friends traveling alone but
[08:31] again going back to what I said before trust your intuition and trust your gut no one needs to know that you're traveling alone it's none of their business and it's not because you want to be rude or you're hiding something or you're ashamed or you're lying it's not that but it's just it's nobody's
[08:46] business don't want to make yourself a target and sometimes telling people that you're traveling alone puts it on the radar and puts it on the map and some people are looking out for that some people are gonna target you because they know that you're traveling alone especially as a solo female traveler
[09:02] not pushing past fear and enjoying your trip at the end of the day yes you want to be safe yes you want to be aware yes you want to do research and make sure you know what you're getting into but at the
[09:14] end of the day it's your trip this is your time you're traveling alone you can do whatever you want and you can make this trip your own don't have so much fear or don't feel so guarded that you can't
[09:26] enjoy yourself that you don't go on adventures and do wonderful things with wonderful people just because you're afraid who's your intuition and step out of that box enjoy yourself once you're prepared once you've planned and once you've got everything in place the next thing to do is just go
[09:42] and enjoy yourself see you in the next one bye