Solo Travel: Beyond the Instagram Feed
The unfiltered reality of solo travel, from missed buses and hostel scams to finding yourself in empty palaces and learning what it means to be a traveller, not a tourist.
Everyone glamorizes solo travel on Instagram. Nobody talks about standing at a bus stop at 12:15 AM, not knowing which bus to board because your 'reliable' booking got cancelled at the last moment. This is what solo travel actually looks like.
Not everyone travels solo by choice. Sometimes it's because you don't have anyone to go with. Sometimes people are ready to commit to the idea of travel, but not ready to actually travel.
My interest in solo travel was triggered after watching Barakamon. In it, the main character is the absolute best, and after a setback, he travels to an offshore town, where he spends a few days and returns as a changed person. The interesting part is I watched it three years ago and forgot about it in the day-to-day grind of life, but after my first solo trip, I understood it, and after that, I have travelled a lot. It's like when we were young, we enjoyed the song, and now we understand the lyrics. Sometimes things don't change instantly. They remain at the back of your mind, and at some moment, everything clicks.
I did a couple of solo trips this year. Things are smoother now than they were in the beginning, so I'm sharing what's helped.
Buses, Trains, and Murphy's Law
In my first solo trip of the year, I had plans to take a bus and then catch a connecting train, with a two-hour layover. To my surprise, I had booked a bus a month in advance, and one day before the trip, it got cancelled. I booked another bus one day before at 3x the price from a big company, not a mere platform, but to my surprise, they told me I would get the bus information 3 hours before travel. I got no info. I was standing at the bus stop and didn't even know which bus to board. The issue was that I could have missed the train. After multiple chats with customer support, I found out that the bus would be late by 2 hours from the scheduled time. I was like, damn, am I going to miss my train? Somehow I got support to arrange another bus ticket, and I boarded the bus on time.
Trains are, in general, better for long travel, but a lot of places have connectivity issues. Also, a few trains are too unpredictable with their delays and can ruin your entire itinerary, so research the train and check its average delay on platforms like RailYatri. At peak times, when everyone is leaving, all transportation mediums are choked, so travel smartly with large time buffers so you don't end up missing stuff. If you're at a connecting metro, take the one before or after your planned time because sometimes lines at a few connecting stations or big ones can be quite long, and these delays add up.
Whenever choosing buses, always choose the best bus. Don't make choices to save a few bucks, because choosing otherwise won't only delay you but might ruin your entire plan. Generally, the private buses of big-name companies are the best; they charge a premium, but in terms of reliability, it's always worth it. From my experiences, boarding the bus from its start point or where the bus office is located is best because those folks are present physically to help you. Otherwise, it becomes tricky because a lot of times the marshall number is busy, and buses sometimes change the boarding spot if it's not their first stop. They typically inform you a few hours or an hour before your journey date. In India, generally most trains are late, but don't bet that yours will certainly be late. Sometimes you might be relaxed, but you can end up missing the train.
Where You Actually Sleep
In terms of hostels, there are big chains like Hosteller, Zostel, and GoStops, which, in an ideal world, should give you the same experience irrespective of the location, but that is rarely the case. You will get some similar experience, but the percentage of that varies drastically. Over time, I've learned these chains suffer from a problem. The employees do their job, but they don't care, and there is a huge difference between care and doing your job.
From my experience, it's better to research and find a hostel that has good ratings on booking platforms and Google, because the hosts at these places care. Generally, they're locals and it's their property. You can also save some money by booking directly through them by calling instead of using an aggregator like MakeMyTrip or Booking.com.
One more interesting thing is that all these travel aggregators are mostly just UI on top of some central APIs like Amadeus and Sabre, so you get sort of similar listings on a dozen travel platforms. Sometimes a room will be available on one platform and not the other because of business reasons, so check a few providers because availability is sometimes distributed. You might find a six-bed dorm on one booking platform and not on another.
Pro tip: if possible, book a 4-bed or 6-bed dormitory. The 8- or 10-bed dorms generally have worse amenities, and their washrooms are mostly blocked. Ultra-budget rooms attract tourists rather than frequent travellers, because when you travel a lot, you understand that having some basic stuff sorted helps you recharge much faster.
Hostel location is also important. I personally prefer to stay a bit far from the city, but not too far. The simple reason is that you can enjoy the views away from the daily hustle and bustle of the city.
If you're there to meet people, always try to initiate a conversation instead of just having your AirPods plugged in with full noise cancellation. A one-line initiation can turn into an interesting conversation. The worst that can happen is that you folks don't talk beyond a few sentences. You'll also generally find better people in person-owned hostels, as they're there either through word of mouth or some research, and they're not first-time travellers.
Don't rely on hostel claims like 'we don't allow groups of more than 2 in the same room' or 'our vibe is good,' yada yada. All these claims are followed only when the hostel is running at capacity, which also varies a lot. Mostly, this is done not for the other guests but for the hostel staff's convenience. These are just claims, so take them with a pinch of salt.
Ratings, Reviews, and Reality
Be aware of rating scams, especially on Google Maps. A lot of reviews are farmed by online reputation management agencies, and a bunch of them are AI slop. Although Google has started removing these and mentions when there are too many suspicious 5-star reviews, for any location with ratings, use them as a first filter but always read reviews, especially for high-end restaurants and hostels.
Google Maps is also not highly reliable, especially for very niche places. A lot of niche restaurants in offbeat places have bad ratings, but the food is awesome. I've been to a restaurant that doesn't even have a nameplate, so how can anyone expect it to maintain an online presence?
The Art of Not Getting Scammed
If you're a UPI-only person, you will miss out on a few experiences, so always carry some cash. A lot of outlets and some monuments don't accept UPI, forget about cards. While exploring monuments, you can hire a guide, but for solo travel, it's generally quite expensive. I can be wrong here, but don't blindly trust any guide. They have an incentive issue. They can scam you, and since you won't meet again, they're perfectly okay with scamming you. Some guides will take you to a local shop and sell you things at an absurd premium. Taking some commission is fine, but charging 2x is not.
One more common scam is auto scams. The driver will take you to a shop and make claims like 'this shop belongs to the tourism department' or give you some xyz info about the shop, and then tell you to just go and see stuff. Sometimes, out of impulse, you might go and buy stuff, which you'll surely regret later, as it's all a commission game.
Generally, the shops and food in the main market are a bit expensive, so you can choose to explore other areas too. In a lot of cities like Varkala, the authentic food can't be found in the tourist circuit where the beaches are. You need to go to the old city to have authentic Kerala food. One more thing: you should eat things that are famous in that particular place only. For example, X dish is a specialty of Y city, but there's a famous shop for it in the city you're travelling to. The reason might be that it's not famous because it's exceptional, but because it's the best that the city has to offer. This happened to me at the most famous lassi shop in Jaipur. The lassi was good, but it's better in Delhi or Punjab.
Timing Things Right
If there's a composite ticket and you love exploring monuments, buy it. It's generally cheap. But just because you've bought the ticket doesn't mean it's okay to skip a few places. You should know when to move on. I was in Chennai, and my mobile was at 14% charge with my power bank dead. It was raining heavily. I had two options: go to Marina Beach and explore, or go to the bus stop, get my mobile charged, and wait for the bus. I chose the latter because with a dead mobile, it would be difficult to find the bus stop. It doesn't mean saying no to adventure. It means saying no to uninvited scenarios.
Take into account the timing of the monuments you have to visit. Some cities are strict with their timings, while others are a bit lenient, so research well. It's generally better to start early to avoid crowds, so you can take photos rather than just searching for a spot to get photos. Also, monument entry is generally closed 60-90 minutes before the official closing time, so keep that in mind.
Don't travel to far-off places in the city on your last day, because you never know which traffic jam you'll get stuck in and miss your bus/train/flight. Generally, I've found trains more convenient because you can track them well, and they rarely get cancelled. But with buses, you simply can't trust anyone, especially aggregators, because they're like, 'We just connect you; we don't operate the fleet.' The max they'll give you is a refund. Other than that, no help.
One more obvious tip: if you're travelling somewhere, avoid eating from global chains like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, or Domino's, as you eat from them regularly. Just eat local food and explore the cuisine.
Living in the Moment
A lot of times, it's better to click pics now than later. Don't think you'll do it when you come back. Maybe you'll exit from some other gate. Maybe you're too tired to click pics now, so if you can, take the photos in the moment. Don't obsess too much. Pics are good, have a look at a few, but don't sit there shortlisting, deleting, and checking out the best ones.
These days, most folks while travelling don't live in the moment; they live in screens or view the scenery through screens. While capturing moments is cool, you know what's cooler? Viewing it only with your eyes for a while, without any screen. In our busy lives, we do a lot of things but miss the most important thing: taking out time to spend with ourselves. A lot of scenic spots while travelling solo enable you to do this. Just spend a few moments with yourself, and you'll thank yourself later.
One thing that I love is just strolling through cities. As you move through the city, initially it's difficult, but once you do it a little, you'll fall in love with it. Even after crashing on your bed exhausted, you'll want to stroll again tomorrow. You learn and absorb a lot of stuff that you might have missed on a bike or scooter ride. I stroll a lot, and it has helped me explore places that are not on mainstream itineraries. You won't even find them on niche subreddits. It also helps keep calories burned in check because if you're eating local cuisine, healthy eating goes out the window.
If you haven't been somewhere before, just a small request: please be respectful to locals and don't litter. It's pretty basic, but if everyone follows it, we all can have a great travel experience.
I also travelled to a few offbeat places, and if I share the experience of those, it will require a separate blog, so I'll save that for later. But I would recommend going to an offbeat place for solo travel once you're done with a few popular destinations. For now, just sharing a small anecdote: I was at an offbeat place, a palace that's not on anyone's list, where even at 4 PM, there were only two guards and me in the entire monument. The property manager where I was staying invited me for dinner. He currently works at a hostel and has a resort in an endangered zone where leopards roam, but I said yes because the resort had a great view, and I thought the adventure was worth it. Travel is not only about checking off the checklist but also about exploring. Be a traveller, not a tourist. More on this later.
What Changed
Some itinerary is always better than no itinerary. From my experience, a flexible, rough itinerary is best. You know the places to go to, and your logistics are better managed. Always have flexibility, but with a plan. You can watch some YouTube videos and read Reddit to create a basic itinerary, or use AI, but please don't rely on AI. It hallucinates a lot. So, what's the best way to create an itinerary? More on that at the end.
Travelling solo is cool, but not every place is meant to be travelled solo, so before making plans, consider that. If you want to travel on a budget, don't sacrifice everything for travelling on a budget. Spending some money is fine. You learn a lot and become a bit more aware when you constantly get out of your bubble.
The best thing that happened from travelling a lot this year is that I changed a lot as a person, for good. I came up with fresh ideas and a wider perspective for next year. I love building products, and just to make my travel easier, I developed a travel web app, which creates an awesome itinerary and is a central place for all my tickets. I built it for myself, but now I'm planning to fix a few loose ends, remove the feature block, and make its alpha version live on the internet. If you want access to it, please ping me via email.