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#HURDLEMOMENT: Everything You Need to Know About Solo Travel · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: The more you travel alone, it's like a muscle. You
0:03
Speaker 1: get more confidence, you say I can do this, You
0:06
Speaker 1: become more independent. And I don't know. I think solo travels.
0:09
Speaker 1: I recommend it for everyone, no matter where you are,
0:13
Speaker 1: even if you're married or with a family. I think
0:15
Speaker 1: a solo trip is like a recharge.
0:32
Speaker 2: Hey, Hurdlers, Emily Abadi, here you are listening to another
0:36
Speaker 2: installment of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle. Last week I went
0:42
Speaker 2: traveling and that travel was actually work related, but I
0:46
Speaker 2: got many, many, many messages asking me, are you on
0:51
Speaker 2: a solo trip?
0:52
Speaker 3: Are you with someone? What's going on? So the way
0:54
Speaker 3: that it works, no pun intended, but you get where
0:58
Speaker 3: I'm going with this.
1:00
Speaker 2: When you're a journalist, oftentimes different brands will reach out
1:04
Speaker 2: to you and either invite you to a property or
1:09
Speaker 2: a specific place to launch an offering or a certain product.
1:14
Speaker 2: These are often called familiarization trips. I have had the
1:20
Speaker 2: good fortune of traveling everywhere from Hong Kong with Reebok
1:24
Speaker 2: to Paris with Nike, and last week I went to
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Speaker 2: Cabo San Lucas with Thompson Hotels and while I traveled
1:34
Speaker 2: alone to their absolutely stunning property, the Cape, which I
1:39
Speaker 2: would one hundred and twenty five thousand percent recommend. When
1:43
Speaker 2: I got there, I was linked up with a group,
1:46
Speaker 2: so we did tons of different activities from surfing to
1:50
Speaker 2: mountain biking, and for all of those, including most of
1:53
Speaker 2: my meals, I was joined with different individuals from all
1:56
Speaker 2: over the country and the world, as you can understand,
2:00
Speaker 2: and I had just met a lot of these people,
2:03
Speaker 2: all of these people actually, and I'm not the kind
2:06
Speaker 2: of person to post photos or videos of other people.
2:10
Speaker 3: On my social media.
2:11
Speaker 2: It's just a respect thing that I keep myself. So
2:16
Speaker 2: I can totally understand why many of you were wondering
2:20
Speaker 2: if this was a solo trip. With that said, this
2:23
Speaker 2: trip made it very apparent to me that you were
2:26
Speaker 2: all seeking content on solo travel, which is something that
2:32
Speaker 2: I've done before. I have done my fair share of
2:35
Speaker 2: solo travel, including a landmark trip for me, a ten
2:39
Speaker 2: day international trip to Italy which changed my life forever.
2:45
Speaker 2: I'm going to link to an episode that I recorded
2:48
Speaker 2: about How to Spend Time Alone, in which I really
2:51
Speaker 2: talk a lot about that trip, in particular in the
2:54
Speaker 2: show notes, so I called in some backup. I chatted
2:58
Speaker 2: with Jeanette Saih. She is a travel journalist, a travel veteran.
3:03
Speaker 2: I was blown away by all the trips she spoke
3:06
Speaker 2: about in our conversation today, and we are collecting all
3:10
Speaker 2: of our best tips for anyone who's interested in solo travel,
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Speaker 2: from how to stay safe to where you might want
3:17
Speaker 2: to go, to best practices when it comes to booking
3:20
Speaker 2: a hotel, eating out a topic that I get asked
3:23
Speaker 2: a lot about what to do when you're traveling solo.
3:26
Speaker 2: How to save money traveling solo. If you have any
3:29
Speaker 2: more questions on this topic, I would love it if
3:32
Speaker 2: you would leave me a voice message to do just that.
3:36
Speaker 2: Click the link that says leave me a voice message
3:39
Speaker 2: in the show notes and ask away. I'll make sure
3:42
Speaker 2: to answer your question in an upcoming episode. Make sure
3:46
Speaker 2: you're following along with Hurdle on social At Hurdle Podcasts,
3:49
Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily a Body, and I want to
3:52
Speaker 2: make sure I call this out. Make sure you are
3:54
Speaker 2: subscribed to Hurdle and that the episodes are downloading via
4:00
Speaker 2: your chosen app on your chosen device.
4:02
Speaker 3: It makes a big.
4:03
Speaker 2: Difference when you are subscribed to the show versus when
4:06
Speaker 2: you are streaming it. When it comes to the ratings
4:09
Speaker 2: and the algorithm and god knows a bunch of stuff that.
4:11
Speaker 3: I kind of understand but don't actually understand all that much.
4:14
Speaker 2: So make sure you're subscribed, and while you're at it,
4:17
Speaker 2: share today's episode with a friend. With that, let's get
4:20
Speaker 2: to Hurdling.
4:30
Speaker 3: Today.
4:31
Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Jeannette Sayha. She is a
4:33
Speaker 2: travel journalist. She's an award winning TV host. How you
4:38
Speaker 2: doing today, Hi, am Elia.
4:39
Speaker 1: I'm so great, happy to be here with you.
4:42
Speaker 3: Happy to have you here.
4:44
Speaker 2: So I recently did some travel, which prompted a lot
4:48
Speaker 2: of questions from the Hurdle audience about solo travel. So
4:53
Speaker 2: I did some Twitter reach out, as one does when
4:57
Speaker 2: they want to have a great conversation on the podcast.
4:59
Speaker 3: And we were connected, which I'm so excited about.
5:03
Speaker 1: Yes, me too. I'm all about you know, solo travel, travel, women, empowerment, helping,
5:09
Speaker 1: you know, the community. So I'm happy to be here.
5:13
Speaker 3: Amazing, amazing.
5:14
Speaker 2: So before we get into our perhaps tips, our tricks,
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Speaker 2: our feedback on solo travel, why do you give us
5:21
Speaker 2: a little bit of insight into your background and how
5:24
Speaker 2: you got to be how this got to be your beat,
5:27
Speaker 2: so to speak.
5:28
Speaker 1: Yes, well, it started as a young girl. I would
5:31
Speaker 1: be glued to anything that had to do with news.
5:35
Speaker 1: At first, when I was a young girl, I thought
5:37
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a foreign news correspondent like Christiana Amipor.
5:41
Speaker 1: And then I followed Oprah on the different channel. I'd
5:44
Speaker 1: watch Oprah every day, and then I changed the channel
5:47
Speaker 1: to Discovery Channel, History Channel, Travel Channel, and then I
5:51
Speaker 1: was like, whoa, I want to show people the world.
5:53
Speaker 1: And yesterday I just watched The road Runner, the Boardain documentary.
5:59
Speaker 1: By the way, who Ordain was really influential in me
6:02
Speaker 1: choosing the travel route. So I've known since a young
6:05
Speaker 1: I was a young girl about this. When I was twelve,
6:08
Speaker 1: I started my first travel journal. I would go to
6:11
Speaker 1: Mexico City as a young girl to visit my grandparents,
6:15
Speaker 1: and I would spend the summers there and I would
6:17
Speaker 1: just write about anything and everything, take photos, come back,
6:21
Speaker 1: share with my friends, and then it just never really stopped.
6:25
Speaker 1: So I've always been with a camera a journal. Fast
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Speaker 1: forward to high school writing for the paper, college writing
6:31
Speaker 1: for the paper, and one of my mentors in college
6:34
Speaker 1: was a travel editor for Statewide newspaper in Tennessee, so
6:37
Speaker 1: that helped me continue writing, and you know, now in
6:41
Speaker 1: my thirties, you know, it's been a long, long journey
6:45
Speaker 1: of figuring it out. I really didn't have one person
6:49
Speaker 1: per se say do ABC and you'll get here. It
6:53
Speaker 1: was a lot of just figuring it out. And again
6:56
Speaker 1: this is also pre social media, so it was just
6:59
Speaker 1: you know, going to the travel conferences and sitting front
7:02
Speaker 1: row listening to you know, Samantha Brown, Rick Steves, who
7:06
Speaker 1: are also some very inspirational travel pioneers, and then meeting
7:12
Speaker 1: Boardain in New York at Tribeca Film Festival many years ago,
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Speaker 1: and so just putting myself out there. I think the
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Speaker 1: mindset when you're really determined, you will find a way.
7:22
Speaker 1: You know, you won't find excuse because I really had
7:25
Speaker 1: no idea what I was doing, but I knew my why.
7:29
Speaker 1: So your why is the most important, Like why do
7:32
Speaker 1: you want to do this? Why is this important to you?
7:35
Speaker 1: And that's what I also tell some of my mentees.
7:38
Speaker 1: Why do you want to do this? It has to
7:39
Speaker 1: be bigger than yourself. If not, when the going gets tough,
7:43
Speaker 1: you might just want to throw in the towel and
7:45
Speaker 1: just you know, call it a day. But if your
7:48
Speaker 1: why is bigger than yourself. You will do it no
7:50
Speaker 1: matter what.
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Speaker 3: I love that piece of advice.
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Speaker 2: And I also think when you think about traveling right,
7:56
Speaker 2: oftentimes we envision these experiences to be with other people,
8:02
Speaker 2: and so for so long, personally, my why for travel was, oh, well,
8:06
Speaker 2: I want to share this new experience with someone. But
8:09
Speaker 2: I got to a point, and this is going to
8:11
Speaker 2: lead us into our conversation that my why for travel
8:15
Speaker 2: was I want to see this place, and I got
8:17
Speaker 2: so tired as a then. I think I went on
8:21
Speaker 2: my first really serious solo international trip when I was
8:25
Speaker 2: maybe twenty nine or thirty and I'm thirty three now,
8:30
Speaker 2: so maybe even twenty eight actually, and I just got
8:34
Speaker 2: tired of waiting for someone to do the travel with.
8:37
Speaker 2: So I was like, screw it, I'm out, let's do it.
8:39
Speaker 2: Let's figure it out. What's your experience with solo travel.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I love that. I love how you were
8:44
Speaker 1: just like not waiting for the right moment or the
8:47
Speaker 1: right person to experience and live life in the present moment.
8:51
Speaker 1: And that's very common. My first international trip was I
8:55
Speaker 1: did a study abroad in Italy when I was in college,
8:58
Speaker 1: and I moved for three months and studied Italian and
9:01
Speaker 1: I didn't know anyone there and that was a great
9:04
Speaker 1: eye opener. And solo travel. What I like to tell
9:07
Speaker 1: a lot of women, especially is yes, I understand it
9:10
Speaker 1: can be scary. We also have the additional layer I
9:13
Speaker 1: believe of physical safety, which is a concern. I mean,
9:17
Speaker 1: you know, wherever we are. Though, I think that as
9:19
Speaker 1: especially as a woman, you have to be mindful of
9:22
Speaker 1: your surroundings. You know, what are you sharing, especially on
9:26
Speaker 1: social Unfortunately, there are dangerous people and they're everywhere, so
9:29
Speaker 1: it's not just one area. So I think that, you know,
9:33
Speaker 1: being very street smart, being very cautious about what you
9:36
Speaker 1: share with people is important. So, for example, whenever I
9:39
Speaker 1: would travel alone, I went to Italy. Then my next
9:42
Speaker 1: solo trip was I went to Hawaii for four days
9:45
Speaker 1: by myself. And if I was at a restaurant or
9:48
Speaker 1: somewhere and a guy would come up to me and say, Hi,
9:51
Speaker 1: you know, blah blah blah, are you alone. First of all,
9:55
Speaker 1: I was very young, in naive at the time, and
9:57
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, I'm here, you know, doing this.
9:59
Speaker 1: But then I later I learned one, really, it's nobody's
10:02
Speaker 1: business if I'm alone too, Why is somebody asking me
10:06
Speaker 1: three If I feel like I want to respond, I
10:08
Speaker 1: would always say yes, I'm actually visiting the mayor, the president,
10:12
Speaker 1: the Prime minister.
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Speaker 3: Love this.
10:14
Speaker 1: I would just see them kind of slowly back away.
10:16
Speaker 1: I mean, if their intentions are well, then okay. But
10:19
Speaker 1: usually I was like, why are you asking me? I
10:21
Speaker 1: would never go up to a guy and say, Hi,
10:23
Speaker 1: are you here alone? I mean to me, it's just
10:26
Speaker 1: so invasive, right.
10:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
10:28
Speaker 1: So that's another tip that I have. And my other
10:31
Speaker 1: tip for women doing a first solo trip or one
10:34
Speaker 1: of many, is maybe start local. You can do international,
10:38
Speaker 1: but maybe especially right now during these uncertain times during
10:41
Speaker 1: the pandemic, I would say start local. If you want
10:44
Speaker 1: to start within your own state, For example, California, there's
10:47
Speaker 1: a lot of national parks that have reopened. You know,
10:50
Speaker 1: there's Yosemite, there's Joshua Treeing, There's that's not far for
10:54
Speaker 1: a driver's Sedona. If you want to go a little
10:56
Speaker 1: bit further out of your state, maybe go for the day,
10:59
Speaker 1: for the weekend. If you feel adventurous, go to Hawaii.
11:03
Speaker 1: I love Hawaii. That's one of my first solo trips
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Speaker 1: in the US, and I loved it. I went to
11:09
Speaker 1: a luel by myself. I had dinner by myself. And
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Speaker 1: I think that the more you travel alone, like you
11:16
Speaker 1: get a stronger It's like a muscle. You get more confidence,
11:20
Speaker 1: you say I can do this. It's self growth. You
11:24
Speaker 1: become more independent. And I don't know, I think solo travels.
11:28
Speaker 1: I recommend it for everyone, no matter where you are,
11:31
Speaker 1: even if you're married or with a family. I think
11:34
Speaker 1: a solo trip is like a recharge for sure.
11:37
Speaker 2: For sure and the recap A couple of the tips
11:39
Speaker 2: that we offered here. First and foremost, if someone comes
11:41
Speaker 2: up and asks you if you're traveling alone, do not reveal.
11:44
Speaker 3: That information necessarily.
11:47
Speaker 2: And the second tipbit is maybe start off a little
11:50
Speaker 2: closer to home.
11:51
Speaker 3: So if you want to get used to the idea
11:52
Speaker 3: of traveling.
11:53
Speaker 2: Alone, look at some resources or opportunities in your local
11:57
Speaker 2: area that can kind of help you get your feet
11:59
Speaker 2: wet and get used to the idea. Now, the next
12:02
Speaker 2: tip that I would love to offer the hurdlers when
12:05
Speaker 2: it comes to solo travel is have one thing every
12:09
Speaker 2: day on your calendar, so to speak, or on your
12:12
Speaker 2: schedule that you can look forward to. So some people
12:15
Speaker 2: thrive by having an entire day, back to back to
12:18
Speaker 2: back scheduled. For me, I had one thing a day
12:21
Speaker 2: that I knew that I was going to do without
12:23
Speaker 2: a doubt. And that could even be like I'm going
12:25
Speaker 2: to commit for this is the day that I'm going
12:28
Speaker 2: to spend four hours at the beach, or this is
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Speaker 2: the day that I have this dinner reservution, or this
12:33
Speaker 2: is the day that I'm going to see this museum.
12:35
Speaker 2: And for me, having that one thing empowered me to
12:39
Speaker 2: go check out stuff and do things, but without like
12:41
Speaker 2: feeling like I was just so drained by the agenda
12:45
Speaker 2: that I had to just be running around all over
12:47
Speaker 2: the place.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. That's a great tip. You know,
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Speaker 1: it's also celebrating your small wins, even for the day.
12:55
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people start with gratitude journals.
12:57
Speaker 1: How people set their their days is really important, but
13:00
Speaker 1: I think also how you end your day, right, what
13:02
Speaker 1: is the last thing you're doing? Are you on your
13:05
Speaker 1: phone on social where your phone excellently drops on your
13:07
Speaker 1: head you know, yes, I've been there, when you're falling asleep,
13:10
Speaker 1: or are you reading? What are you doing at the
13:12
Speaker 1: beginning at the end of the day, I think is
13:14
Speaker 1: so important, but like you were saying, doing committing to
13:17
Speaker 1: something and then celebrating that.
13:20
Speaker 2: On the idea of perhaps not letting anyone you meet
13:24
Speaker 2: know that you're traveling alone. On the inverse of that
13:27
Speaker 2: is making sure that your friends and family know where
13:31
Speaker 2: you are, whether you're domestic, whether you're international. That is
13:35
Speaker 2: really really important when it comes to a safety perspective
13:39
Speaker 2: of making sure that your loved ones can can.
13:43
Speaker 3: Know where you are.
13:44
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that you need to be in communication
13:45
Speaker 2: with them the entire time you're there all day, every day.
13:48
Speaker 2: In fact, I would encourage you maybe not to be,
13:50
Speaker 2: but I think it's really important from a safety POV
13:53
Speaker 2: that we make sure that we reiterate that absolutely.
13:55
Speaker 1: And another tip I like to tell, especially women, just
13:58
Speaker 1: any solo traveler, especially Americans who are going abroad, is
14:02
Speaker 1: you can sign up to the US embassy in whatever
14:05
Speaker 1: country you're going to, and they have a program called
14:08
Speaker 1: step program where it's free and you put you just
14:11
Speaker 1: register with the embassy so that they know that you're
14:14
Speaker 1: there as well, and then they update you for examples.
14:16
Speaker 1: Anything may arise, like you know, political upheaval or you know,
14:21
Speaker 1: some kind of health crisis that may go on. They
14:24
Speaker 1: know that you're there, so they can alert you. That's
14:27
Speaker 1: a great step to have, and I think you're right
14:29
Speaker 1: about letting your family and friends know where you are.
14:33
Speaker 1: I was in Brazil. I went to Brazil on a
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Speaker 1: solo trip for the World Cup. Was twenty fourteen, and
14:39
Speaker 1: I used to work in sports for a few years
14:41
Speaker 1: as well, and I quit moved to Italy by myself,
14:45
Speaker 1: which was scary but exciting. And I've also lived and
14:49
Speaker 1: worked abroad in Australia, so I recommend studying abroad, working abroad,
14:54
Speaker 1: traveling abroad like it really helps you grow as a person.
14:57
Speaker 1: And I'm, you know, more aware about the world really,
15:01
Speaker 1: so it's great. I went to Brazil for ten days
15:03
Speaker 1: by myself and I remember telling people, Hey, does anyone
15:06
Speaker 1: want to come with me? I asked about forty people,
15:09
Speaker 1: friends and family. Nobody could come with me. I ended
15:12
Speaker 1: up getting my World Cup ticket through a third party
15:14
Speaker 1: cellar because I didn't win it in the lottery like
15:18
Speaker 1: so many and I was determined. Again, here's another thing.
15:22
Speaker 1: When you are determined, you will find a way. So
15:24
Speaker 1: I was determined to go to the World Cup in Brazil.
15:26
Speaker 1: It's been a lifelong dream of mine, and I got
15:29
Speaker 1: one ticket. I got a round trip airfare and I
15:32
Speaker 1: just had a hotel for a few days in Real Dejenio.
15:36
Speaker 1: And it was scary. I mean even at the gate
15:41
Speaker 1: on the way to board the plane from La to Rio,
15:45
Speaker 1: there was a guy sitting on the chair. I'll never
15:48
Speaker 1: forget he goes, oh are you? He was asking me
15:50
Speaker 1: where are you going. I'm like, O, I'm going to
15:51
Speaker 1: the World Cup. Are you by yourself? I mean, this
15:53
Speaker 1: is such a common question. I was like, oh no,
15:56
Speaker 1: I'm meeting some people there. Okay, great, be careful. It's
15:59
Speaker 1: really dangerous you as a woman. This putting all this
16:03
Speaker 1: fear in me that you know, fear, fear of fear.
16:05
Speaker 1: And I was just like, you know what, my mindset
16:08
Speaker 1: is like, I'm going to go. I'm going to be
16:10
Speaker 1: very cautious. But in my mind I was like, if
16:12
Speaker 1: I'm going to die, I don't want to die. But
16:14
Speaker 1: if I'm going to die, I'm gonna die living doing
16:17
Speaker 1: what I love, going to a World Cup game, which
16:20
Speaker 1: has been my dream, and going to Brazil. And so
16:23
Speaker 1: I went, and a lot of friends and family were concerned,
16:26
Speaker 1: like you're going alone. You're a woman. My own mother
16:30
Speaker 1: was like, I need you to message me every night
16:32
Speaker 1: to make sure you're okay, even though I'm, you know,
16:34
Speaker 1: my mid twenties. At the time, I was like, yes, yes,
16:38
Speaker 1: and so I understand. But honestly, I had the best.
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19:29
Speaker 2: out before going on that particular trip people to come
19:33
Speaker 2: with you and not being able to find someone to
19:35
Speaker 2: come with you. And I will be the first person
19:38
Speaker 2: to co sign that I've certainly been in that position
19:41
Speaker 2: and it can feel really defeating and like make you
19:45
Speaker 2: feel some kind of way and make you maybe not
19:47
Speaker 2: want to go on the trip at all. And again,
19:49
Speaker 2: I mean back to my first big solo trip like that.
19:52
Speaker 2: I was tired of feeling that way, so I said, fit,
19:55
Speaker 2: I'm going. Something else that comes up a lot in
19:59
Speaker 2: the messages that get sent to me are questions asking specifically.
20:03
Speaker 3: Like what are you doing when you're alone?
20:05
Speaker 2: So we talked about the idea of going to museums
20:08
Speaker 2: or the beach or you know, whatever it may be
20:09
Speaker 2: that you want to do while you're traveling alone. Particularly,
20:12
Speaker 2: the question is what do you do when you're eating alone?
20:15
Speaker 3: Now, my tip for that is to bring a book.
20:18
Speaker 2: When it comes to solo traveling books are my favorite
20:21
Speaker 2: thing because I don't want to be sitting there on
20:23
Speaker 2: my phone.
20:24
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, absolutely, I think it's great. It's a great tip.
20:29
Speaker 1: Another thing I will say is a lot of people
20:31
Speaker 1: avoid going to certain places or countries because they'll say, oh,
20:35
Speaker 1: but I'm single, so why would I go to Paris
20:37
Speaker 1: the most romantic. I wrote an article a couple of
20:40
Speaker 1: years ago about Santorini because it's one of the top
20:43
Speaker 1: honeymoon destinations and how I avoided it for the longest time.
20:49
Speaker 1: I think, like, just live for you, regardless your status.
20:52
Speaker 1: If you've always wanted to go to Paris, go to Paris,
20:55
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Don't wait to be in
20:57
Speaker 1: a relationship or married or etc. And I can say
20:59
Speaker 1: that personal experience going to Paris. I've gone to Paris.
21:03
Speaker 1: I've been single every time I've gone. I have my
21:06
Speaker 1: own tradition now where wherever I'm staying, I walk to
21:09
Speaker 1: the Eiffel Tower. I leave a rose in one of
21:12
Speaker 1: the gardens and I just sit there and admire it,
21:15
Speaker 1: and I walk back. I have a beautiful scenic walk back.
21:19
Speaker 1: I have a Pamela and a coffee and I just
21:23
Speaker 1: enjoy it for myself and romance myself and do things
21:27
Speaker 1: for myself because we deserve it, you know. And it's
21:31
Speaker 1: great if you can share it with someone, but if
21:33
Speaker 1: at the moment, you can't do it for yourself, and
21:36
Speaker 1: I think that that's and another key is that travel
21:39
Speaker 1: it can be such a beautiful gift to you because
21:42
Speaker 1: you really appreciate yourself. You get to know yourself more.
21:45
Speaker 1: I mean, every time I travel alone, I learn more
21:48
Speaker 1: about myself. I like to go for walks in the
21:51
Speaker 1: day in the morning, and I like to visit local
21:55
Speaker 1: family owned businesses shops. I like to speak with the locals.
21:59
Speaker 1: I know. You like to do running emily, which is
22:01
Speaker 1: amazing and super inspiring. So even if there's a marathon
22:05
Speaker 1: in a certain place, you know, maybe go do a
22:08
Speaker 1: marathon somewhere else, like a different city your country. For me,
22:13
Speaker 1: I yeah, definitely like to go to museums. I like
22:15
Speaker 1: to take cooking classes. I like to immerse myself in
22:19
Speaker 1: the local community in whichever can.
22:22
Speaker 2: What other tips you have for us when it comes
22:23
Speaker 2: to solo travel, I think if.
22:25
Speaker 1: You want to find a place for well being, there's
22:28
Speaker 1: retreats as well that you can do a lot of yoga.
22:31
Speaker 1: For example, Tuloom is really a hot place to do
22:34
Speaker 1: a lot of these well being where you can go
22:36
Speaker 1: a loan. There's so many different kinds of experiences you
22:39
Speaker 1: can do as a solo travel. Of course, you can
22:41
Speaker 1: do adventure travel, you can do leisure travel, you can
22:45
Speaker 1: do you know, work volunteer travel. I mean there's different
22:50
Speaker 1: ways that you can travel and give back or you know,
22:54
Speaker 1: contribute or I mean there's much more to me. I
22:58
Speaker 1: can only sit at a beach for so long. Maybe
23:00
Speaker 1: one day I give myself one day with a Margarita
23:03
Speaker 1: Boord out of my mind and I just can't. I
23:06
Speaker 1: need to like immerse myself. For me, it's about learning.
23:10
Speaker 1: I'm a forever student. I'm a sponge and I think
23:12
Speaker 1: that's a great fundamental of a journalist is you're always curious,
23:16
Speaker 1: like you want to know more and more. So I
23:19
Speaker 1: want to like meet the locals. I want to go to, uh,
23:22
Speaker 1: you know, an event that's they're doing just to learn
23:26
Speaker 1: more and to get out of maybe the touristy places
23:29
Speaker 1: like that's great, but maybe you know, rent a car
23:32
Speaker 1: and drive along the village if you feel safe and
23:35
Speaker 1: you feel confident, enough. Also now with technology, we have
23:39
Speaker 1: all these apps, so if you don't know the language,
23:42
Speaker 1: it's okay. I mean, I was in Turkey last month
23:46
Speaker 1: and I don't speak Turkish, and I was there and
23:48
Speaker 1: I went to Kappadocia, I went to Istanbul, I went
23:51
Speaker 1: to Bodram and it was amazing, Like I was able
23:54
Speaker 1: to get by with some apps in case I needed,
23:58
Speaker 1: you know, some extra help with the Turkish language. But
24:01
Speaker 1: I think we're really good. We have more tools these days.
24:06
Speaker 1: And I think another thing is if you know someone
24:08
Speaker 1: who's local to where you're going, that's also great to have.
24:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
24:14
Speaker 2: And something else you were speaking about choosing experience while
24:18
Speaker 2: you're abroad. I've used apps like Airbnb Experiences and have
24:21
Speaker 2: had such great luck reading reviews and really looking into
24:25
Speaker 2: it to find like really unique experiences that pair you
24:28
Speaker 2: up with other individuals, whether they're couples or groups or
24:32
Speaker 2: just other solo travelers to try things in the area,
24:35
Speaker 2: so that way you're not going at it completely alone.
24:37
Speaker 2: And I would also say to that extent that make
24:41
Speaker 2: sure you're digging into the reviews right, so if there
24:44
Speaker 2: is a place that you want to go or something
24:46
Speaker 2: that you want to experience, do this research before you
24:48
Speaker 2: get there so that you can feel really confident about
24:50
Speaker 2: the experiences that you're choosing.
24:52
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I think with what you
24:57
Speaker 1: just said is research. Research is so key. Researching the destination,
25:02
Speaker 1: what is currently happening in that country. The US State
25:06
Speaker 1: Department is a great resource for finding the most up
25:09
Speaker 1: to date of travel alerts, travel warnings, especially right now
25:13
Speaker 1: we're still in the pandemic, and if you want to see
25:16
Speaker 1: what the CDC recommends, what is going on in the country.
25:20
Speaker 1: It's important to always stay up to date because things,
25:23
Speaker 1: as we've seen in the past year or so are
25:26
Speaker 1: very fluid and ever changing. So things, especially if you're
25:30
Speaker 1: thinking of going internationally, I highly recommend doing as much
25:34
Speaker 1: research as you can if you know someone who lives
25:36
Speaker 1: in that country. For example, if I know someone who
25:40
Speaker 1: was in Turkey, which I did, I would constantly say, okay,
25:44
Speaker 1: well how is it now, how is it now? How
25:45
Speaker 1: is it now? Just to keep me updated. Right, research
25:49
Speaker 1: is key finding a local or somebody who may know
25:52
Speaker 1: someone who's on the ground. There's also some travel experts,
25:57
Speaker 1: tour agents, tour guides. You want to do a tour,
26:00
Speaker 1: a tour would be great. There's a lot of walking
26:02
Speaker 1: tours available, bike tours that are available in every city.
26:06
Speaker 1: That's fun to do alone as well. I mean you
26:08
Speaker 1: get to do some workout and.
26:10
Speaker 3: Explore totally totally.
26:12
Speaker 2: And then I think another question that often comes in
26:14
Speaker 2: and when I'm sure that you get a lot, is
26:16
Speaker 2: what are some ways I can keep the costs down? Right?
26:19
Speaker 2: Because so often the great part about perhaps traveling with
26:22
Speaker 2: a friend or a family member or a group is
26:24
Speaker 2: that you can split things.
26:25
Speaker 3: So if you're going at.
26:27
Speaker 2: It alone, what would you tell someone who's trying to
26:29
Speaker 2: keep their costs down?
26:31
Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, well, I would say, first of all, how
26:34
Speaker 1: do you like to travel?
26:35
Speaker 3: Right?
26:36
Speaker 1: There's some people who are very low key who for example,
26:41
Speaker 1: if you go you can go pretty much anywhere, but
26:43
Speaker 1: depends how you want to travel on your budget. So
26:46
Speaker 1: let's say you go to Paris, for example, you can
26:49
Speaker 1: have a coffee and a croissant probably for under five
26:52
Speaker 1: dollars for breakfast, or you can get a hotel or
26:54
Speaker 1: maybe Airbnb, depending where breakfast is included, for example, So
26:59
Speaker 1: that knocks down one meal, right, And what I would
27:02
Speaker 1: do sometimes if I stayed in a place for longer
27:04
Speaker 1: than a week. I would go to the grocery store
27:06
Speaker 1: in the market, buy fruit in the morning, make my
27:09
Speaker 1: own coffee tea maybe to subsidize the costs, and maybe
27:14
Speaker 1: I would do one really nice dinner a week. So
27:17
Speaker 1: it's just about allocating. Okay, what's most important in your trip?
27:21
Speaker 1: Touristy things, museum experiences. Do you have to eat out
27:26
Speaker 1: every day for every meal? No? Not really. You could
27:29
Speaker 1: do a picnic as well. So for me, when I
27:32
Speaker 1: travel alone, I usually have breakfast, either fruit or something small,
27:37
Speaker 1: and I treat myself once once a week or so
27:41
Speaker 1: to a nice dinner. So I just allocate it depending
27:44
Speaker 1: where I'm at, And of course the currency will change.
27:46
Speaker 1: So if you go to Europe, the euros usually stronger
27:50
Speaker 1: than the dollar, but if you go to Mexico, the
27:52
Speaker 1: peso's usually the dollar's usually stronger than peso. So depending
27:57
Speaker 1: where you want to go, where is the dollar going
27:59
Speaker 1: to take you further?
28:01
Speaker 2: Is also right a question that I feel like is
28:03
Speaker 2: kind of unavoidable. We're talking about ways to save money,
28:05
Speaker 2: perhaps on meals, but when it comes to staying alone
28:08
Speaker 2: it can be more costly. So it seems as though
28:10
Speaker 2: by the sounds of all your amazing stories. You've done
28:13
Speaker 2: a fair share of travel. Have you ever stayed in
28:15
Speaker 2: any sort of hostile or a cooperative living situation?
28:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, so when I lived When I lived in Australia,
28:23
Speaker 1: I share an apartment with another professor, for example, so
28:26
Speaker 1: when I was working I stayed there. I have stayed
28:29
Speaker 1: at airbnbs. I also did vrbo, which is also like Airbnb.
28:34
Speaker 1: When I was staying in France during the winter, which
28:38
Speaker 1: is a low season, considered low season in the South
28:43
Speaker 1: of France, I was renting an apartment for fifty dollars
28:47
Speaker 1: a day, so I was able to stay for a
28:49
Speaker 1: week what probably in somewhere another time season it would
28:54
Speaker 1: have been like a two three days worth of a hotel.
28:56
Speaker 1: So I think also when you decide to go, if
28:59
Speaker 1: it's high season for example summertime, of course Hawaii and
29:04
Speaker 1: all these other places are going to be super expensive
29:06
Speaker 1: because the demand is high and the supply is low,
29:09
Speaker 1: and they know that, so they're going to charge more.
29:12
Speaker 1: As oppose, if you go during low season for a
29:15
Speaker 1: destination for example France, low season's wintertime for certain for
29:19
Speaker 1: the South of France, for example, you can rent apartment
29:22
Speaker 1: for such such a low price hostiles. Yes, I have
29:26
Speaker 1: stayed at hostiles, and I've had you know, with hostiles,
29:31
Speaker 1: I've had different experiences. I do think that they're great.
29:35
Speaker 1: I've stayed in Rome in hostile but I always slept
29:39
Speaker 1: with one eye open, and I know that's not great.
29:41
Speaker 1: But because there's people constantly coming in and out, I
29:44
Speaker 1: really didn't have a safe, secure night sleep, for example.
29:48
Speaker 2: And I think you need to kind of know that
29:51
Speaker 2: going into it, Like, if you're the kind of person
29:53
Speaker 2: that is really okay with that sort of environment, I
29:56
Speaker 2: wouldn't necessarily recommend it for solo trouble myself. I know
29:59
Speaker 2: me again, I want to enjoy my time. I think
30:02
Speaker 2: i'd be a little anxious in that scenario. So know
30:05
Speaker 2: yourself well enough to prioritize perhaps if you're the kind
30:09
Speaker 2: of person that's also going to be anxious in that situation, Okay,
30:12
Speaker 2: maybe I should spend a little bit more of my
30:14
Speaker 2: money and invest on a different kind of place to
30:16
Speaker 2: stay where I feel more comfortable. Also, on the investing note,
30:19
Speaker 2: and while we're talking about finances, I would encourage you
30:22
Speaker 2: ahead of time to really think about how you want
30:26
Speaker 2: to allocate money for the trip that you're going to
30:29
Speaker 2: go on for me. I literally have a fund in
30:33
Speaker 2: my bank account. It's called the Italy Fund. I put
30:35
Speaker 2: in a certain amount of money every month into this
30:38
Speaker 2: account so that the next time that I'm going to
30:40
Speaker 2: book my trip to Italy, I don't have to think
30:42
Speaker 2: twice about the flight or the hotel.
30:44
Speaker 3: Obviously not just going to be throwing money into.
30:47
Speaker 2: The wind, but now I can do it knowing that, hey,
30:50
Speaker 2: I've worked hard for this, this is something that I've
30:52
Speaker 2: set aside funds for, and now I can really enjoy
30:55
Speaker 2: my experience without being like, I don't know, should you
30:58
Speaker 2: really be doing this?
30:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I think that's amazing. Tip too, maybe has
31:03
Speaker 1: you know, allocating saving some money for travel for a trip.
31:08
Speaker 1: I think that's so amazing because if you, you know,
31:11
Speaker 1: I would talk about this all the time in La
31:13
Speaker 1: uh pre pandemic, would have lunch and brunches. Brunches were
31:16
Speaker 1: always a huge thing, right and probably still are. I
31:19
Speaker 1: would be with a group of people, probably spend two
31:22
Speaker 1: hundred dollars on a single brunch, bottomless mimosas this that
31:26
Speaker 1: the uber included. Yet, when I would talk about travel
31:30
Speaker 1: and I'd say, hey, you know, maybe we could travel
31:32
Speaker 1: later this year, do a girls trip, do something I
31:34
Speaker 1: don't know, do anything. Oh, I don't have the money.
31:37
Speaker 1: But if you if you look at your current spending right,
31:41
Speaker 1: how much money goes out the door on so many
31:44
Speaker 1: little things that adds up where you can probably save
31:47
Speaker 1: it for travel. Travel is also a mindset. I talk
31:50
Speaker 1: about that all the time. I do a lot of
31:52
Speaker 1: workshops for vision boards as well, because I love vision boards.
31:55
Speaker 1: I think there's such an effective tool for setting goals.
31:59
Speaker 1: People when they say when I talk about travel, I
32:01
Speaker 1: don't have the time, I don't have the money, that's
32:04
Speaker 1: a you know, limited belief because travel can be in
32:07
Speaker 1: your neighborhood, travel can be you know, to the next state.
32:11
Speaker 1: Travel is the mindset. So I like to tell people, okay,
32:14
Speaker 1: well you know, if you think you can't, you can't,
32:16
Speaker 1: think like Henry Ford, you can you can. But just
32:20
Speaker 1: you know, take away the you know, the logical of
32:23
Speaker 1: whatever is you know holding you back and start to
32:27
Speaker 1: put or make a list of everywhere you want to
32:29
Speaker 1: go and just put it out there and don't worry
32:31
Speaker 1: about the how, just know where where you want to go.
32:35
Speaker 1: And I've been doing vision boards for five years. I've
32:37
Speaker 1: done workshops with women all over La Beverly Hills, California,
32:41
Speaker 1: et cetera. The stories and the manifestations, and I know
32:45
Speaker 1: because I've done them myself for many years is amazing
32:48
Speaker 1: because when you just know the belief out there that
32:51
Speaker 1: you can, that you deserve it and you're worthy of it,
32:55
Speaker 1: a lot of things shift, right. So that happened with
32:58
Speaker 1: me my thirtieth and I'm coast. I put the al
33:01
Speaker 1: Mafi Coast on my cell phone screensaver, my computer screensaver.
33:05
Speaker 1: When people were like, oh is that you know? Where
33:07
Speaker 1: is that? I was like, Oh, I'm going to celebrate
33:08
Speaker 1: my birthday in the Mafi Coast. Oh when how where?
33:11
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just going to go And you know,
33:14
Speaker 1: I was going to go by myself because again, nobody
33:16
Speaker 1: could go. They didn't have the time, the money, which
33:20
Speaker 1: is understandable, but like, you got to live your life
33:22
Speaker 1: for you eventually, like you can't wait for people to
33:25
Speaker 1: live your life, especially travel. And if anything, what we've
33:28
Speaker 1: learned Emily during this pandemic is wow, how much we
33:32
Speaker 1: really appreciate travel because we couldn't travel right for the
33:35
Speaker 1: longest time. You know, now people are like darn, I
33:37
Speaker 1: wish I took that trip and now you know, Okay,
33:40
Speaker 1: So now people are like, okay, I want to take
33:43
Speaker 1: that one trip of a lifetime one day, eventually I
33:45
Speaker 1: will do it. So that's kind of like with my
33:47
Speaker 1: thirtieth and I kept telling people, Yeah, I'm going to
33:49
Speaker 1: celebrate in a Malfi coast. Who are you going with?
33:52
Speaker 1: I don't know I'm going. And so what I end
33:55
Speaker 1: up doing is around May my birthdays in June and May.
34:00
Speaker 1: For my thirtieth birthday, I just booked a hotel for
34:03
Speaker 1: two nights. I was like, okay, I'm putting, I'm planting
34:06
Speaker 1: the seed, I'm making it happen. And then I bought
34:09
Speaker 1: a one way ticket to was It Naples. I was like,
34:13
Speaker 1: all right, I'm putting. I'm planning the seats, I'm making
34:15
Speaker 1: the steps. I was doing baby steps, one step by
34:17
Speaker 1: one step, and by that time I was like, oh
34:20
Speaker 1: my gosh, I'm really going, and people would start to say, oh,
34:24
Speaker 1: who are you going with alone? And then eventually my
34:27
Speaker 1: sister and my mom were like, oh, we want to
34:29
Speaker 1: join you. We don't want you to go alone. I
34:31
Speaker 1: was like, okay, I'm going no matter what. So eventually
34:35
Speaker 1: they were like they planned to meet me there, but
34:37
Speaker 1: I had already set things in place. And the craziest
34:41
Speaker 1: thing is when I went from Naples down to the
34:44
Speaker 1: Mafic Coast to the hotels called Lenora Hotel. It was
34:49
Speaker 1: just really highly recommended at the time, and it was
34:52
Speaker 1: like my treat for my year, for myself, kind of
34:54
Speaker 1: like you were saying, you know, work so hard, you
34:56
Speaker 1: want to treat yourself. That's all I saved my money
34:59
Speaker 1: for was my birthday trip. And so he took me,
35:02
Speaker 1: the bell boy took me down to my room. It
35:05
Speaker 1: was underground, I guess, and he opened the balcony curtains
35:09
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my gosh, it was the
35:14
Speaker 1: like the photo from my random screensaver, my random computer screen.
35:19
Speaker 1: He had no idea why. It was like having this
35:22
Speaker 1: emotional reaction and I was like, oh my god. It
35:25
Speaker 1: was like from the pots to the you know, to
35:28
Speaker 1: the homes, to the rooftops to like I looked at
35:31
Speaker 1: it and was like, oh my god, this is this
35:32
Speaker 1: and he's like, yeah, so, I you know, unknowingly booked
35:36
Speaker 1: this hotel, this random hotel, like in the exact same spot.
35:40
Speaker 2: I love that, Yeah, I love that for you and
35:43
Speaker 2: I totally resonate with the like if not now when
35:46
Speaker 2: I mean, I know we're dealing with a few things
35:49
Speaker 2: being up in the air with what we've been through
35:51
Speaker 2: over the last year in change, but if there's one
35:54
Speaker 2: thing again that we have learned, it's like, take the opportunity,
35:57
Speaker 2: take the trip, tell the people that you love that
35:59
Speaker 2: you love them, and do the best you can with
36:01
Speaker 2: what you have. I also feel the need to throw
36:03
Speaker 2: the statistic into the mix here that I read not
36:06
Speaker 2: all that long ago, solo travelers account for at least
36:09
Speaker 2: eleven percent of all American vacationers. So you're not the
36:13
Speaker 2: only person thinking about this doing this, so just go
36:18
Speaker 2: for it. How do we tell me? Tell me how
36:21
Speaker 2: do the hurdlers keep up with you? How do they
36:22
Speaker 2: follow along with you on your travels going forward?
36:25
Speaker 3: Give me the details?
36:27
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, absolutely, so you can follow me. I'm at
36:31
Speaker 1: chet set with Jeannette on Instagram, Janet Saiw on Twitter.
36:35
Speaker 1: My website is www dot chet set with Jannette two
36:38
Speaker 1: ns dot com and it's me I answer. I get
36:42
Speaker 1: a lot of questions DM people asking me for recommendations
36:46
Speaker 1: if I've been to the country. So Turkey was my
36:49
Speaker 1: sixty first country. If I've been to the country, I
36:51
Speaker 1: will recommend or connect you. If I have not been
36:54
Speaker 1: to the country, I will still connect you with someone
36:57
Speaker 1: who is either on the ground or who has been there.
37:00
Speaker 1: So I'm always happy to be a resource, especially for
37:03
Speaker 1: solo travelers, because I think it is the best gift
37:06
Speaker 1: that you can give yourself.
37:08
Speaker 3: Do you have a favorite place you've ever been?
37:10
Speaker 1: This is a good one, I would say is India. Honestly,
37:16
Speaker 1: Turkey surpassed. I had great expectations that surpassed all of those. Turkey, India,
37:23
Speaker 1: and Egypt.
37:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love it. I love it. Thank you so
37:26
Speaker 3: much for your time today. I'm so appreciative of you.
37:28
Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle Podcast.
37:31
Speaker 3: Another Hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.