12 Essential Tips for Traveling Solo Safely—So You Can Focus on the Adventure, Not the Worry

Solo travel is a life-changing experience that’s both exhilarating and freeing. Traveling alone allows you to discover the world at your pace. You can chart your path, decide where and when you want to go, and create a bucket list jam-packed with the things you’ve always wanted to do.

However, as exciting as solo travel is, it can be quite a daunting experience, especially if you’ve never done it before. Often, the one thing niggling in the back of solo travelers minds is staying safe. To eliminate pre-travel nerves, here are 12 tips for traveling solo safely. These tips will help you stay safe during your trip.

Table of Contents

Do Your Research

Our top advice to solo travelers who want to stay safe when traveling is to do your research. Before heading out on the adventure of a lifetime, you must research the places you hope to go. Otherwise, you could inadvertently put yourself in danger and jeopardize the rest of your trip.

We recommend reading travel guides and reviews and watching YouTube videos of the areas you intend to visit. It’s also worth checking government travel advice pages for the latest travel advisories. This will help you understand how safe a place is and whether you should visit. It will also help you find potential places to stay that suit solo travelers.

Let People Know Your Plans

One of the easiest ways to ensure more safety as a solo traveler is to inform people about your plans. Simply telling your parents, family, and friends where you are and what your plans are is peace of mind for you and them. We recommend telling them your itinerary and emailing them a copy of your plans.

If you’re setting off for a hike or other adventure, telling a member of staff or owner at the hotel you’re staying at is also an excellent idea. That way, they know something might be wrong if you don’t return within a reasonable time. Another great way to inform people of your whereabouts is to share your location on your phone’s Find My Friends app or WhatsApp.

Trust Your Gut Instinct

More often than not, if something sounds too good to be true, it is, so don’t be afraid to trust your gut instinct and say no if you think something doesn’t seem quite right. Having the confidence to leave uncomfortable situations when traveling is a great skill to have.

Admittedly, it can be challenging to say no to new friends you’ve met on the road and tour guides, but you must if you don’t feel comfortable. While the likelihood of anything going wrong is slim, staying safe is better than finding out. I’ve often used my gut instinct when traveling and never found out if I was in potential danger, but I’m good with that.

Make Copies of Your Important Documents

If something goes wrong, keeping physical and digital copies of important documents like your passport, visa, flight confirmation, and accommodation reservations is important. You should also send a copy of essential documents to a family member or friend. Having multiple copies of these documents will help you if you lose one copy.

For example, you can use a physical copy of your flight ticket if you lose your phone and can’t access your boarding pass. Alternatively, you can use the printed copy of your passport to quickly obtain an Emergency Travel Document (ETD) at an embassy. Keeping a physical copy of your itinerary is also helpful if you need to know your plans quickly.

Take Out Travel Insurance

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Taking out travel insurance is one of the most tedious aspects of planning a solo traveling adventure. It also often feels like a waste of money because we rarely use it. However, that doesn’t stop it from being incredibly important. You must purchase travel insurance just in case something goes wrong.

Travel insurance is crucial because it provides travelers with financial cover in the event of unexpected situations. For example, travel insurance providers cover the costs of property theft, missing luggage, and medical treatment. Safety Wings is a reliable travel insurance provider. They offer affordable and flexible insurance and provide their customers with 24/7 support.

Split up Your Cash and Credit Cards

Whether it’s your first or tenth solo trip, you’ll want to take various debit cards, credit cards, and cash. Being able to pay for things with multiple forms of payment makes things much easier and ensures you don’t get caught in an awkward position. However, make sure you don’t fall into the trap of keeping everything in one place.

If you keep all your money in one place, you risk losing it all. Therefore, splitting your cash and cards is an easy way to ensure you always have money, even if you lose your purse or wallet or fall victim to a pickpocket. We recommend keeping some cash and cards in your main purse or wallet and others in your hotel room safe or suitcase.

Be Party Savvy

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Arguably, one of the most common times solo travelers are vulnerable to criminals is at night, especially at parties. Unfortunately, criminals target solo travelers at parties and nightclubs globally. With that in mind, being party-savvy is essential when you spend the night in new places.

Staying party savvy means many things, including not getting too intoxicated, not walking home alone somewhere new at night, and not flashing your expensive personal belongings, i.e., a phone. You should always stay in control, take a trustworthy taxi or Uber back to your hotel, and keep your belongings nearby. That way, you can enjoy your night without worrying about potential dangers.

Pack Some First-Aid Essentials

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It’s unlikely you’ll be able to pack an entire first-aid kit into your backpack to travel; after all, you’ll want to travel as lightly as possible. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t pack some basic first-aid essentials just in case you have an accident or fall ill after eating some dodgy street food (been there, done that).

You can either assemble your own first aid kit with the essentials or purchase a small travel kit with the key things you need. Some of the essentials we recommend putting in your first aid kit are:

Pain relievers
Prescribed medication
Band-aids
Antiseptic cream
Antihistamines
Sunscreen
Tampons/Pads

Join a Travel Group

A great way to ensure extra safety when traveling solo is to join a travel group. Safety in numbers will ensure you don’t encounter issues you might have if you were alone. Traveling with a group also allows you to make friends and reduce the loneliness that can come along with solo travel.

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You don’t have to travel with a group everywhere, but it can be helpful in certain situations. For example, for extra safety, I once joined a travel group from the hotel I was staying at to hike up a volcano in Sumatra. Traveling with more hikers reduced the risk of safety issues if I fell or got injured. The hike was seven hours long, so the company was welcome, too.

Pack a Portable Charger

Whether we like it or not, we now live in a world where we can’t go without our phones. We need our phones to do everything from booking accommodation and using maps to find our hotel to keeping in contact with family and taking photographs of our trips.

That said, it’s worth investing in a portable charger for your solo trip to avoid running out of battery unexpectedly. If you run out of battery, finding your accommodation, contacting people, and finding where you’re going will become much more challenging. This reduces your safety because it becomes much easier to get lost and harder to find your destination.

Be Careful When Posting Photographs to Social Media

It might seem like a small detail at the time, but posting your exact location to social media isn’t always a good idea, especially when traveling solo. While we love keeping family and friends updated on our whereabouts, be mindful of putting your location on your social media accounts and make sure your privacy settings are secure.

It doesn’t sound like a big problem, but sharing the location of, let’s say, your hotel could potentially alert criminals and other unsavory characters to your exact location. If they see you traveling alone, they might identify you as a possible target. Simply keeping your account secure and sharing a photograph after you’ve left a location is an easy way to avoid any potential issues.

Take Tours

The final tip we have for you is to take tours. A tour is a fantastic solution if you’re visiting somewhere new and feel nervous about exploring alone. Not only will you be led by an expert guide who knows the safest parts of a place, but you’ll also see and do more in a shorter time.

The bigger the tour group, the better. You’ll be able to meet new people and likely feel much safer in a group of other solo travelers. Perhaps the only downside to tours is that they often cost more than it would to explore somewhere alone. Having said that, the extra cost is worth it for your peace of mind.