What Even Experienced Solo Travelers Don’t Say Out Loud

I have already been to Japan solo three times. I’ve navigated Vietnam alone – buses, motorbikes, a night train where I definitely got on the wrong car and ended up in someone’s sleeping bunk. I had done solo trips across the Philippines where nothing went according to plan and everything turned out fine anyway. And then – I booked Seoul for Seventeen’s 10th Anniversary concert last year. And for two weeks before the flight, I was nervous in a way that made no sense. 😵‍💫

Not scared per se, just that specific low hum of pre-trip anxiety that shows up regardless of how many passport stamps you have. I kept second-guessing the neighborhood where I’d booked my hotel. Kept wondering if I’d packed the right outfits. Kept thinking, what if I don’t like it? Is it still the same Seoul I visited 10-something years ago? I mean, I was a whole different person then (with a whole different boyfriend in tow, too, but I digress).

What I’ve come to understand is that this is just what solo travel feels like before you leave. It doesn’t go away the more you do it. It just becomes familiar. You learn to recognize it as the thing that happens right before the thing you end up loving. The nervousness and the excitement are two sides of one coin.

If you’re reading this because you’re nervous about your first solo trip: that nervousness means you care about getting the most out of this. It means you’re ready to go! So let me share some Ate tips below for the the road:

First Solo Trip Tips: the actual practical stuff

There’s the romantic version of solo travel prep: the Pinterest boards, the curated packing flat lays. Then, there’s the more pragmatic side.🤓 The one that requires a lot of admin done in advance, so you don’t have to think about it when you’re tired and jet-lagged and just want to find your hotel and take a shower.

Passport validity. Should have at least six months left from your travel date, more if you’re going somewhere with strict entry requirements. Check this well before your flight because renewal takes time, and there is no worse feeling than realizing this at the one week before you fly!

Visas. For Filipino travelers, our visa situation and expenses vary a lot by destination. Japan, South Korea, and most Schengen countries require advance applications. Thailand, Vietnam, and some others are visa-on-arrival or e-visa. The one rule that applies everywhere: do not assume. Check the destination country’s embassy website directly (and check the publish date!), because your Facebook travel group is not a reliable primary source and visa rules change.

Travel insurance. Non-negotiable, especially when you’re going somewhere new on your own. At home you have your whole network, reachable and ready to help. Abroad and solo, every coordination falls on you – which is hard to manage when you’re, say, sick in a guesthouse in Chiang Mai.🤒 I find that while airlines will try to sell you insurance at checkout, outside providers give you better coverage for less. I use Oona for longer trips: affordable, covers medical and travel disruption, easy and quick to process online. (Especially relevant for those of us who forget these admin things until the last minute.)

Once your documents are sorted, accommodation is usually next. Most times, I book through Booking.com and Agoda. Agoda tends to have better rates for Southeast Asia and East Asia, while Booking.com sometimes has exclusive discounts on its mobile app.

💡 My actual process: check both on desktop incognito first, then check the mobile apps. The price difference is sometimes nothing, sometimes significant enough to matter. Worth the extra five minutes.

Money abroad. I’ve been using my GCash card for the past few trips because it’s convenient and cheaper than getting currency from a bank or money changer. That said, they’ve just recently added fees, so I’m in the market for other options. I’ve been hearing good things about Maribank’s debit card so I’m looking forward to testing it on my next trip. I’ll report back with actual firsthand experience next month. In the meantime, here are some tips you can use regardless of your card:

• When ATMs ask if you want to be charged in PHP or local currency, always choose local currency.
• Withdraw larger amounts less frequently rather than small amounts multiple times. ATMs charge their own fee per transaction on top of whatever your card charges, so try your best to minimize your transactions.
• That said, research which ATM/bank offers the lowest withdrawal fees. For Japan, there’s Seven Bank ATMs (yes, as in 7-Eleven). For Korea look specifically for those marked “Global ATM” (Woori Bank is my go-to). And for Vietnam, we’ve been using VPBank.

Tell someone your itinerary. You can share your full color-coded sheet (if you’re Type A like me), or even just the top line info: flight details, accommodation name and address, rough schedule, and a “if you haven’t heard from me by [date], here’s what to do.” Your loved ones do not need to know you’re going clubbing in Itaewon. But they do need to know you’re safe, like which (or whose? haha) hotel you’re sleeping in.🙊

On that note, especially for my fellow female solo travelers, consider sharing your live location with someone you trust for the duration of the trip. On iPhone, you can do this through the Find My app or iMessage. Life360 is another option if you want something your family can all access. It takes maybe 10 minutes to set up, and it means someone always knows where you are without you having to check in constantly.

Useful apps to download and docs to prepare before flying:

• Google Maps – download offline maps for your destination before you leave
• Google Translate – download the local language pack for offline use
• Klook – reliable for Asia, good for solo-friendly day tours and tickets that let you skip the lines
• Wanderlog – a good app for mapping out your trip day by day. You can keep your itinerary on Sheets or in your notes app, but this maps everything out visually, lets you add reservations and links, and is just easier to share. Especially useful if you’re coordinating with others or want one place where everything lives.
• eTravel – make sure you’ve filled this in before you head to immigration
• Digital copies of your passport, visa, tickets, and hotel confirmation – saved somewhere accessible

Do this prep at home, or at the latest, at the boarding gate while waiting for your flight.

The first 24 hours

The first day of a solo trip is its own category of experience. You land. You clear customs. You find your way to the hotel. And somewhere between the airport train and checking in, it hits you, quietly, usually while doing something completely mundane, like figuring out the room key, that omg you’re here. You’re fine. And you’re about to go on an adventure.

Case in point: My Seoul trip coincided with a lot of highstakes campaigns at work. So juggling it while traveling, I landed in Incheon purely running on fumes, going through the motions on autopilot. After clearing immigration, I picked up my Klook SIM, and then spent almost an hour walking up and down the airport, hunting for Namane kiosks… because securing DK and Mingyu transpo cards was on top of my checklist (priorities!). I had about an hour to kill waiting for the bus to Seoul, and only then… only then did I actually register that I actually made it. Only then did the nerves turned into excitement.

That said, make sure to keep your first day low stakes! If your schedule allows, don’t pack it and try to see everything. Just explore your neighborhood, find somewhere to eat, walk without a specific destination. The goal of day one is just to stop feeling like you’re in transit. Let yourself be immersed in the new world you’ve just unlocked. That usually takes about 3+ hours and one good meal.

Eating alone is not as scary as you think!

Speaking of meals, solo dining seems to be one of the things first-time solo travelers fear the most. Every time I mention solo travel, this is always one of the first questions people ask. So let’s just address it directly: eating alone is fine. It’s actually good and healthy to try (even here at home!).

Your first solo meal might feel uncomfortable because you don’t have anyone to talk to and not have anything to do with your hands or your eyes. Your instincts might tell you to reach for your phone. But I encourage you to put it down and be 100% present. Savor the moment. Watch the other tables, see what they ordered, maybe even eavesdrop a little.🫢 This is your chance to order whatever you actually want without negotiating, without sharing, without anyone rushing you to the next stop. That is a specific, underrated, and enjoyable kind of freedom. Ang sarap kaya kumain on your own terms!

On my first night in Seoul though, I was too exhausted and slightly unwell from the all-nighters that week, so I just stayed in the hotel and ended up unlocking a new fun travel experience – getting food delivery.

Got myself some hearty and spicy pork bone soup and rice, ate it in bed, and spent the downtime recovering for the next day’s activities. Ganun lang talaga, listen to what you need. Sometimes, traveling looks like getting takeout in your hotel pajamas. Valid.

Also at the time, I was still so nervous about eating out alone, especially after hearing from friends and Tiktok that Japan’s a lot more solo-friendly than Seoul. Here’s what I learned:

Japan – extremely solo-friendly

• This is why I love Japan! Counter seating is the norm, and sometimes, you even get seated quicker than couples or parties of 3 and more.
• On Google Maps and Tabelog, you can filter for solo-friendly seating (一人OK) when searching.
• Some of my go-to chains in Kansai are Matsuya (get the beef rice bowl with green onion), Torikizoku (for yakitori at almost-nothing-per skewer) and Gyukatsu Motomura (must-try!).
• And of course, street stalls and konbini food are everywhere. Hindi ka magugutom, promise.

Korea – trickier, but not impossible

• First things first, yes, most samgyeopsal places prioritize groups. Some are more lenient during off-hours, though. And there are a few Korean BBQ places that cater to solo diners, though I personally haven’t tried them yet. Perhaps ask your hotel for recommendations.
• If you’re particularly hungry, ordering for two and powering through the meal is also an option! I did it at Hong’s Jjukkumi in Hongdae because my new Carat friends had either flown out by then or are allergic to seafood. Took me 3 hours to finish, but man, was it good.
• There’s also an abundance of cafes, convenience stores, and street stalls (at night) you can bookmark as reliable fallbacks.
• You can also try food delivery like I did. It’s a big part of Korean food culture anyway. I ordered my dinner through Baemin (Baedal Minjok / 배달의민족). Important to note that signing up will require a local number, so make sure the SIM or e-SIM you get gives you both data and a working number.

Another hack you can explore is joining group tours and activities!

I once joined an bnb food and pub crawl in Osaka for my birthday. Ended up having dinner, drinks, and new friends. We actually even extended the night into a karaoke session until 3am! Busog both tummy and heart. You can explore Klook, Airbnb Experiences, for similar options for most major cities.

What nobody tells you

Real talk though, solo travel can also be exhausting. When you’re with other people, you can outsource decisions: someone else reads the map, someone else asks for directions, someone else figures out the bus. Alone, every decision is yours, all the time, and by day three or four, there’s a particular kind of tired that has nothing to do with how much you walked.

So build in rest. A full afternoon with nothing on the agenda. A morning where you sit in a cafe for two hours because the coffee is good and you have a book in hand. Remember that this is not wasted time, this is part of sustaining your trip. The people who come back from solo travel saying they loved every minute of it either went for a very short time, or they built in this kind of decompression. Let. Yourself. Stop.

The other thing nobody mentions: you will, at some point, feel a very specific kind of lonely. Not homesick, exactly. More like: you just saw something beautiful or funny or strange, and there’s no one to turn to and say omg !!! did you see that?! I’ve felt it over a perfect meal in Seoul, driving through Nagoya, looking down at HCMC from a rooftop. Don’t let it ruin your experience. Let yourself feel it and keep going. You’re alone, yes, but you’re also free.✨

Go book the trip

I actually ended up enjoying Seoul. Met old and new Carat friends. We attended Burstday at Jamsu Bridge. Ate at all Seventeen-related spots we stumbled upon. Booked myself a hair treatment at Hoshi’s noona’s salon where I also made friends with his dog, Latte. I did a solo daytrip to Suwon to get my nails done at Jeonghan’s sister’s salon because, why not. Got on the wrong train once but figured it out. And on the last day, per usual, I didn’t want to go home. (More on this trip soon if anyone’s interested!👀)

I still don’t fully understand why I was so nervous before. Except maybe the honest answer is that it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve done something, a new place is a new place, and your nervous system is just doing its job. Hehe.

Solo travel is one of those things that compounds the more you do it.

The first trip teaches you that you can. The second teaches you how you prefer to go.

By the third, fourth, fifth, it gets easier, more familiar, but the nerves still can show up. You just trust by now that they’re just part of the journey, not a reason to stop. You stop being surprised, and start being grateful for it instead.

If you’re on the fence: go book it!

If you’ve already booked it: you made the right call, safe travels!

And if you’ve done this ten times and you’re somehow still nervous about the next one, hi! Same. Drop me a line if you want more tips or have more questions.

See y’all someplace somewhere. ✈️