5 Reasons You Should Travel Alone in Your 20s

1. It makes you more social - I dread talking to strangers. I dread small talk. I dread asking for help. When you travel alone you have to talk to other people. Whether it's asking for directions, placing an order, or chatting with your AirBNB host, you have to talk to people at some point. You don't have a partner or friends to rely on for all your social interactions. Whether we want to admit it or not, we all crave human interaction. It would be terribly awkward to go on a whole vacation and never speak to anyone else. Although I don't like small talk I'm more comfortable with it now.
2. It forces you to step out of your comfort zone - Traveling alone makes you face your fears. That's as simple as I can put it. I never like to go anywhere when it's dark. When I first started traveling solo I would look up when the sun was setting and make sure I was back in my room before then, even if it meant eating dinner at 4pm. Now that I have a few trips under my belt I will gladly go out and explore in the evening. At one point I also hated being alone. Before traveling alone there's no way you would have caught me going out alone. Now I get yelled out by friends for going to museums and restaurants without them. Which brings me to my next point...
3. You'll learn to enjoy your own company - This one is very simple. You learn a great deal about yourself. You're making all these memories alone. This may be a stretch, but to me, it almost feels like you're dating yourself. You're learning more about what you like + love. I think traveling alone ultimately makes you a better (travel) partner.
4. You'll learn to live in the moment -  It's no secret we live in an era of "do it for the gram". I kid you not, I once went on a vacation and the person I was with looked me in my eyes and said: "We have to make sure we hit up all the cute Instagram spots before we leave, I'm really trying to improve my feed." As you might have guessed, that rubbed me the wrong way. Traveling alone allows you to put your phone down and just "take it all in". Traveling is not cheap. I don't know about you but I work hard for my money. Traveling shouldn't feel like work or an obligation - that takes all the fun out of it. Will the vacation really be ruined if you don't hit up all the instagramable spots? Although I may only have selfies or a few pictures of places from my solo vacations, the stories I have are priceless.  
5. It teaches you discipline - I feel like I've mastered the art of a 48-72 hour trip. With that being said, I didn't get here without discipline.  When you travel alone you operate on your own time You can pack it out or waste it however you so please. I've been on trips where it's GO GO GO! And then there are trips where I just take my time; I don't plan out some fancy itinerary. I just go with the flow. If you don't like the food, leave the restaurant. I you want to have breakfast for 2 out of your 3 meals for the day, fantastic. If you only want to see one exhibit at the museum, no judgment. If you want to walk around the museum multiple times for hours, cool. I pride myself with the fact that on some trips I can pack so much into such a short period of time. Planning short trips should honestly be an Olympic sport.

I hope you found this helpful and maybe it will even inspire you to take a solo trip or two.

Cheers to many more safe solo trips this summer!