The rise of solo adventures among women has significantly grown over the past years, some people might say, “it’s more than a trend, it’s a movement.” Women from different ages have been drawn to step out of their comfort zone to see the world, experience life, and make sense of it because going on holidays by oneself is now a sign of “female wealth, independence, and freedom,” not the social identity of loner anymore.
Citing the book written by Kate Wills, “A Trip of One’s Own: Hope, Heartbreak, and Why Traveling Solo Could Change Your Life,” Wills shares that “the freedom to travel is a privilege…You must have free time, a passport, disposable income, and a body that allows it.” She highlights the importance of breaking away from the routine and habit to arrive in a new environment and meet new people in order to broaden one’s perspectives.
Traveling alone for women could be an opportunity for them to reconnect with who they are, discover their values and passion, learn more about others as well as learn how to trust themselves.
According to “Out of Place: Gender, Identity, and the Experiences of Solo Women Travelers,” by Melanie McArthur:
“A qualitative study based on interviews with 35 contemporary women who travel solo, discovered that ‘getting to know how other people think,’ ‘how they live their lives’ and ‘exploring other cultures’ were very important factors when they traveled alone.”
“This study (McArthur’s findings) found that females take solo trips not only to see different places, but also to explore new experiences, gain new knowledge and understand different ways of thinking and being in the world,” stated in research titled “Why Do Women Travel Solo for Purposes of Leisure?” conducted by Chu-Yin Chiang and Giri Jogaratnam.
In the research, it explores motivations of solo female pleasure travelers using a factor analysis approach by surveying 194 women who had solo travel experiences for pleasure.
The results revealed five distinct motivation dimensions of solo women travelers: Experience, Escape, Relax, Social, and Self-Esteem and indicated that generally the travel motivations follow a similar pattern.
The most important dimension, ‘Experience,’ including six cultural and traveling oriented statements, had the highest overall mean as “it can allow them to explore the world and learn new things.”
The ‘Escape’ was the second important dimension, ‘Relax’ the third, ‘Social’ the fourth, and ‘Self-Esteem’ revealed the least important overall mean rating to the respondents in this study.
These factors would be differentiated based on when the solo female travelers’ trips occurred, the length of their solo trips, marital status, and the income levels.
In addition to reviewing some previous studies and keeping the inspiration of us, women, burning; to dream of and design holidays alongside a beach or a peaceful camping in the middle of a national forest, here are ten safest destinations around the world for female solo travelers to begin with.
According to World Population Review’s Women Danger Index 2023, Spain is the safest country for solo female travelers with 212.04, while the highest score is 771.82 in South Africa.
Next comes Singapore, with a 245.26 score while the third safest country is Ireland, 247.31 points.
The fourth safest country is Austria (251.63 points), followed by Switzerland (252.78 points), Norway (259.92 points), Portugal (277.58 points), Croatia (286.53 points), Canada (290.83 points), and Poland (291.23 points) respectively.
Up until this point, there seems to be some possibility in Wills’ words that, “the meaning to life could be found in a well-packed suitcase and a freshly printed boarding pass,” doesn’t it?
If you are someone who has been thinking about going on a trip by yourself for a long while, but have been swimming in a pool of questions including the “What if I don’t like the place? Or “What if I haven’t planned everything well enough,” the only way to find out is simply going on “that trip.”
The answer could be “yes” or “no” starting from your first step: “to book the flight and show up for checking-in.”
Who knows?, you might be a breath away from discovering one of the most memorable puzzle pieces of being alive.
Sources:
- McArthur, M. (1999) “Out of place: Gender, identity, and the experiences of solo women
travelers.” Trent University, Canada. - Wills, K. (2022). “A trip of one’s own: hope, heartbreak, and why traveling solo could change your life.” Sourcebooks.
- Chu-Yin Chiang, and Giri Jogaratnam. “Why Do Women Travel Solo for Purposes of Leisure?” Journal of Vacation Marketing, vol. 12, no. 1, Jan. 2006, pp. 59–70. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1177/135676670605904.
- https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-dangerous-countries-for-women
