Travelling alone vs with others

I have been long planning a post about my personal experience and advice on whether to take on a trip alone or with a companion. Most of my life I have been travelling with friends or at least with people who I know to some extent, but I have also had the chance to experience what it is like to be able to count on no one else but yourself – even if only for a month. After my high school years, I did not get into the university I wanted, so I decided to leave Hungary and try my luck as an au pair in London. Although the experience did not result in much success, it still made me a richer person and encouraged me to travel more.

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Here there are the greatest advantages and disadvantages of travelling alone and with others:

Travelling with others

As I usually travel with friends, I will start by this one.

Advantages:

1. To begin with, we are social beings, so in a manner, it is absolutely understandable if we prefer to share all the great moments with someone: someone who we can talk to 24 hours, someone with whom we can share all the laughter and someone who can motivate us even when we feel exhausted from the trip. Because everything is better together. Even the problems seem less of a problem when there is someone by our side. Also, at the end of the trip, we can be nostalgic together and cherish the experience together. It is good to have someone who lived the exact same things and who knows exactly how you feel about a place and how much it contributed to become the person who you are.
2. The second advantage has some relation to the first one: safety. When we travel with a companion, we can support each other, no matter what happens. Even if often, in the literal sense, we are not actually safer, and the likeliness of being robbed or losing your money remains the same. But at least we will have the sensation of being safer; and that already means a lot when it comes to living in an unfamiliar environment.
3. The third and most important advantage is that travelling with a friend or a boyfriend is always more economical. We can share everything: food, drink, room, clothes and anything we can think of. The only case when we cannot share the price is when we pay for a bus ticket or an entry to a museum. In spite of that, everything is cheaper. An example: we are in a city that is famous for its traditional dishes, and we want to try out as much as we can. With a companion by our side, we can easily do it because if we like it, we can ask more, but if we don’t like it, we don’t have to throw the rest away. Since we shared the expenses, we didn’t waste much money on it.



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Disadvantages:

1. No matter how fun and exciting it is to travel with someone, sooner or later we will have to make compromises, which wouldn’t be necessary when alone. We have to adjust to the plans and needs of the other person, which can easily end up in giving up on our own plans and needs – of course if we prefer to avoid arguments. (Although I firmly believe and also my experience tells me that this is almost inevitable. ) In short, when travelling with someone, we can never have a complete freedom.

Travelling alone

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Advantages:

1. Continuing with the mentioned negative aspect of travelling with others, when we are alone on the road, we can do whatever we want in the world and we don’t have to justify anything. And although the fact of an adventure in an unknown city can already give us the feeling of freedom, it will never be close to the freedom we experience when there is only “me, myself and I”.
2. Another advantage is that every single moment will be lived with a much greater intensity, because we will be alone with our thoughts and with our senses. It’s a whole other experience which allows us to get to know ourselves better.
3. Additionally, when travelling alone, we tend to be more open to new relationships than when we do the trip with someone who knows us. Communication is also a basic necessity of human beings, so sooner or later we will look for a partner; we will want to tell about our long day to the 50 year old man sleeping next to our bed in the hostel, even if in normal circumstances we would probably never do that. I believe, one usually acquires more friends when doing a trip alone.
4. Last but not least, travelling alone is also a learning process: we will face thousands of smaller or bigger obstacles along the way, and we have to solve by ourselves. We have much more responsibility for the decisions we make, which helps us to experience and learn independence. It’s a really good way to grow up – and probably the easiest and the most natural one. Because we don’t have other chance, we are forced to accept that far away from our comfort zone and the people who are used to be there for us, we cannot count on anyone else but ourselves.

Disadvantages:

1. One disadvantage might be that although we are prone to getting to know new people, we can still feel lonely. Because no matter how interesting it is to chit chat with people from all around the world, it is still not the same as having a friend on our side who knows exactly when we are in the mood to do something and when we are about to collapse in the middle of the street after a day long walking tour. It is just not the same thing.
2. The second disadvantage I can think of is that being alone can attract people's attention; equally coming with good and bad intentions. The fact that we seem to do a trip by ourselves can encourage poeple to get in contact with us, but it can also provoke criminal behaviour. So be very careful when travelling alone!

If you ask me, I prefer to travel with others, however I am also convinced that once in a life, one has to experience travelling alone.

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