Solo Travel with Renee
People wonder how I manage to hit all the spots on my must-see list without the direction of a tour or guide when I travel solo. By making a personalized guidebook and itinerary, I create my own curated experience and guarantee a Fabulous Trip every time. This could be done on a Smartphone or computer, but going the old-school route is a creative way to spend that anticipatory time between booking your flight and boarding the plane. It can also be a fun project to assuage ‘travel blues’ during the current pandemic.
After arranging my flights and accommodation, I purchase a small notebook that can easily slip into my backpack or purse. On the first two pages I enter essentials: itineraries, flight numbers, and contact info. Next goes accommodation, with addresses and phone numbers. I add Emergency numbers, local hospitals and
24-hour pharmacies, looked up online. The next section covers invaluable information for arrival: commuting from the airport, including shuttle and local taxis (https://www.taxionline.international/) plus transit or walking directions to the hotel.
The remaining pages are broken down into categories: Restaurants/ Cafes; Shopping; Religious Sites; Museums/Art Galleries; Flea Markets; etc. This is where you tailor your guidebook to contain only the information you want to have at your fingertips. Fill in addresses, tips and recommendations, admission costs, hours of business, contacts and other information under each category. Now you can enjoy researching places and activities that catch your interest to add to your Guidebook. This website is a great place to start, along with libraries, travel magazines, newspapers and word of mouth.
Surfing the web can bring about obscure sites not mentioned in conventional guidebooks. Enter “unusual things to do in …” or ‘off the beaten
track in…” to your search engine. Searching museums outside of Manhattan, NYC, I discovered a Food and Drink Museum in Brooklyn, a collection of Tiffany Glass in Queen’s and a quirky Staten Island Museum for my NYC Guidebook. It’s amazing how you can discover a snippet which becomes a highlight of your trip.
Next, create an itinerary to complement the guidebook. Download or photocopy enough pages from a blank weekly planner for the length of your trip. You can also score off columns on a blank page, one for each day plus a column for hours.
Block in events you pre-purchased tickets for, like a Broadway show or timed gallery entrance. Allow plenty of time for activities like a major museum or botanical garden; you want to fully engage and build memories, not rush through to get to the next planned event. I usually plan a full day for larger sights, with one or two options if I finish early.
Next, I note meals and ‘down’ times for browsing shops, napping or strolling, crucial to having a relaxed and enjoyable trip. I then fill in the remaining spaces with items off my ‘must-see/do’ list.
Weather is a very important factor in planning. Checking forecasts daily, I try to keep flexible so that a Tuesday trip to the Botanical Gardens forecast with rain can be switched with Thursday’s trip to the Art Gallery. Keeping a fluid itinerary really guarantees a trip with a satisfied outcome.
A few of my guidelines:
- No activities on Arrival Day except an exploratory walk, replenishing nap and nice meal;
- Only two major activities scheduled daily for mornings and afternoon/evenings, leaving plenty of wiggle room for impromptu opportunities or down time;
- Leave one half or full day blank a couple of days before departure to reserve for anything that has been missed or new ‘must-sees’ that pop up;
- Leave a half-day on the last day before Departure to pack up and rest for the upcoming slog home.
Many people regret having crammed in activities during their long-anticipated trip, feeling they rushed from ‘pillar to post’ and arrived home unsatisfied. Make a list of the essentials you feel you must see or experience, then pare it down. Examine the reasons why you feel you must cover these – is it just so you can take a selfie at the Eiffel Tower? Do not feel pressured into wasting your precious vacation time being committed to other people’s ideas of how you should spend it. I’ve never seen the Tower or Buckingham Palace in London, but I had memorable experiences touring the original Doc Martin Boot factory and sampling teas at Twinings’ Emporium in the Strand, in the company of two eccentric Australian ladies.