Traveling Alone

I love the idea of traveling with the ones you love and creating a shared experience and memories you can all cherish.   When I was biking yesterday, I often thought of how much my sisters and their husbands would have loved biking the trail.   They would have loved the beautiful scenery as much as I did and would have been just as excited and in awe of the moose!   My one brother-in-law would have captured some truly amazing photos that we would all be able to admire later.  It would have been nice to be able to recount our ride over lunch and talk about the adventures to come. 

I had hoped we would all come to Alaska for the first time together because it’s on their bucket lists as well.  I asked about it a year or so ago and got an astounding yes, it’s a place we want to go!  But life happens, they had other trips to plan and I didn’t want 3 years to go by and we had yet to put something together.   So, I decided to make it happen this year for me.  

I like to travel “off-season” to avoid the crowds.  Given the weather in Alaska, there is a very small should season.   If you want to avoid the summer crowds and weather, you basically have the end of May and the first two weeks of September and that’s about it.   I was originally looking into September but the more I researched the more excited I got.  When I had an opening in the calendar to potentially make this work in May around Memorial Day, I started trying to put something together.  Over a weekend, I got to work trying to make this trip a reality and was able to develop an itinerary that would have me leaving in just 6 days!

So here I am.   I find myself in Alaska having this amazing experience that I would love to be sharing with my family.   However, traveling alone creates its own magical experience.  I travel alone quite often, and I highly recommend it to those who are hesitant to do it.  While not all destinations are suited for solo travelers, many are.  You meet strangers, who quickly become friends, some will be friends just for a moment, just for the trip, but if you’re really lucky, you’ll stay in touch for years to come and meet up on occasion for more adventures.  

In your hometown you may find yourself hesitant to start up a conversation with a stranger.  But have you ever noticed how many strangers are chatting it up at an airport bar?   Maybe they are sharing their frustrations over flight delays, a bad travel experience, or their excitement about their trip to come.  Maybe they make the flight delay less frustrating, the flight go by faster or they get you even more excited about your trip because they are sharing their experiences.  These encounters with strangers just add something special to the trip   Every time I’ve traveled alone, I have at least one great encounter with someone I would have never met had I been traveling with a group of folks I know.

I’ve already met several interesting folks on this trip.   Post about some of those interesting folks coming soon.