nomadicated posing on front of banah cliff archway

Practical Advice for Finding Inspiration and Motivation on Solo Trips

Solo travel offers a number of advantages, and it’s something that you don’t have to be single to enjoy. You can find inspiration and motivation while you’re on the move, and you can obtain the personal space required to reflect on your life and the way it’s moving.

So, how do you get the best from the experience?

Nomadicated sitting on the travertines of pamukkale
Photo Credit: Cat Xu.

Embracing the Solo Experience

When you’re traveling solo for the first time, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by what you’re being exposed to. It’s important to take it slowly, and to understand that the highs and lows come with the package. It’s perfectly normal to feel stressed out when you’re dealing with taxis in a foreign country – or, for that matter, an unfamiliar facet of your trip. At the same time, it’s normal to feel guilty about the people you’ve chosen to leave behind.

What matters is that you stay positive, and that you remember why you’re doing this. Be open to new travel experiences, so that you can get the most from your solo adventure. Doing so might allow you to grow as a person, and to reflect on what matters.

Creative Ways to Find Inspiration

Often, we don’t really understand the feelings we feel until we write them down. This might allow us to study them from the outside. You might think that you feel a certain way, until you put pen to paper and realise that things are actually subtly different. You might look back on what you’d written at the start of the trip, and realise how far you’ve come.

This is the power of keeping a travel journal. But this isn’t the only creative way to find inspiration. You might maintain a sketchbook, or take your camera with you as you explore the wider world. If you want to stay conscious of your ties back home, then having a keepsake with you can be helpful. A promise ring, or an engagement ring, might serve this purpose nicely.

Nomadicated sitting in the back of van during the sunset
Photo Credit: Cat Xu.

Staying Motivated on the Road

In some cases, solo travel can be a little more exhausting, especially when you haven’t developed the experience necessary to take everything in your stride. Set yourself small goals, and celebrate when you reach them. This might be as simple as navigating an unfamiliar subway system for the first time.

Turning Inspiration into Action

Feeling inspired is only the start of a creative cycle. In fact, inspiration alone can be somewhat dissatisfying when you don’t act on it. In some cases, you might want to make creativity a special part of your journey. If you want to rediscover a hobby you’ve neglected, like photography or pencil sketching, then having a steady supply of amazing subjects might be worthwhile. This is precisely what traveling solo is good for.

Your Journey, Your Inspiration

Perhaps the best illustration of the power of solo travel is the experience of actually doing it for the first time. Don’t hesitate to try it out. You don’t have to jump in at the deep end with a hiking trip through Nepal; there are plenty of national parks and vibrant cities in the UK waiting to welcome you.

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Catherine Xu is the founder and author of Nomadicated, an adventure travel blog that helps travelers cross off their bucket list. Since discovering traveling in 2015, she has lived and journeyed to 65 countries across 5 continents and vanlifed the west coast USA for 2+ years. These days, she splits her time in Southeast Asia and California while sharing her travel stories and resources based on first-hand experiences. Catherine's other works has been referenced in major publications like MSN, Self, and TripSavvy.