Hello!

Hello, and welcome to my solo travel blog! 

I can't call myself a traveller - I work full-time and my travelling is restricted to a few days here and there during my annual leave. However, I wanted to start writing down my experiences, and hopefully this might be of interest or use to others sometimes!

I also can't claim to be an experienced solo traveller. I have done two solo trips, both to Spain (Torremolinos and Malaga). I am heading off on my third solo trip soon, to Budapest. It's definitely something I want to continue doing though, so hopefully the more I travel the more I will be able to share on the topic of going it alone.

I took my first solo trip in July 2011 because I needed a holiday. I fancied lying on a beach somewhere hot and sunny, and thought I may as well go alone rather than try to recruit friends or family to come along, as that was all I was planning on doing! I had been wanting to go to Spain for a while, so La Carihuela, Torremolinos looked like the ideal destination. I was nervous about the prospect of going alone so I only booked 3 nights there, just in case I hated it. It turned out I loved it; I had the most relaxing holiday of my life, and the feeling of being alone in a foreign country was incredible. I did what I wanted and I practised my Spanish, and after the first day I was kicking myself for not booking a week - so that's exactly what I did for my holiday in 2012! I ventured a bit further this time, taking the train into Malaga a couple of times and exploring the city, and once again had a lovely time.

It's not just about going on holiday though. Over the past year or so I have developed a massive desire to see the world, whether alone or with friends and family. I've made a start, celebrating my birthday in Lisbon earlier this year (with a friend) and now this upcoming trip to Budapest (by myself), but I've got so many countries still to see (and my trips for the next few years planned already!).

I intend to use this blog to post reports from my trips, as well as experiences of and tips about the various aspects of solo travel I encounter along the way - I'll be posting something about eating out solo soon, and also my first experience of staying in a hostel dorm which will be in Budapest. I expect that most of my travel will be done alone, but I like visiting places with friends and family too - so I hope you'll forgive me if the odd non-solo travel post appears!

Thank you for reading if you've got this far! I hope you enjoy my future posts; please feel free to leave comments - I'd love to hear about your travel experiences too.