Abduljabbar Ali You want to start your first solo trip but have no idea how to plan it.
As it’s your first time to travel alone, for it to be successful you need to have a plan.
It’s essential since you don’t know how to navigate the travel world.
Without a plan, your trip is going to be a disaster. But with a perfect one to guide you through your entire trip, it’s going to be easier to navigate through the challenges.
Your first solo trip isn’t going to be the way you imagined it. Things are different on the ground.
Before you start traveling you may think that you have it covered, but when you start the journey, that is when you will wish you could have planned everything before taking yourself out there.
In this article, I will share with you a framework of how you should plan your first solo trip.
This is how to plan your first solo trip;
1. Pick your dream destination.
The first thing you should do if you want to plan your first solo trip is to choose your dream destination.
You can’t just say you want to travel yet you have no idea of where you want to go.
I know you have destinations in mind that you would like to visit on your first solo trip.
Read also; Traveling Alone For The First Time? [Your Ultimate Guide]
You won’t have a plan unless you know where you are going.
So, if you are undecided, sit down and think of the countries you would like to visit.
Ensure you choose a destination you can handle — it will be easier for you to move around, explore the place, and handle the locals.
If you are traveling on a budget, you have to ensure that the choice of your location is budget-friendly.
I would advise you to choose about 6 destinations and start filtering them out by finding out the pros and cons of them.
This will force you to research if you do not know the destination you would like to visit.
Eliminate countries that don’t favor your plan and budget. Take your time to do a wide and deep research before you decide that it is the destination you would like to visit.
It’s your first solo trip, if you choose the wrong destination, you will mess up your entire plan.
After you have chosen your dream destination, based on the research you have done and your preferences, you still have more things to do.
2. Do thorough research about the country you want to travel to.
You took your time to choose your desired destination. It’s now time for you to dig deeper and find out everything you can about the country.
Maybe you wanted to visit Croatia because of how incredible its landscapes are, but you have no idea about the safety, rules, and regulations of immigration and how you can get there.
You need to do some research to also find out if your passport can get you there if you require visa on a arrival or if you will have to apply first.
These are important details you shouldn’t miss when you are doing your research about the destination.
Find out if you are required to bring any documents and ensure they are in place.
Without doing thorough research about the country’s immigration rules and policy, you might get stuck in the middle and it will be a bad first solo traveling experience.
To avoid any inconveniences and delays at the last minute you need to take your time to find as many details as you can.
The success of your entire first solo trip depends on what you are going to learn about your destination.
When you know what is required of you to enter that country, ensure you have everything in place early in advance.
Don’t wait until the last minute because you might be overwhelmed by the number of things you will have to deal with.
3. Get your passport, visa, and any documents needed.
After you have done your research about your destination, this is something else you have to do when planning your trip.
Don’t book a flight without ensuring that you have everything that you require to get to the country you want to travel to.
Have everything in place — your passport, visa (if needed) necessary documents, and any medical procedures you have to go through if there are any.
When you have everything you need to enter your dream destination, that is when you should move forward with the other things I am about to share with you.
4. Start drafting a budget for the entire trip.
If you want to plan your first solo trip you need to budget for your entire trip early in advance.
Read also; 8 Benefits of Early Trip Budgeting: A Traveler’s Guide
You need to know how much money you need to make your trip successful.
This is the most important part of planning because if you mess up the first two steps I have shared, you can recover from that.
But if you don’t get right the budget, nothing is going to go your way. The trip will fail because you need money for almost everything when traveling.
When you are budgeting for your trip the most important things you should include in your budget are these;
- The amount of money you are going to spend on your transportation.
- The amount of money you need for your activities.
- The amount of money you will use to get around your destination.
- The range of amount of money you are going to spend on your accommodation, food, medical services, and emergencies.
There might be other expenses that will pop up later, so you need to have another set amount of money set aside for that.
When it comes to budgeting for your first solo trip, it’s always a better idea you allocate more money to your accommodation than activities.
When it comes to the amount of money you will spend on activities you can squeeze them.
You can eliminate expensive activities and just travel like a local to save more money.
Read also; 11 Ways To Save Money While Travelling
The most important thing is that you are at that destination and you have somewhere to lay your head.
But if you have nowhere to sleep because you budgeted almost your entire income on activities, this will stress you out.
Remember you need to rest too, you won’t be able to do those activities 24/7. This is when you will need a comfortable bed to sleep.
Read also; Traveling Is Exhausting (7 Ways To Deal With It)
When it comes to food, you can cook your meals to reduce the amount of money you want to allocate to food.
Read also; Should You Cook When Solo Traveling? (When To + Not To)
In most cases, if you travel to cheap destinations, you won’t have to spend more than $10 on food.
When you are budgeting for your trip think of your main goal on the trip you want to take.
Do you want to travel luxuriously or on a budget?
Do you want to explore the local spots or visit the tourist places?
If you intend to explore tourist destinations like museums, and historical sites, go on safaris and cultural centres, you are likely to spend so much money on these activities.
You will have to pay for tickets for the areas you are planning to visit.
This forces you to allocate more money to these activities.
But if you are traveling solo and you intend to just co-exist with the locals, you aren’t going to spend so much money on that.
So, think of your travel style when you are budgeting for your trip.
Once you have your budget set, you are done with the stressful part.
The rest of the things are easier to plan because your budget draft gives you the entire outline of how your trip is going to be thus making planning easier.
5. Map out the places to visit and activities to do on your plan.
This is something else you must include when you are planning your first solo trip.
Read also; 8 Things To Consider When Planning A Trip
You know that you are going to Kenya on your first trip, but you have no idea about the cities and towns you would like to visit.
That’s why planning is essential because it’s going to guide you through your entire trip.
To make a perfect itinerary, you need to map out the location you will visit within your destination.
The first thing I would recommend is to write down the activities you would like to do (on a rough paper) in that country.
The second thing is to figure out where you are going to do these activities (locations of the activities).
After that start mapping out the locations you would like to visit and below them, mark the activities that will take you there.
For instance, if you will first land in Kenya, Nairobi, write the activities you will do there, if you move to Machakos next, map out the activities below Machakos and so forth.
This will make it easier for you when you are within the country because you will have an idea of how you are moving.
You won’t go to Mombasa and come back to Nairobi since you didn’t do an important activity you wanted to do.
The flow of events will be smoother, it will make it easier for you to book your stays in advance because you know where you will be heading after your last activity.
What I can tell you is that this is the biggest part of your plan. After you are done mapping out the activities the rest is just a few details to be noted down and things to be done.
6. Book your flight early in advance.
You must book your flight or bus early in advance to avoid the last-minute rush.
If you book earlier you will have time to play with the dates thus ensuring you get a better deal on your tickets.
Use Google Flights and explore the entire map to find the best deal.
Ensure that you don’t set your traveling date on weekends because that is when the prices are so high.
Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to travel, book your flight on these days if you want better deals.
7. Book your first stay early in advance.
The next thing you should do when planning your first solo trip is to ensure that you book your first stay early in advance.
If you know that you will land in Nairobi, ensure that you book your stay earlier so that when you get there you don’t start moving around searching for a place to stay.
You will be super tired when you have arrived at your destination and you will need a place to lay your head down.
Your bags will be weighing you down and the movement is going to be an issue for you.
During this time, it will be so hard for you to read through the reviews of the hotel or Airbnb you are choosing.
You might either book a worse Airbnb or fail to get a better deal thus spending so much more than you anticipated.
The first stay is super important for you to book if you want to avoid the issues I am talking about.
8. Get everything you need for the trip to be successful.
Since you now have mapped out all the activities you have an idea what you need.
If you know that you will be going hiking, you will get your hiking gear. If there is camping, you will ensure you get everything you need for camping.
Just check your activities and figure out what you require to carry with you for your first solo trip to be successful.
If you want to visit the beaches but you have no swimsuits, you aren’t going to enjoy it.
So, get everything you need for your activities so that when you get there your job is just to explore and have fun.
9. Work out how you want to pack for the trip.
After you have everything you need for your trip you should figure out how everything is going to fit in your suitcase or backpack.
This is another stressful part especially when you have to ensure that your bag doesn’t exceed 25kg (depending on the airline you want to use).
Another thing is ensuring that everything fits in the bags perfectly.
I know you are wondering what this has to do with planning. The truth is that if you figure out how you are going to fit everything in your bags, it will be easier for you to figure out what you should leave behind and what to bring.
Pro tip: Jot down a packing list to ensure that you have everything you need in your bags and the things you are required to find.
Try different packing styles and pick the one that makes it easier for you to get everything into your suitcase and backpack.
Don’t forget that you need to pack light if you want to move easily from one spot to another and also to avoid checking in and out your bags at the airport.
10. Keep track of your traveling date.
Don’t forget to write down the day you will be traveling. You might plan everything but end up forgetting the dates.
On the top of your plan write down when you will be leaving for your first solo trip.
Set a reminder on your phone and calendar so that you don’t forget the date.
As you are tracking the date you will be leaving also check out the news concerning your destination.
This is to ensure that you are aware of what is going on out there before you even set foot.
11. Fly out to your dream destination.
When the time reaches you have to be ready to fly out to your dream destination.
Prepare yourself psychologically and keep the safety tips for solo traveling at your fingertips.
This is when you will start to use them to keep yourself safe while traveling around the world alone.
Read also; How To Be Safe When Travelling Alone [10 Tips]
This marks the end of planning your first solo trip.
Lastly…
Planning is essential. Don’t ignore any part.
When you plan your first solo trip the way it’s supposed to be, you won’t even need to worry when you get to your destination.
Everything will flow smoothly since you have mapped out everything you want to do in that country.
When you are planning, ensure you also have a backup plan so that when things don’t work out with your first plan, you can pull the next one out.
It may be your first trip, but it doesn’t mean that you have to glue yourself to the first plan you wrote.
If anything changes be ready to change with your plan too.
Sometimes things might not go exactly the way you planned.
You might miss your train or bus to the next location you want to go. This will force you to change things.
So, keep that in mind when you are planning your first solo trip around the world.
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