Get Over Your Solo Travel Fears

When it comes to traveling alone, fear is what keeps many of us in our homes where we are surrounded by the familiar.  I get it.  It’s the easy thing to do, and fear is a very real and very strong motivator.

• You're afraid of the unknown.
• You're afraid of what can happen.
• You don't know how to plan a trip.
• You don't know what to expect when you're on the road.
• What about danger? What dangers are real? What dangers are imagined?

Those fears of the unknown then can spiral into things like, “What if my car is stolen?”  “What if somebody hurts me?”  “What if I get lost?”  The “what ifs” will get you every time.

Deep breaths please.  I can help.  And starting today, I'm going to help you put those fears into the rear view mirror so you can confidently set yourself up for a solo adventure that is filled with freedom and wonder and not fear.

I have traveled over sixty thousand miles into 46 states and several foreign countries road tripping and seeking freedom and wonder on the road, and believe me when I say, I have dealt with fear.  I write a lot about fear and overcoming fear and anxiety in my #1 Bestselling book, There’s Wonder Around the Bend.  It is an inspiring guide for solo travelers, and the purpose of the book is to help people seek freedom and wonder on the road, knowing that we have so many things hold us back.

Without question, the biggest one for women is fear.

Let’s start here: I have a FREE resource for you called The Super Simple Guide to Solo Road Trip Safety

This FREE guide covers 5 essential areas of safety and provides actionable steps that lead to immediate results.  These are all things you can do before you ever put gas in your car and pull out of the driveway.
You can download the guide here, and receive an immediate influx of confidence!

Fear Is Driven By Emotion

It can consume, it debilitates, it causes us to freeze up, it holds us back.  Even the thought of these fears can be enough to keep us right where we are.  But we're going to retrain our brains to process and deal with those fears and anxieties. You can look at this as being armed for battle.
You just need the right weapons and then you need to understand the battlefield.

So what are the weapons? They are things like information, practice, awareness, encouragement, education, and most importantly, purposeful planning.

Think about this.  Fear of the unknown means fearing what we cannot see, understand, and haven’t experienced. But if those things you fear -  places, people, situations -  if those become known instead of unknown, then the power's gone.  At that point there is no more fear of the unknown, because you have exchanged the power of it with information, knowledge, experience, practice, and planning.  Let’s take the power out of those fears and then make them work for you instead.

You Weren't Born Afraid

Have you ever thought about that before? Fear is something that we learn, and it likely took years for your different fears to take root in your life.  Some of these are healthy fears, of course.
We learn not to touch the stove for fear of getting burned.  We learn not to play in traffic for fear of getting hit by a car.  We learn not to talk to strangers.  These are healthy fears that you learn, but there are certainly a lot of unhealthy ones that we adopt over time too.

Often, without even realizing it’s happening, we slide into a pattern of fearing things we shouldn't.  Consider COVID just for a minute - We all learned to fear so many things that we'd never thought about before.  Some were rational fears.  Many were not.  Some of us are still trying to retrain our brains to let go of some of the things we ended up fearing that no longer exist. 

This Zach Williams lyric personifies fear and calls it out clearly for what it is – a LIAR.  I don't want to allow that in my life!  Do you? It leads to and allowing fear to dictate what we do.  No thank you.

Over the next few weeks, we're going to address specific concepts and practical ideas to help build confidence and leave that anxiety in the rear view.  We're going to name our individual fears and choose practical tools to work through and overcome them.

Overcoming 3 Common Solo Road Tripping Fears

I'm going to give you 3 ways to practically equip yourself to move through common fears of the unknown that solo travelers experience, especially if they are just starting out.  (Remember, the method is to exchange emotion for the power of information.  That breeds confidence.)

The Unknowns of Lodging on Your Own

Staying in a hotel or an Airbnb or a motel or some lodging situation that you've not done before by yourself ranks as one of the greatest areas of fears for newer solo travelers.  It’s valid and can create fears around the unknown for a lot of people.  So how do you combat that? I’m so glad you asked! 

Make Reservations In Advance

 For novice solo road trippers, it’s best to plan your lodging destinations in advance.  This gives you peace of mind in knowing where you’re going to put your head down and go to sleep each night. But it’s not enough to just have an address and a reservation. You need to vet the location  so you feel comfortable.

How do you do that? Well, this is where the internet is definitely your friend.  Once you locate a hotel, motel, campground or AirBnb that looks interesting, is in your budget, etc., than it’s time to read as many reviews as you can.
Google it and read the reviews on your screen that come up as Google reviews

Look directly on their website for reviews

Read reviews at hotels.com, or Travelocity.com, Airbnb.com, or wherever your specific location is found.
As you do that, you're also going to be able to look at photos of the place. 

Do not make lodging reservations at a place with no photos or reviews.   

Social Pages

Look on Facebook and Instagram to see if they have business pages. Both can be a gold mine of more up-to-date information.  You'll find lots of comments from people as well as photos.  You may also discover special events or incentives, whether the place is vibrant and busy, quiet and secluded, etc.

Google Earth

If I have concerns about parking, lighting, and generally where the place is located, I check it out on Google Earth.  Go to https://earth.google.com/web, and you can search any place in the entire world!

It’s free and easy to use.  My favorite feature is the street view, which allows me to put in the address and then see the outside of the location from the street.  You can navigate around the neighborhood and investigate lighting, parking, and discover what other businesses or homes, etc. are nearby.  It’s the single best way to see an honest representation of the location. 

Personal Safety Strategies

The strategies above provide actionable steps you can take to create confidence in your lodging choices.  But what about once you arrive?  There are personal safety strategies that you can employ, and the most important one is to portray an air of confidence.  Even if you don’t feel it, acting as though you are sure of yourself signals to people that you know what you’re doing, and you’ll be left alone.  

In my book, There’s Wonder Around the Bend, I do a much deeper dive into personal safety, so please check it out!  Adopting some personal strategies to stay safe once you arrive is just as important as great preparation.  Both help you exchange fearful emotions with self-assurance because you will have a plan!

The Unknowns of Hiking

Whether you are an avid hiker or planning to get started, hiking on your own just feels different than having a partner or a group.  Here is the single best suggestion for taking the fear of the unknown out of the equation and trading it in for knowledge and confidence:

All Trails

The All Trails app is my absolute favorite go-to for taking the guesswork and anxiety out of solo hiking.  While there is a paid plan, the free version provides extensive options and guidance and information. 

If you have anxiety about safe parking or you’d like to know the experiences of other solo hikers, you can find all that and more on All Trails.  I actually did a video a while called "Don't Road Trip Without These Five Apps", and All Trails absolutely made the list.  You can check it out HERE.

Overcoming Fear of the Unknown: Join Facebook Groups

Women who are considering solo road tripping have so many questions.  They should!  Making the decision to go is a fairly big deal, and with it comes so much fear of the unknown.  Now my book is the very best way to find all the information in one place, and you will find answers to the vast majority of your questions.

Facebook Groups are another really great resource – specifically, groups for solo female travelers/road trippers. Once you begin looking, you will find groups for just about every demographic. 

For starters, I invite you to join WonderBing Travel’s Facebook Group, called The WonderBings.  Just click HERE to go to the page.  We'd love to have you, and it's a way for people to share their information about their own experiences and ask questions.  I also post great solo resources for my group!

You can find a group for every solo travel niche you can think of. There are groups (all solo travel) for women over 50, women who camp, women who travel in an RV, women on a tight budget, women from a specific state, etc.  Check it out and find a few that fit your needs.  It’s typically easy to join.  Some have entry questions and require approval, others do not.

People ask and answer questions, and some groups have built-in resource sections to deal with common topics. 

Remember, it's all about exchanging fear of the unknown for information that breeds confidence!

You have the opportunity to use solo travel as a way to conquer fear and build a new-found sense of confidence in yourself.  I hope you’ll come along for the ride!

Stay in touch - click HERE to get next week’s post!

PS.  What You Can Do Today

1.  Download The Super Simple Guide to Solo Road Trip Safety. It’s FREE and will give you immediate strategies and tips you can implement today, even if you’re not planning to travel for a while.

2.  One other part of building confidence means having the right gear and tools.  Check out my Roadmap to Safety Amazon Wish List.  You’ll find all the safety-related products I use when I travel, including flashlights, pepper spray, tire pumps – you name it!  You may even find a few things to add to your Christmas list!

3. Get a copy of There’s Wonder Around the Bend: An Inspiring Guide to Solo Road Tripping   Available HERE on Kindle, in paperback and hard cover.

For more information about Bing, check out her author page HERE.