It’s hard to believe I haven’t published a travel post in almost one year, especially considering the places I’ve visited in the meantime. Even crazier: the fact that I haven’t traveled solo in almost five. Sure, I’ve gone away alone to meet up with friends, but I haven’t taken a trip for the sake of traveling by myself since 2014.. Until this weekend!

As I reflect on the past two days in Budapest, I figured what better topic to write about than the perks of taking solo trips. Honestly, I’d almost forgotten how many there are! Below is the condensed version of my top five (in no particular order):

1. You can explore at your own pace. I went to the famous thermal baths this morning just after sunrise at 6AM. I was able to beat the crowds & was back in my Airbnb by 8:30. Oh, and then I napped. Had I been with friends (who, by the way, I absolutely love traveling with), odds are we would’ve gotten there at prime time and spent at least four more hours and thousands of forint on massages. I’m really not a spa person, and if traveling solo, I don’t have to be.

2. Similarly, you can eat whatever you want on your own time. This entire trip, I’ve eaten street food; I haven’t sat down at one real restaurant. When with a group, it’s not always easy finding a happy medium when it comes to meals. We’ll often eat family style, too, which means not everyone gets to try what they would’ve liked to order. On your own, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you’re hungry for it (i.e., the donuts I had for dinner tonight).

3. You can rewear clothes (& yesterday’s hairdo) without judgment. In all honesty, my friends and I do this as it is (#judgmentfreezone), but overall it’s easier if you’re by yourself. I may or may not have counted this morning’s swim as a hair wash and gotten back into yesterday’s crop top.

4. You meet more people. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve definitely met people on our group trips, but they’re usually our boat drivers or Airbnb hosts and it’s rarely anything of substance. When traveling solo, however, you’re way more approachable and even likely to branch out yourself since not confined to the bubble that is your group.

5. You’ll go more places. I constantly hear of people passing up bucket list trips because they have no one to join them. That’s the craziest excuse I’ve ever heard. When I first started my weekend trips overseas, I went alone – everyone thought I was out of my mind for traveling so far for such a short amount of time. Had I waited to find a travel partner, I may have never gone at all. *For the record, I was eventually able to convince countless friends to share my crazy, and they haven’t stopped since*