I spoke to a young, Asian woman who is about to embark on her first solo travel to Europe. Her eyes show both excitement and fear. You could see that she is excited to see the world. Over the past few decades, there is an increased number of Asian women traveling alone, I am one of those. Solo traveling is not something encouraged in my culture. In fact, it is highly discouraged. I was browsing Facebook when I came across the blog of Kach, a Filipina Pinay solo traveler who has an adventurous and cheerful demeanor. Her stories encouraged me to try it out, it was basically out of curiosity. SOLO traveling is very common in the west but not in Asia,it is only during the past decade that people slowly accepted it because of several travel bloggers who gained fame because of solo travel.

While speaking to the young lady today, I was curious why she decided to do it. Did she read a blog? Did she do it out of curiosity? So, I asked her the reason why she is traveling alone. She said with a smile, “ I have one month vacation and all my friends have to do their thesis and so my friends do not have the time.” I can relate to her reason because I know a few people who have one month or even two weeks to travel, most people have limited time.

Another aspect is economics or the financial aspect. More Asian women work harder than before and pay attention to their careers. The aspect of saving and investing money also became more popular because an individualistic lifestyle is also expensive. I also encountered women who travel alone because they want to improve their personalities, they came from sheltered families of they want to go beyond the usual routine. I am happy to meet a lot of female solo travelers online and offline. However, there is an underlying reason, more and more young people no longer feel the need for relationships or traveling with a friend or even family. Is it good? Yes and No! Why? Although I am independent and I encourage others to be, we must also travel with others. You can’t appreciate solo travel without experiencing traveling with a group. You can learn from both experiences.