The Rise of Solo Travelling: Is it Matter of Choice or Pure Selfishness?
opinion | November 2016
Words & Photography
by Chiara Brambilla
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Already back in the 17th Century, the poet John Donne stated that humans are not born to be alone or to isolate themselves but we are all – in part dependent on one another for survival.
Four centuries later, Donne’s words have been put aside as the rise of individualism has spread. A more self-centred society is now what the world has to offer. The predominance of social networks, selfies and self-indulgent Facebook status has replaced the way people used to interact with each other, making us selfish and more narcissistic than ever.
And solo travelling is the latest symptom of our narcissism. A steady growing number of people are travelling by themselves, preferring their own company instead of sharing their travel experiences with anyone else.
Up to 13,000 people decided to opt for lonely explorations on their latest holidays, with a 15 percent increase from 2013, according to the Visa’s 2015 Global Travel Intentions Study. And it is expected that around 51 percent of people will set sail for unknown places in 2017.
The ‘millennial generation’ is even more socially liberal than ever. According to a newly published research from the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo and Arizona State University, the increase of divorce rates, single-child families and solo dwellers in the past century are clearly key factors of a society aimed more at “the pursuit of individual rather than common or collective interests”.
As a curios traveller myself, I would say that the need to push our limits is probably the main reason behind this “pursuit of individual”. The idea of discovering the globe alone might appear as an egoistic and daunting choice to make but a surprising and fearless willingness to try is what triggers instead. It becomes a free run towards life itself to let boundaries fall, to experience personal growth and to broad knowledge.
In a BookYogaRetreats.com analysis of over 300 travellers, it turned out that more than half step out of their comfort zones to enrich themselves and to realise their potentials. 29 percent want to explore a new destination and around 33 per cent want to learn a new skill, compared to those 14 per cent whose travel purposes are visiting relatives and friends and party.
In the last couple of years, I have experienced at first-hand what it means to be heading to mysterious, fascinating and frightening-as-hell adventures with nobody on my side.
Travelling solo is a tough, risky and exhausting life test. But every day is a new way to open your mind and heart to the world’s challenges, putting everything into perspective and making question your own self. When you start going, there will be no turning back. The more miles you walk, the more distorted your view of the world and the people around will become, leaving your mouth with a bitter taste at every step you take.
And as many out there, I am seeking answers that our ‘broken’ society cannot give. As a result, dissatisfaction might be another reason why people choose to travel alone, endlessly in search of a more meaningful existence.
Christopher McCandless, a 24-year-old honours graduate from a wealthy Virginia family, was an American hiker and traveller. After college, he simply cut off contacts with his parents, donated his $24,000 in savings to charity and left towards the wildness.
Jack London, one of the most remarkable writers of the 19th century, spent a life looking for a way out from a senseless killing routine, first as an oyster thief, then as a tramp traveller on the American roads and lastly, as an adventurer in Alaska.
These are clearly examples of what we can call ‘selfish individualists’: lonely souls, extremists, rebels who tried to set themselves free through travelling, breaking away from imposed limitations, false securities and material excess.
Although their main focus was merely themselves, it is not only the case. Stepping out of your comfort zone alone can help to get away but you will soon enter a brand new reality. The journey will be slowly shifting from your own self to the world’s problems instead.
When I spent two months in Asia, I naively believed I could easily adapt to the environment and the culture as fast as I would have done in Europe. I was the alien in that strange threating world: a pale skinned red-head with green eyes Western-type-of girl. The first couple weeks I had to think about my own survival, not considering the people around me.
South-East Asian countries have showed me an extreme poverty and taught me a great surprising humanity. In a poor village in North Vietnam, Sapa, I have bumped into the most extraordinary, ordinary people who have given me everything when they did not have anything to give. Hospitality, kindness, altruism: such spontaneous human acts that shook me from the inside.
Developed countries have been more concerned over their material well-being than actually preserving some of the most important human values, losing them along the way. My solo travel experience turned out to be a chance to do more good, helping out in poor communities and detach myself from a greedy world.
Hence, it would be too simplistic to define solo travelling just a matter of pure selfish individualism. It must be done alone because it is only alone that we are forced to learn and understand what we, as human beings, are capable of. The discovery of a deeper sense of humanity and altruism is an incredibly consequence of self-knowledge.
Back to my days in Asia, I had a nourishing discussion with an old Tai Chi teacher over some Buddhist teachings. “You first need to help yourself in order to help others.” I thought this was such a selfish concept to take but only now it is clear to me that it is a process that any individuals need to go through sooner or later.