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I’ve been travelling solo for almost two decades. But I’m often asked what travelling alone for the first time was like. The ignorance and folly of youth stood in my favour but at the end of the trip I felt an incredible sense of achievement.
WHY TRAVEL SOLO
At the time, I worked with a US multinational who paid well but, at year end, required working the maximum number of hours permitted under Irish employment law. It meant January’s pay cheque was large. And with restrictions on annual leave during the summer months due to a project I was placed on, I choose to travel earlier in the year when everyone else was paying back their Christmas credit card bills.
BOOKING THE TRIP
Clueless as to how one would go about booking a holiday, I went to the nearest travel agent whose mocking attitude towards solo travel was plain rude.
Upset with this judgemental treatment, my bi-monthly therapist (i.e. my hairdresser) encouraged me to ignore this insular thinking and recommended a travel agent on Oliver Plunkett Street. At the time, I lived in Cork.
Regretfully I cannot remember the name of this wonderful travel agent but within days I had my decision made and deposit paid. I was heading to Lanzarote, one of the Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa.
LIFT OFF
I felt like a fish out of water checking in for the flight at Cork Airport as all other passengers were either in couples or groups. Thankfully the English couple I shared the aircraft row with were equally nervous. Veterans of Gran Canaria, it was their first time visiting Lanzarote.
ARRIVAL
I remember the beautiful warm breeze as I exited the aircraft. I also remember gaping at the island’s black volcanic earth. It reminded me of the Bog of Allen. Other passengers (all Irish) on the transfer bus were surprised that I would holiday on my own. To this day, international solo travel is still a foreign concept for most Irish people.
Home for the week was the comfortable Hotel Beatriz Playa. My room was in one of the upper floors. Gazing from its window towards the spectacular view of the mountains and beach, I quietly pondered. I’m in a foreign country on my own, I don’t know anyone and I can’t speak the language. What the hell have I just done?
This was a pivotal moment. I felt tempted to curl up on the bed and feel sorry for myself. But I convinced myself to take a random walk around the neighbourhood. It was to be a defining action.
Although there were a number of retail outlets lining the nearby seaside promenade, the area felt disappointingly quieter than I expected. I returned to the hotel to find it equally deserted. I walked around the ground floor, following the television sound I eventually picked up on. And there, sitting in the bar glued to a football match, were the masses of people I expected. I had my first introduction to El Clasico, the Barcelona v Real Madrid encounters that brings Spain to a standstill.
By then, the evening chill set in and I ordered a Spanish brandy for warmth. Of course I could have ordered the more sensible option of tea or coffee but the brandy was extraordinarily cheap.
The brandy gave me the courage to chat to a group from Northern Ireland whose friendliness and non-judgemental demeanour was exactly what I needed to kick-start the holiday. The hotel disco started as soon as the match finished. Several brandies and ABBA songs later, any apprehensions I had about solo travel were a distant memory.
SECOND DAY
The morning after the night before was your typical morning after the night before. Not even the entire pot of coffee I drank at the holiday rep’s orientation meeting could keep me awake. I spent the next two days discovering the delights of Puerto del Carmen and chilling out back at the hotel’s pool.
CAR RENTAL
For most, renting a car when travelling alone for the first time is going too far outside one’s comfort zone but my reasons were many. Lanzarote is largely rural so a car would be ideal for discovering the island. Secondly, my employer was sending me to its California office later in the year so I needed to learn how to drive on the other side of the road at my leisure as a trial run.
As Lanzarote is a small island, the possibility of getting lost was finite. Finally, the limited off-season traffic was perfect for a beginner who needed roads as empty as possible.
The process was challenging. The lifelong rule of yielding to the right of way had to be discarded in favour of left-approaching traffic. Changing gears with my right hand was a neural overload.
The condition of the car didn’t help. It is said that a poor craftsman always blames his tools but, with hindsight and mechanical experience, the car was in poor condition. The seat moved forward when I pressed the brakes. But it took an experience on top of Timanfaya National Park to discover the handbrake was not fit for purpose.
Timanfaya was an amazing experience. Formed by a volcanic eruption, the landscape was utterly breath-taking. The upper parking area included engaging geothermal demonstrations. But the car needed to be revved to the nines to reach that upper parking area. The experience wasn’t dissimilar to those Top Gear episodes where the presenters take cars far from roadworthy and will them to scale challenging terrain.
Descending the mountain was easy when I got the car pointed in the right direction. The handbrake wasn’t strong enough to hold me from slipping down the sloped gravel carpark in reverse towards the live volcano. I could hear the Bloody Hell-Mein Gott exclamations of some nearby British and German tourists. I had to turn the steering wheel so that the car could come to a natural stop parallel to the slope.
Needless to say, I didn’t attempt the camel-rides at the park afterwards. One’s luck can be finite.
TRAVELLING ALONE FOR THE FIRST TIME: CONCLUSION
Lanzarote off-peak was a good place to start my solo travels as it is small, safe, inexpensive, and has the same currency as my own country. The arthritic joints of the Irish and British populations are the lifeblood of Lanzarote’s tourism industry, its main industry, so English language fluency is high among retail and hospitality staff.
I brought the rental car back in one piece, and gained the experience I needed to achieve a life-long ambition of driving over San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
Did I have any negative thoughts before and during the trip? Of course I did: the initial misgivings, the concerns regarding the car, general safety, the fear of being judged and so on.
The confidence I gained from the trip encouraged me to trial other destinations in a solo capacity, just in case my success in Lanzarote was a fluke.
I’ve since discovered that solo travel contributes to my personal development in a way no other activity does. It has been a catalyst and a teacher, and has shaped my life for the better by widening my perspective. That’s why I’m such an advocate of solo travel. Everyone, who can, should try solo travel at least once.
Travel has been an expensive way of staying enlightened but the return on investment for me has been priceless. For that I’m very grateful.
Arrivals Hall 