Before You Book Your Next Vacation, Consider What These Researchers Uncovered
Most people who've done it will tell you the same thing: they almost didn't go.
The idea of traveling alone felt weird, maybe a little sad, and definitely outside their comfort zone. But they went anyway. And, oh boy, where they glad they did, they'll tell you. Solo travel has a tendency to do that: Inspire something special in us, deep down. It's, well, transformative.
And it's not just a feeling. A thesis examining how solo travel affects adults identified six consistent changes that tend to happen when people travel alone: confidence, independence, values, perspective, identity, and social connection.
And they don't just last for the trip. They tend to stick.
How researchers approached this thesis
Why solo travel hits differently
We know from previous research that travel, in general, is hugely beneficial for overall health. This isn't really surprising for anyone whose taken a vacation before. But for these interviews, the researchers specifically reached out to solo travelers trying to uncover what made independent travel unique.
They found that the travelers weren't seeking isolation, they were seeing autonomy. Here's the simplest way to think about it: most of your daily life is structured around other people.
Your routines, your decisions, even your sense of who you are—a lot of that is shaped by the roles you play (colleague, partner, parent, friend). When you travel alone, all of that falls away. What's left is just you, figuring things out in real time. Where to go, what to do when something goes wrong, and how to spend your time when no one else has an opinion.
That combination of novelty, self-reliance, and genuine uncertainty turns out to be one of the most effective environments for personal growth in adults.
Related read: How To Plan A Vacation That Actually Feels Restorative
Discomfort is an engine of transformation
Think about the last time you navigated something genuinely hard on your own, not a work deadline, but something where you had no backup plan and no one to defer to. It's scary, perhaps stressful, but in the end, profoundly rewarding.
That's what solo travel feels like, repeatedly, over the course of a few days or weeks.
Working through a language barrier, figuring out a foreign transit system, deciding how to spend your day when your original plan falls through: each of those moments builds confidence. Confidence isn't an abstract notion; it's earned through real challenges and diligence.
Independence works the same way. When every decision is yours (where to eat, how long to stay, whether to change course entirely) you stop second-guessing yourself as much.
And somewhere in that process, your values come into sharper focus: what genuinely excites you, what you're willing to spend money on, how you like to spend your time when no one else is watching.
How it changes how you see everything else
Spending time in a different culture has a way of loosening assumptions you didn't know you had.
You realize that a lot of things you thought were just "how things are done" are actually just one way of doing them. That shift in perspective tends to make you more curious and less rigid—not just about the world, but about your own life.
There's also a quieter version of this. Seeing yourself outside your usual context, without your usual roles and routines defining you, creates some useful distance.
A lot of travelers describe it as the first time in a while they could actually assess who they are and who they're becoming. That's the identity piece: solo travel has a way of accelerating a clearer sense of self.
And then there's social connection, which surprises most people. Without a travel companion to default to, solo travelers tend to talk to more strangers, say yes to more invitations, and end up connecting with a much wider range of people. That openness doesn't just disappear when you get home.
How to actually take the leap
The hardest part of solo travel usually isn't the logistics. It's convincing yourself to go in the first place. A few things that tend to help:
- Start with a city that's easy to navigate. Good public transit, clear signage, and well-reviewed accommodation lower the mental load and let you focus on the experience itself.
- Keep the first trip short. A long weekend or four to five days is enough to get the full experience without the pressure of a major commitment. Most people find the anxiety fades within the first day.
- Let yourself be uncomfortable, within safe limits. The moments that feel hardest (eating alone, getting lost) are exactly the ones that make the trip worth it. The discomfort is the point. Just always be sure you're being safe in your environment and have protocols in place (read more!)
- Leave some space unplanned. Over-scheduling works against you. Some of the best parts of solo travel happen in the gaps.
The takeaway
Solo travel produces real, lasting change, not because of where you go, but because of what it asks of you.
The research points to several consistent shifts (like confidence, independence, values, perspective, identity, and social connection) that tend to outlast the trip itself. If you've been on the fence, that's worth taking seriously.
Want to read from someone who regularly travels solo? Here's a guide going to Egypt alone by one of our mbg editors.