Travel Asia solo

This is a guest blog by Laura, our resident expert on female travel.

Deciding to go on a solo trip can be intimidating. Sometimes it’s not always by choice; it’s not always easy to convince someone to jump ship with you and take an extended vacation. However, solo travel can be really exhilarating, and I can’t think of a better place to take your first solo trip than Southeast Asia. It’s easy to get by on a budget, meet up with others, and travel around from place to place. If you are a woman and looking for a great place to go alone, Southeast Asia is a perfect place.

It’s budget friendly.
One of the downfalls about solo travel is it tends to be more expensive. You don’t have someone to share a hotel room with or to split a cab ride, for example. Compared to the Western world, Southeast Asia is cheap! Depending on your travel style you should be able to live off of -30 per day. On my cheapest day in SE Asia, I spent just $7 for lodging and food in Laos. And, if you plan to hang around a city for at least a month, you can rent an apartment at an extremely low rate.

It’s easy to get around.
You can take public transportation to pretty much any destination. Not only is it widely available, but I consider it fairly comfortable as well. Most buses are air-conditioned, and if you’re taking an overnight bus, there are sleeper buses available. I remember my first bus ride in SE Asia was from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Battambang. I bought my ticket at a travel agency around the corner from my hotel, and they said, “The bus company will pick you up at your hotel 30 minutes before departure.” I was caught off guard and thought, ‘What? You mean I don’t have to grab a taxi or lug my bags to the bus station? I don’t have to worry about getting lost and finding the right bus to get on? This is great!’ Most of the time, you can book a bus that will pick you up at your hotel.