IMG_7864 (1).jpg — New Orleans, Louisiana

How do you Solo Travel?

Solo travel can be liberating, exciting, and freeing. It’s an opportunity for self growth and exploration. Despite these benefits, solo travel for women and especially women of color, can be characterized by fear and concern for safety. Whether it's the first, third, or hundredth solo trip, the questions remain, “how do you prepare for solo travel as a woman? How do you overcome that initial fear? How do you take safety precautions? As you become a more experienced traveler how do you navigate new situations that come up?”

As a woman, Black woman, and traveler, these are questions that are always top of mind, which might be similar for you and why you’re here. Whether you are preparing for your first solo trip or you’re an experienced traveler interested in more tips and insights, check out these helpful tips on how Black women can prepare for solo travel.

1. Start with Smaller Trips:

Before taking a major trip to a foreign country, start with solo trips to different neighborhoods in your city, surrounding boroughs, and then explore new cities/states. This gives you the chance to learn about what type of traveler you are or if you even enjoy solo travel. Challenging yourself gradually vs throwing yourself into the deep end, is an opportunity to become comfortable with solo first. This is especially important before the MAJOR trip.

Planning your first Solo Trip?

Check out these tips and insights on how to prepare and plan for that first trip :)

READ MORE

2. Research your Destination:

Before going on both a smaller tester trip or large trip, always do your research. Research everything! Research the country and city, the political situation, passport/visa requirements, safety in general and safety/attitude towards women (especially women of color), culture, food, health and immunization requirements, and activities to do. Most importantly read articles, blogs, and watch videos by black female travelers that have visited that city or country. Be aware of the experience black female travelers have in those spaces. Is it pleasant and enjoyable or are you noticing a negative trend? You may also come across varied insights, keep in mind that everyone’s experience can be different.

3. Plan your Logistics:

Once you've identified a destination, begin preparing and planning for your upcoming trip. Confirm your flights, accommodation, passport/visa requirements, health and immunization requirements, and emergency resources (hospitals, embassy, travel insurance, etc). Also look into acceptable payment methods, internet/phone access, and transport options. All this information can be used to build an itinerary. For example, the way I stay organized and plan for upcoming travel is by creating a trip project planner using a Google Sheet spreadsheet. My planner contains all the details mentioned above. Alternatively feel free to do what works best for you and use travel planning tools or apps.

The benefit of a trip planner is that it allows you to create a strategy for exploring your destination (even if it's loosely). This way you’re not scrambling or trying to do major research when you’re on ground. Of course in the moment research is fine, such as looking up a place to eat, etc but major decisions like accommodations, etc are better booked ahead. Safety wise, the planner also serves as a blueprint that is shareable with your family, which allows them to be aware of your travel details. For emergency situations, the planner should contain your emergency resources, such as embassy contact information, recommended hospitals, travel insurance, etc.

4. Have an Emergency Contact/Plan:

While traveling, anything can happen! Imagine traveling in a country and a coup occurs? Traveling and a health pandemic renders you stuck in a foreign country? (Let’s not relive the horror days of 2020) Traveling and you experience assault? Or most commonly, your passport and wallet are lost or stolen? There’s no telling what might happen while traveling and while we hope (fingers crossed) nothing happens, it’s important to prepare emergency plans for common occurrences. It’s impossible to plan for every scenario but having a basic emergency plan is helpful.

Below are some common emergencies and ways to address them:

Political Instability, Health Pandemic, Terror attacks, etc: Enroll in your country’s traveler program to get local in country updates and recommendations to take when encountering one of these scenarios. For example, the USA has the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) for US Nationals traveling or living abroad to receive the latest security updates from the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.
Assault: Before your travels, review your local embassy’s recommendations for reporting physical and sexual assault for female travelers and ways to seek help. For example, do they recommend first contacting the embassy or local police? Is it best to visit specific hospitals and in doing so, are there policies to be aware of? It’s important to have an idea of their recommendations, in order to be able to act swiftly in the case of an assault (fingers crossed this information is never used).
Feeling Sick/ Accident: Buy travelers insurance ahead of your trip and have a list of recommended hospitals (from your local embassy, friends/family, or sourced online) close to the areas you’ll been in
Passport or ID Stolen/Lost: Before traveling review your local embassy’s policy on lost or stolen passports. Have digital and printed copies of your passport and ID’s and get in contact with your local embassy for assistance if either it is stolen or lost.
Wallet Stolen/Lost: Have backup credit cards and emergency cash stored, and contact your bank to cancel/lock all impacted accounts.

5. BE AWARE:

I cannot stress this enough...but as a black solo female traveler, being aware is crucial! Especially in countries where we often stand out. Be aware of your surroundings, your possessions, and the people you're interacting with. Keep an eye out for anything that seems out of the ordinary or makes you feel uncomfortable. Most importantly, listen to your instincts. If you feel unsafe or something feels off, find a way to securely and safely exit from the situation.

6. LEVERAGE Established Communities and Networks:

While traveling know that you’re not alone! Research and reach out to communities and networks for black travelers, black female travelers, black solo female travelers, black expats, etc. Facebook, whatsapp, and meet up are a good place to start and have a variety of groups. Furthermore, once you’ve reached your destination, check out community spaces to learn about local events and to build community.

Traveling as a Black Woman:

As women of color, traveling is multidimensional, we have to worry about 1. the dangers of traveling as a solo woman and 2. the possible racism, negative stereotypes, aggression, and much more targeted at black women.

What’s the best way to deal with this you ask? To be honest, there’s no universal answer or key (lol). What I find helpful is researching and understanding the local attitudes towards women, black women, black travelers, and minority travelers in your desired destination. In addition to that, learning and reading about the varied experiences of black women travelers (if these resources exist) in that destination can help provide you with insights, to enable you can make informed decisions and stay prepared.

Read more below for insights on my experience as a solo black female traveler :)

My Experience as a Black Solo Female Traveler.

My experience as a solo female black traveler has been enjoyable (not to say I haven’t encountered difficult situations - read more below). What I enjoy is the freedom! You have the freedom to create your itinerary and be selfish with everything YOU want to do. You get to learn more about yourself and how you handle challenging situations. Most importantly, you get to enjoy your own company and make memories while exploring a new city, and becoming familiar with a new culture.

Despite the positive aspects, I've also been in situations where I've been discriminated against because of my race and gender, attempted to be taken advantage of, and where I’ve feared for my physical safety.

Seeing the lack of resources available for black solo women traveling is the reason I created this blog. To have a space and platform with us top of mind, where we can share tips and be able to learn from each other. Embarking on solo travel is never easy, but by sharing resources and preparing efficiently, it can make the process smoother and make us stronger.