How do I travel on my own safely?

Solo travel is not unusually dangerous, but it removes a safety net: nobody notices immediately if something goes wrong, and there is nobody to watch the bag while you find the address. Almost all of good practice is rebuilding that net in advance rather than being vigilant all the time, which nobody can sustain for a fortnight.

Safety

What you'll need

• An itinerary shared with someone at home
• Offline maps and saved addresses
• Money and documents split across separate places
• A doorstop or portable door lock (optional)

Step by step

1. Leave an itinerary and agree a check-in schedule.Someone at home with your dates, accommodation addresses, flight and train details, insurance number and passport copy — and an agreed rhythm of contact, daily or every couple of days. Agree what they should do if you miss two in a row.
2. Split money and documents across three places.One card and some cash on you, a second card and cash in the accommodation, a third source elsewhere again. Any single loss then becomes an inconvenience rather than the end of the trip.
3. Book the first night in advance and arrive in daylight.Arriving somewhere unfamiliar at night with nowhere booked is where most solo travel problems start. Book the first night, know how you are getting from the station or airport, and arrange the arrival for daylight where you can.
4. Download offline maps and save the addresses.Accommodation, the nearest station, the embassy, and a couple of landmarks — in the local language as well as English. Standing on a street corner with a lost phone signal and no address is entirely avoidable.
5. Look like you know where you are going.Check the map before you set off and step into a shop or café to check it again rather than standing on a corner. Opportunistic approaches target obvious disorientation.
6. Arrange transport rather than accepting it.A booked transfer, a licensed taxi from a rank, or a recognised app where you can see the driver and share the trip. Not somebody who approaches you in an arrivals hall.
7. Set up the room.Lock and check the door, use the chain or a portable lock, know where the fire exit is, and keep valuables out of sight. A rubber doorstop weighs nothing and makes a hostel or budget hotel room feel considerably better.
8. Tell the accommodation your plans for a long day out.Particularly for a walk, a hike or a remote trip. Somebody local who knows roughly where you went and when you expected to be back is the most useful safety measure available.
9. Watch alcohol and never leave a drink unattended.It is the situation where judgement, awareness and the ability to get home all degrade at once, and there is nobody with you. Know how you are getting back before you go out.
10. Set the phone up as a tool rather than a liability.Location sharing with someone at home, emergency contacts accessible from the lock screen, the local emergency number saved, a power bank, and a screen lock so a stolen phone is not also a stolen identity.
11. Trust the instinct and leave.A person, a street, a bar, a guesthouse. Leaving early because something felt wrong costs you nothing and is the mechanism that prevents most incidents. You will never regret it.
12. Build in ways to meet people if you want to.Hostels, a walking tour on the first day, a class, a group hike. Solo travel is easier and often safer when you are occasionally in company, and the first day is the right time to arrange it.

Tips

• Read the UK foreign travel advice page for the destination before booking. It is specific about the areas and situations that actually cause problems for British travellers.
• A cheap secondary bank account with a card and a modest balance is excellent insurance in itself.
• Loneliness is the underrated part of solo travel. Plan a couple of social things into the first days rather than waiting to see how it goes.

Common mistakes

• Not agreeing a check-in schedule — The point of solo travel safety is that somebody notices. Without an agreed rhythm and an agreed response to silence, nobody would know for days.
• Arriving somewhere new at night with nothing booked — Tired, unfamiliar, carrying everything you own and needing to make decisions quickly is the worst combination there is. Book the first night.
• Keeping everything in one bag or one wallet — A single theft ends the trip. Splitting cards, cash and documents across separate places is the single highest-value habit in solo travel.

Questions people ask