How I Choose My Next Destination

Sometimes I choose the destination, and others the destination chooses me (for destination campaigns or other similar events). For personal projects, I pick my destinations based on my interests and budget. I love mountains and impressive landscapes, so I would definitely love to visit a place like Iceland. But Iceland is expensive and since wherever I go I stay for one or two weeks, I will choose a cheaper destination (and less-visited). Why not get two travels out of my budget instead of one?

On average, I go on a trip every three months. The duration can be anything from a week to forty days.

My Scariest Travel Moment

I was at High Tatras, Slovakia once, climbing a notoriously steep and exposed mountain pass known as Priecne Sedlo. At some point, I got so dehydrated that my magnesium level went dangerously low and I started to suffer from multiple cramps while I was perched on a via ferrata with nowhere to go. Behind me, also climbing with his family, was Vladislav an old seasoned mountaineer who had magnesium tablets with him. 

The same thing had happened to him somewhere in Switzerland. Another traveler had given him magnesium that day, and from then on he carried a packet at all times. Thankfully I was able to move twenty minutes after taking the tablets. Now, I always have magnesium with me in case I or any other person would need it. I was lucky, but a week after, two women were not. They died from hypothermia on their way to Priecne. I’d always left a safety margin for the unexpected, but after that incident, I became even more cautious. When you’re on the mountain you should leave nothing to chance.

Biggest challenges to Traveling Solo

Having a family makes things more challenging. I have to schedule my trips well in advance, and can’t just take a backpack and get in a plane after a snap decision. When you’re traveling solo, things are more challenging. Accommodation can be more expensive, you have no one to watch your back or help in case you get sick, and even no one to leave your staff and go to the bathroom. Small things that have never crossed your mind till the first time you travel solo.

Covid-19 definitely. It had and still has a profound effect on traveling, but I hope that it will fade off in the coming year or two. Finding air tickets to several destinations. Not be able to schedule things in advance since you don’t know if the destination will be open after three months, and facing the possibility to get stranded there if your country decides to cut off flights from and to that destination after your arrival. There are many parameters to be considered.

My Advice To New Solo Travelers

Get prepared but don’t schedule everything. Be open to new experiences. Don’t adopt other people’s impressions and preconceptions, see and feel for yourself.