tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1471190 2010-03-08T00:30:00-05:00 How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a90b0827970b 2010-03-08T00:30:00-05:00 2010-03-09T19:52:53-05:00

Until I saw this article on "10 Unique Transport Modes Around the World," I never thought to add up all the different ways I've traveled. We're not talking planes, trains and autos here. More like camels, elephants and tuk tuks. So I was amused to see what the writer had experienced and to learn that I'd traveled five of the 10 modes she mentions. I can make a list too! And I'm sure you can....

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a8dec8d8970b 2010-03-01T00:30:00-05:00 2010-02-27T20:55:52-05:00

Here's a round up of some good articles on solo travel: The Los Angeles Times offers travel advice to a 49-year-old man concerned about getting sick while traveling out of the country? Soothingly, "sudden death while traveling is not statistically likely." Well, I guess I can finally stop fretting about keeling over then. But just in case, you can leave a note for the maid on what to do with your body, writes Catherine Hamm,...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301310f23a19c970c 2010-02-24T00:30:00-05:00 2010-02-24T09:01:41-05:00

I enjoyed this story from worldhum on introverted travelers. It showed me how the other half of solo travelers explore the world. The introverts, that is. Clearly without gabbing with a lot with strangers: "I am terrible at striking up conversations with strangers and I am happy exploring a strange city alone." The writer doesn't seek out people to talk to but says she loves people watching. Fair enough. It's worth reading this other story...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301310f2bcb4b970c 2010-02-22T17:26:43-05:00 2010-02-22T18:17:03-05:00

From Becky, who entered my contest to win a funny foreign language phrasebook, a story from Mexico about, um, cannibalism: I was learning Spanish and went to a local resturant in Ixtapa, Mexico. When I got back to my hotel I managed to mix up the words "waiter" and "shrimp" (In Spanish they are very similar - camarero and cameron). So when the parking attendant asked me how my dinner was I replied, "It was...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a8a36fff970b 2010-02-15T19:54:00-05:00 2010-02-15T20:29:07-05:00

Over the next several posts I will run some of the entries I received for the contest to win a foreign-language phrase book. I love the following story from B, who did not want his name used: "My parents lived in Indonesia for a year while my dad was advising a company there. They were sent an Indonesian phrasebook to study before the trip. I distinctly remember (in English) two highly useful phrases in this...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a8944457970b 2010-02-12T17:13:52-05:00 2010-02-12T17:14:30-05:00

Just a few more days to enter the contest to win a funny phrasebook in Spanish, French or Italian. Surely you've got a story about mangling the language in a foreign country or not being able to get your message across? Click above to read more about the contest. Send your phrases and tales now by clicking on the email found in "About" at the top left above. The contest closes February 15. Don't miss...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a875387d970b 2010-02-08T11:15:41-05:00 2010-02-09T12:45:41-05:00

What the heck would you have done if you had been a solo traveler to Washington, D.C., this weekend in the middle of a snow storm that's been called both "Snowmageddon" and "Snowpocalypse?"As well as one, big, "Historic Mess?" And suppose you'd been here on Saturday when all the museums were closed? As well as most of the restaurants? Yet you had no one to hole up with and be entertained by in your hotel...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a85a31d1970b 2010-02-03T20:38:26-05:00 2010-02-05T15:14:07-05:00

I've often been terrified before traveling to foreign countries outside of the "safety" of Europe. I planned a trip to Ecuador and worried for weeks before going. Someone told me about a woman he'd met in Brazil who'd been harassed in Ecuador. I read about pickpockets and thieves and how careful women had to be at night. The same thing happened before going to Egypt. All I could think of was the massacre I'd remembered...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330128770fe217970c 2010-01-28T00:26:00-05:00 2010-01-26T17:15:22-05:00

Is the market for solo travel slowly turning our way? Is the industry finally willing to cater to the solo traveler? Hard to say. But I would love to take at face value the following quote and others in a story about how the industry is wooing solo travelers irritated by the extra charges they face as a party of one: "The tour industry is making way for the single traveler," said Margie Jordan, spokesperson...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301287705ba79970c 2010-01-25T11:31:23-05:00 2010-01-25T11:31:23-05:00

My friend and former work colleague "P," used to rush from work some evenings to make it to her tai chi class. She found it to be a relaxing respite from work tasks and household duties. When she and her husband booked a trip to Vietnam this past December, she decided she was going to take the opportunity to practice tai chi in a place where it was a common pastime. So while on vacation,...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833012876fa8e57970c 2010-01-21T11:31:06-05:00 2010-01-21T19:09:46-05:00

Share | Don't you just hate it when you're in a bar somewhere in Rome or Florence or Barcelona and you just can't think of how to say, in the native language, "I would love to, Handsome?" Or, "That shirt doesn't go with those pants?" Yeah, me too! That's why you might want to have a copy of "hide this book EXTREME." Yes, it's kind of an odd name. And it seems meant to appeal...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a7d77afd970b 2010-01-15T10:58:27-05:00 2010-01-20T16:30:46-05:00

Share | Today's post is a roundup of solo-related pieces I found on the Web in the past few days. First, in a continuation of travel deals from my last post, there are two cruise lines that are waiving the single supplements on certain voyages. Avalon Waterways has some European river cruises available with no single supplement. And Norwegian Cruise Line has introduced what it's calling Norwegian Epic Studios, "contemporary staterooms priced for the solo...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833012876be3df5970c 2010-01-11T12:20:47-05:00 2010-01-12T09:16:34-05:00

In preparation for being interviewed on the BBC World's travel program, called "fast:track," I asked experts if they knew of tour operators that waived or markedly lowered the single supplement. (Who knew the BBC piece was going to involve a boy blowup doll?!) Many respondents told me about companies they knew or, or represented, that don't charge the single supplement. But I know better than to believe that right off. And indeed, after some simple...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a7b70cfd970b 2010-01-08T13:48:06-05:00 2010-02-24T20:33:42-05:00

Although my friend Elaine is skiing in Park City, Utah, alone, she's making friends right and left. Okay, they're friends for five minutes, but what's the difference? She's being entertained, being social and not feeling lonely. "I have five-minute relationships with people on the chair lift," she says. "Then it's, 'Have a nice life.' " And off she goes, carving her way down the snowy mountainside. I worried that Elaine, who has gone solo on...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a7a3afc5970b 2010-01-04T15:01:11-05:00 2010-01-04T15:01:57-05:00

What makes you happier? Possessions or experiences? I came across a blog post by someone who decided to fulfill his dream of living on a sailboat. He wrote four lessons on what he had learned from his experience. Two resonated with me and will for most solo travelers: 1. Life is about the experiences you have, not the possessions you own. I wonder about this sometimes. When I return from a vacation that cost me,...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff3329883301287689746f970c 2009-12-28T15:38:22-05:00 2009-12-29T21:24:15-05:00

My friend P, and her husband M, are in Vietnam, sweating through a very non-white Christmas season. The white stuff wouldn't last a second in Southeast Asia if it ever managed to head that way. It's broiling hot, she says. Between the heat and the fumes from the "hundreds of thousands of mopeds that fill the roads at all hours," on the streets of Can Tho, a big city on the Mekong Delta, P felt...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330128767185ba970c 2009-12-21T14:16:01-05:00 2009-12-23T16:46:39-05:00

Last year around this time I wrote about holiday markets around the world. The post was prompted by a visit to Washington, D.C.'s holiday market. The other day, I went back to the D.C. market. I have to admit, the second time was not as exciting. That's the thing about travel for me. I always want to see something new. I want to go to a city or country I haven't been to rather than...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff33298833012876202bc1970c 2009-12-16T00:30:00-05:00 2009-12-14T17:26:29-05:00

The best time to go to a cat café is during feeding time. In case you were wondering. That’s when the cats burst to life. What, pray tell is a cat café, you ask? I’ll let my friend Bob tell the story. Bob recently returned from a two-week visit to Japan. This was his 10th visit to the other side of the planet from where he lives in Washington, D.C. While there, he visited a...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330128764032d9970c 2009-12-14T00:30:00-05:00 2009-12-12T17:04:15-05:00

A 30-something woman has written a somewhat amusing, partly crass (hey, my blog, my opinions) piece on her cross country dating adventure. The country being Canada. It seems to be connected to a PR campaign by a singles dating site, which surveyed women about their solo travel experiences. The online dating site polled more than 2,000 single women about solo travel and found that 61 percent had traveled by themselves. The site finds this to...

Ellen Perlman tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e54eff332988330120a7213260970b 2009-12-07T18:07:06-05:00 2009-12-07T18:10:57-05:00

I scour millions of pages of the Internet every day so you solo travelers don't have to. Below are some finds on lessons learned, cheap tips traded and discussion boards discussed: Fodor's recently posted an entry on lessons learned from travel in 2009. One person learned from travel to third world countries how "very blessed with riches and people" she or he was. Another learned that people can "communicate without any common language." Any English...

Ellen Perlman