Top 5 Safety Tips For Solo Female Travelers

"I'm A Women Hear Me Roar" is the motto for most modern women these days; we are beautiful, powerful, intelligent and capable of doing whatever we put our minds to, this we can all agree with but there are still certain steps that female solo travelers have to take when traveling internationally especially in certain countries, so in this article I’m going to go through the top 5 steps I believe every female solo traveler should take when traveling the world alone.

Step 1. Always do your research beforehand.

So I’m not a big advocate for overdoing it in the research department, sometimes getting too many points of view can just be confusing, overwhelming and can also lead to misinformation but still do some research before traveling to a foreign country, especially if you have no prior knowledge of whatever country you're traveling to. You want to make sure that the countries or parts of countries you're traveling solo to are safe for women to travel alone. You would want to know beforehand if there are any customs that you will be expected to abide by as a woman in the country you're going to be visiting and if so, ask yourself if that’s a custom you feel comfortable with and can follow through, like covering one's head or not out at night alone. I do like to get a few different personal perspectives from blog articles, different YouTube channels and other forums like "Reddit" and "Lonely Planet", which is a great place to get up-to-date information on whatever country you're going to, by people who have actually been there. It’s also important that you get information from more official sites like the embassy sites or even picking up or purchasing books such as the "Lonely Planet" series of travel books, which again is a great way to get information on where to go and how. "Lonely Planet" travel book series does a great job in breaking down countries to each part that you’ll be able to travel to, from accommodations, to where to eat, to transportation, the best time to visit, to the breakdown in prices for everything and much more, so yeah I definitely recommend picking up one.

As always the best way to research on whatever country you're traveling to is to just talk to someone personally. If I read certain articles in America about traveling through certain parts of India, a lot would say that it's unsafe for solo women to travel through but I have spoken to tons of young women who have traveled alone in India and some having spent extensive time there and have said they were absolutely fine, so just try to get as much of your information from people who have actually lived it.

Extra Tip: Always make sure the information you're researching is up to date, sometimes in developing countries like Thailand, their politics or immigration policies can change quickly, so just make sure everything your researching is relevant.

Step 2. Plan Ahead

Again just like researching I don’t think you need to overly plan, but plan at least for the first few days of arriving in a new place, country or city; that way you don’t find yourself getting dropped off and not knowing in what direction to turn. Give yourself a couple of days where you know where you're going to stay, you know how to get there and you know what part of town it is that you have to get to. Again books like "Lonely Planet" would definitely come in handy or sites like Agoda when it comes to booking accommodations.

Extra Tip: Especially if you're traveling somewhere where English isn’t widely spoken or if you don’t think you will be able to verbally communicate with the locals, it’s a good idea to download the google translate app so you could at least ask for directions to your hotel or guest house. Also, it’s a good idea to preprogram what it is that you think you may have to communicate in google translate beforehand, like an address or street or how much, especially if you're not traveling with a 4G internet connection on your smartphone or tablet because there's no guarantee that you will be able to access Wi-Fi at the moment you need it. It’s also a good idea to take a picture or screenshot of the name and confirmation number to whatever hotel you're staying at and reserved. Take a picture or screenshot or any street names, directions or any important information you may need, even taking a picture of your passport info, again just in case you can't access Wi-Fi or if you're not able to get to your belongings at the time.

Extra Tip: Read the reviews of the hotels, hostel or guesthouse you're staying at, it may just save you some bedbug bites. Read enough reviews to get a good idea what to expect before you arrive, read enough because sometimes the managers or hirees add their own reviews to balance out the bad ones.

Step 3. Be aware of your body language.

So in western cultures there are certain social interactions that are kind of standard, especially with the opposite sex that is considered normal, like a friendly touch on the knee, running your fingers through some guy’s hair or just a hug that’s a bit long, all these can be seen as just harmless flirtation but in other cultures it may come off as something entirely different. Some cultures are very conservative, where just holding hands with someone of the opposite sex is considered taboo, so what you may see as just being friendly or social may be seen as provocative to the locals of the country that your visiting. There are rumors going around that women from western countries are a bit more easily impressed by men than women in more modest cultures, so just be aware of that. Even flirty laughter or having drinks alone with a local, again of the opposite sex can be seen as you being open to advancements or a one-night stand, so again just be aware of how your body language is translating, just so there's no misunderstanding, so you don't get yourself in an awkward situation.

Step 4. Be direct.

Being meek or quiet may not be the best option when it comes to protecting yourself as a female solo traveler. I know sometimes it can be intimidating to speak up when you're in a foreign country and you’re not quite sure what's the proper way to communicate your dissatisfaction or discomfort. You don’t want to come off as being disrespectful to the locals of the country you're visiting; you don’t want to be misunderstood and anger those around you but sometimes being direct and maybe even a bit aggressive to get your point across is what you need to do or you might find yourself getting taken advantage of.

Even though for the most part there are certain parts of India that’s safe for solo women to travel, there are still instances where you might find yourself in a predicament where men around you might test to see if they can take advantage you. For instance I’ve heard a couple of stories of women traveling on the train through India and the train was overly crowded, where these women had to stand in a crowd of men and has the train rocked back and forth a guy purposely knocked into the young ladies and has he knocked into them he strategically placed his hands on their bodies and because the women just sort of bashfully shrugged it off, other men around them saw this and joined in and started knocking into them and grabbing all over their bodies, until someone else stepped in to stop it. On another occasion, a different woman who was in the same situation, with the rocking of the train, the men knocking into her and attempting to grab but as soon as she saw what they were attempting to do, she immediately pushed back with a hard NO, and they stopped and seemed quite embarrassed that they got called out on their behavior, so don’t be afraid to get loud and Be Direct.

Step 5. Bring a buddy.

During your travels either on a train, plane, boat or sleeper bus try to make friends, enquire where everyone else is off to and if your heading in the same directions, there's no shame in tagging along with others, sometimes there's power in numbers; be proactive, say hi and make new friends.

Well that's it guys, that's my top 5 tips for solo female travelers, I hope that helped and if you think this article could be helpful to anyone else please share, if you enjoyed your read and want more please sign up for my email list, to keep up to date with new content, check out my YouTube channel and if you're ready to buy your one-way ticket to some awesome part of the world please check out the links on the site...Thank you