Before starting my 6 months long trip, I had only ever travelled once as solo. Strangely, this was also to South America, Peru, but it was planned to be a trip with a good friend who had to drop out at last minute. Even then, the whole thing was planned and, because I had warned my friend that hostels were completely out of question, those were mostly very nice hotels (we had had travelled together years earlier in Europe and shared rooms with strangers in exactly one occasion. Hence the warning!) So, for my first solo trip everything was arranged, and we had very comfortable hotels, guided tours etc. Little did I know that this taster to S.A. would, a few years later, make me want to travel there by myself. Looking back from my nearly 3 months of solo travel to that 2.5-week trip in Peru, I’ve learned a few things that make my whole trip more fun, comfortable and affordable:

#1 Hostels are your best choice. They are the best spots to meet like-minded, adventurous travellers. They provide all the essentials and often to a good degree. Just do research and select well reviewed hostels (and always leave brief honest reviews so other travellers can benefit). Do not go to hotels unless you want to just indulge in a bit of a luxury and are happy to eat that fancy dinner by yourself.

Hotels are great for romantic getaways but not if you’re solo. If you must have the luxury, only make it occasional (my personal rule is 6+1 i.e. I rough it for 6 days and stay in a fancy hotel on 7th day if I want). This makes possible the occasional luxury financially but also gives you perspective: the fluffy beds and luxury showers are overrated so, naturally you start expecting more (my personal criteria is a good swimming pool, spa and gym). My experience is that staff in hostels are friendlier! Also, the clientele of these fancy places tend to want to keep to themselves and, even if they are friendly, the environment doesn’t really invite chat with the total strangers. So, to avoid being weird, you end up keeping to yourself.

# 2 Shared rooms are better because they save a lot of money (see #1) and actually help you enjoy your time better because you are more likely to want to spend your entire day outside the room and, since you only have a section of the room to yourself, you don’t indulge in emptying the entire content of your suitcase to then spend hours to pack it again. Obviously inevitable mishaps happen, like forgetting the hairbrush at the bottom of that large suitcase but even that helps you discover that our hands have five very versatile fingers which make magical hairbrush. It works!

#3 Applying #1 and 2, you quickly come off your high horse and learn to sleep like a baby no matter what. The snorer, the smelly or the occasional mad man who decides to sleep nude (yes, it has happened!) only makes you laugh, rather than freak out and run 100-mile p/h speed towards the reception and scream that there might be a lunatic who thought that the hostel was his private room (that part has also happened!). The next time, you just laugh and ask them to put on some clothes and threaten that everyone else might do the same. That in fact makes it better and the committer becomes extremely self-conscious therefore, a very quiet neighbour the whole time (that happened too!).

#4 Hand-wash your clothes every day. This takes 5 min and helps avoid your suitcase turn into an atomic smell bomb and also gives you piece of mind that your laundry wasn’t mixed with 50 other strangers’ sweat and God-knows-what or washed in detergents that contain more than 10 chemical ingredients that you cannot even pronounce.

#5 Do small talk with the staff in the hostels, restaurants, bars, planes. You will be surprised how much privilege that could give you and make the entire thing more enjoyable for both sides. Also, don’t be shy to speak with total strangers. Everyone has a story and know at least one thing that you don’t know!

Happy travels…