From Moroccan Taxicabs to Youth-Hostel Breakfasts: The Art of Traveling Solo

It is an unfortunate fact that while traveling with family members or a group of fellow world- enthusiasts, there comes that awful time where plans need to be made in a way that includes everyone's individual needs, including your weird uncle who has waited his whole life to see the world's only museum of ancient ball-bearings. Your group fusses and bickers until you decide to split up in the interest of saving time and the sanity of everyone who has limited interest in small metal spheres. By this point, everyone is mildly exhausted from negotiating and sufficiently cranky, but this is how traveling is as you know it. Until now. Meet the solo traveler. She can decide to wake up late, spend the entire day walking through a crowded market without worrying about inconveniencing anyone else, or losing a group member in the throngs of people. He may chose to lay on a beach drinking mojitos until the sun goes down, free of obligations to drag himself behind his friend who wants to spend the entire day shopping. Traveling alone is freedom, but it can also be the most rewarding journey of self-discovery you can possibly embark upon.