Book Review: The Art of Solo Travel: A Girl's Guide by Stephanie Lee

posted by: Prime Sarmiento

I wish that this book existed five years ago when I, like Stephanie, quit a promising career to go an extended travel around Asia for some soul searching and adventure. The book would have saved me the time and money that I spent just researching and preparing for the trip.

As a woman who enjoys traveling solo,  I can just relate to what Stephanie said in her Introduction. She was relating how she was preparing for her own six month travel (she traveled mostly in Europe and Asia in 2008) and finding very few resources that can help her as a solo female traveler: “There are in fact many solo female travellers, but those who document their experiences are few. During my initial research on this topic, a Google search revealed the odd chunky-looking book as well as the occasional travel blog. …..But the posts on these blogs were sometimes old, and I wasn't sure if information was still relevant.”

The book is divided into six parts, with several chapters devoted on travel preparation. Stephanie discussed everything that a solo female traveler before embarking on that adventure. She listed down the pros and cons of traveling solo, how to save for that big trip, what documents to prepare, what are the important and useful features that you should put in your iGoogle page, what are the absolutely important things to bring so that you won't get over the 15-kg limit which most low cost airlines impose on each passenger. She also suggested several countries which are ideal to first time solo female travelers as they are easy to navigate and quite safe (Stephanie includes Singapore and Australia – I can personally vouch for that choice).

The other chapters, meanwhile, contain anything and everything that women travellers need to know to keep safe, healthy and happy while on the road. And this can be done without having to spend fortune. Things like doing your own grocery and choosing couchsurfing over hostels not only won't stretch the budget, but will also keep you healthy and allow you to meet more friends.

But while the book is a handy guide and will indeed cut the time spent on researching, it won't give you a detailed explanation of all that you might need while traveling. For example, the guide advised that you get a travel insurance, but you still need to do your research on what type of insurance to choose.

The book devoted several pages on how to be successful as a couchsurfer. Now, I will buy this book if only to get the hang of couch surfing. As Stephanie said, she saved around 9,000 Australian dollars because of couchsurfing. (Goddess knows I spent a lot of money just getting decent accomodations in a hostel or lower priced bed-and-breakfasts!). Not to mention that, as Stephaie noted in her book, “couchsurfing is about making human connections as you travel, and the free accommodation is just a bonus.”

That said, I think it would have been better if Stephanie devoted some pages discussing different types of low-cost accommodations available for solo female travellers.

The book also caters mostly to those who want to go an extended travel. But even career women who just travel over the long weekend or go for that annual two-week vacation leave can also learn important things from this book including what to bring and wear while checking in the airport, the importance of packing yogurt while travelling or why it's better to prepare your own coffee instead of buying another cup of designer brew.

I believe that the best lesson that you can get from this book is that you don't need to be a superwoman, an heiress or a lottery winner to fulfill that dream of travelling all over the world. You just need to have some discipline, to focus and to nurture that passion.

And with a little luck, some prayers and some help from this guide for solo women travellers (which you can download anywhere), who knows, maybe in a month or so, you're on your way to that adventure of a lifetime!

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