7 Tips Female Solo Travelers Should Keep In Mind

There has been a huge increase in women travelling solo in the past few years. Whether they travel for pleasure or business, more and more women are choosing to venture into the world alone, and on their own terms.

For most women, safety is a major issue. Keeping that in mind, these 7 tips are here to help you feel safer on your solo journey. While many of these are useful for any solo traveller, regardless of gender, a woman travelling solo faces some dangers that don’t necessarily affect a solo male traveller to the same extent.

# Research your Hotel/Airbnb

It is always better to do a little bit of research on your hotel or Airbnb locality. That way you get to know about the locality of the hotel you will be staying in and that way you can manage things better. Check the reviews of both the actual hotel you’re staying at, as well as the neighborhood it’s in. This will help you see what areas are safe and what aren’t. Also try to keep a backup accommodation in mind, just in case.

# Tell someone your itinerary

You might be on the go or you might not have network accessibility, make sure someone has the exact idea of where you are going to be on a particular day. The best way to do that is to give at least one person at home, who won’t be traveling, your itinerary, or a general idea of where you’ll be and when, just in case they need to get in touch with you.

# Keep in touch

While you don’t need to call your friends and family every day, try sending regular updates. Whether you keep in touch via text message, or through Instagram posts is up to you, but it is important to create a digital trail of your whereabouts.

# Back up your documents

Take pictures of your important documents (passport, IDs, ticket numbers, reservations, etc.) and either email them to yourself or put them on a locked site like DropBox. This way, if you lose them AND your phone/computer, you can still have access to them. This is the best way to keep your documents safe. But make sure you don’t lose them. It might be a pain to revive the originals back.

# Consider investing in travel insurance

Travel insurance can take care all sorts of unexpected costs. It will not only help cover medical and dental emergencies, but can also reimburse you for lost baggage, cancellations, or delays, rental car damage, and so on.

# Remember to pack light

While this is practical advice, so that you don’t have to lug around multiple suitcases alone, it’s also a safety tip. Smaller bags allow you to be more mobile, and call less attention to yourself and your belongings. Always pack light! This will help you and save a lot of your time. Count your days and pack one outfit for a day and for the night. Do not pack extra, you know you will not wear everything.

# Don’t keep all your money in one place

Keep some money (and you card) spread out on yourself and in your bag, but also keep some at your hotel. Pro Tip: Store some money in any empty sanitary napkin cover (in a bag), or a tampon applicator (in your pocket). No one will think to look in there, nor is a pickpocket likely to steal it!