Hi there introvert! Maybe you are reading this while staying home rather than going to a party. If you, like me, are an introverted travel lover, you may find it difficult to take care of your needs at times. Traveling with a group seems WAY too stressful. Traveling with family or friends comes with its own set of demands and expectations. And while traveling by yourself may seem like the best option, you may end up feeling lonely. But worry not, my quiet friend! I’m here to help you out in each of these scenarios to ensure you have a great travel experience with a comfortable balance of silence and activity.
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Best Travel Tips For Introverted Women
Tips For Traveling With A Group
As far as traveling with other humans is concerned, traveling with a group of strangers is the best way to get your feet wet, so to speak. As introverts, it is crucial for our well-being to set boundaries, and that is a LOT easier to do with someone you never met. Here’s an example. I went on an all women group trip to Costa Rica. These ladies were the BEST. Literally everyone was super sweet, respectful, and open. Now I recognize that that is the best case scenario, but even in said scenario I had to set boundaries to protect my well-being. These are my most important travel tips for introverted women choosing to join a group tour:
1. Choose Wisely
Make sure the tour you picked doesn’t have a jam-packed itinerary. There are plenty of tour operators out there who schedule free time for their guests. That way you ensure opportunities to just be by yourself, take a nap, do an activity you really want to do which isn’t on the schedule, or even just wander around with that one person you really connected with.
2. Say No
The whole group goes out at night and you know it will be too loud, too crowded, and you won’t be able to go to bed when you need to? Say no. That takes courage, granted. But instead of just giving a hard no, choose a soft no. For example, say: ‘I’d love to hang out with y’all, but tonight I’m feeling very tired, and I want to be well rested for our trip to the national park tomorrow. But please let me know when you go out again, maybe I’ll come next time.’ That way you were open about your needs, but you didn’t shut the door completely and they will surely invite you out again.
3. Remember Your Why
You went on this trip for YOU, and for nobody else. Therefore you need to make sure that YOU have the experience that is right for you. It’s great to connect with others, and it’s flattering when they want to do stuff with you, but you do you. I realize that this is a tall order. As women we are way too used to taking care of the needs of others. But this is your chance to put yourself first! Five years down the line you won’t remember if you made that one person happy by joining them in an activity you didn’t want to do. But you will remember how you felt when you chose what’s right for you and created lasting, beautiful memories.
P.S. Did you know that Girls Who Travel offers small group trips? Sign up for our newsletter to get a chance to travel to distant places with an amazing group of soon-to-be new friends!
Tips For Traveling With Family Or Friends
This is a tricky one. It’s one thing to spend an afternoon, a whole day, or even a weekend with someone. An introvert often puts their needs on the back burner, and that can be done without lasting damage for a bit. But if you are embarking on a longer journey with a friend or family member, it’s easy for them to have certain expectations which an introvert cannot (and should not have to!!) fulfill for an extended period of time. Here are a few tips to get you through a vacation with friends or family unscathed:
1. Get Your Own Room
Unless you are 100% certain that you are on the same page with your travel buddy, get your own room. That way you always have a safe space to withdraw into.
2. Set Expectations
Sit down with everyone going in that trip beforehand and talk about what everyone wants to do. If there are different interests, it’s 100% okay to NOT do everything together. You want to go for a walk on the coast but everyone else wants to take a tour of that famous church? That’s fine. Tell them that coastal walk is important to you. Maybe someone would even like to join you for a quiet walk. Quiet time can not just be had alone. If you find a person to be quiet with, that’s a human worth their weight in gold! It’s okay to do things separately and then join forces for a nice dinner so everyone can chat about the amazing things they did that day.
3. Make Plans
If your schedule for the day says ‘walking tour from 11 am until 3 pm’, then you can claim that leftover time for yourself. If you just go some place and wing it, it’s easy to do too much. I, unfortunately, am one of those people who want to do everything and then end up exhausted, so do as I say and not as I do and plan your vacation schedule in a way that allows for downtime.
4. Set Boundaries
This part is hard. It’s HARD. But you need to take care of yourself and your needs first and foremost. However, you will find that practice makes… maybe not perfect, but practice does two things. One, it makes it easier for you to say no. And again, as I mentioned before, that doesn’t need to be a hard no. You can say: ‘I am really not interested in touring that church. I will go take a walk, and I will be excited to see you for dinner and hear all about your afternoon.’ Let them be disappointed! You do NOT owe it to anyone to do an activity you don’t want to do because someone else thinks you should do it. The more often you make your voice heard, the more used you will get to doing so. And two, people who aren’t used to you setting boundaries will push back, but if you do it again and again, they will eventually start to respect that and get used to it. Setting boundaries will, in the end, make this trip a better experience for everyone involved.
For more tips, check out GWT introvert Sophia’s article ‘the secret to traveling with friends‘.
Tips For Traveling Solo
Solo travel, you would think, is the ultimate way to go for an introvert. What do you need travel tips for? You have the freedom to do as you please, you don’t have to worry about anybody’s needs, and you can just enjoy the trip. But what if you don’t want to be alone all the time? How do you connect with people without it being too much? Don’t worry, my dear fellow introvert! I have some tips for this scenario as well!
1. Stay In A Hostel
You can book a private room if a shared room is too much for you, and just enjoy the community areas. Hostels are usually very social places where you can easily make friends. But you don’t have to hang out with them all day every day. You do you, and in the morning or evening, you can have a nice chat with someone over breakfast or dinner.
2. Utilize Social Media
Back in the stone ages, when I started traveling, there was no such thing as Facebook. Today, you can join communities like Girls Who Travel and make lifelong friends (or friends for a day). Post that you re in, say Vienna, and maybe someone lives there and can show you around, or someone is traveling there at the same time and you can explore together. And at the end of the day, you go back to your room, and you listen to some music or read a good book, and live the best introvert life.
3. Join A Group Tour
Spend the day with a bunch of humans who share your interests. No matter where you are, on websites like Tripadvisor or Viator you can easily find tours in your area. You’ll get that social connection for a set amount of time, and and afterwards you can again be with your lovely self.
This concludes my 10 best travel tips for introverts! I hope that these will help my fellow introverts have a better travel experience. Do you have any tips to add to the list? Drop them in the comments!
Jenny grew up in Germany. All she ever wanted out of life was to leave and have adventures. Jenny always traveled as much as the budget would allow, and when she met her husband traveling became a full-time thing. You can follow Jenny on her blog and Facebook.
