Getting Ready For Your Solo Girl Summer
Summer is the time to embrace your independence and go on an adventure as a single girl!
The weather is warmer and the summer season is nearly here, so if you haven't already started planning your solo girl summer, then it's time!
Going away on trips and holidays on your own is a daunting experience but one that empowers your in your independence. There's no need to jump in at the deep end and go abroad on your own if you've never done anything like this before, but it also shouldn't mean that you don't take a flight and miss out on a holiday just because you're single.
The benefit of going on a solo adventure as a single girl
Going on a solo adventure is the quickest way to develop your confidence and get you prioritising yourself along the way. You're responsible for getting yourself to and from location, making sure you've packed the right items and dealing with anything that doesn't go to plan. You learn you can't do it all alone and ask for help with getting a lift from your parents to the airport, and practice making conversations with strangers so that you don't spend a week away mute.
The beauty of a solo trip is that you don't have to compromise for anybody else. If someone prefers eating out at a restaurant, there's no one to oblige you to go. If you want to have an easy day using the hotel facilities, no one's waking you up at 8am with an itinerary. The choice of how to spend your time away is all yours and there's no body to question you or have to answer to, to feel awkward giving an excuse to just because you don't want to do something.
How to start out on your first solo adventure
Your first solo adventure doesn't have to be extravagant. An adventure is an exciting experience, so it needs to involve doing something new that can range from an evening out, a day out or taking a full solo trip for a week. The best idea is to go at your pace so if you've never braved it solo and not yet travelled on your own, then practice by taking a train to a city within an hour or two from where you live. If you don't mind driving, you can achieve the same by choosing somewhere within a three-hour radius.
Choose something that excites you, something that you've always wanted to do but never done before, and work backwards from what it would take for you to be able to do it. And don't walk before you can run - go away for a night before you jump on a plane for seven days. As adventurous as that may be, there's a lot of new factors to take in which can lead to overwhelm and not having the tools to cope with the feelings that might arise.
Three Ideas for You First Solo Girl Summer Adventure
1. EXPLORE A NEW CITY
This is perfect starting point because you can go as close to home or as far away as you like. A new city is different from your local town and the places you visited week in, week out. Different cities have different energies and you learn to explore by foot, taking in the architecture and structures of each city and the different way of life within that.
If you want to expand, you can go further afield with your journey, take different modes of transport and start visiting different countries as well. As long as you've got a way to get there and a place to sleep for the night, walking on foot and using public transport to get around is as simple as it gets for a first solo adventure.
2. GO TO A FESTIVAL
As a veteran festival go-er, I can't advocate for this one enough. Festivals are lighthearted and breezy, with the intention of most to have fun and enjoy the music. Much like with the city trip, you can start small with smaller local festivals like The Foodies Festival, which combines food with music in some of your local cities, or you can opt for day festivals like Wellnergy, which brings together the five pillars of mindfulness, fitness, food, music and laughter, where I'll be running workshops for solo festival-goers in London on Saturday 17th June 2023. (*You can buy tickets here to attend the days event).
The open nature of a festival is what makes it so welcoming and there's always plenty to do with workshops, stalls, food and more, on top of the music.=
3. ATTEND A SINGLE GIRLS CLUB EVENT
Doing something new can mean finding likeminded individuals too. I've spent my summer on a package trip to Tomorrowland as I wanted to be surrounded by others that loved dance music as much as me. When I need a boost of business inspiration, I attend local business events for networking and connection to others. So as a single girl trying to make her debut solo adventure, the Single Girls Club events get you in the room as other single girls that are looking to build their confidence and do things on their own.
All of our events are listed here, with our next event taking place in Summer in Essex.
What if I get lonely?
Being away on your own won't automatically mean you experience loneliness. Feeling lonely comes from a sense of being disconnected from yourself, others and the world around you.
If you're focussing on how other people are perceiving you as you undertake your solo girl summer, you're disconnected from yourself and the reasons you're decided to do this solo adventure in the first place. Remind yourself of the reasons you wanted to go out and try something new.
If you're feeling sad that you don't have somebody with you to share the experience with, then share your experience. Send photos to your friends and family of what you discovered on your day, and bring them included them by directly sending them photos and not just uploading the pics to your Instagram stories.
But I don't want to go alone!
It's normal to want to spend time with others, but if your friends are all partnered up or even have kids, it can be harder to get a "yes" out of them to join you on adventures.
1. Work/Volunteer at a Festival
Working or volunteering at festivals can be a suitable alternative. It means you get a free ticket to the event, might even get paid for the event, and have a whole team of stewards and other volunteers working the festival with you. I worked my first festival through Hotbox Events last year and had a blast (and some of you might even have met Sarah who hosted our Manchester event in November too, who I met via the festival!).
2. Attend festivals that support solo attendees
Alternatively, if you don't want to work a festival, I'm at Wellnergy helping solo festival-goers find one another and manage the festival accordingly. I'll be at the event to talk to and running icebreaker workshops so you can find others to spend some of the day with, whilst offering coaching sessions for singles and solo adventurers, so pop down to the area to say hi if you come along.
3. Find other single girls to go on adventures with
The Single Girls Club was designed to inspire single women to embrace their single life and help them overcome loneliness... by supporting them to find one another. Women that come along to the Single Girls Club events are looking for adventure with other singles so networking at our events is the perfect way to find other girls that can join you on an outing or two over your summer.
Solo Girl Summer will soon be here ladies! It's one to mark something in the diary for - summer comes and goes too quickly and before you know it, it'll be over in a flash so get your plans in place, embrace the independence, and get your single girl adventure underway!