In my last post, I was searching for the perfect carry-on suitcase to fulfill my one-bagger dreams. After careful consideration, I’ve decided to call off the search—not because I doubt that I can travel with just one bag, but because I realized I was getting caught up in the rush of online window shopping.
You know how it is with new hobbies: purchasing the required gear is part of the fun! But that gear can be insanely expensive, and if I’m being honest, I really don’t need more stuff cluttering up my closet. So, I decided to try and make do with what I had. Suffice to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how much my humble little Jetliner could hold when the one-bagger best practices were applied to its contents:
I plan on packing my valuables (electronics, ID, etc.) in a small backpack that will serve as my allowable personal item. So, while I won’t exactly be “one-bagging” it this time around, at least I’ll be prepared for all weather and lodging conditions.
Since I’m new to this whole solo travelling business, I’ve spent quite a bit of time perusing travel blogs to try and prepare myself for the emotional and financial toll of jetting off to another country without a travel companion. These are just a few of my favourites so far:
World of Wanderlust: WoW has been one of the leading websites for solo travellers since 2012. Their articles are organized by continent (Africa, Asia, Europe, etc.) and trip type (solo, luxury, etc.). If you’re a numbers person, you’ll undoubtedly appreciate their “Top 20s”-style posts, including “The 20 Best Places for Solo Female Travel” and “20 Places to See in Your 20s.”
We Are Travel Girls: This one’s obvious: I am a girl, and I am travelling. Solo travel has long been seen as the “boogeyman” for young women, but it doesn’t have to be, and WATG prides itself on “Empowering women to explore the world, one adventure at a time.” In addition to solo travel, their articles cover girls getaways, couples travel, family travel, budget travel, and responsible travel, which emphasizes sustainability and reducing your travel carbon footprint.
Nina Out and About: As a seasoned solo traveller and expat, Nina’s articles cover a wide range of trip and relocation topics. Her articles (and her newsletter, which you should definitely subscribe to) are a wealth of knowledge sprinkled with humorous anecdotes about transportation woes and travel mishaps. Nina writes candidly about her health struggles and what it’s like to fly with a big dog, making her one of the more relatable bloggers I’ve discovered in recent years.
I look forward to continuing my research (years of writing books has made Googling things a pastime of mine). Now that I’ve booked all my accommodation, my flight, and my rental car, finalized my budget and itinerary, and arranged my travel insurance, I can finally start focusing on the little, fun things that will hopefully make my first solo trip a memorable one.
I’ve been talking about my trip a lot lately, but let’s not forget that this is technically a writing blog… which means I’m supposed to be talking about my books. Hearts Unbound releases this Saturday, April 20th, and aside from a handful of social media posts, I’ve barely promoted it at all. The truth is, I’ve been burnt out for a while, but I kept pushing myself to create content because the thought of not writing and not self-publishing was, admittedly, kind of scary.
Not as scary as translating the series into French, though. I hinted at this in my most recent Proof Unboxing video, but my next big project will involve publishing the French version of the Moving Mountains series. Thankfully, I have several family members who are fluent in the language, who have been helping me with the masculine/feminine as well as the punctuation. More languages = more readers. That’s how this works, right?
If you’re still undecided about whether or not you should take a chance on my series, perhaps this glowing review will change your mind:
Spoiler alert: Hearts Unbound has a happy ending, if you’re into those. And, of course, cowboys.