Author: vanessacepeda

How to Solo Travel Safely While on a Budget 

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If you’re reading this then you already know that traveling to new destinations can have a thrilling factor on your life. Its self-discovery, on top of feeding into one’s curiosity. While there are many sources out there to help you travel on a budget such as student discounts, military discounts and lastly, stay alternatives such as hostels, it never really seems to be enough of a discount to convince yourself to leap into this trip. We are always being told that sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort for these experiences and while true I am here to tell you that safety is not one of them. 

So far, during my study abroad experience I have been fortunate enough to have had the chance to travel to a couple of countries with some friends that also cared for economic alternatives. And this past weekend it was my turn to embark on a solo trip to Paris, France. It just so happened that everyone else already had their own travels booked and or had family plans. While I did not yet feel it, traveling alone this time was about to affect a little more than I thought it would, don’t get me wrong. I have traveled alone before, but it has always been to familiar destinations where I would be staying with people I knew. Of course, the difference with this time was that up until that point I had only traveled with friends to these unknown places. Spoiler alert- everything went amazing and below I will breakdown how I made this trip happen while on a budget and alone while prioritizing safety. 

  1. Research Your Destination Thoroughly

Okay, of course I knew I wanted to go to Paris and because the city is expensive as it is I knew a hotel was out of the question and unfortunately an Airbnb was booked for the weekend that I was playing on leaving. So hostel it was, because safety is important to me I specifically found a hostel that had an all-women’s dorm which is an option for a lot of countries by the way, I specifically used Expedia for this because if you are a member you can get extra discounts by simply creating an account with no fees, but I’m sure if you use hostel.com you can find similar results. Next, the airport of Charles was about an hour away from my hostel but fear not because through the French app called IDF Mobilites I got all the train tickets I needed. Now I recommend that whenever you go and whatever transportation you use, always get a day or a weekend pass because it’s way less expensive. If you take away anything from this is to always use your student statues. I signed up on the app and got a day pass for $10 instead of 20 because of the student discount. 

2. Share Your Itinerary with Friends and Family

This is completely optional, but I shared my itinerary with our program advisor as well as two other friends. It never hurts for others to know your whereabouts, it’s a message your future self will thank you for. 

3. Pack Light but Smart

Finding an economical flight will more times than not be equivalent to limiting you to a personal item. I suggest talking about a travel backpack, any backpack is the most recommended item because trust me you will get sick of a duffle bag. I got mine for e18 in Primark and I have gone to three countries with it and it’s still good as new. The difference between a travel backpack and a normal backpack is that a travel bag is water resistant, it has zippers that go all the way down the bag, it has a shoe compartment underneath, a tech pocket, and most importantly two buckles to secure the sides and help compress it down. Pro tip: wear your heaviest items.

4. Blend In and Avoid Flashy Valuables

This goes for short travels in general, I always recommend simply wearing your everyday essentials but if our everyday pieces are a bit flashy it’s always best to leave that behind because it’s better safe than sorry. 

5. Trust Your Instincts

This goes for many occasions but from a Europe perspective, don’t fall for signature petitions on metro exits, don’t take anything a stranger gives you, and most importantly don’t have anything in your pockets. For both men and women, it’s always best to carry a fanny pack or cross body bag because those are the ones closest to your torso instead of on the side of your body. When it comes to following your instincts, always re-assist your surroundings and with that comes with never leaving your belongings alone for no one is liable but yourself. 

6. Meet People Wisely

 I have had my fair encounters of strangers starting conversations and while a good majority have been wonderful and insightful, don’t feel bad if you feel like you have to walk away from one if you sense it becoming ingenuine or suspicious.

7. Stay Present and Enjoy the Moment

To channel this I personally prefer to walk around to my destinations while enjoying the scenery, reflecting on sights and perhaps journaling about them. Trying local foods instead of chains is always a good idea. Overall, the biggest advice I have is to not only focus on the main sights that Instagram or TikTok will give you but to find some of your own and build a new experience for those are the memories that last forever and good stories surface.

Ciao!

Knowing your transportation in every scenario 

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When you are abroad in general, getting around through public transportation saves you a lot of money and helps you expand your knowledge of the area you are around in. But now what happens when you take that a bit further? This is what this weekend was for me. I have a pretty good grasp of the transportation in Milan and some places like Rome and Florence, it’s pretty much the same concept. You have trains and light rails and a few but occasional bus routes. I’m here to tell you that there is so much more to that. In Italy, there are a lot of frequent transportation strikes that can take place for hours of the day, sometimes even a full 24 hours. The good side is that these strikes are pre-planned. Many applications can inform you of how long, when, and where these strikes will occur because, trust me when I tell you that they will affect your travels.

This weekend I headed over to Portofino. To get there was a simple train from Milan Central to Saint Margarita Central and then a four-minute train to get into the town that I specifically needed to go to. Which also led to an optional 30-minute boat ride to get into the heart of Portofino. This is to tell you that not every town in Italy will have a commanding road for big vehicles. For example, in the area of Portofino, streets are pretty narrow and there aren’t many sidewalks, so you have pedestrians and vehicles on the roads. And by vehicles, I mean really tiny 1 seaters, motorcycles and Vespas. Besides that, everything else leads to a lot of walking. Meanwhile, in bigger cities such as Milan or Rome, train stations can make or break your day. Now you see, yesterday was time to head back to Milan then things took a turn for the worse. I knew that there would be a strike that day, but I did not expect it to affect the station because it was not recorded. My train ticket was supposed to depart at 11:00 AM but it kept getting canceled, in fact, the train stopped midway from where I was to the station where I needed to be because the strike would not allow it to continue moving.

I got off in a random town and had to figure out a bus route. Now I know what you might be thinking: reading a bus schedule is not that hard. But now try reading a bus schedule on a 5-minute time crunch, while late for a train, with angry people all around you, unlabeled stops, and a machine that only takes cash-the one asset you did not think you would need because you got so used to the city life and Apple Pay. Stressful times will test you. As you can see, that day I got experience of what an organized strike can become. For when I tell you that it was already 5:30 PM and every single train going anywhere was canceled. But having class the next day and being very dehydrated, I just had to persevere.

I became friends with someone at the station and bonded over our headaches and four tickets to Milan, I purchased in all of those hours, and nothing occurred, and no reimbursement had me at my limit of patience. But out of nowhere, these two strangers came up, and we made a plan. We would pay a taxi driver to drive 2 hours from Saint Margarita to Milan Central and divide it by 5 would cost us €80 each. Now, as expensive as that was, it was either that or sleep at the station, and I was not about to take that risk. So even though none of us got reimbursed for our previous purchases and I had gone to such a stressful time, I actually got to bond and become quite close with people who were strangers at first. But most of all, I learned to always carry a pheromone of cash, remain calm when reading a schedule, and know that there is always a way to get to a destination. But most of all, I recommend it to anyone. Avoid using public transportation at all if you can when a strike is occurring that day. It’ll save you a lot of stress, but to end it on a better note, I have shared some of my weekend pictures to show that not all patience was lost.

Ciao!