Traveling Alone

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I was dx with AS /HFA or PDD-NOS as a kid but as of now having graduated with a Masters Degree in E-learning I feel that my symptoms have greatly improved to the point people don't think I have any social disability.

I love flying overseas and have been on long flights alone. You might consider me the most obsessed five star traveler out there looking for deals. I must admit that I'm obsessed with finding the best deals at the best hotels.

Ever since I was 4 I was interested in geography and loved flying on the plane. Even if it was my first trip alone down to LA from the Bay Area.

When I was 16 I used my miles to upgrade to First Class when my parents flew in coach. As a considerate person I offered my seat to my parents but they did not want to sit up there. My mom did not even get the concept of upgrading. I had the best meal and was dressed in a business suit. The flight attendant served me wine and Baileys Irish Creme.

I have stayed at many nice hotels and resorts. I'm obsessed with getting upgrades to the nicest rooms. My family and I have stayed at hotels like the Four Seasons and I got them a good deal on a timeshare presentation.

Being the beginning to end reader of our local newspaper's travel section I found our family a good deal on a Charter flight from Oakland CA-Paris Orly in 1999 for $680 per person with hotel for 5 nights.

I flew alone to Israel twice and enjoyed it. On my first flight to Israel I got upgraded to the top deck of the TWA 747 plane and it was fun.

I enjoy sitting in the airline lounge working on my laptop and enjoying the many different wines, beers and other alcoholic offerings along with the food.

This October my Grandfather and I are staying at the Wynn Encore in Las Vegas and I know how to work the system to get us upgrades in a nice way. I feel cheated if I don't ask for an upgrade. Some of the best upgrades were executive suites at the nice resorts and hotels.

I guess I put my passion to a good use. Do I have Traveler's AS? LOL

wish i could travel, but i just don't have the fundage.

I would travel if I had the monies.

I love travelling as well, although I usually have done so with either family or friends. The only time I flew alone was flying back from London to Perth [Australia] because I was sick and needed to get home from my backpacking trip around Europe. Thankfully I did come home because unbeknownst to me, I had pneumonia!

Aside from travelling around Europe and London, I've been to Malaysia, Hong Kong [x4], Macau, USA [x3], Mexico and Canada [x2]. I'm going back to the USA again next year.

It's cool you know how to do upgrades. We just travel cheaply In Europe, there are some really nice backpacker hostels. My friends and I stayed at one particularly awesome one right in the heart of Madrid, we were walking distance to a lot of major tourist sites and there were also plenty of places to hang out at night.

I love to travel, and I'd do more of it if I had more money And I don't mind doing it alone if necessary...in fact I find it refreshing.

~Kate

If I were rich, I'd do it.

I haven't been on a plane since the early 90's. But I'm actually thinking of going to New York in January (from Oakland, CA). There is an event in Brooklyn that I really, really want to attend, so I'm looking into it. (The event is a play, in which my favorite actor, Alan Rickman, will be performing.)

I would be going alone, since we don't have the money for an extra plane ticket, and we don't have anyone to stay with the kids. I think I could handle the airport/flying part okay. I did a lot of that in my younger days. Getting around Brooklyn on my own is another story. I have no idea how to use public transportation in NY, or anything like that.

The idea of traveling alone for this does have a certain appeal, but I wish I had the money to guarantee I'd be reasonably comfortable and safe the whole time. I'm afraid I'll have to walk, in the dark, through a bad neighborhood to get to the only motel I can afford. That kind of thing. If I knew someone from Brooklyn, who also loved Alan Rickman (and didn't mind driving me to and from the airport), it would probably be good to have them around for security. Unfortunately, I know no one.

I can't stand public transport. Being trapped in a box for hours with a crowd of strangers is not my idea of fun.

Any time I have to go on a long 8+ hour journey though, I can still do it. I just get drunk on the train.

I do understand you! That's why I prefer renting a car. It allows me to go where and when I want, also I don't need to spend hours wth unknown people. Of course, I use this service mostly when traveling with my husband (not alone), but this is a great way out for me. It has to be noted, car rental sites help me to find and book cars for my trips in advance.

Mostly I don't like travelling alone, though it depends on the circumstances.

There's a lot I hate about going on planes - massive airports so easy to get lost in and miss the connection, assuming I even manage to find the correct door to get in there in the first place, unclear signs and directions, uncertainty about whether or not I'm in the right line or doing the right thing to actually end up on the plane, sudden cancellations and delays messing up my plans and causing confusion, crowds, belligerent staff, having to find somebody to advise when things go wrong or you're not sure where to go, standing about in long, slow-moving lines where you have to pick up your stuff, move a few steps, stop, put your stuff down, and repeat, then security checks with different rules every time about whether you have to remove your shoes or open your case and remove your laptop when you put it through the screening, collecting everything up after you've been through the bleeper thing, suspicious staff at border control, being forced to part with my baggage and not knowing if I'll ever see it again, carry-on size and weight limits, not allowed to take your own food and drink, don't know if they'll confiscate my vaping pen, the precarious feeling of carrying all that essential stuff such as passport, tickets and money cards on my person, unintelligible verbal boarding announcements, always being in the lowest priority to for boarding, screens of information that change while I'm trying to read them, the risk of all the overhead storage on the plane being taken up before I get there with my case, then one minute you can use your electronic devices and the next minute you can't, cramped seating and not being able to move for hours, jerk in front reclines their seat right into your tiny space so you can't even watch the movie, having to ask the passenger next to you to move so you can go and try to find a vacant toilet, wearing headphones to screen out the noise and listen to music and then they're constantly tapping you to ask you some question or other, passenger behind you keeps knocking the back of your seat, mind-numbing boredom of sitting there waiting for it to be over. Yes, I travel economy class because anything else costs hundreds more.

Even packing for a long trip is horrible. Everything I want to pack, I seem to need to use right up till the last minute so I can't pack it till there's not enough time to collect it all together. Scared of forgetting something important. Endless lists of important things to do before travelling. Making sure nothing's going to go wrong at home while I'm away. Daren't oversleep because I'll miss the train or plane if I do.

Most of that is to do with long journeys when I'm to be away for a long time. Shorter journeys I'm more comfy with. Much easier when I'm used to the particular train station or airport and familiar with the ropes. But even with a local bus ride, I don't enjoy it much. Noisy passengers, drivers who don't stop for me to get on, risk of missing my stop if I can't see outside clearly enough because it's dark or there isn't a window in the right place. In many ways I'm happier to cycle because it's so obvious what to do in order to get to my destination, as long as I've sussed out my route, though naturally that's usually an alone thing, and even when it isn't, it's not easy to communicate with another cyclist while riding. Doesn't matter much because it's so much easier anyway. Walking is also good but it's slow.

A lot of these things are much easier with a smart travelling companion who I can compare notes with, somebody to share the troubleshooting.

^^^i could count the number of times i've been able to rate a smart travelling companion [or any kind, for that matter] on the fingers of one hand with most digits left over. nobody wants to go any place with me.