"Traveling alone offers the chance to test the limits of what you think you know about yourself." -Andrew O'Hagan

In one word, traveling alone is blissful. Making that choice to give a free rein to your desire to travel and letting yourself to experience whatever secret yearnings you have shouldn't be put down just because you don't have company to travel with. Life isn't long enough to sit around and complain about how you don't have a travel buddy. With some cautious planning and information, you can give yourself the gift of a solo journey. It lets you be you. It lets you do things that interest you. Traveling alone, you will seldom have to hold yourself back. The experiences you gain, the lessons you learn, the wisdom you gather and the people you befriend will go a long way. Don't wait for something extraordinary to happen, get out there and make it happen. You can always go back to your old life if it doesn't work out, but you can never get the time back that you lost waiting.

The most wonderful gift that solo travel can give you is a chance to know yourself and explore that hidden essence of your being. It is also completely flexible as you can plan as little or as much as you want. Some like to prepare and set an itinerary while others choose to be spontaneous and take one moment at a time totally depending upon your mood, interests and energy. The liberty that you have at hand is tremendous. Feel like staying all night in a tent rather than crashing in a hotel? Do it. Would rather sleep in till late or gaze at the trees outside? Why not?

It's a good idea to start the first time with friends or with a group if you feel hesitant. However, you are completely right in thinking travelling is a personal challenge and it often tests you in ways that you didn't know were likely. It can be personally enlightening. No matter where you go, you will meet amazing people, hear interesting life stories and make friends for life. Each time you travel someplace new, you will have the opportunity to take risks and make attempts and things you never thought you would do. Your confidence soars. And the next time if you visit the same place, you feel much more familiar because of how much you know and how easily you blend in.

If you haven't traveled alone so far, your first trip might have moments of loneliness. However, you need to understand the difference between alone and loneliness. Once you start travelling alone, you will learn to appreciate and value your own company. You will learn to signify the time you spend with your loved ones. Being away from them will perhaps bring you closer to them. Alone is simply the physical depiction of not being in company of anyone else while loneliness is a different sphere altogether. As described aptly by Paul Tillish . . . "Language... has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."

When you decide to travel alone, you have the chance to bathe in solitude and expose the precious gifts the journey is waiting to offer you. An amalgamation of feeling your own presence in your dream destination when you feel joy at its best and not running away from anything, not hiding from your life, simply reveling, celebrating is a dream come true.

The decision to go wandering solo is yours. And if you do agree with yourself on doing so, you'll have the time of your life exploring the world. Feed your uncontrollable desire to travel aimlessly, shed all inhibitions and take the leap. Let loose and go solo!