There are many benefits to traveling solo. It is however inevitable that you feel lonely from time to time. But there are things you can do to ease the feeling. Here’s how you can deal with loneliness on the road.

I’ve done my fair share of solo traveling, and although not knowing what will happen is one of the main reasons why I keep heading off, there’s one thing I know for certain when I set out on my next travel adventure. And that is that there will be moments of loneliness.

I also know that they are exactly that – moments. But knowing that they won’t last long doesn’t help when you are at the bottom of the loneliest-hole-of-them-all. So when loneliness sets in, I do a few things to help me cope.

Call family and friends

When I first started traveling, calling home was a big deal. Calls were expensive, you had to buy an international phone card and then pray that someone would be home when you’d found a phone you could use.

Nowadays, all you have to do is find a place with WiFi (unless you have international calls included in your phone service) and call through one of the many apps that allows calls.

The notion of knowing how easy it is to stay connected to home makes a big difference when you’re traveling solo. And it most certainly helps when you feel all alone.

Even though I’ve had calls that ended with me having a full-on breakdown from missing home too much, it really helps to speak with family and friends.

Tell them the truth and let them know how you feel. Even though you’re out there and (hopefully) living your dream, it’s okay for things not to be great all the time.

And sure, you might spend some time with the mandatory lines such as “can you hear me?”, “how about now?” or “don’t move from that spot!” before you actually get into the conversation. But calling home will give you reassurance that you are – in fact – not alone.

Get out

When you feel alone a natural reaction (at least for me) is to hide away, whether it’s in your hotel room, van or hostel. But the best thing to do is to get out. Go out for a walk, have a coffee in a coffee shop or go window shopping.

If you’re like me, you might have chores and deadlines that needs to get done. And staying in is what you feel like you should be doing because it’s on your to do-list. 

But most times it will be better to get out rather than stay inside and force yourself to work. Sure, you still have your deadline but you probably get the work done in half the time if you get out and get some new energy.

The distraction that a change of scenery brings, as well as interacting with the world, will make it easier to get out of your own head. And ultimately shake the feeling of loneliness.

Use the momentum

If you have an creative outlet, then strong feelings (like loneliness) can be a great spark to ignite a creative project.

If your creative outlet is writing, you might write an article about it (such as this one) or you might capture the feeling in pictures, videos or paintings.

But even if creativity is not your thing, maybe strong feelings spark an urge in you to go running. Or hiking.

Whatever your thing is, take advantage of the feeling. Use the momentum.

Allow yourself to indulge

Whatever helps you feel better when you feel low, allow yourself to indulge in it. If you need to escape reality and binge watch comedies on Netflix, do that. Or get three different kinds of comfort foods. Did you already had five chocolate bars this week? Have another one.

Do whatever you need to make yourself feel better. Remember, this is only a moment and not forever. Procrastinating and breaking healthy habits once in a while won’t set you back long term.

Look through your photos

When you travel and feel lonely it’s hard to remember why you are out there in the first place. Looking through your traveling photos and videos will remind you of the beautiful places you’ve seen and the incredible things you’ve experienced.

And when traveling you experience a lot of things in a short amount of time. So you might feel like you have been lonely forever. But if you look through your photos, you might realize that it was actually only yesterday that you hiked Cinque Terre in Italy or visited friends in Switzerland.

Loneliness on the road is not an easy thing to deal with. But expecting it, and having a strategy for how to cope once it sets in, will make it easier.

And in the grand scheme of things, a moment of loneliness is a small price to pay for a lifetime’s worth of memories and experiences.

However, if everything you do fails, you simply have to wait it out.

If that’s the case: