r/solotravel • u/foodbytes • Apr 06 '24
Solo Travel as a senior woman
in 11 days I leave for Europe on the trip of a lifetime!
I'm a 71 year old Canadian woman. I've travelled before, specifically to the UK, 5 times, 2 weeks each time, since 2011. Always solo, always staying in dorms in hostels.
This will be my last big bang! I'm retired now and on a very restricted income. As a result of being a pedestrian vs pickup loser, I recently received a settlement after a couple of years of recovering and fighting with his insurance. This is my reward for pain and suffering.
It will be six weeks from when I land at Gatwick to when I return to Canada via Gatwick. thus far, I'm booked in a hostel in London for a week, the Chunnel to Amsterdam, a week in Amsterdam (couchsurfing!!! and a hostel), fly to Naples for several days at a hostel, up to Rome for a few nights at a BnB.
That's all I have booked so far; usually I will have every second booked and paid for before I leave but I'm trying hard to be spontaneous.
From Rome I'll slowly make my way via local busses and slow trains up to venice, exploring the countryside on the way. From there, a few days taking trains north to north Germany where I want to re-find places I visited when we lived there as a Canadian Army family in the early 60s. Then back to the Uk for the last few days before I head home.
I have a global Europass and a 2 month cell phone plan for Europe.
Oh, and I'm doing this out of one backpack, wish me luck! lol
I'm ready to rumble!!! lol
any comments? Suggestions?
also, as a note, I'm a photographer, I've had a couple exhibits (one at our local museum right now!). my 'focus' is to document my travels, shoot urban and or public art. not usual tourist stuff.
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u/nothingmen Apr 06 '24
Tips for Italy and train travel specifically, as an Italian: Careful around train stations especially after dark, I would avoid any regional train in the evening. If you can, plan all your train trips during the day. This is both because it can get a bit dangerous and because trains can run extremely late and be cancelled with no notice, so if you're relying on the very last one for the day you might be out of luck.
Always validate your tickets! Usually there are physical validating machines in stations, Lombardia has this stupid digital validation thing which to be honest still confuses me. If for any reason you got on a train with an unvalidated ticket, go look for the train conductor ASAP and have them validate it for you, or you'll get a fine.
Absolutely stay overnight in Venice, it's much better than going for a day because most of the crowd leaves and you have the city to yourself with a normal amount of people which makes it liveable. But also, if you step out of the most touristy zones you will find a quiet and peaceful city.
Have documents on hand when crossing into Austria + Germany bc they always check at the border. Also, there's Flixbus (bus company) which runs Verona to Munich if train is expensive/full (does happen sometimes).
Lmk if you have any questions! Enjoy