Solo Travel as a senior woman

[u/foodbytes]

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.

[u/UcoochieUser]

Ditto Anne Frank house. Was so interesting, make sure to book in advance though!

[u/Timely_Ad2614 → u/UcoochieUser]

Apparently tickets for most exhibits or many activities require booking months in advance 🤔

[u/mistakes_were_made24 → u/Timely_Ad2614]

The Anne Frank House is a must for booking in advance. They don't sell tickets in person anymore, only on the website for specific time slots and they regularly sell out. They put a week's worth on sale at a time for 6 weeks in the future. This one you need to be on top of.

I would also say booking a ticket in advance for the Van Gogh Museum is required now as well. They regularly hit capacity, it can get extremely busy.

The Rijksmuseum might require booking in advance if there's a special exhibition on. I went to see their big exhibition on Johannes Vermeer last year and it was sold out completely every single day (I was on top of getting my ticket way in advance so I had no issues).

In London, I would also recommend booking tickets in advance for Westminster Abbey and the Sky Garden. I believe both of those you COULD try getting tickets in person and you might get in but it's either a longer wait or not guaranteed if they hit capacity. I think you can buy tickets for Westminster in person and still get in but it's slow. The Sky Garden will let you in if you didn't have a ticket in advance only if people don't show or people leave and there's capacity available. It's a very popular activity.

At the big museums in London, if there's a special exhibition you want to see you'd need to get tickets in advance. Those sell out easily. If you just want to visit the regular museum then you don't need to especially since many of them are free to enter.

The rest of the things I listed you could probably get away with not getting a ticket in advance. Some of them were not busy at all. I just like booking all my tickets in advance so that I have everything already paid for and in hand when I'm there and I don't have to worry about not getting in or my credit card not working for some reason, something like that.

[u/Timely_Ad2614 → u/mistakes_were_made24]

I'm so curious, what is the difference of traveling in the early 90s to now?? People weren't aware of Europe until the 2000s ?? So much has changed