“Are you traveling alone?”

I get asked this question more often than I’m completely comfortable with. My mother, when I told her I was going to Brussels for the weekend. The receptionists at the hostels I’ve stayed at, making sure I was just checking in for one. Friendly strangers, trying to make casual conversation. Everyone seems a little bit taken aback when I inform them that, yes, I’m traveling alone. Maybe it’s my age, or the fact that I look quite young. Maybe it’s my gender, and some misplaced sense of propriety. Whatever the reason, people seem to think I’m a bit nuts for wanting to travel all by myself.

I’ll be honest: traveling alone is terrifying. Every time I have to ask a stranger for help, or navigate public transportation on my own, or frantically try to memorize the Google Maps directions before my phone dies, I think how great it would be if I was with my friends. When I see couples or groups roaming the streets of beautiful cities together, I do sometimes wish I wasn’t alone. I like to imagine how the trajectory of my trip might’ve been different if someone was with me, and how much fun we might be having.

However, traveling alone isn’t all stress and terror. I set my alarm for seven AM this morning. When it went off, I immediately rolled over and reset it for eight. The plan I had envisioned for today was to get breakfast, then head off to a museum about an hour from where I’m staying. However, it’s now almost noon and I’m sitting in a local library, writing this article instead.

Traveling alone affords me the opportunity to do whatever I want, something that can change in a blink of the eye. Getting a bit sick of looking at paintings? Scratch the plan of doing two art museums today. I’ll do the second one another time, or even not at all. Getting hungry? Why not stop and get something to eat right now? I can basically see and do whatever I want, whenever I want, with nothing to consider but my own interest level and how much money is left in my bank account.

When I’m traveling alone, I never have to negotiate between two conflicting interests. If a museum looks boring to me, I just don’t go. I never have to argue over where to eat, and I don’t have to wait until enough of the group is sufficiently hungry to get food. I can wake up and go to bed when I want, and I only need to have enough of a plan for the day to satisfy myself -- which sometimes means my plan just looks like the name of a location and the word “explore.”

Does this mean I don’t feel a tiny pang of loneliness when sitting in bars or restaurants alone? Of course not. But traveling alone can be an amazing and powerful experience. Sure, you have to ask a stranger to take photos of you and the burden of navigating difficult circumstances falls entirely on you, but in exchange, you get to experience a new city entirely in your own way. And, as a bonus, you’ll get really good at asking for directions!