The Type of Travel Older Women Should Try

I caught the independent travel bug when I was 20 years old, studying abroad in Australia. Over the years, I’ve dabbled in going solo, but I’ve also been joined by close friends and even my son.

My first adult solo trip was 20 years ago to Peru, an experience that further fanned a passion for traveling alone. I had planned to go with my boyfriend but after a break-up a week before our flight, I decided to go anyway.

It wasn’t the trip I imagined, though solo travel gave me space to process the breakup. I also met someone who became a lifelong friend. This past holiday season, I felt that familiar itch for a big trip. When ideas for destinations with prospective travel partners weren’t lining up, I joined several Facebook groups for older solo female travelers. The Ethel On-The-Go is a valuable resource to find like-minded, adventurous women.

Empowerment, confidence, meeting new people and the ability to do exactly what you want really resonated with me. I was encouraged to see that solo female travel is rapidly growing — in the last five years the number of women traveling alone has increased by 50 percent.

Inspired by online testimonials and my own wanderlust, I booked a flight to Panama. Some solo travelers love group tours, as you are guaranteed to be with other people. While I am an extreme extrovert, I like the opportunity to do my own thing.

That first moment of empowerment came as soon as I arrived in Panama City when my hotel room wasn’t ready. I thought about my usual travel companions, who would have grabbed a leisurely lunch while we waited to check in.

Rather than sitting through a long lunch, I ventured out to see the Panama Canal. I changed clothes in the hotel lobby bathroom, happy that I didn’t have to negotiate with friends on how to spend the afternoon. It was liberating.

I chatted with people in line at the canal, and that evening, I met up with a couple for dinner that I had connected with before the trip on a Panama travel site.

There were meals where it was just my electronic reader and me. I had one particularly long lunch waiting out a rainstorm. While I slowly sipped my coffee, I did feel a bit lonely as I noticed the couple holding hands at the table next to me, and the family nearby, laughing and playing cards.

And many other times, I thought: “Look at me. I can do this. I can do anything.” I had one of those moments during a solo hike, when I saw surprisingly few hikers on the trail. I was sitting at the top of an extinct volcano watching the mist roll in and out, revealing a stunning 360-degree panorama of the valley.

Randomly, the music shuffling on my iPhone landed on “Fight Song,” which had become the theme song during my divorce. The lyrics, “My power’s turned on” and “I don’t care if nobody else believes, cause I’ve got a lot of fight left in me,” felt fitting. I wouldn’t have had that feeling if I had been hiking with a friend or a significant other.

When traveling solo, you have conversations that you probably wouldn’t have if you were with friends. You start talking to a stranger from another country while taking photos. That conversation turns into hiking together. That hike turns into coffee. Suddenly, you’re in a conversation about the world, blended with different global and cultural perspectives.