“I wanted to travel outside of Europe and there was no one available from my inner circle. Then I decided that I had to find another way to travel. On the recommendation of friends about people who organize trips for solo travelers, I made the first attempt and, unknown among strangers, went to Morocco!”

OUR Friday Mavrianu, a financial sector executive, describes to K the decision he made in November 2019 to travel from Athens to a remote destination as part of a small group of travelers who will meet them for the first time. This decision “opened” before her a real, big challenge.

“I started with reservations. I started thinking about what it would be like to travel with people I don’t know, what it would be like to share a room with a stranger, what the whole experience would be,” he describes in K. “However, this uncertainty and doubt quickly dissipated. The goal from the very beginning was common: to have a good time, get to know a new country, new experiences and people. That’s what happened.”

When the journey can’t wait

In recent years, including in Greece, more and more men and women, mostly young people, choose to travel alone: ​​either organize the trip yourself or join an organized group of several people. They start out alone, not because they don’t have friends or family, but because modern living and working conditions often make it impossible to balance vacation and budget.

However, the decision to travel alone or join a group of unknown (even in the first hours) fellow travelers most often takes them out of the so-called “comfort zone”. “This is not a decision that is easy to make,” he says. Anastasis Serakisowner of a travel agency in Thessaloniki, which organizes travel mainly in Northern Europe, the Balkans and America with a nine-seater van. 90% of his clients are solo travelers, who he says share some common characteristics as travelers. “These are open and flexible people who definitely enjoy nature, socializing, connecting with others, exchanging ideas, singing, even…dancing in the rain.”describes in “K”.

Until 2019, he owned a graphic design company himself, but a van trip to Europe and the simultaneous loss of a good friend forced him to change his mindset and orientation. He began – tentatively – organizing several multi-day trips in minibuses, received good reviews and, overcoming bureaucratic obstacles, founded a specialized travel agency. Now he organizes two or three minibus trips a month, and for the next period, according to him, he arranged six, which are already “sold out”.

“Today we are, tomorrow we are not”

Traveling alone is a travel trend that tends to set in, says Anastasis Serakis and explains: corona virus played an important role in this. We changed our way of thinking and said: “Today we are, tomorrow we are not.” So, I will make the decision to go even if my company can’t. We see – now – small children who take a backpack and run away“.

During the four years of organizing road trips, he saw people who, not knowing each other before the first trip, created groups along the way, became friends, fellow travelers and even life partners.

For a 32 year old Foti Tsakalowho currently travels with Serakis’ van around Iceland, one of the main reasons he chooses, as he says “K”, to participate in such trips is social network. “I like meeting new people and making ‘fellow travelers’. In each of them I meet relaxed people, without stress, who make me have a good time.”

OUR Friday Mavrianu, is preparing in a few days to go on another trip with an unknown company to the Lofoten Islands, to Norway. “This way of small tourist groups has made it possible for those who do not find the right company at the right time to have the opportunity to “escape” at any time. You start alone or alone and end up with a group of friends at the end of the day. Trend or not, this is the perfect choice for me to keep traveling,” he explains.

“To feel confident”

But what is it like to travel without the “safety net” of an organized group? OUR Maria Kofu, journalist and travel blogger she fell in love with travel when she went to Spain as an Erasmus student. There he realized that the world is huge, and people are too interesting to be limited to antics within the boundaries. When her friends couldn’t always follow her, she began to travel alone and make new friends in every corner of the globe. At the end of 2017, after leaving a well-paying office job, she decided to strengthen her travel blog and at the same time she encourages women to follow her around the world.

“I felt the need to show other women that they too can have this experience. Take the step to come with me and feel confident in our journey so that they can then travel alone,” Maria Kofu tells K.

As a travel “designer” she has already accompanied over 100 women on trips from Tuscany to Seoul and from Peru to Mongolia. “At least 50% of these women along the way made decisions and organized some trips on their own”she says herself.

Safety regulations

However, when traveling independently, safety rules must be observed. Maria Kofu describes the most basic of them, emphasizing the sense of danger at any time. “Before you begin, you must planned a complete, well-organized schedule and shared it with one of yourso it knows where you will be every day of the trip. It is better to stay in the city center so as not to use many forms of transport at night. It is also important to buy, as soon as you arrive at your destination, a local SIM card so that you can be in touch with your family at any time. Finally, you can start with Greece. Each step must be taken slowly and steadily.

Of course, the beginning is not always easy. It took even the experienced Kofu several years before she could get used to the idea of ​​traveling alone. “It took inner strength to overcome the stereotypes of previous generations and not to be ashamed that I was there for myself. However, it has happened over the years. redemptive and liberating. Today I feel like there are very few things in my life now that I can’t handle,” he concludes.