I’ve been traveling for over three months straight now, and I’ve journeyed about in all sorts of iterations: entirely alone, with friends and family, and on different kinds of tours. I have enjoyed each version of travel in its own way — I absolutely love solo travel, but the delight of seeing old friends and making new ones can’t be beat. Ultimately, how people want travel is highly individualized. So it’s worth thinking through your options before you head out on your own journey.

Solo Travel

I have traveled alone thus far in Zanzibar, Portugal, Jordan, and the Netherlands — with Paris and Egypt still to come — and it’s been a blast.

Pros of Solo Travel

• You make all of the choices. Solo travel is by far the easiest option on a day-to-day level. Want to spend three hours at a strange and wonderful museum? Want to sit and eat grapes in a park for lunch? Want to just hang out in your room and edit photos all morning: You can do any of those things and more without any discussion — the when, the where, and the what are all up to you. You can always choose what you like.
• You can move at your own pace and be spontaneous.
• You’re more likely to strike up conversations — and maybe make new friends — with random people when you’re on your own.
• Solo travel offers more time for reflection. It’s also quieter (that’s a pro for me, but it might be a con for some people).
• If you haven’t done it before, solo travel builds confidence and independence.

Cons of Solo Travel

• The biggest downside is a lack of community. You can meet people, yes, but you’re going to be spending a lot of time alone. For some people, that results in loneliness.
• There’s no one to help you when times get hard. Travel can have tough moments — unexpected delays, lost items, difficult people — and it can be harder and more frustrating to manage everything on your own.
• Not everyone is comfortable doing things like going to restaurants on their own.
• Solo travel can be more expensive, especially when it comes to accommodations and car rentals.
• Depending on where you are, it might not feel as safe.
• There’s no one to take pictures of you! You’ll end up with a lot of selfies (or you’ll ask a lot of strangers for favors).

Travel with Friends or Family

So far, I’ve been lucky to be joined at different points in my travels by a variety of friends, my sister, my mother, and my husband; they’ve journeyed with me to (or hosted me in) Senegal, Portugal, Morocco, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, and Iceland.

Pros of Travel with Family or Friends

• You can have conversations about what you’re seeing and doing.
• Traveling with friends and/or family allows you to make deeper connections to people you already love — there’s nothing to compare to this kind of shared experience.
• You may be more willing to take risks and have adventures with people you know.
• Your companions may have suggestions for new things that you might never have thought to do.
• It’s fun to travel with people you know — you’ll laugh a whole lot more!

Cons of Travel with Family or Friends

• Different travel styles can create friction — especially if you like to see, eat, and do very different kind of things. It can also be hard if you have different levels of cleanliness, adventuresomeness, or energy.
• The nitty-gritty can get old: you’ll spend a lot of time having conversations about things like how to spend your time, where to go next, and how to choose a restaurant.
• Depending on your travel companion, questions of cost and money may cause complications.
• You’ll have much less privacy and less down time, especially if you’re sharing small accommodations.

Travel With a Tour

I have had two different kinds of tour experiences on my trip this far:

Solo/Small Group Travel With a Tour Guide: I went on a safari in Tanzania, organized by Altezza Travel, in January, with an excellent safari guide (ask for Vincent!).

In February, I spent over a week in Egypt — first with my sister and then on my own — with three different tour guides (one in Cairo, one in Fayoum, and one who accompanied me from Luxor to Aswan). And most recently, I took a trip to Turkey with ten fabulous people and a guide on a tour led by Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.).

As far as traveling with tours goes, here are the pros and the cons:

Pros of Travel With a Tour

• You learn a lot more! Travel with a guide means that you’re actually getting educated. I am extremely grateful to each of my guides for all that they taught me — and for answering my many, many questions.
• Instead of your randomly consulting guidebooks or blogs, someone knowledgeable does the planning. This means you’re most likely going to go to really great places (and eat great things), some of which you might never have discovered on your own.
• It’s plug and play: the work of planning is taken off your shoulders.
• There’s likely to be a lot of variety in both food and activities.
• On a group tour, you may make a bunch of new friends. I feel extremely lucky to have had an incredible group on my Turkey tour — by the end, it felt like I had a whole new family.

Cons of Travel With a Tour

• You lose nearly all of your decision-making agency. Your guide is going to do all of the activity planning, so while you can say that you do or don’t want to participate in a particular activity, most of the choices are being made for you. And the bigger the tour, the less flexibility you’re going to have (I like O.A.T. because they always have small groups).
• You’ll have precious little privacy.
• You may or may not like your accommodations (that’s also the case when you’re choosing your own places to stay, but I find that you’re more likely to enjoy a place when you’re the one who’s picked it out).
• On a group tour, you may or may not like the people in your group — it’s a bit of a gamble.
• On a group tour, you cannot move at your own pace.
• On a group tour, you will eat too much. When someone else is ordering for you, there’s a lot of food, and you’ll want to try everything … but I guess that’s also a good thing.

Whatever path you choose, enjoy your travels!