Every single one of my friends other than one person from college lives in some other country. I want to go visit someone. My family has the money, and my dad's probably willing to let me do it and might even be able to convince my mom. One problem: I have never, ever gone somewhere on my own. No, seriously. Other than, like, school, or going to buy something to a specific place, or to a friend's house (that one was intense tbh). I've been on planes on my own once or twice but there was always someone else waiting on the other side. I have never made travel plans on my own. I have never been at a friend's house for more than 2 days. I have never gone to a hotel on my own. The whole prospect seems pretty daunting, and there's no way I'm gonna be able to do it within the next few months. But I'd like to get prepared for when I do decide to do it. Not physically prepared, stuff like what to take care of I can do. The problem is the mental aspect. Or, as my brain so helpfully put it, "How do I what just like how?" (thanks brain. Always the helpful one.) So, I'm preemptively making this thread because I'd like to do a thing at some point. Heh. I'm very tired.
It's a lot of fun! I tend to prefer hostels to hotels because a) money and b) interesting people. If it helps, the people who run front-end services for like taxi companies and hotel reception are so deeply entrenched in their scripts that it is deeply difficult to screw up interactions. *jazz hands* customer service! Also, Google now lets you search flights directly, rather than using Kayak or Expedia or whatever, and it is fucking awesome if all you need is airfare. Good luck!
I have no idea how a hostel works or what I'd do or... pretty much anything, but good to know! (If you happen to have any more really basic advice like "what do I do once I get to wherever it is I'm staying" it would be greatly appreciated)
Assorted travel advice incoming. Phones--- If you're lucky, your carrier has international service in the country you're going to and you won't have to do anything. I have T-Mobile in the US and I had unlimited text and data in France and Chile. I ended up not needing the phone bit of my phone at all on those trips - texts and Skype worked just fine. If you're not lucky (*coughGABONcough*), get your phone unlocked, buy a prepaid SIM card when you get to your destination (they will sell them at the airport, probably) and pop it in. Money--- Call your bank (or go to their website and find their online form) before you go and tell them you're traveling abroad so they don't lock your card the first time you use it in a foreign country. Be prepared to get socked with foreign transaction fees when you use your card or withdraw cash at an ATM (unless you have a no-foreign-transaction-fee credit card). Planning--- YMMV, but I would say don't overschedule yourself. Pick a few things you really want to do and then leave lots of time for exploring, local events, getting around and getting lost, and quiet time if you need it. When I plan trips, I usually make a google doc for all my lists and information. Then I print hard copies of the really important stuff. If you're going to see a friend, your friend is your best resource on things like the local transportation options. Do all the passport/visa stuff as far ahead of time as you feasibly can, because nothing causes massive stress like a visa foul-up. (Boy do I have a story on that one...) I find having a place that's "mine" helps ground me when I'm traveling. In NYC, it was the tiny Salvadorian taco place across the street. In Chile it was a coffee shop. If you're staying in a city for a few days, go for a walk the first day and find your place. Drink a lot of water on the plane and after the flight. Jet lag sucks and there's not much you can do about it. Attitude--- You plan as best you can, but once you're on the trip, you just have to roll with whatever comes. When something goes wrong - as something almost certainly will - stay calm and work through it one step at a time, and don't hesitate to ask for help. (People are generally very helpful to a foreigner asking politely.) You'll be okay. You'll have a great time!
Thanks! (For the record, I have no plans to actually go someplace right now, this is for the future... maybe January? Or July next year? I don't know) So: Phones: Prepaid SIM because Claro Data Roaming is really expensive (I have a "special plan" that's "only" a dollar per 10 MB but still. Also, Wifi is my friend.) Money: I'll sort the bank stuff out with my parents, I'm sure that's gonna be fine. Planning: This is gonna be the hardest one. I'm gonna have to figure out "what I want to do" and that's gonna suck but I can ask my friends and it won't be that bad. Oh I know all about passport and visa problems. We need to compare stories at some point. I've had the worst luck when I was a kid. (Didn't help that the international airport is a 45 minute drive from home) Grounding place - great idea, I'll definitely keep that in mind Attitude: Asking for help will be... okay that one might actually be the hardest. I get really uncomfortable asking for help but. Okay. I'll try. If you say I'll have a great time. I mean, I survived that one time I went to Miami with my mom and nothing worked and it was roughly 35°C (mid-90's F) and a fire alarm went off and we crashed on the way back to the airport so. It can't be worse than that, right? :P Again, thanks!
Hostels you typically stay in a dorm - my favorite, in downtown Vancouver, it's typically a 4-person dorm, and they're gender-segregated. I think some Hostelling International hostels aren't gender-segregated? Idk if that matters to you. Anyway, it's worth staying in Hostelling International hostels because they have standards. Spoiler: I'm just gonna plan a hypothetical trip because that's how I don't forget details Okay, so, say I wanted to visit @ADigitalMagician in New York this fall (which I kind of do, but have to see how wrecked I am after a trade show in a week if I end up going). First I'd see when would be a good time, and if I could crash on her couch, because crashing with people is more fun mostly. But let's say for whatever reason I couldn't stay with her. I'd go to www.hihostels.com and look for something near her. I have a lifetime membership, but that doesn't make sense for you unless you get wicked into travel, so you'd want to look at whether the one you want to stay in requires a membership and what the price difference is for members. Some have deals where if you buy a year-long membership you get a night free, which is cool. So I'd book online for the nights I want to be in town, providing credit card details as needed. Travel! I am not near an international airport, so when I am looking at flights I look for the closest airport to me, a busier airport a little ways away, and Chicago, because I can take busses to airports that are not immediately convenient. 45 minutes sounds pretty convenient, but if you can't get someone to drive you all the way, it's worth seeing what shuttles are available from downtown: when I lived in Victoria instead of taking public transit for an hour and twenty minutes I booked with an independent shuttle company that stopped at hotels and then just walked from my apartment to a nearby hotel for pickup. There are generally a lot of options for getting to airports. For airports, especially American airport security if that's gonna be anywhere in your travel itinerary, I take an empty water bottle I can fill up past security and wear comfortable clothing with few pockets I can forget anything in. Never pass up water opportunities, and try to limit caffeine and soda intake: especially for long flights, the dehydration can really fucking suck. I also try to pack light: you can fit everything you need for like 10 days in a carryon no problem. One dude on my 5-week Russia study abroad only took a carryon for the whole trip, and he was fine if slightly boringly dressed. Having no checked baggage means you can skip baggage claim and go through customs more quickly. Have a pen with you, and know the address of where you're staying. Keep notes on your phone if you want. The worst part of customs is the line: they're mostly pretty chill. Just make sure you have no fresh meat or produce and haven't been on a farm in . . . some places want 10 days, some want 90, so generally just avoid farms if possible. This is because basically every border in the world is more worried about accidentally-smuggled pathogens than anything else you might carry across the border. Once you're out of customs and immigration, there'll be signs pointing the way to ground transportation. If your friend is meeting you at the airport, there are usually convenient marked meeting places if you follow the signs long enough. If you're meeting them somewhere else, you'll have wanted to look ahead of time to see if there was a shuttle or transit you could book or take or if you were cabbing it: O'Hare has trains right into the city and you don't have to book anything, but smaller airports will vary more. Luckily, all but the smallest airports have cab ranks. They will generally be well-marked, or just follow the signs for ground transportation. You can then wave down a cab, say hi, and tell them you're going vaguely to an area of the city while you're loading stuff in the trunk. You can sit either next to them in the front or in the back: some drivers have a preference, and you might have a preference, so whichever makes you more comfortable. When you're both in the car and they have access to their GPS, you can give them the address of your final destination. If you don't feel up to small talk, you can say you're totally wiped out from flying. If you're going to a hostel, when you get there you go to the reception desk and say to the person behind it, "Hi, I have a reservation under [name]." They will then walk you through it, getting you your HI card and key or keycard and your bedding and letting you know whether they offer breakfast and if they do where and when it is. They will likely need to confirm your credit card. For hostels, things you want to pack that you might not otherwise: a small lock and a towel. Most places will have lockers you can stick your stuff in, and you want to lock it up because you don't know who else you're staying with and everyone's just more comfortable with belongings locked up. The towel is because they usually don't have them. I am pretty sure hostels are why HGTTG says to never forget your towel. Make your bed immediately or at least stick something on it so someone else doesn't set up on it. Spoiler: Currency Most places take card, but sometimes cabs don't and you want a backup in case your bank freaks out. I told my bank and my credit card company when I was doing my study abroad, and they still froze my card when I used it in a restaurant the first time. So you want some of whatever the local currency is! You can change cash at the airport, but the rates usually kind of suck. Ideally, you want to get money before you leave: your bank can do this, even if they don't advertise it. Try to give them at least a week to get currency on hand: my bank only needed 3 days to get Baht, but better safe than sorry. Spoiler: "travel wallets" There's, like, a whole industry of making things you can wear under your clothes to carry your valuables like your passport and backup cash. They work, I guess? You can't wear them through body scanners. I have one, but almost never use it, and use my passport as my primary ID even Stateside because I don't have a drivers license. I have never been pickpocketed, and I've been to Chicago and Vancouver and Bangkok and London and St Petersburg and Moscow and out at night. Someone tried in DC once? But if it does happen, it could super wreck your day, so plan based on how much it'd wreck your day as well as how plausible you think it is. Also major seconding on the grounding place. I usually pick Starbucks because they're the same the world over and have wifi and air conditioning, but YMMV.
It sounds like you just need to show yourself you can do it. Have you considered doing a practice run? Like, an overnight trip to a city a couple of hours away? Afterwards you'll be able to tell your brain no, I can navigate/find things to do/stay the night in a hostel/ask for help, I've done it before and this isn't that different -- and in the unlikely scenario that things do go tits-up, you're not so far away that someone can't come get you, so you don't need to stress about things going wrong.
(to be fair, I have never stayed in a hostel, but I see your point) Anyway, I think maybe just take very tiny baby steps at this point. Maybe ask my mom if I could stay home alone for a few days again, this time during break so I can have the experience of not having a preset schedule I have to follow.
Hey, ultra-sheltered kid who's travelled abroad alone here! I'll add some tips later when I have the time, but first, here's a STEP BY STEP BREAKDOWN OF HOW TO ARRANGE A TRIP BY YOURSELF, IN HALF AN HOUR, ON THE INTERNET (your best friend): 1. Decide where you're going and when, as well as how long you'll stay. Since you're in Argentina, for your first trip, choose either somewhere in your own country or somewhere else in MERCOSUR - because then you don't need to stress out about documentation, travel visas or passports, you can save those for after you've levelled up! You can just show your ID to be admitted into the MERCOSUR countries. I suggest Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento, both in Uruguay, and probably my favorite places in the world. But you can also come to Brazil ;) 2. Decide how - by plane? by bus? by train, if available? For example, Brazil has virtually no trains and I have inner ear pressure sensitivities so I usually prefer travelling by bus, even though it's a lot slower and nowadays doesn't necessarily cost less than an airplane. Travelling by bus also involves LESS WAITING TIMES and LESS PROTOCOLS - you just arrive at the station with your stuff some 20min before the bus is about to leave, ticket in hand, and get on the thing. I find it very liberating, plus you also get to admire the view of the road and stop at shitty roadside diners, which to me is very romantic and makes me truly feel like a badass lone roadside hero (wear denim jackets for maximum awesomeness). 3. Go to the website of your local bus/train station(s) or air companies, buy tickets for your trip. 4. Go on a website like despegar or trivago and book a hostel or hotel room. Hostels are cheaper but you'll share a room with strangers. When I travel with an excursion (more on that later) I'm OK with hostels, but travelling alone I think it's worth splurging on a room just for myself. 5. Now that that's done, all you need to do is wait until the set date and pack your bags! Call up the hotel a day early to make sure everything's alright with your reservation, and tell them what time you think you're going to arrive. Dress in something comfortable, show up to the airport/station early (take an uber/taxi or arrange for someone to drive you!) and off you go! 6. Once you get to your destination, go to the hotel first thing! This will most likely require a taxi, so have some paper money in hand just in case. At the hotel, all you need is to arrive at the front desk with your ID and a print copy of the voucher you'll be emailed upon your registration. They'll show you to your room, where you can unpack and unwind from the journey! 7. Don't sweat about making plans or navigating the streets, the internet is your bestest friend. You can google restaurants, tourist attractions, malls, theatres, bookshops, or really anything else you wanna do. Hotel and hostel crews are also accostumed to helping you learn how to navigate the local public transportation system, where to withdraw money etc.
Thank you so much! (Quick thingy about Uruguay - since we're on the fat side of the Rio de la Plata, we kinda need to drive all the way around and enter it from the northwestern corner if I'm travelling road-ways (3 hour drive up, 3 hour drive down) so I have a feeling I'm not gonna go to Colonia del Sacramento by anything other than ferry or airplane lol) But yeah, Ferry/Plane to Montevideo or Colonia, and possibly bus to probably my favorite place in the world, Punta del Este :D It's a place I've been to a lot so I think that could be step 2. To be fair I mostly stay in the hotel when I go there but... meh, it works I guess. (scribbles down in Habitica) (Also, my dad owns an apartment there that he rents out and we go there sometimes? But I feel like being in a house is more of a responsibility than being in a hotel so, yeah, probably not until I level up. But it's a thing to keep in mind.)
