You’ve thought about it. Maybe you’ve even thought about it for years.
You’ve imagined where you’d go, what you’d take, where you’d stop and what it might feel like to just pack up and head off for a while. You might already own the van, caravan or motorhome. You might have half the gear sitting in the garage.
And yet… you still haven’t gone.
If you’d love to travel solo but don’t quite have the confidence to take that first trip, you’re definitely not the only one.
I’ve spoken to a lot of women over the years who really do want to travel, but there always seems to be something getting in the way.
Sometimes it’s practical. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s confidence. Sometimes it’s fear. And sometimes it’s simply that we get so used to putting everyone else first, we forget that we’re actually allowed to do something for ourselves.
So, what is it for you?
“I’m not confident enough yet”
This is a big one.
You might be worried about reversing, setting up, using the awning, hooking up water, managing power, driving a bigger vehicle or just looking like you don’t know what you’re doing.
Here’s the thing: nobody starts out knowing all of it.
Every woman you see out there who looks confident now has had a first trip. She’s had the moment where she couldn’t remember how something worked. She’s parked crooked. She’s forgotten something. She’s probably stood there staring at a hose or a power lead wondering what she was meant to do next.
That’s how you learn.
Confidence doesn’t magically arrive before you go. It comes because you went.
Your first trip doesn’t need to be huge either. Go somewhere close to home. Stay two nights. Pick somewhere with decent facilities. Arrive during daylight and give yourself plenty of time.
If you forget something, there’s every chance there’s a shop not too far away.
The first trip isn’t about proving anything. It’s about getting home and thinking, “Yep. I did that.”
“I don’t feel confident travelling solo”
Totally understandable. It’s probably one of the first things women think about.
What if something goes wrong? What if I break down? What if I feel uncomfortable somewhere? What if I get there and realise I hate being by myself?
Preparation helps. Let someone know where you are, keep your phone charged, try not to arrive somewhere unfamiliar late at night, have a rough plan and trust your gut.
If somewhere feels off, leave. You don’t have to talk yourself into staying just because you booked it or drove all that way.
And travelling solo doesn’t mean you have to be alone all the time. You’ll meet people. You’ll have chats with other travellers. You might sit around a campfire with people you met that afternoon.
Or you might decide you don’t feel like talking to anyone that day and enjoy the peace.
That’s the beauty of it. You get to choose.
“I don’t know where to start”
Sometimes we make the dream so big that it becomes overwhelming.
We think about the Big Lap, three months away, crossing Australia or heading north for winter. And then suddenly it feels too hard.
So make it smaller.
Where can you go within an hour or two of home? Is there a beach you’ve always meant to stay at? A little town you usually drive straight through? A campground beside a river? A caravan park somewhere you already know?
Your first trip doesn’t have to be epic.
It just has to happen.
“What if something goes wrong?”
Something will. Probably.
Not necessarily anything terrible. You might forget the milk. The weather might be rubbish. Your fridge might decide not to cooperate. You might pull into your campsite and think, “Well, this looked better online.”
That’s travel.
Things go wrong. Plans change. And somehow, you work it out.
That’s actually part of how confidence grows. The first time something happens, it can feel like a disaster. The next time, you think, “I’ve dealt with worse than this.”
Every little thing you sort out yourself makes the next trip easier.
“I’m waiting until I’ve got the perfect setup”
I see this one a lot.
The perfect caravan. The perfect campervan. The perfect battery setup. The perfect mattress. The perfect storage system. The perfect everything.
There is always something else you can buy. Always another gadget. Always another upgrade.
And if you’re not careful, you can spend years getting ready to travel instead of actually travelling.
You don’t need the flashest setup. You need something safe, comfortable and suitable for you.
And honestly, you’ll learn more from a few weekends away than you will from months of watching videos and reading reviews. Half the things you thought you desperately needed might never get used anyway.
“It costs too much”
This one is fair.
Travel has got more expensive. Fuel costs money. Caravan parks cost money. Food, maintenance and insurance all add up.
But travel doesn’t have to mean driving thousands of kilometres or staying in expensive parks every night.
Go closer to home. Stay longer in one place. Drive less. Cook your own meals. Mix up where you stay.
There are probably places within a couple of hours of your house that you’ve never explored properly. We tend to think adventure has to be far away.
It really doesn’t.
“What if I get lonely?”
This is a very real one, especially if you’ve spent most of your life surrounded by family, partners, workmates or people needing something from you.
Being alone can feel very strange at first.
But being alone and being lonely aren’t always the same thing.
Travelling solo gives you something that a lot of women don’t get enough of: freedom.
You can eat when you want, stop when you want, stay longer somewhere because you like it and leave because you don’t. You can talk to people when you feel social, or disappear into your van with a cuppa when you’ve had enough.
And strangely enough, travelling solo can actually make you more approachable.
People talk to solo travellers. A quick hello can turn into coffee. Coffee can turn into dinner. Sometimes you meet someone on the road who ends up becoming a really good friend.
If loneliness is one of the things you worry about most, you might also like to read **When the Road Gets Lonely: A Letter to Solo Women Travellers**. It’s a more personal look at those quieter moments on the road and the feelings that can come with travelling on your own.
“I’m waiting for someone to come with me”
This one can keep you stuck for years.
A friend says she’d love to come. Then she can’t get time off. Then she has family commitments. Then money is tight. Then something else comes up.
Next thing you know, another year has passed.
There’s nothing wrong with travelling with someone, but if your trip depends on someone else being ready at exactly the same time as you, you could be waiting a long time.
Sometimes you have to say:
“I’m going anyway.”
That doesn’t mean you have to travel alone forever. It just means you stop putting your plans on hold.
“I’ll do it one day”
This is probably the sneakiest one.
One day when work settles down. One day when the kids don’t need me as much. One day when I have more money. One day when I feel fitter. One day when I’m braver. One day when everything is just right.
But life doesn’t really work like that.
There will always be something. There will always be a reason to wait.
So maybe the question isn’t, “Am I completely ready?”
Maybe it’s, “Am I ready enough to start?”
Ready enough for one night. Ready enough for a weekend. Ready enough to go somewhere close. Ready enough to give it a go.
You don’t have to be fearless
You really don’t.
The women out there travelling aren’t all fearless, super-confident women who never worry about anything. They’ve just learned that being nervous doesn’t mean you can’t go.
You can be nervous and still leave the driveway. You can feel unsure and still learn. You can stuff things up and still have a great trip.
Start small. One night. Then two. Then a little further away next time.
That’s how confidence builds — not all at once, just one trip at a time.
So, if you could pack up and head off tomorrow, what would be the one thing most likely to stop you?
Because maybe that’s the thing worth working on first.
