Solo Travel and My Family History
Published: Sun, 01/31/21
Family lore has it that my father's father was a speed skater.
He would likely have skated on the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, perhaps on the Lachine Canal where my mother paddled a generation later, or on the Ottawa River near Buckingham, Quebec where he grew up.
Whichever, this all came to mind watching my brother skate. We've been going out a few mornings a week, before the crowds. At first he was just ordinary, not having skated for a few years. But by last Wednesday he had found his stride. In his strokes I saw my father and my grandfather. He's a beautiful skater so I put a video of him up on Instagram. You can see it here.
How does this connect to travel?
In our last reader survey, you told us that, when travel was possible again, you would not take just any trip. Your travel would be more meaningful. I suspect some of you may travel to explore your family roots. If you are planning such a trip, I encourage you to look deeply into what's around you now. Question it. There is probably family history right before you. My brother gave me a glimpse of this as he skated.
In my experience, traveling for this purpose is best done solo. After four trips to Northern Ireland, it was on my fith, when I was solo, that I really connected with my roots there. You can read about it here: Solo Travel and Identity: Learning the Source of Strength
You may also want to read Solo Travel: Meaningful Travel in which readers shared their thoughts on the matter.
Dreaming Big!
Last week, we hosted our first 2021 event in our Solo Traveler Insiders Speaker Series. Elizabeth Verwey shared how she dreamt big and planned and took a grand solo adventure, traveling to 8 countries over 9 weeks for CAN$10,000. On February 17th, we'll hear from Catherine Driver about her life-altering solo walk on El Camino de Santiago, with tips and advice to help you plan your own journey. For more information on future events, our video library of past speakers, and the benefits of our membership program, just click here. (Note: if you want to join, please do so tomorrow otherwise you'll be charged today for January and again tomorrow for February.)
Happy travel dreaming,
Janice
P.S. If you're thinking about your future travels, you may find these helpful:
- Solo Travel Deals Page. Updated monthly, to our knowledge this is the only list of tours with no or low single supplements on the Internet.
- Going Alone? Travel Insurance is a Must - why I never travel without insurance, how I've used it to recover losses, and how to buy it.
- VPN for Travel: What, Why and an Easy Setup Guide - it will protect your identity on public WiFi and let's you browse the net in English even if you're in a foreign country.
- Bare Minimum Packing: Here’s Your Packing List - our ultimate packing check list which I continue to use for every trip.
- The Wits & Wonder Travel Course Solo travelers have given the course 4.4 stars out of 5 and 79% say they are likely to recommend it to a friend. Many already have!