Complete Guide to TRAVELING SOLO Your First Time

everything you need to know to have a really awesome time traveling by yourself I'm doing this video and this topic today because I recently watched this video by lost LeBlanc over on his 2 million subscriber Channel about why he never travels alone and in this video he went to the British Virgin Islands and basically said he was doing a honeymoon quality or honeymoon level trip and really just kind of felt Lonely at the beginning but really enjoyed it at the end because he said this is the first solo trip he has taken in a long time and so in today's video I wanted to share my tips on traveling solo I've certainly traveled a lot uh with my family with OC girl my wife with our daughter with my parents but I've also taken hundreds of trips by myself and you know what they both kinds of trips are equally rewarding so don't feel like traveling by yourself is weird or somehow strange it can be a totally awesome and rewarding experience by the way today's video is sponsored by level 8 suitcases I'll be giving away one of their Voyager carry-on suitcases later in this live stream to somebody who can answer one of my questions all right the first thing uh if you're planning a solo trip and by the way I like to have numbers and so in this video I've got what 27 different steps to an awesome solo travel tip and so starting with number one the first step if you're thinking about going by yourself planning a solo trip is you need to decide what kind of solo trip you want and so I put Solo trips um and people who are Solo Travelers into two categories do you want an introvert solo trip and by the way I consider myself an introvert somebody who is totally fine being by themselves doesn't need to be around other people in that case a solo introvert trip is going to be one where you don't need to plan a lot of activities you don't need to plan being without other people because you're just totally good being by yourself or are you an extrovert like my daughter or the spunky princess right here where you need to be with other people you know she just loves to go in the ball pits and the more kids that are there the better for her and so you can travel by yourself and plan a lot of hangout activities uh but we'll get into that in step two so once you've decided what kind of traveler you are or you're somebody who wants to be by yourself go to all the museums see the movies see the activities by yourself or are you somebody who wants to go party it up and make a whole bunch of new friends well then you're going to want to pick number two here an appropriate destination Chris aren't all great travel destinations appropriate some are definitely better than others depending upon what kind of traveler you are and so uh introverts might want to pick places with lots of arts and cultural activities places where you can also go on great hikes nature beats is picking a place that has a lot of stuff that you like to do now if you're an extrovert then you're going to want to pick a place with more of a party scene uh clubs and bars if that's what you into or maybe activity sports ball games um potentially a place with more of an international crowd extrovert Travelers often have a hard time and one of my favorite destinations which is Japan because there is definitely a language barrier in Japan and so many extrovert Travelers who go to Japan say they have a hard time connecting with the locals uh and making new friends there just because of the language barrier but you know what introvert Travelers don't have that problem at all because I didn't really want to connect with anybody anyway I was just happy to go about my business without anybody talking to me now on the note of lost leblanc's video about why he never travels alone he said he was doing a honeymoon level trip you know maybe if you don't want to feel lonely don't go to a honeymoon level place don't go to Maui the quintessential Honeymooners Island because that might just make you feel a little bit lonely the third thing you should do if you're planning a solo trip is then research your destination I mean you're watching yellow productions here on YouTube so you're probably someone who researches your destination but in particular since you know you're traveling by yourself you're not traveling with a group groups bring safety use of research the parts of your destination that you should not go to you should research those no-go zones and uh here in downtown Los Angeles uh you know there's some no-go zones like you don't want to go to Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles and so it's worthwhile looking on a map researching it and figuring out what those places are so you don't inadvertently stumble across them oh by the way and if you want to play a fun game as I'm going through this video as I put up these pictures I'm going to take a little while before I describe what it is or what we're looking at so you can be like what is that place um and that's courtesy of Bill Wu who suggested I should wait a little while before I introduce these pictures because he thought it was fun to try to think about where these things are all right the fourth Thing You Are Gonna Wanna Do planning a solo trip is you are going to want to choose not just a destination that suits you but also a hotel style that suits you there are so many different types of hotels and really they cater different people and make a huge different about your trip being the base that you stay in if you haven't traveled much you might think that every hotel is like a Holiday Inn rooms that look the same with really pretty boring but functional lobbies and it turns out uh that there's a lot more different types of hotels out there in particular if you want to be at a place with a lot of activities a lot of other people you might want to book a resort hotel this is the JW Marriott Palm Springs which we have an upcoming video review over actually Desert Springs you know Resorts have activities you can join like morning yoga or stand-up paddle boarding lessons which will be activities where you can meet and mingle with other potential solo Travelers now my wife OC girl who definitely considers herself an introvert really likes hotels with fun Lobby areas because she likes to sit there enjoy the live music not to chit chat with other people but in fact to be there on her laptop writing a blog or writing something but just being in that environment gives her some energy around all those people in that lively place uh now one tip with hotels something you should avoid as a Solo Traveler you definitely want to avoid hotels or lodging that has a single traveler surcharge cruise ships are notorious for having a Solo Traveler surcharge because they base their things on double occupancy and if you're single then they're gonna charge you more because they don't make as much money on food and things like that if you're only occupying the room yourself and by the way I see uh in the chat people said I think it's Palm Springs and So Cal Seth says he has stayed right there that's awesome all right I love to see a lot of the good guesses on these pictures and Phil says uh OC girl has a Blog it's she sure does ocgirl.net if you want to that out all right the fifth fifth thing you uh definitely want to do if you're planning a solo trip is once you've picked your hotel know how to get to your hotel before you get to your destination have a plan and stick to it and really think about what works for you is that plan as a solar traveler bus might be the cheapest option but maybe not the safest depending upon where the buses go where you have to pick it up there are also lots of scam artists that hang out around airports in many part of the world and also train stations and so beware in the train station of the person who wants to help you buy tickets in the train station because they're going to single you out as a Solo Traveler you've got your luggage you're by yourself you're an easy target for them to help and help themselves to a little bit of your money from your pocket or your purse while they're helping you with that ticket machine you always want to look like you know where you're going you never want to look like you are lost and so taxi or ride share can be expensive ways to get from airports to your hotels but often a really good option because it gets you from the safe part of the airport to the safe part of your hotel in a way that just gets you right there now if I'm in a place that I don't know and I'm worried about the taxi driver not taking me to the right place or taking me to a different place you know I've always got Google Maps up on my phone so I know the destination I watch where we're going and make sure the place that we're going and the place I'm gonna get dropped off at is the place I actually wanted to go now that sixth thing that's really good to do as a traveler oh by the way that picture was the same JW Marriott in Palm Springs okay right here okay think about what that picture is right here the sixth thing you want to do is you want to arrive to your destination in the daytime daytime arrivals are just the easiest they're also the safest because it's easiest to get around in the day you can see where you're going the creepy elements they generally come out at night um and if you're at a destination and you're traveling around you're taking long distance trains you're taking buses do those in daytime hours and also if you're wandering around at night a lot of things are closed and so it's much easier to get around when everything is open I like to plan my arrival at destinations when hotels open for check-in time so that's usually around 3 or 4 P.M and generally if I can time my flight so I get to the destination right about the time don't whatever you do if you like you get to destination early you get to Paris at 6am don't spend your day dragging your luggage around the city you are just inviting thieves to come up to you because again you're an easy target you can't pay attention to taking your photos plus your luggage get to your hotel drop your luggage off keep it someplace that's safe and then go around the city now if you can't avoid arriving late at night if like your flight just gets in at midnight then consider staying in an airport hotel many big international airports around the world have hotels right in the airport terminal we recently stayed at one in Vancouver there's a Fairmont Hotel there because we had an early flight out the next morning but we've also done it on Tokyo and haneda airport when we've had a midnight arrival just spend the night in the airport hotel and then go out the next day and by the way this picture right here I've seen a few people in the chat get it right uh that it was in and out burger and then Kathy says yes it's the In-N-Out burger by LAX because you can see the plane right up there very good um and uh yes Elegance with alfredo says don't stay around the train station geared to Nord which is in Paris it's really ghetto yet many train stations in Europe the area around them really pretty sketchy particularly at night so much better in the day time uh and then Cottage full of love says yes cheap flights often land early 6 a.m and then hotels say check in at 4 pm so annoying indeed now the double Pro tip on that is if you really want to make sure you check in your hotel early um you can always book the night before like you can book a previous night and email the hotel and be like hey I'm not coming in the night before I'm coming really early but I want to reserve that the other option what I like to do I just email the hotels or call them and say like hey I know you can't guarantee it but I would like to request an early check-in if you have one available and most hotels uh maybe that aren't French I say not French because you know French and maybe even Japanese hotels are kind of like sticklers to the check-in time but in a lot of places in the world if you say hey I'm coming in early they will try their best to like have a room ready for you early all right the seventh tip you'll want to do as a Solo Traveler is you're going to want to plan out a basic agenda before you go to your destination you've got five days at a destination I don't mean you need the most detailed Excel spreadsheet in the world but what I mean is that you should have like one or two things that you want to do every day and maybe it's not so well defined that you're like I get there Monday and this is what I do a Monday but you're like if you got five days you've charted out about five mornings and afternoons worth of stuff and then you can kind of like mix and match those in different days if you've seen the movie uh Lost in Translation with Bill Murray where he's in Tokyo he's staying at the Park Hyatt Tokyo and every day he just looks out his window at this foreign country doesn't know what to go doesn't doesn't know where to go doesn't know what to do and so it just ends up spending his time lonely in his hotel room uh and so you don't want to be that and you don't have to stick to your plans but at least if you have one you won't wake up one during any morning what you're going to do that day and then because you don't have friends where are you going to go yes and Katie winter says the picture right there it is an airplane very good that was an airplane on our way to uh Hawaii as the spunky princess was looking at her um what safety card right there to make sure she was a safe traveler all right uh I'll give you Pro points if anybody can tell me where this map is from all right so the eighth thing you're going to want to do is you are going to want to print out maps and names of destinations uh particularly to your hotel particularly in the local language so that if you can't communicate then you can just show the taxi driver or you can show somebody I want to go here and so if you're going to Japan don't print out the paper in English that says the name of the hotel because they might have no idea what the English actually looks like print it out in the local language now if you're already at a destination many hotels will have cards in their local language that you can pick up from the front desk or concierge that are like take me to cards that the card will say take me to this hotel here's the address that you can show to a taxi if you really get in a bind and you might be thinking you know Chris I've got uh ride share I've got Uber I've got Lyft I'll just use my phone I don't got grab I don't need to show it to them you know what your phone could get stolen your battery can run out a piece of paper that's nothing's ever going to happen to that and you can always show that to people to try to get back to your lodging and your hotel when I was in Korea when when I was in Seoul the first time I went to Seoul I was staying at the Sheraton Walker Hill Hotel and I was asking the taxi drivers to take me back to the Sheraton the ship there's only one Sheraton in Seoul but for the life of me they did not know what the Sheraton is they knew it as the Walker Hill Hotel that was then later renamed the Sheraton and it's like I handed them after trying in English for a little about the Sheraton then I handed them the card and then they're like oh Walker Hill Walker Hill every time I would hand them the card they would say Walker Hill but if I tried Sheraton Walker Hill no luck no dice but they could read it off the card um and uh Rob says Sheratons are great uh and it bought out our local Adams Mark all right uh let's see I see some guesses on this map San Diego Zoo Denmark Hollywood Walk of Fame yeah no no dice on this one this map uh is at this shopping mall in Costa Mesa California that I've got a video coming out soon that I've titled the weirdest shopping mall in America it's called the lab it's an anti-mall and so this is what the map at the lab anti-mole looks like the ninth thing you're going to want to do for a great solo trip is you are going to want to uh know not just to print out the names and maps for destinations but then on the day you're going know how to get there and again by knowing how to get there I don't mean looking at the map but I mean like in your head when you leave your hotel room knowing all the things you're gonna do to get there you're gonna walk out of the hotel you're gonna turn left you're gonna find the subway you're gonna take the blue line to this place you're gonna go five stops you're gonna get out when you get out it's a 6 10 20 minute walk you're gonna roughly know what that walk is so that when you get out into the big city you are not standing around with your big maps with your tourist book that screams I'm a tourist you're gonna look like you know where you're going because in fact you studied where you're going and so you look like you know where you're going if you do need to consult your map for a long time or you do need to consult your travel book this is when I would encourage you to like go to a cafe go to a restaurant sit down in a place that's safe and have four walls and then go ahead and open those and look at them I would say the same thing if you need to study Google Maps for a long time you probably don't want to be studying Google Maps for a long time while you're standing on the street corner because people are gonna look at that and look at you and be like you don't know where you're going do you well let me follow you around to help relieve you of some of your belongings as you're looking around if you do need to use Google Maps to get walking directions I would then encourage you to have some uh bluetooth earbuds and you can put these in your ear you're like Samsung buds or your Apple airpods and listen to the walking directions as they're given to you on your phone with your phone in your pocket or your purse instead of looking at the map as you walk that'll help you seem a lot more like you know where you're going because you're going to just have a friend Google Maps telling you where to go all right and uh this picture is in Korea of the what do we got right here this is the uh interconnected railway from Seoul to Pyongyang the train that runs from South Korea to North Korea train doesn't run all that often in case you're wondering but there's the map for it the 10th thing you're going to want to do to have a really great solo travel experience is uh when you're taking taxis to pick up taxis from legit places the airport taxi rank in front of a major hotel if you're staying at that major hotel look even if you aren't staying at that major Hotel how do they know if you walk in the hotel's Lobby and then walk back outside you're a guest at the hotel they're not going to ask you if you stay there they just assume you stay there hey can I get a taxi great and if you're in a place that's a language barrier have the hotel staff inform the taxi driver where you want to go when we were in Bangkok Thailand a few years ago um yeah we were taking the taxis there are like the kings of scam artists as far as taxi drivers go number of really great stories about how the taxi drivers tried to scam us but uh they are notorious for not starting the meter and so when we were at the hotel because we'd get into taxis and they wouldn't start the meter and they'd start driving and we'd be like you need to start the meter and they're like we're not going to start the meter and we're like okay we wouldn't stop you need to let us out of the car we're not going to let you out of the car you're going to pay this much I'm gonna take this but you need to stop the taxi and so we got to the point and this worked out really well and we do this all the time now in countries where we don't speak the language is we ask the hotel staff to tell the taxi driver where we're going and to start the meter and then we don't get into the taxi until the meters actually been uh started and Alexander says right here this is Oxford Street in London this is Oxford Street in London well done on Alexander and that's one of the great London black taxis all right um and uh oh Nunu says the idea to listen to the headphone for directions from Google is just brilliant I hope you put it to good use Nunu and I the 11th uh tip is to consider a car service uh you know what you don't have to take taxis and you don't have to take ride share but you can consider getting a car with a driver this is a way we're in Thailand we got away from a lot of the taxi scam artists um we just hired a driver for the day that came along with a car uh also great in Taiwan and we're going to be taking a trip to Taiwan later this year and we're also for the days that we're going to go out and about to take day trips we're just going to hire a Car and Driver a lot easier for us than renting our own car trying to figure out where we're going we'll just have the locals do it uh and great this yellow thing what is this uh Brandon says this is my yellow car Colleen says it's Chris's yellow car this was Chris's yellow car this is now my dad's electric car uh car has been passed down to Electric Rick so if you see this one driving around San Diego well you might very well find my dad in this car all right the 12th uh thing right here is You're Gonna Wanna consider getting international data when you are out and about and if you're trying to guess where this picture is uh it's like it's like a coffee shop someplace but I took it here because this monkey princess really likes a phone shoot you know we have our phones and so she really likes her phone too although when she was you know one or 18 months that phone was good enough and now now it has to be real phone now it has to be a phone with data if it's just YouTube and it's not connected I mean it's the same 10 videos all the time but not just for you not just for your kids international data is really valuable so that you can text or call if you're in a bind so you can pull up Google Maps so you can search train directions you can figure out where you're going you can figure out some places oh open like Google Maps or Apple Maps really revolutionized knowing where you are and not getting lost so whether it's getting international data through your cell phone provider just calling them up and saying hey I'm gonna be going someplace and it might be kind of expensive but it might be kind of worth it because they don't have to get like a SIM card or something like that or what we also like to do and this is popular out of Asian countries is get a you get like a Wi-Fi like a pocket Wi-Fi sometimes they call it which is just like a little battery operated device that has Wi-Fi it has a cell connection and then you can connect your phones or devices to it which is great if you've got a number of people we'll probably do that when we go to Japan so I can connect uh spunky Prince's phone oh see girls phone my phone all to this to get some good data and elegance with alfredo says I think the international data plans they offer horrible just by SIM card see it depends on the country if you go to Japan you cannot just buy a SIM card there's a whole like process to do that depends on the country so uh you know you could potentially buy a SIM card and also uh Elegance with alfredo if you have T-Mobile then T-Mobile actually offers unlimited international data depending upon where it goes so really the depends on the provider Kathy says she pays five dollars extra for her cell phone provider so it depends where you are depends what part of the world but me five bucks a day I would just pay that because that's a lot easier than all of the other options and Lindsay says pocket Wi-Fi sounds very super valuable the other part that's useful about like the pocket Wi-Fi devices regardless of where you're going Japan Korea different we're International to you is cell phones run on different bands and so in many countries you might find the best cell phone bands that have like the best service aren't on the cell phone you have from your country and so you can kind of like research that as your research in a pocket Wi-Fi all right the 13th thing that you're going to want to do for a successful solo trip is have appropriate luggage that you can carry by yourself that you can put in the overhead bin by yourself and that you can keep your eyes on you don't want to be overwhelmed by your stuff uh be particularly careful with backpacks make sure your backpack best if it's one that can like stack on top of your luggage uh and uh that way you can put your luggage maybe you got a backpack on you got your luggage in the stack and that way you've still got one hand to open doors I will say you know beware of taking luggage that looks too expensive you know the Louis Vuitton luggage you might want to leave that home because that's another one that just says a little something about you uh and uh you know when when we travel where's this picture right here this is at the parking spot parking garage at LAX which is right by the In-N-Out Burger that I showed you in the previous picture all right and Nunu says a mini yellow Productions bag for the little princess indeed that's right actually it turns out uh hers is uh she's got her whole channel name right there on this she's got a whole wardrobe of uh yellow Productions gear yellow pants yellow shoes yellow bow part of full part of the crew all right the 14th thing you're going to want to do to have a successful solo trip is you are going to want to keep your belongings Insight uh and when I say Insight or in your hand is even better don't leave anything unattended uh or attended but out of sight particularly your cell phone cell phone thievery is getting more and more common because people when they eat they like to leave their cell phone on their table and that's an inviting thing for people just to come up and grab so uh keep your cell phone in your pocket in your purse on your person not just sitting on the table don't ask people to watch your stuff don't leave it on the seats of public transport um and uh by the way it phones you know this is why we do leave one phone on the table it's the phone for our daughter to watch cartoons on when we go to the restaurant but it's not one of our phones it's not my phone it's not OC girl's active phone it's an older phone that I have that's just on Wi-Fi I have somebody deals it there's nothing particularly important on it and it's not connected to like any of our important stuff so they can have at it with that phone yeah and that's right I picked this picture in particular because uh right if you've been watching the channel for a long time you know Topher and that was the original Topher right there uh was grabbed in London because I put my stuff down next to me like next to my leg but I wasn't watching it the whole time and so someone nicked my camera bag with Topher in it all right the 14th thing uh when we just did 14 15th thing the 15th thing you're going to want to do to have a great solo trip is we're a little bit lodging now is to consider not just hotels but consider beds and breakfasts with hosts and when I say bed and breakfast I don't mean an Airbnb I know that's become like the thing Airbnb uh but I mean like a true bed and breakfast which is run by a person people a couple who make breakfast for you in the morning in their kitchen because that's a really great way to connect with the locals people who run bed and breakfasts they want to talk to you if one of their guests and we've had some really great local connections staying at bed and breakfasts I will say bed and breakfasts are not my favorite generally accommodation wise because I usually find the mattresses to be substandard and the bathrooms not to meet my um often my like bathroom level expectations but I've always found the interactions with the people that run them to be quite charming and enlightening uh this here we go feels very good and so is the points traveler this picture is in Redondo Beach yes at the Redondo Beach Shade Hotel uh and then Kathy says uh we stayed at the Airbnb in New Zealand a bed and breakfast in New Zealand and it was amazing thank you for that report oh and uh Blue Sky 7 says Chris what are you drinking today thank you I'm thirsty I should drink today I am drinking a uh pure Rising Phoenix tea from Oro Bay which is a tea shop here in Irvine California that specializes in tea that they make from like a they call it like a tea presso machine or it's like a seems like an espresso machine except they put the tea in it and so it uses like high pressure hot water to make the tea it's really quite flavorful and then there's as these a lot of these tea shops are they um there's all these like complicated order things so it's a large and it's light sweet and it has no ice and you can get like all these different modifiers on it but I don't like my tea to be too sweet I'm drinking tea not a soda yes it's quite good this is if you're coming to if you're coming to Irvine you're in Southern California you're looking for one of the best uh tea shops around it's this place or Old Bay honey You're Gonna Want to do to have a really great solo travel trip is if you're at a hotel that has a concierge chat with them you know the concierge is typically there as a person to give you advice help you plan your day help you figure out what you're doing if I'm at a hotel that has a concierge and I've never been at the destination before I always go chat with them and I just say hey it's my first time in City XYZ what do you recommend I do here well have you been here before what do you like I have never been here before you know what why don't you tell me hey do you have a map maybe you could like and they love to do this thing where they'll put a map out in front of you and like draw on it and say like hey what do you recommend I do where do you recommend I go the other thing I often ask a concierge just say like hey I'd like to see what's around the hotel what do you recommend like what's a good route that I can walk just to see what's stuff around here a story I have with this about why it's really valuable to talk to the hotel staff is I was staying in the south of France in the city of Marseille and I was staying at the fabulous Holiday Inn in Marseille it was not that fabulous concierge the holiday and I'm like hey it's my first time here in Marseille um I want to go for a walk tonight where do you recommend I go for a walk and the concierge goes oh well let me tell you from the hotel you should walk out down this street and then you should turn right and go to the marina and see little Marina right there and that and that's it don't walk on any of these other streets just walk on this street and just walk on this street that's apparently the side streets not that safe not that safe super valuable to have that information when we were in Tokyo last which was 2019 before the world shut down we were staying in the Hyatt Centric in Ginza and the guy who was checking Us in was a fabulously chatty French gentleman yes a French gentleman working the front desk of a Hyatt in Tokyo but I asked him I'm like and I've been to Tokyo a whole bunch of times but I was like hey um you know what what do you like we don't have any plans today and mind you we always have plans I was a I don't know how many plans today what do you what do you recommend we check out like what what's your favorite thing to see and he was like well if you haven't been I really recommend you go to the Starbucks Reserve in nakameguro which we'd never been to the Starbucks Reserve we didn't know it existed in Tokyo and it was truly an amazing find and you know what they might tell you something you already know they might tell you something you don't want to do but it doesn't hurt just to ask uh and hear the answer to the question and you know what super pro tip is if there's different people to concierge you can go ask different people because they'll probably give you a little different answers too they don't know that you just asked the last one four hours ago about what they recommend here there's two uh all right and uh yeah Rob says you know if you find something new always deviate uh and then of course the question is what's the picture right here is that the Hyatt Center can Tokyo this is not the Hyatt Centric in Tokyo this is the um Marriott County Hall in London which is this really neat uh it's like it's the old County Government building that they've renovated into a really neat hotel and that's why it's got this whole like Woody vibe to it it's right on the main river there in London in front of the London Eye actually the room I had in this hotel looked right out of the London Eye that big ferris wheel at that Marriott the 17th thing you'll want to do for a great solo trip is you're going to want to take group walking tours when I say group walking tours I don't mean like guided tours of like five day bus tours I mean in almost every major city in the US there are tour guides that will offer to meet at a place and take you on a walking tour for a few hours uh regular um participant here on the yellow Productions Channel you've seen me do a few collabs with him Rob from trip hacksdc in Washington DC he offers guide walking tours a Washington DC like meet me at this place at this time and I'll take you around with you know whoever also wants to show up at that point and show you the city and you know what it might cost you a few bucks but the money you spend on that is well worth the like packed information you get in a couple hours it doesn't kill a whole day maybe you meet a few fun people on the tour you know what if you're a foodie you could take a foodie detour and I'm sure those people would love to meet up for dinner or lunch you know maybe tomorrow or the next day and um I would also say another thing you could consider if you don't like the group walking tour is you don't want the tour guide you don't want other people is consider guided audio tours Rick Steves has some like a really good guided audio tours for European cities we did one in Vienna we really enjoyed if you're visiting Modesto in California Central Valley uh coming up here in about a month for the Almond blossoms you might enjoy the yellow Productions guided tour of the Almond blossoms if you've been with the channel a long time you might have heard me talk about this before but I'm working with this company called Wayfair that does these GPS based guided audio tours we've done one of the Almond blossoms we have a couple others in progress for other cities I've got one coming out for Vegas soon where you'll be able to like take Chris with you in the car like I'm just taking around using GPS and tells you I tell you turn right turn left look at this see this at your window pretty experience uh you know what and I really enjoyed the risk Steve's ones there was this company called detour that did these sorts of things and so I think it's a pretty neat experience you can take a look at those and you can do audio tours Notch to museums but actually out as part of your travel experience and cottage full of loveses I don't know why you would visit Modesto unless you were looking to see the Almond blossoms when we did uh the Almond Blossom trip we did the whole California Central Valley we started in Bakersfield Visalia Modesto Stockton and then Yolo County which is just east of Sacramento and it's pretty neat to spend like five days just checking out the on blossoms I think they're just as pretty as um they're just as pretty as Japan Nunu says are there guided audio tours for downtown Los Angeles I haven't done any yet but I'm sure if you Googled like self-guided audio tour of downtown Los Angeles I would imagine uh there's somebody who have done some the Wayfair app uh there is one I didn't do it there but they do have one for like Hollywood good they've got one from Malibu and they've got like a like a space tour to take you around the different space things in LA and travel best destination says I am planning Rick Steves audio guided tour in the next two weeks in Madrid Barcelona Porto and Lisbon yeah for sure uh and so you know the funny thing about those I I guided tours and the Rick Steve's ones are pretty good although they don't like it doesn't really tell you where to go like you have to go there and it's like you know press number five when you're at the next place um for us you know he says like hey allow an hour or two hours when OC girl and I do it we'd like take twice as long as Rick Steve says because we're off like taking pictures doing video and so um just words of the wise is uh you know maybe maybe plan a little longer than that by the way what's this picture that was a dog walker on a hiking trail that I was on recently but I saw a news report that dog walkers in uh LA and New York City can make like a hundred thousand dollars a year walking dogs no joke so it's like totally a lucrative industry all right and uh my dad electric Rick here is in the chat and uh he says hey I got a lot of wonderful ideas I'm ready to go on my solo trip but I just don't know where to go and so perfect timing that we got a picture of my dad for number 18 which is some tips I've got for you about eating when you go on solo trips so one of the reasons why people don't like to travel by themselves is they don't like to eat at restaurants or eat out by themselves this is like maybe it's a different category but they kind of like conflate together and um don't worry uh my dad wasn't eating by himself right here but it worked well for this picture because I was eating with him too so I was my mom we were having a great meal at Din Tai Fung which you might have seen that video of but I will say um for me when I go out solo I prefer fast casual counter service restaurants to sit-down restaurants you know the fancier the restaurant the little bit weirder it seems to eat there but related to weird you know if you bring like a book or you bring something like that then you know you don't just have to sit there and like stare out into the crowd you can be on your phone you can be that's a good place to read your travel book to figure out what you're doing for the next day uh I will say as a Solo Traveler I've had some really interesting conversations eating by myself at restaurants either with the people next to me or when I'm seated at the bar at tables next to me or the people who work at the restaurant so just because you're by yourself doesn't mean you can't talk to other people that are there obviously it depends on the place and the time and how you're eating but restaurants that have like communal tables or bars are often a lot better for having some Chit Chat than ones that are like sit down formal restaurants um and now I will say though when you're going out for restaurants you know avoid the restaurants that have the menu in like 13 different languages including English Japanese Spanish and whatever we had our worst travel meal ever in Venice Italy at one of those restaurants and I'm pretty sure the lasagna I ordered that just microwaved and I felt very sad about it and ramen goated says where is your favorite Din Tai Fung restaurant well this one is the one in San Diego at the UTC Mall in La Jolla my favorite one is the original in Taipei Taiwan it's a three-story restaurant that's just super cool the 20th tip for traveling solo is uh if you're going places at night which you will be eventually if you're going places at night because nighttime it comes every day right is to stay in well-lit areas with lots of people if it looks sketchy avoid it figure out what time most of the shops and restaurants close at your destination and go back to your hotel by then um it's good to head back to your hotel before the streets are a ghost town and all the shops roll up their carpets and roll down their garage doors and put their locks on and go to sleep early and wake up early early morning hours usually safer than late night ones and my mom always told me that nothing good really really happens after midnight and uh this picture somebody says that I skipped 19. I skipped 19 I'll come back to 19. thank you I'm glad somebody's counting I skipped 19 because my 19 wasn't bolded all right uh where's this picture this picture is coming in for a landing into John Wayne Orange County airport on Southwest Airlines uh and so that's looking out over Orange County California home to Disneyland at night all right um where'd nineteen go huh 19. I didn't put the picture in for 19. so that's probably why I skipped 19. all right 19 is to take cooking classes uh we've done this in uh Korea we've done this in Thailand we've done it in a lot of places and it's an activity that you can do like most cooking classes that are offered for tourists are usually like a two to four hour thing and actually on the live stream uh when we did one in Thailand we did it with Jake McShane when he joined us in Thailand uh and it was a lot of fun to like learn how to cook Thai Dishes like learn how to cook the curries learn how to make the coconut milk you're with other people there you can talk to you can see how they're doing it and so cooking classes are a great way to be engaged in activity connect with the locals who teach the cooking classes and then connect with some of the other Travelers that are there in the cooking class and you know unlike going to a bar or something like that where like it's a forced mingle you know being in a cooking class is definitely not a forced mingle because you're working on a activity to together all right and Kathy says she's not a fan of cooking you know what I'm not a fan of cooking either I don't like to cook neither does OC girl but the cooking classes were fun because particularly in Thailand because we just got to learn how the dishes were made like oh that's why this tastes like this like taste this this is how this is grown um and so you might you might find it interesting even if you don't like cooking all right the 21st thing for a really awesome solo trip is to ask for help if you're really lost ask for help um you know you could certainly ask for help at a information center uh there's no extra points for being self-sufficient you've got nobody to embarrass but yourself and it's much better to proactively ask for help than wait for somebody to ask if you need help because um that's actually going to bring us to 22 and by the way that was in Seoul uh 22 which is to be a skeptic of people when you're out and about in foreign destinations to you and these people just seem too helpful uh you know particularly unsolicited help on the sidewalk or in the train station really not the kind of help you want you probably also don't want to go into the business bar or destination that people on the street are asking you to come into this picture right here a classic classic destination uh in Bangkok Thailand where right you know they're just standing here come get a massage uh and obviously you know maybe it's not so bad because you're getting a massage right there but the people who say like hey come get a massage I'm gonna take you to my massage parlor around the corner and up the stairs and down in the basement you want nothing to do with that uh G says especially in Rome they try to give you a rose or a bracelet yeah that's one where they try to give you something for free I have a gift for you and then you take it and then of course they want money um and Jake McShane adds it and says I agree the cooking class was fun and I don't really like to cook either there you go thank you for that Jake it's not just me cooking class was fun yeah and Jake likes to eat out probably as much as we do so fantastic uh and ramen goated uh says Michelle Massage shops in Thailand or Justice scam there are a lot of uh scams uh there um and uh Tatiana says how do you know if someone's trying to fool you that one is not easy because you hope people are friendly yeah I hope people are friendly but um you know I I would say like uh I like to trust people but I also like to verify what they're telling me and so just you know if it sounds too good to be true it's often it's often too good to be true all right 23. the 23rd thing you should do if you're traveling by yourself uh particularly if you'd like to take photos is to have some plan for how you're going to take photos of yourself if that's what you like to do um you know what you can just hold your phone and take your selfies with your phone um even better bring a selfie stick or a gimbal with selfie mode I've been doing that a lot lately I've got the DJI om6 gimbal that has an extendable selfie stick part of it and so it goes out just enough to take some great selfies for all these very um vain thumbnails that I take if you are going to ask somebody to take photos of you ask a couple particularly one with a baby because they're not gonna run off with your phone they go really slow because they've got a baby um or ask somebody else that already has like a big camera around their neck you know if they've got like a big DSLR camera removable lens camera around their neck ask them to take a picture of you they really got a camera they probably don't want to steal yours and I'd recommend not asking people to take pictures of you with your phone because again if they steal your phone and they drop your phone or something happens to it really sucks to be you instead bring a point and shoot camera and just have them take it I really like the Sony zv1 I use it for video two it's a small Point shoot camera with an extendable lens very easy for people to know how to easily take a picture of you or you can also bring a tripod too this yeah Brandon says this is a picture of a tripod but it's more than just a picture of a tripod it is a picture of a crap tripod that's right you know so I ordered ulonzi carbon fiber tripod and they're like oh anybody who orders these tripods gets this one for free because uh this was supposed to be the crab tripod and apparently due to a printing error the box is all said crap tripods and so they're like well we can't sell these things and so they just gave them away for free the 24th thing that you're going to want to do is you're going to want to share your itinerary with others you know what we always hear stories about people disappearing when they're on travel they're in the Bahamas or they're in the Bermuda Triangle and nobody knows where they went and so with your loved ones share where you're gonna go share where you're gonna be um between OC girl and I we like to use the Life 360 app which has location sharing all the time so she knows where I am I know where she is um and you might think it's a little bit uh big brother-ish but it's been really helpful for us just to be like hey where are you are these so are you not answering my phone where are you like oh you're out and about you're still moving all the stores oh you're on your way back to the hotel or um things like that uh and uh by the way what is this picture right here this was the picture at a Residence Inn breakfast buffet I went to where they helped with your itinerary to tell you the best time to come for breakfast is between 7 and 7 30. it's green if you come from 7 30 to 8 30 it's busy and if you come from 8 30 till breakfast closing that's bad it's red I like I like places that do that to be like don't come for breakfast at this hour because you won't find a place to eat the 25th thing to help you with a good solo trip is to be careful when you're drinking alcoholic beverages don't get wasted if you're going out by yourself it's just not safe because if you're wasted you don't know you don't know where you are you pass out uh just bad things happen when you've had too much to drink when you're by yourself save that for party time with the Bros with the ladies with your uh wingmen or Wing ladies and ladies definitely watch your drinks uh don't drink anything that you've taken your eye off of you can totally take your drink to the restroom with you when you need to go don't leave it to sit there on the table and if you're at a bar get your own drink from the par don't let somebody get you a drink and give it to you because you don't know what has been put into that drink and uh by the way I I don't drink beer like I don't drink a lot um but I do drink beer I like Japanese beer on draft and uh our little princess she likes apple juice that's what she's got right there the 26 tip and we're getting to the end because I got 27 of these and then we'll do some q a and then I'll give away the suitcase which is start early um you know like if you're going to Disneyland if you're going to a theme park the best time to get to these places is right when they open and when you're with the group of people it's hard to get everybody up and out of bed all the same time and motivated but boy when you're by yourself you know one of the previous tips was to get to your hotel room early at night so that you can start early in the next day you know start at Sunrise watch the sunrise whole different landscape I've enjoyed walking around London at 5am Hong Kong at 5am it's kind of neat to see a city or a place as they wake up and the great part about if you start your day early at hotels you know you saw that one which was the breakfast weight was was not much early in the morning I like Hotel breakfasts I like to get to the hotel breakfast right when they open so when I was in Sydney Australia and I was staying at the Hyatt Regency Sydney what time is breakfast open 6 a.m what time am I at breakfast 6 a.m for breakfast uh because then what time do I get lunch like 11 A.M or 11 30 a.m before the lunch rush from everybody else what time do I get dinner 5 p.m before the dinner rush from everybody else I'm not waiting in lines and if I'm the only you know I take up a table at a sit-down restaurant I don't mind because I feel like I'm not taking them up from a whole bunch of people because I'm there and out before the hordes or the mob scenes get there all right uh my last tip specifically focuses on women these are some tips from OC girl um particularly talking about safety and harassment and uh why is there a pink train here we'll get to that in just a moment um but uh you know oyster girl and I we obviously travel a lot together but she also travels a lot by herself you know since we've been married and before we were married so uh you know her tips for the lady specifically one when you're chatting with new friends that you meet on travel it might be best not to share too loudly that you're traveling alone you know you might trust them but uh that doesn't mean you trust everybody else who might be listening to your conversation you can totally be traveling with your husband boyfriend family Etc you you know if you need to get out of a situation you can totally say hey I'm meeting my parents here any minute now bye and and just leave and if you're worried about getting hit on you can totally wear a fake wedding ring too don't share with people what hotel you're staying at they don't need to know um take a look at what the locals wear when you're in a destination try to dress similarly to avoid calling out attention to yourself if you think you're being followed by anybody go into a store restaurant hotel or police station if there's one nearby if you're going to a hotel chat up the people at the hotel at the front desk wait until they leave or ask the front desk staff to call a taxi for you many bars will do the same thing if a situation is getting sketchy leave before it gets too sketchy learn to say no in the local language and be willing and forceful with it beware of what country you're going to because unfortunately not every country is friendly to women it's not right but it's a fact and if it makes you feel better you know carry some sort of self-defense mechanism you should look up which ones are legal and the destinations you're going to you might not be able to take pepper spray with you everywhere uh and make sure if you do that it's also legal on the mode of Transport that you're going on now this picture in Japan is for the women only cars if you go to Japan and you're in rush hour on the trains uh take a look out for the women only cars which are typically pink um Japanese men are known to be particularly gropey at rush hour and so they have cars specifically for women that are the women only cars uh now OC girl says ladies don't let all of this discourage you uh it may seem like no fun at first after you've listened to all of this um but she is sure you'll find plenty of ways to enjoy yourself in fact she guarantees it or your money back on this video and she did know that there's no charge for this video all right great fellow explorers it is now q a time if you've got a question I've got an answer [Music] all right uh so let's take a few questions and then I'll give away the level 8 suitcase Elegance with alfredo says where did you get your Customs t-shirts I get them printed at uh printful is where I get my custom t-shirts uh and uh with the fake wedding ring I got hit on more when I had a fake wedding ring that is strange cat that's very strange and Esther says the women only cars are usually first or last cars on the train yeah there's usually um also markings on the platform that'll tell you where those stop points traveler says would you ever review a love hotel in Japan um sure I just uh I've not spent the money to do that I'd probably do it just as a one to make a video but if I'm taking a solo trip to Japan in the future then I may do that Shan Chan says are the women only cars only available during rush hours generally they're only available during certain times of the day because at other times the trains aren't that busy so it's not a huge issue Rob asks if I'm part of any travel clubs I'm not sure what a travel Club is so I guess I guess not Jake says one thing I like to do when on a solo trip is join a food tour run by locals that way you end up eating great places tourists don't usually go and you don't have to eat alone thank you for that tip Jake um Heather says ladies should only order beer and open it themselves and keep a finger in it all the time when not drinking I have too many clients that have been drugged by bartenders in nice hotels great tip Heather Diane says the overpass is okay in Vegas to use at night I think so I mean the overpasses are the only ways to get between hotels at night you know and I like I've not been out on the Strip at uh say like four in the morning but at least till like one in the morning I found the overpasses are safe to use because there's just there's so many people around the Las Vegas Strip all the time Corey says did you find Bangkok relatively safe from a harm perspective yes from a people trying to scam me perspective no and if you haven't watched my video on Bangkok scams do check that out uh that will give you more uh Alex as if I've been to this is probably the Azores in Portugal not yet I've been to what Lisbon Porto and a few places in between if you search for yellow Productions Portugal uh you'll find what's there uh B says do you recommend Cairo um and the scroll off my screen uh but no I don't recommend Egypt there's a video done by the what's a channel name like The Great Food review show best food review show something like that anyway he went to Egypt and they like at the airport They confiscated all of his video gear and so I would not recommend Egypt if you like cameras uh Helen says it's a pretty safe uh solo national parks in California uh I think so because you know National Parks have like a gate like a checkpoint there's only so many entrances and so many exits and there's Park Rangers and so I think the national parks are um pretty safe solo you know you might feel creepy camping at them but certainly in the the daytime hours I mean they're so busy and there's so many people that is all good Point trailers is what country is the least safe you feel you've been to um you know I here's like a it's like a perception thing which is I feel like when I was in Naples Italy it felt the least safe and I don't think it's because it wasn't safe but uh Naples Italy they were having like a garbage strike when I was there and so there was trash all over the city and so it just felt like um I don't know that I was gonna get mugged but I felt like I was gonna step on something sharp or something because there was all this trash everywhere if you haven't seen my video you can search for it Naples Italy the city of trash is what I called it uh and sleepy says yes the name of that channel was the best ever good review show best ever good food review I think there's a food in there too or something like that all right uh and Jake says Afghanistan is by far the least safe I've been I yes I've not been to Afghanistan so I can't claim that one on my list yes it's the time you've been waiting for it's time for the giveaway all right fellow Explorers so thanks to level eight for sponsoring the giveaway on this live stream today I'll be giving away the level 8 Voyager check-in suitcase which if you haven't seen I've done a review on this one before I can't guarantee the color they'll send the ones that they have available at the time but I did review a neat yellow one and so this contest is open to residents of the US Europe and Canada because that's where they have these suitcases to ship out uh and so Mike and by the way so uh that's who it's open to if you win then you're not from there well I'm sorry I can't ship you a suitcase uh because it's not like I'm not shipping it to you level eight is gonna ship it directly to you from their warehouse all right so the question is I showed a map earlier I showed a map uh from a from a shopping mall uh what was the name of that shopping mall if you're the first person to answer that question in the chat correctly you will win this suitcase right here now if you're wondering when the next live stream is head over to uh update.yellow-productions.com you can sign up for the email list where you'll be the first to know when I do a live stream and what the topic is going to be uh there will not be one next week next week in the place of this live stream time I'll be putting out my guide to the best Japanese Onsen hotels that I've stayed at uh and as long as an hour long so you'll have a good live stream time even though it won't be live and if you want to pick up any uh yellow production shirts or merch uh head over to the yellow Productions shop right there and now we have a winner winner chicken dinner congratulations Cottage full of love you are the first person to answer the lab which is yes the name of that shopping mall that had that really interesting map uh and who's in second place it was uh Simon El Jamal uh and third place was um uh kind of close travel best destinations but unfortunately 1K so Cottage full of love it goes to you send me an email to Chris yellow Dash productions.com you'll find the link to that in the description and I'll get that suitcase headed out right to you all by the way if any of you want to pick up a level 8 suitcase you've seen my reviews of it in the description there's a code for 10 off that they're offering for viewers of yellow Productions well as usual fellow explorers it was super great hanging out with you all today I won't say goodbye because I'm gonna see you in the next video

Channel: Yellow Productions

Views: 8,624

Keywords: solo travel, travel solo, travel alone, introvert travel

Id: p7S7WExOW3s

Length: 60min 29sec (3629 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 31 2023