Let’s talk about solo travelling for Black women. The fear of sticking out, facing racism or fetishization makes solo travel especially daunting. Today, I want to encourage you to travel alone as a black woman by sharing 5 reasons why you should. To be honest, travel is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, it can be really empowering.
As a matter of fact, solo travel has the power to transform your life. Case in point: traveling solo in Thailand opened my eyes to travel and inspired me to take chances and blog my entire experience. Head over to my instagram to see my Bus Chronicles which often shows the reality of backpacking and dealing with buses haha.
1. There’s Not Many of Us
Our voices, our stories, and our experiences deserve to be heard. I challenge you to take a scroll through instagram and search hashtags such as, #backpackers, #femalebackpackers #femaletraveller #girlstraveltoo and what do you think? Hear me out though, I LOVE that women are doing the damn thing. That being said, it is important that Black women and Women of Colour are exposed to these spaces too.
2. You Deserve to be a Trailblazer
Imagine, what the first female backpacker felt? Imagine what the first black female backpacker felt? Probably nerves, shoot! Everyday as a women we have to become trailblazers in our communities. I encourage women to be Trailblazers in their own communities/ families.
When, I first decided to solo travel and told my family- the reaction was not what I expected. There was a lot of questions and my mom was NOT on board. But eventually, everyone was amazed at my journeys and were inspired by the courage I had to change the path in my life. You can travel as a Black women and you can inspire other young Black/women to follow in your foot steps. Encourage young girls to DREAM BIG and to TRAVEL and see what this beautiful world has to offer outside traditional norms.
3. Despite Racism, YOU CAN
I talked about racism in a previous post but, I wanted to emphasize this again. Racism will always be around. We cannot control how people treat others unfortunately but we can control, our responses. Some people will always be ignorant and that’s a fact.
However, with all the ugliness in the world there is beauty and often times on my journeys, I wasn’t faced with racism. Questions at time yes, but not that much racism. I learned to love the world again by back-packing because there are still good people out there waiting for you.
To sum this up- WE CAN TRAVEL LADIES
4. To Find Your Purpose
Everyone deserves to find their purpose, including you sister. Now, I am not saying, that I ‘found’ my purpose travelling, i simply found the answers to key questions in my life. Such as, what I wanted to do career wise, what my goals were, why I tried to please everyone around me. Often times, Black women are warriors in our communities taking care of everyone and forgetting to give the same amount of energy to themselves. I encourage you, Black women and all women to also give yourself that 110% energy you give everyone around you. I promise, it will do you wonder’s.
5. To Make Make Memories That will Last a Lifetime
Wether it is solo travelling within your own country or deciding to travel abroad, it is important that you make memories, that will last you a life-time. I unfortunately lost my cousin Chantel in February of 2020 and if there was one thing that she taught me it was to make memories that will last a lifetime. We as Black women have so many barriers in our lives and anxieties to worry about. But, the one thing that brings calm is making those memories to bring us back to a place of comfort. It is so important that we travel the globe and share our stories and then create memories that remind us that we are Superhuman’s in our own way. That we too are trailblazers and most important Human.
If you have anything to share to fellow Black Women thinking about travelling please comment below!
Thank you so much for reading, don’t forget to like/ leave a comment. I will see you in my next post!
Somewhere in The World 