Solo vs. Group Travel
A destination has sparked your interest. You’ve come across a photo, article, video, or spoken with a friend that presents some far-off destination in a way that has piqued your curiosity. You have done the research, cleared your schedule, and are ready to solidify your bookings. Then comes the ultimate question! Do you take this trip alone or with friends? Travel is never just logistics; it reveals how we relate to the world, and perhaps more importantly, how we connect to ourselves.
Group Travel
As the saying goes, companions multiply your joys and divide your burdens. In an ideal world, that is true, but choose the wrong people to surround yourself with, and they can quickly become the burden that you were hoping to avoid. The truth is, most people choose to take a trip with others because they take comfort in having familiar faces in unknown territory. Though after a lifetime of travel, I can attest to the fact that the real value of sharing a trip with others comes long after the trip is done. Travel with others, be it one person or many, has the benefit of living on in shared memories. It gives rise to knowing winks and inside jokes that can be appreciated years later, and the knowledge that those moments live on outside of your own head. Later in life, that shared witness to events elevates the value of the trip in many ways. When it comes to assembling your team for this trip, be it for pleasure or as a full-blown expedition, the rules are similar to selecting a team in other aspects of life.
Team Dynamics
Since I work in the world of documenting stories through different mediums, I will use that as my metaphor. I have worked with groups that have empowered me, lifted me up, and expanded my beliefs in what I thought I was capable of. I have also worked in teams that tear me down, steal my peace, and rob me of self-worth, only to try and elevate them from their own insecurities. When assembling your team for a trip or a work project, the criteria remain the same. You need a team built on trust, mutual respect, and self-confidence. A dynamic where everyone knows their place, stays in their own lane, and can trust other people to hold up their own responsibilities in the matter. People you know to be capable for their given role, and who respect that you are capable in yours. The last ingredient, and most important, is that you are all working towards a mutually shared vision.
In the case of travel, if you want to see different things, at a different pace, and have vastly different levels of competency, everything will quickly become a compromise. If you choose to take this role knowingly as a guide, mentor, or parent, then you are prepared for the challenges. However, if you are suddenly thrust into this situation in the middle of a trip, you will wish you had gone alone. Unclear roles, ego, insecurity, irresponsibility, and misaligned goals will bring down any trip or work project, no matter how well-funded the endeavor is. You can predict your own behaviour, but never someone else’s. If that volatility in your eyes means the juice isn’t worth the squeeze, then perhaps independence is a better goal to aim for.
Solo Travel
My first solo trip was a month-long endeavor to the jungles of Northern Queensland, in Australia. I was in my early twenties. On the way, I spent two days in Hong Kong. In the end, I preferred Hong Kong because it was more exotic and pushed me further out of my comfort zone than Australia did. I was nervous setting out on that trip alone, but it awakened part of me that would have forever lain dormant had I played it safe.
Solo travel is not escapism from “real life,” on the contrary, it removes all escape. You remember who you were before the world interfered. There are no safe distractions to immerse yourself in or to hide behind. You are living in the present moment, firing on all cylinders, and the only constant you have is you. If you know yourself, the good and the bad. If you are honest with yourself and aligned with your purpose, solo travel allows you to be who you are without compromise. It is the truest mirror you will ever hold up. But if you are walking a false path, if you are lying to yourself, that mirror will make you feel very small, vulnerable, and alone. I know many people look at my photos, or my Instagram profile, and likely attribute it to an act, a sort of persona. The truth is, the man I need to be outside of my expeditions, the version you see at work, that’s the act.
It sounds great, in theory. No compromise, moving at your own pace, seeing what interests you, no obligations or routine dictating your time. Well, yes, provided you are comfortable in your own skin, but there is an unavoidable trade-off. As soon as that trip has ended, it only exists in your mind until that too is gone. Unless, of course, you document it for others.
The Independent Path
I have repeatedly learned that I am more of an independent person myself. I prefer writing and photography over film, mainly because one person can craft a great story or capture a great photograph, but it takes a crew to make an exceptional film. Your pencil or camera doesn’t have egos and insecurities that need to be massaged, heightening the false persona you wear in order to survive. AI to me is a compelling filmmaking tool because, as Hailuo’s AI website states, “one person + one AI = one professional crew.” However, if I find a group of individuals with shared values, a shared vision, and mutual respect, well then count me in.
If you’ve never set out on a solo trip, I highly recommend you do. No matter the destination you choose, I promise you will come back having been forever changed by the experience. And that’s worth more than your group’s set of matching novelty T-shirts.
