Boldly Go Solo

A solo traveler goes wherever the road takes him

Andrew Fu set out from California with the idea of visiting every state over a period of months. Since then, the 25-year-old has driven a tractor and shoveled manure in Kansas. Hung out with a fisherman in Florida. And helped break a record in Georgia for making the most pancakes in eight hours.

Most recently he was shopping for a new car in the Washington, D.C., area, after crashing his Honda Element. That's where we met up for coffee.

Fu started traveling at the end of March. On his own. After quitting a well paying job and before attending business school in the fall. He headed South after he hit cold and slippery roads in Colorado.

Every day is unique, he says. He has found that he enjoys the solitude and reflection traveling solo affords him. He's surprised to find that even after two months he has not hit any lonely patches. "I thought I'd feel lonely by the second month. I don't know why I haven't hit that. There's a lot of solitude at times. Sometimes I find it very comforting."

He ends up places on a whim. After someone mentioned sights in Texas, he found himself floating and swimming on the Comal River. I completely understand. I decided to go to Iceland after seeing an ad in a magazine. And chose to go to the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque after a conversation on a rafting trip.

Fu has a few months more for his adventure and recommends that others set out on the road. "People should live their dreams," he says. The beauty of his adventure is not knowing what he's doing next.

And he doesn't know of anyone who's sorry about going on such an adventure. "Anyone who's hit the road, I don't think there are any regrets."

About going alone? If you can't do something by yourself, it must not be that important to you, he surmises.

As for the pancakes? Fu contributed mightily to the 80,000 flap jacks poured and flipped in Atlanta that day. It took its toll. "I don't think I want to flip a pancake for a long time."

Photo: Joshua

 

 

 

Top 10 most exciting ferries in the world

Travel writers of the U.S. and Canada have come up with a list of the world's top 10 ferry rides, and you don't necessarily want to argue with people who travel for a living. (But of course you can, if you want.)

Can't say I've ever seen a poll ranking ferries. But I like this list. And, I was glad I'd ridden two out of the 10: the British Columbia ferry system and the Staten Island ferry (I grew up in New York). Seems, however, I've got a ways to go.

The number one ferry, by vote of the Society of American Travel Writers members, is the Star Ferry in Hong Kong, "crammed with views and people to create the cheapest multi-cultural, multi-sensory cruise experience in the world," writes travel journalist Chris McBeath.

Number two are the ferries from Sausalito to San Francisco, California.

I loved the sound of this one: "The Alaska State Ferry system's 'blue canoes' allow overnight passengers to pitch their tents on deck, surely one of the most unusual camping experiences," according to journalist Janet Fullwood.

I want to do this! Tell me, solo travelers, you wouldn't end up talking to people "camped" around you? Of course, you would. (But how do you bang your tent pegs into the deck??)

Interestingly, ferries ply the waters of the most urban landscapes and the seemingly most out of the way places. They can be high speed or lumbering giants. And they can be a great, often inexpensive and sometimes downright dirt cheap way to tour cities and vast and beautiful wilderness areas.

My most memorable ferry ride was somewhere in the waters of the Inside Passage on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. I'd finished a sea kayaking trip that I'd joined as a solo traveler (had a fantastic time and a great tent mate) and had a couple of days to explore the area on my own.

I took the ferry that plied the vast waters up there, to an island famous for its totem poles. On the way back, I dozed off and awoke to someone pulling gently on my sleeve. "Is this your stop?" Oh lordy, thank goodness she'd heard me ask someone if I was on the right boat back to Vancouver Island. She did me a real favor waking me up.

I had visions of ending up on some outer island with no way to get back until morning. But you know what? That could have been the adventure of a lifetime and a great story to tell. I don't go anywhere without a credit card, so someone, somewhere would have put me up.

Still, I was grateful for her watchful eye and it once again reminded me that in general, people watch out for one another. Especially when they see you're on your own.

Photo: Ellen Perlman. The clipper ferry from Seattle to Vancouver Island.

Updates on shorter biking tours and paying for travel in installments

A few weeks ago I wrote about shorter organized tours offered by Backroads. I heard back from Undiscovered Country Tours and learned that they too offer weekend road bike tours. All in California. They say they offer more three- and four-day biking tours in California than any other company. Easy to believe, since California is their focus.

They offer regular-size tours too. What's great is having a choice of some bike tours in the winter months. Many adventure companies are dormant in the winter. Obviously, the company can do so because the weather is nice in parts of California year round.

In 2009 there's at least one tour and as many as four per month in February, March, April, September, October and November. (None in January. December, to be announced.)

Last week I wrote about "vacation layaway" - paying for a trip in installments. I learned of another company, Adventurous Wench, that offers to help travelers out by splitting your trip cost into monthly payments. (Sorry guys, this particular company offers women-only trips.)

I found out about this via their monthly newsletter. You can sign up for it at their site. Plus, they offer specials each month. The company also says it's offering more affordable domestic trips this year. Of course, "more affordable" is in the eye of the vacationer, so you'll have to assess whether it's affordable for you.

Photos: Apples. Washington, D.C. farmers' market. We're solidly into fall now. Where are you traveling this winter?

Three- and four-day active vacations in France's Loire Valley, the Canadian Rockies, the San Juan Islands and more

Backroads, an active travel company, has come out with an idea whose time has come...but whose price is high: Short getaways. As in, three- and four-day trips.

Biking in the San Juan Islands. Hiking and biking in Bryce and Zion national parks. Biking part of the Natchez Trace, a route from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Biking in France's Loire Valley.

 

Maybe life's too hectic sometimes to take off for a full week but you can grab a long weekend here or there. Or maybe it's easier for "newbie" solo travelers to go on a short vacation if they don't feel like they'll be "stuck" for a whole week. 

I envision these offerings as trips you can tack on to one end or another of a business trip. Or as a way for a solo traveler to enjoy the company of strangers for a few days and then wander off on his or her own, feeling comfortably familiar by then with the destination.

I seem to recall that when VBT Bicycling Vacations was called Vermont Biking Tours  (or something like that), they also offered biking weekends in Vermont. I don't see those shorter tours on its Web site now. Perhaps it didn't work as a business model or just wasn't as popular as week-long vacations. We'll have to see how Backroads experiment works out.

The problem for me with the Backroads trips is the price. A three-day weekend of biking in Banff and Lake Louise, in the Canadian Rockies, costs $1,598. Another $500 for the single supplement. Plus travel to and from the starting point.

The downscale California spa perfect for putting the pieces back together

Prologue: The heart-wrenching break up. Leslie Keough's 30th birthday was coming up and her boyfriend was going to take her to Palm Springs. Then it all "kind of fizzled."

But we don't focus on the prologue here. We move right along to the restorative part of things, where solo travel is the balm to the soul. Or comes to the rescue. Or however you want to put it.

All Leslie knew was that 30th was drawing near, the boyfriend was a goner and she didn't feel like explaining quite yet what had happened. Not to her girlfriends. Not to her mother. Not to anyone.

Off she went to The Spring, a secluded resort in Desert Hot Springs, California. By herself. She hadn't known about it before finding it during her research. Now she raves about it. 

Although it's set in a neighborhood, once you're inside the walls, it's completely secluded. Part of its beauty is the simple, clean lines of the place, says Leslie, an artist.

It has only 10 rooms, so no busy comings and goings. Just nice people, she says, wandering around in robes. "You enjoy your solitude without ever feeling lonely." 

The best part was being decadently alone. As in not having to talk to anyone or make many decisions. Just do what she wanted to do, in a new place. "I wanted to be in an environment inspiring to me that didn't remind me of him."

Once she found it, she burrowed in. Spa guests are served a continental breakfast. Other than that, there are kitchens provided or people go out to eat. Which means, very few deadlines. Or set times for things. There's all day to relax under palm trees or drift off in thought or sleep in a hammock. In between spa treatments.

Leslie's room had no TV or phone. That may not suit everyone. But it helped her get started on a project she'd been mulling for a long time.

Seven years ago she was in a serious motorcycle accident and was hurt badly when she was propelled off the back of it. Without getting into detail, she suffered hemorrhaging, burns, road rash and more. She had no short-term memory for six months.

About three years ago, she decided she wanted to write a book about what happened. While she was at the spa, without the constraints of daily life, work, friends and family, she finally had time to sit down and start to tackle it.

"I decided to work on my passion project." She wrote a book proposal while at The Spring. Her stay "allowed me to focus on my project and my personal goals. It allowed me to reprioritize things."

She also spent her time in the mineral pools, having spa treatments, sleeping well and meditating. She lost several pounds. And she felt some of her anxieties fade away amidst the grass and the flowers of the unpretentious resort. "This spa was perfect for what I needed."

Photo: The Spring, Hot Desert Springs, California