Solo Travels: Lessons from Los Angeles
Lessons in traveling solo
I wanted to write more about my trip to LA, but I haven’t had as much time to write as I anticipated. As I leave for NYC tomorrow, I wanted to at least share some of the overall lessons I learned in Los Angeles as the second in a short series of posts about LA.
Lessons from Los Angeles
As I looked at my posts from my solo trips last fall, especially about my trip to Chicago, I realized I’d included lessons I’d learned — or I was hoping to learn — from my travels that might improve my future trips.
So, I wanted to reflect on these parts of traveling and see how many of the lessons said I learned I actually applied to my trip to LA.
The biggest improvement I made is that I actually planned ahead, with a full itinerary and everything.
While I didn’t plan ahead enough to book a cheap flight, a lot of the planning I did otherwise helped made up for that cost.
Transportation
In Chicago, I only ventured beyond walking distance a few times, but I knew LA was too spread out for that to be possible for this trip. I actually had bus transfers for the first time, which I was a bit unsure about before I left, but this allowed me to see so much more of the city.
Public transit in LA isn’t the fastest way to get around, but it’s definitely cheaper. Fares max out at $18/week, as long as you use the same payment method, and the TAP card made the process quite easy.
I did budget for some Ubers, as they are faster, but I only ended up taking one Uber ride — which will be a story for another time.
Food
Many of the activities I planned did not revolve around food or restaurants in LA, which made it much easier to save on food! I tried to be “budget-core” and ended up spending even less than I anticipated. I grocery shopped at the beginning of the trip and ended up eating many meals out of my backpack or at the hostel.
I also planned out decisions ahead of time, which I’m finding is super helpful when traveling alone, because decision fatigue is very real. At Grand Central Market, there were a bunch of options, but it wasn’t overwhelming at all, even though I was hungry when I showed up, because I’d looked at the menus for all of the stalls before I left for the trip. So, I had a few options picked out to choose from that were on the cheaper end (instead of sort of panicking and ending up spending more than necessary).
Travel Day
I did what’s considered a bit of a “no-no” and arrived at night. I flew in to make it for New Year’s Eve to flip to the new year on the ocean. I was quite anxious before I left for the trip, kind of even considering staying home, to be honest — so forcing myself to the airport took a bit more energy than it usually does. I was pretty tired by the time I got there, and getting to ring in the new year and then basically go right to sleep was actually helpful for my anxiety.
Activities & Tickets
I’d planned enough that I’d purchased tickets in advance for many of the museums I wanted to go to — which was actually great, because many of the museums didn’t have same-day tickets, even if they were free to attend.
I did also plan out where I’d be for the sunsets, which I really enjoyed, as West Coast sunsets are gorgeous.
I almost over-planned this trip, leaving very little room to be spontaneous - so I’ve left some more free time in my schedule for NYC! But with my mental health where it was at that time, I think it worked out for my LA trip to not have much downtime or decisions to be made besides getting from place to place and try to soak it in.
Weather
I bought a better rain jacket, which ended up being useful even though I went to LA. I don’t know what it is that I’m bringing rain to every place I seem to go to (and a Nor’easter is currently hitting NYC so, my bad), but I’m starting to be better prepared for rain.
I didn’t expect to adjust to the temperatures so fast, as it was much warmer in LA than Nebraska in January of course — and I ended up being pretty cold the last evening of my trip (I was also up in the hills). So, I could’ve brought a bit of a heavier jacket or a sweater. It was definitely a rude awakening coming back to snow on my car in the airport lot.
On a similar note, my shoes were also broken in, so I didn’t have the horrifying blister problems I had in Chicago.
Also, I was very curious about earthquakes before I left — apparently I was there for one, but I didn’t feel it.
Other notes
I loved eating outside in January…I mean the weather there that week really made me reconsider my life choices to live in a place that it snows. Then I returned home to snow, more snow, negative wind chills, and more snow — so I think this week in a snowy NYC might be a bit of a test for me, too.
People approached me much more on this trip! I actually ended up talking to and getting to know quite a few people as I was solo traveling, which was nice. I was also approached about a petition for affordable housing at Echo Lake Park, and I loved having a bit of connection to that kind of work in a city I’m maybe considering moving to.
I didn’t drive, so I didn’t have to deal with gas prices, but the staggering prices of drinks definitely stood out to me. A can of pop for $4.75? But since I’d fallen asleep on the bus a bit that morning, I figured the caffeine was more important than saving $5 that day.
Around the 4th day, I was pretty overwhelmed, and actually wondering if I shouldn’t travel for longer than 4 days at a time solo. But then I sort of acclimated, and I didn’t notice those feelings for the rest of my trip.
I did start to feel like maybe I needed to do something (my therapist is really working with me on recovering from working 60+ hours/week last year and always feeling like I need to be productive every moment of every day), but I didn’t really feel like I shouldn’t be where I was after I got past that weird spell on day 4.
I’m trying to note more about my mental health throughout these travels to write more specifically about solo travel & mental health in the future, because I’m definitely running into pros and cons.
I’m excited to be going on another trip - my longest solo trip yet - and to see where that may take me this week.
Unlike LA, where I’ve not really dreamed of being an Angeleno and had only seen La La Land a few days before I left on my trip, I’ve dreamed of New York for most of my life. I know I’m going in with rose colored glasses, but I’m actually a bit grateful for the incoming snow, as I think that will better test my ability to live there. So, as long as my flight doesn’t get cancelled in the morning, look for my post about NYC next week!
I’d mentioned I planned to share about walking alone at night as a solo traveler, but since I leave for NYC tomorrow, I figured it’d be best for me to not jinx myself in any way — so I’ll write about more solo travel topics when I return!
Solo Travels is one of multiple series on the from Hannah Michelle Bussa Substack. As Hannah begins to embark on more solo travel journeys, she will share about her trips for those who may be interested in traveling more.
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