Solo Travel and especially, Female Solo Travel are some super big buzzwords in the travel industry of late, so I thought I'd put in my two cents.

I've never gone on a trip completely alone, but I've definitely spent time alone while traveling, flown alone to visit people, and in general spent lots of time going it solo while traveling, especially after my Cuba trip. The first part of my pre-Cuba Miami trip was a solo thing, and I'll admit I didn't love it. However, as my month in Cuba went on, I was spending more and more time exploring Havana on my own, and I actually enjoyed it.

I thought I'd write about some random thoughts and considerations that come with the idea of solo travel, based on my experiences so far!

Here's a quick lineup of my seven favorite museums of the ones I visited in Havana, Cuba! I've included collage images of each of the museums as well as a description of what each offers. Hopefully it will provide inspiration for your trip to Havana!

Just the other day a friend of mine came up to me. "You travel a lot, right?" she asked. I laughed, and said that I do. She was looking to put together a gift for her boyfriend--they're planning to go to Scotland and she wanted to get him some sort of travel kit as a gift. She said all the Pinterest lists just showed how to pack your hygiene and cosmetic products, so I gave her some suggestions, and I thought I would share them here! Here are ten travel accessories that I actually use.

It was a long time ago now that I traveled to Mesa, Arizona with my sister and my dad to visit our grandparents, but I still remember it as a great trip in which we did a lot of fun stuff and got to really explore the area! Below are seven ideas for fun things you can do on your trip to Mesa!

Choosing a destination for your trip
                                                                               
The world is a big place, so choosing what exotic locale to visit can be the hardest part of planning any getaway. At least as I see it, the point of traveling is to go somewhere else to see and experience things you couldn't at home, whether that's foreign cultures, unique cuisine, mountainous landscapes, ancient ruins, a tropical climate, or famous artwork. Think about what you most want to experience, and plan from there. Sometimes it can be helpful to pick a theme. If archaeology is your thing, you could plan a trip to Mexico that's focused on Pre-Columbian ruins (Chichen Itza, Palenque, Teotihuacan, and more!), then throw in a trip to the beach, a visit to a tequila factory, and a stop by the Museo Nacional de Antropologia--one of the world's best--in Mexico City. Are castles more your style? You could plan a trip to Germany, to see one of the fairy tale-est castles ever, Neuschwanstein Castle, and add in a few of the other plethora of castles there, plus visit the Berlin Wall, Cologne Cathedral, the Black Forest, the Berlin Island Museum, or drive along the Romantic Road--whatever piques your fancy. The purpose is to have a diverse experience, so, after you've chosen a theme, go ahead and sprinkle in some other activities that interest you so you can experience as many facets of the local culture as you can.

Planning activities for your adventure

Once you've chosen your destination and narrowed down where you'd like to focus your trip, the fun can really begin. I love planning trips, and researching all of the options and places that you can go is one of my favorite parts. A great place to start is UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These are sites that have been chosen by 21 UNESCO member states because of their great educational, cultural or natural importance to humanity, so you know they're going to be worth seeing! It's recommended to read a bit about each one to see if you'd be interested in visiting, and then see where it is in reference to the scope you've chosen for your trip. If it's out of the area where you'd like to stay, you'll have to decide whether it's worth the journey. For example, is Venice worth the five-and-a-half hour journey (one way) from Rome? You'll have to decide, and possibly adjust the scope of your trip accordingly.

Other great places to look are at national parks, top attractions on TripAdvisor, places listed on the wikitravel page for your destination, in guidebooks, or even from a quick Google search for "best ____ in ____" (examples: "best temples in Japan", "best nature reserves in Kenya", etc) to find advice from bloggers or other travelers. 

Below are some tips for different "categories" of attractions. The more categories of attractions you have, the more diverse and well-rounded your trip will be. Sitting on the beach all day for two weeks sipping mixed drinks may be fun, but there isn't a whole lot of adventure in it. Travel and a vacation are not necessarily the same thing.