Author Dolly Alderton on Growing Into Solo Travel: Women Who Travel Podcast

DA: Yeah, I do that on Instagram. You can do the tag to saved, it sounds middle-aged, the saved thing. You can do the saved thing. But, I-

MC: I was like, “What is that thing?”

DA: What’s it called?

MC: Bookmarking?

DA: Is it bookmarking?

MC: I think so.

DA: And then, you have the secret file. That’s the official word. I follow a lot of culinary travel accounts. It means I have the same that wherever I go, hopefully they will be like one place where I can eat. But, it does makes sense. Like Farly, when we were in Vietnam, I’m much more meticulous about that side of things than she is. We wanted to eat banh mi and we hadn’t eaten any banh mi. I was like, “Okay, Anthony Bourdain came to this city and he said there was this one banh mi place that’s like the best place.” She was like, “Well, I’m sure that one banh mi will taste the same as the next.” But I was like, “No, we just have to.” And it was really special to go there and it was the best banh mi ever. I think that’s a really important thing for me.

Also, I don’t like being—this is a big problem with one of my ex-boyfriends actually—I don’t like being too rigid with plans. I don’t like over-planning. A big part of seeing a place for me is noodling around, literally just wandering around aimlessly.

MC: Which is the true benefit of solo travel-

DA: Exactly.

MC: Is you have no one who’s like, “I want to go to this other place.” And you’re like, “But, I want to keep walking down this block for the next two hours.”

DA: Yeah. That’s when you really can soak in a place and its people. I need that. And then, the other good thing about Sarah is that she’s the exact amount of adventurer and sloth that I am. She will want to climb the mountain or swim in the sea or get up at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise at the church ruin. But, she also will want to have a cocktail on a sun lounger, or sit with a book in bed all morning. That’s like I think, I just really hope I find a partner like that.

You and your husband, are you matched well on that?

LA: We matched very well. Except that—he loves food and wants to eat in all these great places, too—but, he can cope with hunger in a way that I cannot.

DA: I’m the same as you, girl.

LA: Usually, results in me having a mental breakdown in a supermarket aisle and screaming at him.

DA: Yeah. I had that bit yesterday when I landed. I was so hungry, In my head, I was like, “Basically, I just can’t see New York. I can’t see, I can’t smell, I can’t feel anything until I have a pretzel.” But, some people are just more comfortable being really hungry.