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Remember your first solo trip to Europe? No one in the family approved of a young woman traveling by herself. But you did it anyway, living off backpack essentials, sleeping in hostels and returning home when you ran out of cash.
Times have changed. You’re older and wiser and have more funds. But you still love to travel alone. According to Travel+Leisure, the benefits of solo travel include “the ability to immerse yourself in the community and to stumble upon moments of international connection organically on your own.”
But even the biggest fans have legitimate concerns about safety, language barriers and differences in cultural views. To ease concerns and find those perfect destinations, the travel magazine and website has unveiled its list of the 17 best places for women to travel solo.
According to Rachel Chang of Travel+Leisure, Barcelona is easy to navigate on foot and full of tapas bars perfect for dining alone. Austin, Texas, has a festival and food truck culture that makes it a natural draw for solo travelers. And Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, has a low crime rate and a metro system with “Safe Waiting Zone” boxes marked on platforms, which are monitored by video feed, specifically to protect female passengers at night, according to Travel+Leisure.
With that, here are the top 10 of Travel+Leisure’s best places in the world for women to travel alone. Find the full list at www.travelandleisure.com.
- Barcelona, Spain
- Seattle, Washington
- Munich, Germany
- Dubrovnik, Croatia
- Austin, Texas
- Salzburg, Austria
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Saba, Caribbean
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Melbourne, Australia