There's a quiet myth that solo travel is something you do in your twenties — backpack slung over one shoulder, rail pass in hand, no real responsibilities yet. But what if you missed that window? What if you were 35, had a full life, and still felt the pull of going somewhere entirely on your own terms?
That's exactly the leap one writer described in a guest column for The Washington Post — and the ripple effects on her mental health, particularly her anxiety, were far greater than she'd anticipated.
The surprising therapy of being alone in a new place
Solo travel, it turns out, does something specific to anxiety that group trips simply can't replicate. When you're the only one making decisions — which train to catch, where to eat, whether to linger an extra hour at a temple or a café — you stop outsourcing your instincts. You start trusting yourself again, quietly and incrementally.
The writer found that navigating unfamiliar places alone forced her into a kind of present-moment awareness that no meditation app had quite managed. There was no companion to fill the silence, no shared itinerary to hide behind. Just her, a destination, and the small daily victories of figuring it out.
Why this matters for a solo travel audience in India
In India, solo travel — especially for women, and especially for anyone starting later in life — still carries an extra layer of social negotiation. Family questions, safety concerns, and the general sense that wandering alone is somehow incomplete all pile up before you've even booked a ticket.
But the mental health case for solo travel is becoming harder to ignore. Destinations like Pondicherry, Hampi, Spiti Valley, and the backwaters of Kerala have quietly built ecosystems that welcome the solo traveller: guesthouses with common dining tables, café cultures designed for lingering, local tour operators who run small-group day trips so you're never entirely adrift.
Starting at 35 — or 40, or whenever — isn't a disadvantage. You likely have more self-awareness, a clearer sense of what drains you versus what restores you, and the financial stability to choose comfort when you need it. That's not cheating. That's just travelling smartly.
A small nudge for anyone still on the fence
If you've been waiting for the "right" age or the "right" moment, this might be worth sitting with: the woman who wrote that Washington Post column didn't start because conditions were perfect. She started because she decided to. The anxiety didn't disappear overnight, but it did — over multiple solo trips — begin to loosen its grip.
Maybe that's the real souvenir worth collecting.