Review: Plan Safe Travel Solo, by Alex Starr

Do you want to travel the world but feel overwhelmed and unclear where to begin? Don’t let fear stop you.

Filled with useful advice and tasks, Plan Safe Travel: Solo is a straightforward 5-stage planning process that transforms your dream into a safe reality:

Assess

Set your travel needs, concerns and budget.

Design

Decide trip style, itinerary and accommodation, including how to meet other travellers.

Adapt

Fine-tune your design, by answering important questions.

Prepare

Make practical choices, like luggage, insurance, money and mobile coverage.

Travel

Read safety tips.

For five years, I have travelled as a female, solo traveller. People ask how I do it. Pre-trip decisions instil confidence. Let my knowledge help you experience this world. Use Covid times to plan for lifelong memories.

City hopping, gap year, career break, or once-in-a-lifetime trip, create your perfect journey with Plan Safe Travel: Solo.

My Review

Thanks to Blue at Kaleidoscope Tours for organising this tour and for getting me a copy of this book.

This short, pocket-sized book is succinct and presents clear steps and advice about how to plan a safe trip as a solo traveller. I found the advice sensible and the anecdotes used illustrative of the potential joys and dangers of travel. I enjoyed Starr’s ‘what works best for you?’ message. I it works best for you to go on a cruise rather than try to arrange multiple flights or bus journeys to visit different places in a region, go on the cruise! Single and under thirty? You don’t have to stay in a hostel if what you really want is a 5* hotel! I like this attitude. I also like the reminders to have an emergency fund and to always check the small print. It’s simple stuff that’s easily overlooked in the excitement of booking a trip away.

I already do some of the things Starr suggests, like keeping a plastic wallet with itinerary printouts close and sharing the details with a family member at home, because I like to be organised, and get anxious if I can’t see things written down, but for future trips I will probably make use of the other strategies suggested. I often don’t budget beyond ‘how much is the hotel, train, event I’m going to’, but I should budget for food and emergencies too. I have been caught out before.

A useful little book for the nervous traveller – properly planned trips are less stressful!

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Author Information

‘For many years, I suppressed my passion and submitted to the pressures of society. But 8 years of teaching high school English wore away enthusiasm, confidence and ambition. I was stuck in a rut. Confined by systems and norms, life was meaningless, lacked purpose and fulfilment. I’d turned 31 and realised that I was simply existing, not living. Ambivalence was ruling. An ambitious goal of travelling the world was born. It seemed daunting and unachievable, but stubborn and determined, my mind was set. I quit my career, sold my flat and set off…’

5 years later, and life is transformed. Now, I am energised, empowered and, most importantly, happy. As a solo traveller and digital nomad, I work remotely. The world is my home.

Over this time, I have learnt lessons through mistakes and hindsight. I always meet people who want to travel, but lack the confidence or knowledge to convert their dream into a reality.

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So, this year, I celebrate the release of my first book ‘Plan Safe Travel Solo.’  Now, a book exists that helps you to plan your own trip safely.

Website: https://www.plansafetravel.com/

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