What are the best places to travel solo for the first time? — featuring Backpack Everywhere

0:00 some countries are better than others when it comes to traveling alone especially if it's your first time so today I put together a list of my 10 favorite countries for traveling solo some of the criteria for my list were just how easy it is to get around in the country and how safe it is how much

0:16 there actually is to do there as a Solo Traveler and then also just how easy it will be to connect with other people assuming that's one of your priorities as a Solo Traveler so the first place on my list is Germany Germany is a great country to visit if you want to check out cities as well as enjoy nature

0:32 Berlin was actually the first city I explored completely on my own when I started my three-month trip through Europe Berlin was a great first solo travel destination for me just because there were tons of hostels to choose from a lot of other young people there that I could easily connect with and

0:48 then two the city is just jam-packed full of stuff to do some of my favorite things to see were the East Side Gallery which is the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall if you're maybe short on time you can do a boat tour from the river that that will let you see a lot of the top sites in Berlin something

1:03 else I loved was visiting Museum Island which was a complex of five different museums even if you're not a history buff there's so much to see in these museums that is a lot of fun to check out as far as safety is concerned Berlin is like any other City you want to be more cautious at night where you go but

1:19 all in all it's a very safe very cool place to check out Spain is another country that I could see being a good first time solo travel destination it's known mostly for its beaches but it has a lot of really diverse landscape in the country most of my time was spent in Barcelona but there's a lot of other

1:35 stuff to see in this country if you have the time to check it out Barcelona is a really fun city to explore via walking tours and looking at all the incredible architecture I also remember the food being really good there and if making some friends to explore with is a priority for you you can stay at a

1:51 hostel where you're inevitably going to meet other young Travelers doing the same kind of thing that you are the next place on my list is the United States the United States is absolutely ginormous compared to most of the countries in Europe you could spend months and months here checking out

2:05 everything that there is to offer because it is so big I recommend just focusing on a state or two at a time especially if you're flying in from another country but some places you might want to check out would be New York City the Grand Canyon in Arizona I love Colorado or you could also come to

2:19 Virginia where I currently live we have some really world-class hiking if you're into more of just nature I will say I didn't even know that hostels were a thing in the United States until I planned my trip to Europe but there are actually hostels in the U.S they're just more focused around more popular tourist

2:36 destinations so like I said if meeting people is a priority I would just keep that in mind as far as where you actually go to travel here next on my list is the Netherlands so my favorite places here were Rotterdam and Amsterdam Amsterdam has to be one of the most beautiful cities that I've ever seen I

2:53 just love the canals and then the flower boxes on the bridges I love that you can ride a bicycle throughout the whole city and explore that way Amsterdam is known for being more of a party location and so if you're not interested in that or you're traveling with young children I would definitely suggest staying at an

3:08 Airbnb or something as opposed to a hostel that way you can explore the quieter side of the city which is definitely my favorite side of Amsterdam while this list is in no specific order this next destination would have to be towards the top of my list and it would be Italy so if you're pressed for time

3:24 Italy is such a great country to travel because there's so much in a close area so many cool little cities you can check out all jam-packed in Italy of course you can go visit Rome and Venice to incredibly popular travel destinations if you want to go to those places I suggest traveling in the off season if

3:42 you can but I also loved Florence when I was in Italy and I loved Cinque Terry which was a series of five different Villages that you can hike between something else I love about Italy is just how historically Rich it is and just how much there is to take in on that front just doing some walking tours

3:57 through these cities and getting contacts for what you're seeing really really heightens The Experience I'm definitely planning a trip to Europe where Italy is all I focus on but Italy felt like a very safe country to travel there are tons of English speakers around and there are lots of other

4:11 Travelers here as well to make friends with the next country on my list is Peru I'm really surprised that Peru isn't more of a popular travel destination especially for Americans I think all we ever really think of and see is Machu Picchu but Peru is actually a really large country at about twice the size of

4:28 the U.S state of Texas that being said there's a lot more to do in Peru than just visit Machu Picchu Peru has some incredible beaches there are the Rainbow Mountains you can surf down sand dunes you can eat a guinea pig if that's something you want to try as far as safety is concerned you want to be a bit

4:43 more careful in Peru than some of the other places I've mentioned so that would just require some research on your part Peru is definitely a bit more adventurous than a lot of the European countries I visited but if that's something you're interested in I think it's a good first time travel

4:56 destination the next place on my list would be Austria if you love beauty beautiful European cities and nature Austria is a great place to go some of my favorite experiences in this country were seeing an opera in Vienna relaxing in nature in Innsbruck Austria or doing a Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg it's a

5:13 very easy country to get around with lots of English speakers plenty of hostels to choose from and then lots of other travelers to connect with another place I don't feel like you hear a ton about is Croatia Croatia is the perfect destination for people who want like a sunny relaxing vacation there are

5:30 thousands of miles of Coastline in Croatia so you can always find somewhere to relax I spent a lot of my time in Croatia in Split which is the largest city on the coast but I love trying the seafood here I'm not even a big Seafood guy but the stuff there was really really good they have a really nice Old

5:45 Town section in Split that's fun to explore and then Croatia is also known for having a lot of ancient Roman ruins that you can explore if you want to soak in the sun here you definitely want to go in the summer but if you go in the shoulder Seasons you'll have a lot fewer people there just potentially at the

5:59 expense of the sunny weather even though I feel like it's not as popular for travelers from the US there are still a lot of hostels there and a lot of people come there so you'll have no trouble finding things to do and then also connecting with people the next country on my list is Iceland so Iceland is

6:14 actually the most recent trip that I took while I didn't travel Solo in Iceland I know that it would make an awesome solo travel destination compared to Europe it was a piece of cake getting around the country not having to deal with massive crowds and confusing train schedules it was really abruptive fresh

6:29 air we ended up just renting a camper van and then driving around the Ring Road which goes all the way around the country to me Iceland felt like the perfect blend of Adventure but also safety if you plan on camping something cool to know is there are no snakes no natural predators in Iceland the primary

6:46 things to do in Iceland all revolve around nature but that's not something you're into you probably won't like Iceland but if you do like nature you're going to see some insane stuff here that you've probably not seen elsewhere driving around the country we came across glacier volcanoes geothermal

7:02 areas waterfalls half the fun in Iceland is legitimately just driving around and just getting to see what's around every corner because we stayed in a camper van I'm not really sure how great the Hostile scene is in Iceland however I do know that if you're interested in connecting with people one good idea is

7:18 to stay at a hostel in Reykjavik where you can potentially meet some people there before maybe booking a car together and driving around the rest of the country my next country is Switzerland so if you're like me and you love mountains then Switzerland is probably the number one place that you

7:33 should go I remember the first time I visited louder brunon my jaw literally dropped as I entered the valley just because it's so beautiful I didn't go in the winter so everything wasn't covered by snow I think that would be a lot different experience but if you're in for just a relaxed nature experience one

7:50 of the highlights of my three months in Europe was just staying at a remote hostel up in the Swiss Alps and just taking in the fresh air and relaxing there there are definitely other Travelers that you can meet in the hostels there I made some friends there that I ended up doing a nice big hike

8:04 with but all in all I'd say it's a rock solid option for a first solo trip go check out my video where I cover my three-month itinerary in Europe if you're maybe just looking for some more ideas about places you can visit or if Iceland sounded cool to you I just made a video covering everything we did there

8:19 so I'll link both of those in the description for you to check out please give this a thumbs up if you enjoyed it and I'll see you in the next video