Can't say I agree with that article. The general theme seems to be to say it's difficult to travel alone and therefore you should do a guided tour and here's some guided tours.

Of the places mentioned in the article, I travelled in Russia, China, India, Machu Picchu, Egypt and Jordan on my own and had no safety/health or any other issues whatsoever. It was easy to meet other travellers in same situation.

In Russia, I met some Travbuddies from this site. My other travels were before this site or before I got to know people in the countries concerned through it.

I can only comment on Russia and Egypt. I went to Russia on my own and did my own thing and loved every minute of it. I did hire a guide in Moscow only for the fact that I didnt want to miss any of the main highlights of the city. But other than that I felt very safe in Russia...I even had my visa expire when I was there due to my own fault. But the authorities were very understanding and accomodating and helped me extend my visa. Met some great people at my hostel there!

Egypt...well...hmm. It was lovely when me and my wife went...but that was way back in  2002, even before the war in Iraq started....so we americans were not hated as much back then,,,,haha. But...dunno...seems a little dodgy there right now.

My impression is that this is an arm-chair researched article for a travel magazine or on-line travel website. By this I mean the author didn't actually visit all these places and report on the experience, but wrote about it rather as an arm-chair traveler based on researching the topic from other books and articles. I wouldn't say the advice is bad, but I think at the least it's misleading and ingenuous. It really depends a great deal on your experience as a traveler whether solo travel to some places is right for you.

They directly provide links for group-travel offers for all the mentioned countries. Thats just advertising and definitely bullshit.

Last edited by mosted (12-7-2012 3:48 AM)

Looks more like advertising than travel research.

A written article is only one person's opinion.
  Those are paid for opinions,written by tour companies. A sad read for me though since i hope to go to Russia and China one day.Spent many months in India and would love to go back,hard to believe things have changed that much. If i want the facts,i come here.

Last edited by clamdigger53 (2-10-2013 6:29 AM)

I agree. but best information
is at
www.excitingworldtravels.com

I hear Russia is ok if you're white.

But if you're a visible minority, you have to watch out for the xenophobic skinheads.

Jamal1280 wrote:

restless123 wrote:

I hear Russia is ok if you're white.

But if you're a visible minority, you have to watch out for the xenophobic skinheads.

I've heard the same thing But one Russian TB has assured me this is not a general problem, at least in the major cities.

In my country its dangerous to travel alone in Brussels because as a white person you are in the minority. Just the opposite as in Russia I guess.

My Canadian friend he had some trouble when visiting this city. Oh and Belgian police ain't gonne help you cause they are scared themselves.

I live in Belgium and because of safety reasons I hate Brussels, better to stay away.
Those who want to visit Belgium go to Bruges,Ghent and Antwerpen more fun there.

Last edited by Polh (12-11-2012 7:36 AM)

restless123 wrote:

I hear Russia is ok if you're white.

But if you're a visible minority, you have to watch out for the xenophobic skinheads.

Skinheads are extinct.
Nazi hooligans do exist, but they're extremely rare and hard to find if you're tourist and hang out at the city center.

pramodlad wrote:

India like any other free democracy is a  safe place to travel alone

To be fair, Belarus is not a free democracy (even less democratic then Russia and of course Ukraine), but extremely safe. No, really.
And I guess that in DPRK (what can be more authoritarian?) your biggest danger is slipping on a banana peel..

Last edited by FileJunkie (12-11-2012 12:39 PM)

Polh wrote:

Jamal1280 wrote:

restless123 wrote:

I hear Russia is ok if you're white.

But if you're a visible minority, you have to watch out for the xenophobic skinheads.

I've heard the same thing But one Russian TB has assured me this is not a general problem, at least in the major cities.

In my country its dangerous to travel alone in Brussels because as a white person you are in the minority. Just the opposite as in Russia I guess.

My Canadian friend he had some trouble when visiting this city. Oh and Belgian police ain't gonne help you cause they are scared themselves.

I live in Belgium and because of safety reasons I hate Brussels, better to stay away.
Those who want to visit Belgium go to Bruges,Ghent and Antwerpen more fun there.

I lived in Bruxelles for many years and used to go out alone with my friends, like Belgian people did, like foreigners did... We'd go out for drinks, cinema, restaurants, etc...

White are not in minority in Belgium, there's a large African community in Brussels, yes that's true, but the large majority of foreigners in Belgium are there working for the EU and being of European origin mostly are white.

It may be that there's trouble in some parts of the city, like any other city there may be the odd dodgy areas that's best to avoid! That I would agree with. As a teenager I know in some areas I used to get followed by men, I understood why I did happen, as a general rule I would avoid these areas at night and stick only to the main streets during the day if really I had to be there (ie visit a friend)...and things were obvious as I was walking about, by car it was hardly noticeable...

The only one i would not like to travel alone is Honduras, not the islands of course.