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Flora Fadzai Sibanda, [email protected]

Nothing beats the sheer joy of enjoying any activity without someone looking over your shoulder and asking you to hurry up.

The idea of taking one’s time to elicit the most joy from planned activities is embodied in the growing trend of Solo Travels.

Solo Travels have been steadily gaining momentum post-pandemic season as it seems safer and offers a unique opportunity for one to travel around the world at their own pace and terms.

Solo travelling means travelling alone. One gets to plan the whole trip alone.

Upon realising this Emirates, the world’s largest airline recently celebrated Plan a Solo Vacation Day where they shared various tips from their Zimbabwean Emirates cabin crew members on how best to tackle a solo vacation.

Some of the tips included ways of getting a cheap and reliable hotel, ways of enjoying gastronomy tourism so that one takes a few tips back home and ways of maintaining one’s safety while enjoying the local culture of their destination.

One of the local cabin crew members Rudo Pasipanodya said sampling sumptuous exotic cuisines while travelling should be the backbone of solo trips.

She said treating the palate to new tastes is one way to enjoy the gastronomy of foreign cultures and may bring out the dormant chef in travellers as they may take home some important tips and new recipes.

Gastronomy is the practise or art of choosing, cooking and eating good food.

“The highlight of my recent solo trip was me chowing down on delicious seafood. Plus, l tried my hand at fishing, reeling my own dinner made it tastier and made the experience even more memorable. Because l was alone with no one rushing me l learnt how to be patient when l am doing any activity so that l may be satisfied with the result,” said Pasipanodya.

Another Zimbabwean cabin crew member Ruth Chitsiga said the best way to explore a country is through trying out local foods.

She said apart from enjoying the food one has to let loose and be able to fit into the local culture while keeping safe.

“When l was solo travelling through Barbados, I truly enjoyed their local delicacies but one that was most special to me was a dish called Cou Cou – a combination of corn meal and okra served with flying fish. This brought me comfort and joy as it reminded me of my favourite Zimbabwean local dish, Isitshwala which is made up of similar ingredients. It truly felt like home away from home,” said Chitsiga.

Some other cabin crew members from countries like Bosnian and Argentina also spoke of how important it is to be very attentive and vigilant when doing solo travelling.

Micael Olivieri from Argentina said solo travellers should always take care of themselves and their personal belongings and advised travellers to always trust their intuition.

“When walking in a crowded place, ensure your bag is in front of you rather than behind and be situationally aware of the culture and respect it,” said Olieveri.

He urged travellers to avoid being glued to their phones, and rather to enjoy looking around the place so that they can enjoy the view.

For the past years solo travelling has been slowly gaining momentum, a 2023 survey conducted by Solo Travel World in the United States, 68 percent of participants identified themselves as independent travellers.

Emirates first launched its operation in 1985 when they were operating with only two aircraft.

The airline has however grown over the years to be one of the biggest airlines that offers the best services for their travellers around the world.

@flora_sibanda