Scene from my recent trip to Nairobi, Kenya

Solo travel can be right for anyone, whether you are one of the 27 million people in the United States who live alone, whether you are single, divorced or widowed, whether you are eighteen or eighty, whether you are looking for a mate or happily married or attached to someone who may not share your wanderlust or taste in trips.

Are we to sit waiting for the right travel partner before we leave home? Need we poll our friends to see who’s willing to share our dream trip? Should we compromise our plans to suit theirs? Must spouses accompany shopping, fishing, art or golf vacations in which they have no interest?

Life is temporary and vacation time short. There is no need to sit home any longer, or to compromise your dream vacation.

Solo travel is easily tailored to your individual taste and needs. If you can think it, you can do it. From hopping a train for a weekend in a nearby city, to trekking around the world for a year - and every level of travel in between, the world is yours, alone. You’ll find you meet people more easily, learn more about the places you visit and have freedom to do as you please.

This Web site is dedicated to showing you how to see the world on your own - safely, economically and with the travel savvy of a pro.

Each month a new set of ten solo-travel tips and resources will be posted. You may want to bookmark this site for your travel reference, and sign up for a free, monthly newsletter telling you what’s new.

You may send your solo-travel questions, which will be answered at this site. Also, please share your favorite solo-travel destinations with us. We welcome suggestions on how this Web site can further help you in your solo travels.

Solo travel -- now, more than ever

The tragic events of September 11 left us to struggle with a wide range of emotions, including a fear of traveling. But travel, especially solo travel, has never been more important.

It’s a small world, and getting smaller. Economies are interdependent and so are governments. Globalization continues, like it or not. Telecommunication brings us far corners of the world in an instant. But live satellite images, photographs and sound bites tell only a fraction of the story.

If we rely on the news media as our sole source of information about our world, we will be left with a dismal and depressing image. It is easy to believe that humanity is careening toward eternal damnation when all we see, read and hear about is destruction, crime, war, threats, famine, disease and other disasters. If it bleeds, it leads style of reporting shows us a distorted image of our world.

We know that most of what we experience in life does not make the news. We humans are about family, friends, faith, values, pets, jobs, hobbies, habits, music, art, sports and food. Yet we tend to stereotype other cultures only by what we know from the media. The same is true about what other cultures think of us. Their stereotype images of Americans are formed by what they know of our government and its sometimes-unpopular foreign policies, as well as by watching reruns of Baywatch and Seinfeld.

Only through travel do we form more accurate, first-hand impressions. Solo travel makes it easy to immerse ourselves in another culture and to meet the people in meaningful one-on-one exchanges. Stereotype thinking quickly falls away and both sides create real and direct impressions. Understanding each other’s cultures is crucial to world peace and our survival as a planet. We learn that the world is not about governments, crime, war and natural disasters. The world is just about people ― about us. And we all have the same basic needs and values.

Travel shows us that we humans are still a pretty nice race. Human kindness is not exclusive to any culture and transcends governments and politics.

For those of you concerned about safety, I assure you, with all the expertise of my 32 years as a flight attendant, that travel has never been safer. And more measures are taken each day to further ensure our safety. In addition to all the safety precautions you read and hear about, many more are in place that must remain confidential.

Common sense dictates that you research the safety of your destination. Visit the Resources page of this website to check travel warnings posted by three governments, the U.S.A., Canada and the U.K.

Do not look like an American tourist. What gives you away are the white athletic shoes, fanny pack, brightly colored casual clothing and the nylon windbreaker jacket. Wear conservative clothing in dark or muted colors ― think ‘business casual.’

Solo travel gives us a safety advantage. We can easily blend into the culture, going about our business without attracting attention. A busload of brightly clad tourists, all laughing loudly and speaking English, walking in a herd behind their guide, loses that advantage.

Travel alone and learn for yourself that it is a beautiful world. We can still travel safely through most of it.