GoingSolo.life started with a simple frustration.
Most travel content is built around the assumption that you’re going with someone. The couple planning a European anniversary trip. The family mapping out theme parks. The group chat trying to agree on a destination for three months straight. The whole machinery of the travel industry — the hotel room configurations, the tour packages, the listicles about “romantic getaways” — is pointed at the traveler who isn’t traveling alone.
That gap is why this site exists. And it’s exactly why we wrote two books.
The Idea Behind the Books
Solo travel doesn’t get the serious, sustained treatment it deserves. There are plenty of blog posts with quick tips, plenty of listicles with “top destinations for solo travelers,” plenty of well-meaning advice that skims the surface and moves on. What there isn’t much of is a real, honest, complete resource — something that treats the independent traveler as the primary audience, not an afterthought.
Both books came out of that same conviction: that the solo traveler deserves better than recycled advice dressed up in a new headline.
They’re different books with different purposes, but they’re built around the same philosophy — practical, direct, and written for the traveler who’s done waiting for permission to go.
Solo and 50+: The Complete Guide to Traveling Alone After the Second Half of Life
The 50+ solo traveler is one of the fastest-growing segments in travel, and one of the least well-served by existing content. Most of what gets written for this audience is either condescending (“here are some safe, easy destinations!”) or simply repurposed from generic solo travel guides with a few paragraphs about “traveling later in life” bolted on at the end.
*Solo and 50+* is different because it was built from the ground up for this reader.
It covers everything: how to plan your first solo trip when the idea still feels a little scary, how to manage safety without letting fear shrink your world, how to handle the social dynamics of traveling alone (including the surprising ways solo travel opens doors that group travel doesn’t), how to navigate solo cruising, how to think about health and wellness on the road, and how to build a travel life — not just take occasional trips.
It also addresses the emotional dimension of solo travel honestly. The freedom. The loneliness that sometimes comes with it. The way a solo trip can change how you see yourself. These aren’t topics most travel guides touch, and they matter.
Available now on Amazon and Apple Books
How to Avoid the Most Common Travel Mistakes in 2026
The second book started from a different kind of frustration: the gap between how travel is sold and how travel actually works.
Every traveler has a story. The hotel that looked nothing like the photos. The insurance policy that didn’t cover what they thought it covered. The connection they missed because they didn’t understand how tight “one hour” actually is in an international terminal. The scam that felt obvious in retrospect. The day ruined by something that was entirely preventable.
Bad trips aren’t bad luck. They’re bad preparation — or more precisely, they’re the result of nobody ever sitting down with a traveler before their trip and walking them through the things that actually go wrong.
How to Avoid the Most Common Travel Mistakes in 2026 is that conversation. Not the version dressed up in reassuring language to avoid scaring anyone — the honest version. The one that tells you what the fine print actually says, what the reviews are actually warning you about, and what experienced travelers know that first-timers don’t.
It’s written for 2026 specifically because the travel landscape keeps changing. New rules, new risks, new scams, new booking traps. What worked three years ago isn’t always what works now.
Available now on Amazon and Apple Books
What’s Next
These two books are the beginning, not the end. A third title — Cruising Without the Kool-Aid, an honest guide for the cruise skeptic — is coming in April. The 48-Hour Guide series continues to grow, with Rome, Berlin, and U.S. cities in development alongside the existing London and Paris guides.
Everything built here is built around the same idea that started this site: that independent travel deserves honest, practical resources written for the traveler who’s actually doing it alone.
Both books are available now. If you’ve been waiting for a real guide — one that doesn’t talk down to you, doesn’t pad the page count with things you already know, and doesn’t treat solo travel as a consolation prize — this is it.
Visit the GoingSolo.life Bookstore
*Barnes & Noble and Kobo editions coming soon.*
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