For me, making yourself your own, independent vacation has lots of benefits. I jogged down the lists below. For instance, I dreamed about my upcoming “make-your-own” vacation or (MYO Vacation) to Singapore, Sydney, Auckland, and other safer destinations for solo travel. For others like Jerusalem, I will need travel tours because, ideally, a trip to Israel solo is not ideal for me. I am eager to share with you all about why some people like to take independent vacations, and some don’t like it. It is essential for you not to compare those who hate independent vacations because it doesn’t turn out the way it should. It is okay to have different opinions. Making my independent vacations or (MYO Vacations) enables me to feel confident and ready to work harder. I believe that independent vacations have motivated me and keep me from being lazy and getting bored.
What is precisely MYO Vacations:
Make-your-own (MYO) vacation or independent vacation is a vacation that you generally organized with a set of itineraries with your research and things you like to do during your free time. It includes booking a hotel and your flight arrangements, taking public transportation, and manage your schedule or time of itinerary on your own. It is also known as a self-guided tour or explore on your own pace. This self-guided vacation is the ultimate goal of my upcoming trips (postpone to late 2021 due to COVID-19 and vaccine to the public is still a year away).
Except for Israel, I only need to travel with either escorted or independent tour due to the country’s safety.
Benefits and drawbacks:
Here I listed my benefits of going on my vacations:
| Pros | Cons |
| Traveling with my own set of schedule – I love it | Packed schedule – I hate it |
| More freedom to explore during my free time | Less freedom to explore during my free time |
| Less stressful – regular routine | More stressful – irregular routine |
| More choices to learn more about one place, especially the museum | Limit opportunities to learn from one place, especially the museum |
| Keeps me from lazy and unmotivated – planning my own itinerary | Promote lazy and unmotivated – some or all of the sets of itinerary is planned for me |
| More fun and confidence – promote happiness, confidence, and ready to motivate myself in daily life | Less fun and enjoyable – promote anger, irritability, and ready to unmotivate myself in daily life |
| Less costly, especially the solo travel – Hostel stay | Costly, especially when going on a luxury tours – I checked how much I will pay for each tours |
| Conclusion: I love it | Conclusion: I hate it (There are some exceptions related to safety in overall cities) |
Examples from Independent Vacations:
In my NYC weekend trip, I research which places are suitable for my personality. I usually plan a dream event such as climbing up the One World Trade Center – One World Observatory. I also have a dream of walking down the Hudson River Trail. Here is my blog here.
Another example was on Wilmington and took couple of months to planned my dream because I was working as a Specialist at Temple to earn more money. Hence, listed as a bucket list as “Wilmington Riverfront” and “DuPont Environmental Education Center” in May 2019. The plan to Delaware worked very well. Here is my blog from Funtastic Philadelphia here.
A Funtastic Wilmington Daycation
One recent example was I planned a day trip to DaPeng Fortress for a day and with only my parents and brother, we were agree to visit a fun place. Hence, I researched what I want to do in DaPeng, Shenzhen, China because my uncle lives here and want to know if there are some attractions to visit.
Without a scheduled escorted tour, I learn more about the ancient city more so that what was like in a historical city before time began. Because of the fun experience in explore both with my family and on my own, we spend an entire day at one place. It was a touching travel experience without a scheduled time.
Remember that traveling doesn’t need to be stressful. Just enjoy yourself from daily life and learn new interesting facets.
Conclusion:
After my day trips or month-long trips, I felt confident after spending days exploring both with my family and on my own. I am grateful that the plan for my dream trips works very well; I am ready to work hard once I got back from trips.
You don’t have to travel far to have a good time. I usually go to nearby places at least once every month to 2 months to have enough freedom to enjoy myself. I typically save up more money to travel to faraway places in the future.
My parents have told me that I don’t travel to some places solo, such as some parts of Europe, Russia, Africa, and some portions of Asia and South America. They told me to be extra careful when I was on the Hong Kong Trip solo and “Remember to trust your instincts and if something isn’t right’ move to a safer place. Try to be back at your cousin’s house at certain times due to ongoing protest.”
They are concerned but not overprotective.
We want us to protect ourselves. Safety and health are the most priority.
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