I have just booked a silent retreat. I have frequently incorporated silence into my solo travels. There was the daily 12 hours of silence at the ashram in Rishikesh, India. The calm it created while living with others was extraordinary. There was the week-long digital detox in the Lake District of England which gave me a different kind of silence. The noise of social media and digital connections with others was gone.
Sometimes I've found the calm of silence on a solo road trip; other times it's simply been my own silence in a noisy city. One can find the treasure of silence in many ways.
I'm coming to the end of a very busy year. As you may know, Tracey and I have been working on two major projects for Solo Traveler. My work as the volunteer executive director of a charity has been particularly busy this year. And, amongst it all, I've had long COVID.
A silent retreat is exactly what I need.
Travel to Silence the Digital Noise
As digital communication is being relied on more than ever, it can be more difficult to step away from our digital noise. But it is important to do so. Traveling solo in silence provides a perfect opportunity.
17th-century philosopher, Blaise Pascal, wrote that “distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries, and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”
21st-century distraction comes electronically and, consequently, quickly. Mid-20th-century philosopher, Marshall McLuhan, proposed, “When things come at you very fast, naturally you lose touch with yourself.”
It's important to turn off devices to get in touch with yourself. But once they are turned off, what's left?
For me, what's left is time to mull.
Mulling is an undervalued activity that is difficult to do with devices on and a deluge of information coming at you. Time to mull frees you to digest that deluge. It allows your values to percolate through your thoughts. It allows you to wander from thought to thought, connecting dots of information or forging new questions for exploration.
In tiny beautiful things, Cheryl Strayed recommends “long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people’s diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.”
Travel solo in silence, whether for a day or longer, to spend time in the act of becoming with real intention.
Stories of Solo Travel and Silence
Traveling solo you can choose quiet destinations or busy, noisy ones. It doesn't matter. You can find silence and be in the present with your own thoughts.
Here are just a few of the trips I have taken where solo travel delivered much-needed silence.
United Kingdom In 2009, six months after starting Solo Traveler, I traveled to the Lake District of England and embarked on a Digital Detox. I had been online almost constantly since starting the blog and needed a break. I found it walking in silence by day. In the evenings, I popped down to the pub for a bit of socializing.
France Walking on a self-guided tour is a great option for silence and solo travel. The planning and booking were all done for me. All I had to do was follow the walking instructions. At the end of the trip, I found my mind more relaxed and my body held a newfound sense of physical confidence. Read True Relaxation Found Walking Through Vineyards.
Canada Taking a road trip through New Brunswick gave me plenty of time away from my devices to enjoy the landscape as it flew by, the beaches, fishing ports, and the attractions along the way. And of course, there was a lot of time spent in silence, providing time to think. Read The Great Acadian Road Trip: Itinerary, Tips and Lots of Pics.
United States This was another road trip, this time through the American Southwest in an RV. Traveling with my own home gave me a different kind of silence. There was silence not only as I drove hundreds of miles through a landscape totally new to me, but also in the evening as I was not in a hotel. I spent my evenings cooking, planning routes for the next day, and reading. Oh, how I read on that trip! Read A Road Trip Through the American Southwest.
Myanmar In busy Yangon I took the circular train around the city. My surroundings were certainly not quiet but I was traveling solo in silence with my thoughts as I watched people in the train and communities outside. It was an amazing window into the lives of local people – from the very poor to the rich – and provided much fodder for thought.
Japan My absolute favorite cultural experience in Japan was the onsen; it was also the one I was most hesitant to try. The Japanese often go to socialize but, given the language barrier, I was simply there to relax. I was in my own silence bubble and have never felt more present in my mind and body. And yet, I was also naked, with a lot of people around. Read How to Onsen: The Naked Truth About Japan’s Best Cultural Experience.
John Francis spent 17 years in silence. Hear him tell his story here.
