Why some people decide to travel the world alone and the beauty of it.

Travelling around the U.K. or any other country can be a very liberating, happy yet challenging, and sometimes lonely thing to do. It does not matter if you are with your family or a solo traveller.

Ziwa Gwatidzo, 31, is a health care professional from London who travelled throughout Asia. She travelled around Indonesia and Malaysia for a year; it was an adventure that has permanently changed her outlook on life.

“I remember at one point after university that I suddenly knew travelling was something important, an exciting thing, I wanted to do,” says the 31-year-old, who studied sociology at Leeds University.

“I felt like seeing something outside of the culture I knew. And thought it would be a good stress release.”

Ziwa says she believes in gaining a wealth of experience by seeing something outside her comfort zone.

“I was passionate about experiencing different cultures. It was a soul-searching experience mentioned Ziwa.

“I wanted to learn about my boundaries to find out how strong I could be somewhere else. It was to get some life experience as I thought it was just as important as work experience.”

The best thing she got out of her experience was learning about unusual and nutritious foods and how to prepare recipes she had never seen or heard of in the U.K. She spoke about eating food that was fresher and more authentic, describing it as “one of the most exciting things I have ever done”.

Ziwa enthusiastically spoke about her daily life in Asia, saying, “interacting with someone new every day was very enriching.”

“It was like an adventure every single day, whether that was cooking classes, restaurant or some form of entertainment.”

Statista published data in June 2020 on leading cities with the most cultural attractions worldwide. Tokyo ranked first with more than 8 thousand cultural destinations, Paris second with more than 4 thousand attractions. London ranked third with more than 3 thousand places to visit,

Hotel Geeks told a story of solo traveller Kelly who travelled around Iceland for 5-months on a bicycle, staying in hostels. she described the experience as freedom and spoke of exploring the mountains. “My intentions were to meet the locals and learn about the culture.

Abba Genie, 38, runs a small business making juices in Herne Hill, London in 2019, he travelled to Ghana in western Africa, visiting Kenya and Nigeria on a five-month trip.

“Visiting Kenya was different than I expected it to be. Kenya is not how I imagined it to be from what Africa is portrayed as from a western point of view – It was also different than what I had portrayed in my head.”

He described the city Sekondi he visited as very westernized, although some areas were very undeveloped, which he described as humbling to witness.

“The people were so modest and welcoming. The second place I went to was Ghana NAME IT it was beautiful. It was paradise – the paradise I had in my head was what I got to see.”

Genie was surprised at how everyday things appeared so different to him abroad.

“The first thing I bought outside the airport was some fruit, and it didn’t taste the same as the U.K. And the beach was different,” he recalls.

“My best experience was driving on the motorway. The views were amazing - sandy roads, bumpy roads - it was difficult but fun like you were on a quad bike.”

In Nigeria, he visited the slave museum and learnt about the slave trade era and the history links to Nigeria”. The atmosphere in the country was ‘chaos and calm’, he said. “To me, the chaos was it was like a big London.

“I would go back. I would love to live there; I see a future in Africa. What I experienced was the right thing. My plan is to live there.”

“The waves are as big as the buildings in Ghana. I also stayed in a place called ‘No-Return’ in Elmina, where the slaves were taken from.”

There have been scientifically proven health benefits of travelling aboard it is reported by the Global Commission on Aging and Transamerica Centre for Retirement Studies, in partnership with the U.S. Travel Association, travelling keeps you healthier. The study found that women who vacation at least twice a year show a significantly lower risk of suffering a heart attack than those who only travel every six years.

Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth, explains Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School who has authored a number of studies that examine the links between international travel and creativity travel.