Planning a solo scuba diving trip 🤿

The One Page Review # 10

I’ve had this thought in my head for years: traveling solo is very different from going on a solo trip. With the first one, you’re going by yourself to a certain destination for a specific purpose — for example, going to school, meeting family, or attending a wedding. There’s certainty around what you’re there to do. A solo trip is different because there’s a lot more uncertainty involved. It also forces you to be comfortable in your own company and to venture out and do things yourself, in situations where everyone else around you already has company. That’s a different but exciting concept, and one that not many people actually turn into reality.

After moving to Toronto, I discovered how many people actually do it, no matter how scary it sounds, and how they almost always end up booking another one because of how much fun it is — how uplifting and freeing it feels to have full liberty to do whatever you want, however you want. Now, if that’s not your thing, that’s totally fine and understandable. But if it’s something you constantly think about, or you wonder what it would be like when you see other people doing it, or you get a little excited imagining what you’d do — it’s worth trying. Even though I’ve never been on one myself, I feel like it would be such a cool adventure, and I’m excited to experience it for the first time in 2 months.

What confused me the most was figuring out what I would actually do. After talking to friends who’ve done it multiple times, I noticed a trend: people tend to go for a specific activity the first time, or join a tour group, so the excitement of trying something by yourself is still there, but with some built-in certainty. For me, I’ve always wanted to try scuba diving, but I kept telling myself it was something I could do “later,” or once I’d saved up for other things — I realized I was delaying it for no reason. After 4 months of doing nothing and feeling frustrated because of my injury, I realized how fast time goes by and how important it is to do things while you’re healthy and have the energy for them. Money was another excuse — even after hitting some of my financial goals and landing a higher-paying job, I was still finding reasons to put it off. So I decided to just go for it.

Booking the activity turned out to be a great way to anchor an exciting adventure. Then came the research phase, which is really important for the logistics and insurance side of things. After digging in and talking to friends who’ve been on similar trips, plus my cousin who’s done a diving trip before, I figured out all the unglamorous items that don’t come up when you’re booking flights and daydreaming about the trip. The ones people most often miss are:

1. Travel AND health insurance through your credit card

2. Having local currency on you at all times

3. Sorting out roaming and an eSIM (some credit cards offer this)

4. Diving insurance, separately (in my case)

The next thing on my to-do list is building an approximate budget for while I’m there, and remembering not to overspend on souvenirs unless it’s something I truly want (can’t think of anything yet). I’d already accounted for flights, accommodation, and a rough sense of overall costs, but I think it’ll help to have a spending range in mind so I don’t have to overthink my budget day to day — just stay within the range and prioritize accordingly. Since I’m only taking a backpack, I’ll be pretty limited on the shopping front anyway, which just means more room to enjoy the actual vacationing part.

I’ll share my honest take on the solo trip once it’s done!

Shermeen