What’s the weather like?

Weather is an everyday topic of conversation for most people at home…

When traveling or contemplating a trip weather can become an obsession.

I get it, if you’ve been dreaming of that trip to Bora Bora your whole life with that image of sunny skies and perfect turquoise water…

Or strolling champagne vineyards in France in the golden light of Fall…

The thought of dull overcast skies or rain can put a real damper on your trip.

But here’s the thing…

I’ve never, ever, ever let the weather be a THING for me when traveling and here’s why it shouldn’t be for you either.

A huge part of travel is working with what you can control and what you DON’T.

I am constantly stunned to see the obsession people have over the weather in Travel Groups online.

🛏️ I’ve woken up to earthquakes rocking my bed in Greece and Mexico…

🌧️ I’ve had to make the decision whether to board a flight with the news that the airbnb I’ve booked has just been placed in the yellow evacuation zone of a major rain and flooding event.

🏙️ I ended up stranded in New York City with a massive winter snowstorm and had to scramble to find a place to ride out the storm…

❄️ A freak early fall snowstorm in the middle of nowhere South Dakota.

💨 I’ve had to pivot on a trip when a hurricane started storming up the coast toward my destination.

My point is we DON’T control the weather or Mother Nature.

You can plan, plan, plan your trip until the cows come home but once you embark on your travel it's going to be all about how you choose to react to the weather.

My learnings and attitude to the weather when traveling is…

☀️ Research what the weather is like for the time of year you plan to travel to a destination.

☀️ Plan for how you would respond if the unexpected to happens.

☀️ Choose to roll with the punches when the weather goes sideways on you.

☀️ Take pragmatic safety precautions when traveling to places where weather events could occur.

I know, I know, I can see your eyes rolling and the words being muttered…

But doh, Raewyn of course, its just common sense.

And yes, you would be absolutely right it is common sense but… common sense is not necessarily as common these days.

So yes, I’m being overly obvious here because I want every woman reading this blog to get the most out of her solo travel experience.

Whats the old saying of turning lemons into lemonade.

Let’s play out some potential scenarios…

Don’t be tempted to take that super duper travel savings deal to an amazing beach location in the height of hurricane season.

Or if you do, make sure you have great travel insurance and you can weather out, pun totally intended having to stay extra days or pay extra to get home if something were to occur.

Let’s go back to my example of the airbnb being placed in a yellow evacuation zone due to rain and flooding.

I went ahead and got on that plane, why?

🤔 The airbnb was booked for 5 weeks so I had wiggle room on adjusting my stay.

🤔I had been in touch with the owner and she was prepared to refund me if the worse came to the worse.

🤔My flight was landing a 2 hour drive away so I knew that I could switch gears and not drive down to the airbnb and take other accommodation where we landed.

🤔This gave me the option to do a bit of wait and see.

🤔I was prepared to turn around and come home and mentally prepared myself for that eventuality.

🤔I knew when I booked the trip that I would be there in the off season and the weather wasn’t going to be all blue skies, puppies, rainbows and unicorns.

Although come to think of it there were some fabulous rainbows ;-)

The end of the story…

Mother nature cooperated and the potential evacuation order was lifted. 

Yes, there were rainy days and wind but along with that came the most spectacular views of the ocean in all its natural splendor and not a lot of people around except me to enjoy it.

Now, that was truly a weather event, kind of like the Greek earthquake but we’ll save that story for another day.

Let’s get real about the every day weather hiccups that have the potential to throw you for a loop when traveling.

What do you do when you are in beautiful tropical location or a fabulous old European city and the weather turns dull, rainy etc.?

Here goes…

Embrace it, depending on the weather this could be your best opportunity to get out and explore all the nooks and crannies of that wonderful European city. 

You’ll likely find that you’ll have the place to yourself along with the locals.

Remember lighting on days like this can be excellent for capturing some fantastic pictures…

And again no hoards of tourists to get in the way of your perfect shot.

It’s truly the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of the locals as they go about their everyday business. 

So sit in a little local cafe with your cappuccino and live like a local for a moment and be totally in that moment!

On a trip to the Netherlands my bestie and I suddenly found ourselves in a downpour in Amsterdam. We stumbled on the most incredible light airy restaurant with farm to table food that was amazing.

There we were sitting by one of the canals dry from the rain enjoying our surroundings in side and out!

Likewise if you’re in that once in a lifetime tropical location jump in the water and feel those raindrops gently dropping down on you and that amazing azure colour of the water. 

Get up close and totally personal with mother nature. 

You are right where you are meant to be… in just BEING!

I literally have swam in the lagoon of Bora Bora with rain gently dropping around me and it was the most amazing experience.

I wanted to pinch myself. How lucky am I to be in this far flung corner of the world, thousands of miles from home living my best life!

Now to be fair there are inclement weather days where it really does make sense to stay indoors.

And this is where I’m going to sound like a broken record.

For those of you who read my blogs you have heard me say time and time and time again…

Selection of accommodation is one of my top priorities for any of my travel trips!

One of these reasons being weather.

If I am going to have a down day of crappy weather I can hunker down and enjoy my temporary “shut in.

And that can be anything to having great views to a cosy lobby to curl up with a book and wine or take advantage of the spa…

Another cool thing (haha, I just threw in another weather reference with out even realizing it)...

I don’t plan my travel to have something going on every single day I’m on a trip.

In fact I deliberately plan in some “down days”. 

If the weather does turn inclement and not necessarily on a planned down day I am prepared to chill.

To take advantage of resting and reflecting and revelling in my adventures so far on the trip.

Yes, there is a bit of a theme here and its about BEING…

So much of travel is not just the discovery of the world around us but the world within us.

I take it as a sign when the weather makes me pause that I am meant to pause and go a little inward🎤

This is the universe or whatever you might believe in helping us uncover or discover something new and exciting within ourselves.

So cheers to your solo travels whether the weather is sunny skies or not.

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So cheers to wheels up to winging your way to your long dreamed of destination.