Book Review: Solo – A Guide to Travelling The World Alone
I’m pleased to be on the Blog Tour today with a book review of Solo – A Guide to Travelling The World Alone by Aaron Hodges. Solo is a travel guide for exploring the world alone. Be inspired to take the trip you’ve always dreamed of.
Book Cover Notes
Feeling alone? Trapped? Lost?
Time for an adventure!
The bad times won’t last forever, and for more than five years, Aaron Hodges has journeyed the globe alone, visiting everywhere from Istanbul to Argentina. Honest and insightful, SOLO is packed with his personal travel tips and humorous stories. Learn about the ups and downs, the triumphs and the pitfalls of venturing off the beaten path. Follow his guidelines for exploring the world alone and be inspired to take the trip you’ve always dreamed of.
Discover the world of solo travel.
Go Solo!
My thoughts
As someone who loves to travel I’m always interested in travel books, memoirs or guides. As suggested on the book cover, Solo is indeed a ‘down to earth guide for travelling the world alone.’
At the start of the book the author provides some background into why he decided to go travelling alone. Aaron then goes on to challenge the reader to think about their own reasons for wanting to travel. Yes it can be amazing fun, and an adventure even life changing, but it can also be exhausting, uncomfortable and at times dangerous.
The book then moves on to provide some useful recommendations for planning, booking and packing for a trip. It was funny to see the authors backpack shrink in size in his photos from year 1 to year 5 🙂 He’s right, it’s amazing how much you DON’T need to carry on your back!
I really liked the ‘Pro Tips’ that pop up throughout the book. These are great snippets of advice, that Aaron shares from his own experiences, that will save the reader time, money or hassle.
The book also provides several recommendations of websites and apps to download and use. I liked the section relating to first arriving in a new country. Aaron shares his experiences and suggestions on how ‘not’ to get ripped off straight out of the airport, we’ve all done it! Valuable insight for every new traveller.
The second half of the Solo travel guide has a ton of useful ideas on where to travel around the world and why its a good place for back packers to go. There are a number of photo’s supporting the stories, which I think really help visualise doing the trip yourself.
Summary
Aaron’s writing style is very relaxed and friendly, it’s like listening to him chat with a group of friends over a beer (or two).
Solo is a travel guide aimed at students and young adults in their 20s. This is exactly the sort of book my two stepsons would enjoy. They’re both early 20’s and have had a taste of what backpacking is all about before the Pandemic restricted their travel plans. Santa will be delivering them both a copy to cheer them up and motivate them to plan more trips in 2021 (fingers crossed eh!).
“One of the things I’ve learnt on my adventures is that it’s the people you meet that make the trip, rather than the things you do. Because no matter how beautiful the beaches or mountains are, they’ll always be better with good friends”. – Aaron Hodges
About the Author
Aaron Hodges was born in 1989 in the small town of Whakatane, New Zealand. He studied for five years at the University of Auckland, completing a Bachelors of Science in Biology and Geography, and a Masters of Environmental Engineering.
After working as an environmental consultant for two years, he grew tired of office work and decided to quit his job in 2014 and see the world. One year later, he published his first novel – Stormwielder – while in Guatemala.
Since then, he has honed his skills while travelling through parts of SE Asia, India, North and South America, Turkey and Europe, and now has over a dozen works to his name. Today, his adventures continue…
Where to find Aaron online
Further book info
- Published Date: 11th December 2019
- Publisher: The National Library of New Zealand
- Page Count: 129
- Story Based in: Numerous locations
Where to buy
Book Blog Tour Hosted by
Thanks to Rachel @rararesources for inviting me on the tour. Also thanks to Aaron Hodges for my digital copy of the book for an honest review. All views are my own.
Miche xxx
Still looking for your next read?
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