We experience that some of our guests who came as a solo traveller to Gota d´Àgua surfcamp had some doubts before they left for their surf holiday or they even asked us before if it will be okay to come alone. There might be different reasons to travel alone but, in the end, only the outcome of having a great surf holiday matters! Perhaps your family, friends or partners just don’t ́t have the time or the money to travel with you or they just don’t want to try a water sports in  the ocean. It might be possible as well that you feel the wish to travel on your own to feel freedom and independency.

That’s why we would like to share our experience and let you know why a solo trip could become an unforgettable memory giving you space to learn much more about yourself.

1. Make your own decisions

3) When you are travelling with someone it goes without saying that it’s great to share beautiful moments together. On the other hand, you might have made the experience that you constantly have to take thousands of micro decisions together. Where to go, when to go, which hostel, which restaurant, which coffee and so on. The good thing about travelling alone is that you can always take your own decisions and decide for yourself what feels best for you. Perhaps you have to get used to this but after some time it can feel quite satisfying to fulfil your needs by 100 %. This is not about being selfish but about caring for yourself. Especially if you think about the fact that most people in their daily life always have to make compromises and take care about others to act as a social human being in your job, within your group of fellow students, in your relationship or within your family. Succeeding in taking decisions by your own and feeling comfortable to do this can boost your self-confidence, you will feel empowered to manage everything you want!

2. Discover yourself and leave your comfort zone

Especially if you are travelling for the first time alone you will have to leave the comfort zone of having your beloved ones around, and take the courage to meet completely new people and to try new things, like surfing for example. Real travelling is about broaden your horizons and discover new things. When you are travelling normally with a friend who is more sociable and talkative you will be now in the position to do this. Perhaps you can even learn about yourself that you are more outgoing than you thought. And trust us, in a surrounding like in Gota d´Àgua this is a very easy playground to try this out since your surrounded by people in a similar situation.

3. Meet new people from all over the world

When you are travelling with your friends or partner you are almost always creating a little unit, especially when you are a couple, people don’t want to “disturb” you (this might be just their fear but sometimes it happens). And to be honest it’s very easy and comfortable to exchange all your experiences and ideas with your friend. When you are travelling alone you will see that more people will get in contact with you or you with them. It’s difficult to explain but these things happen naturally. When you will be sitting at our dinner table you have the chance to meet up with people from different parts of the world and it is one of the greatest pleasure of travelling to share thoughts, discuss worldviews and gain more perspectives about the world or even discover similarities with people from the other side of the world. In the end you can learn that concepts and emotions are universal and not attached to nationality or origin.

4. Surfing as a perfect setting to meet other travellers

If you are travelling for the first time on your own, you might be afraid that it’s hard to get to know other people. But trust us there is no better way to get to know others than doing sports. Especially such an exciting and unique sport as surfing. Experiencing this happiness and adrenalin together will let you bond with others much quicker. We always see happy faces after people catching their first wave (often on the first day) or when we can show you how to catch even more waves. After your surf sessions you can laugh and talk with other students about your best wave of the day or your most spectacular wipe-out.4

5. Gota d’Água Surf Camp- a place to experience and to discover

Well to be honest, if you join us, this might be a little bit “cheating” about travelling alone since we try to make you feel at home. You will see if you enter our Gota d´Àgua surf camp world that we always organise activities to enjoy beautiful moments together with us and other travellers. You are able to join our family dinners, our BBQ, we watch the sunset together, drink together or take you to beautiful paradise beach to jump from the cliffs. But in the end, everything will be a free choice for you to participate or not. If you need time by yourself, you can enjoy this too and we can give you special insider tips. Wander around through beautiful Lisbon or discover our beach town Caparica, there are thousands of options. Now it’s your choice

Anymore doubts to surf with us as a solo traveller? We hope we could help you to decide to come here to meet other like-minded people who also like to travel, discover the world and are passionate about water sports and nature! For the future guests who travel with their friends, family or partners: Don’t worry for you it will be a great time as well to meet all these inspiring solo travellers! We hope to see you soon at Gota d´Àgua Surf Camp to show you the beauty of surfing!