Hiya! Back in February I travelled to India with a friend for my first trip without any parents. I was 19 years old at the time and as excited as I was, I did find myself feeling a bit out of my depth at times or particularly nervous prior to leaving and rightly so because I was going half way round the world without any ‘adults’. Because of this, I thought I would share some of my tips on travelling to India not only alone, but as young girls too. I hope this post can help you out if you’re thinking about going travelling alone or are visiting India or Goa in-particular.
1. Be ready for a major culture shock.
When you first land in India, you will experience a major culture shock. It doesn’t compare to anywhere I have been before and everything you do and experience will be completely different to home. But that’s the beauty of travelling and going somewhere new.
2. Change money safely.
Due to not being able to take Indian money out of the country or taking it in, it means you have to exchange it when you get there. Exchange offices at the airport are likely to rip you off so the best bet is to either go to an ATM or we even exchanged it at the hotel. Although it probably wasn’t the best conversion rate, it was quick and easy and also a safe way to do it.
3. Be careful with the food.
The first thing every single person said to me when I told them I was going to Goa was ‘be careful of Delhi belly’. This was something that was openly spoken about among tourists, especially in our hotel, but as long as you have Imodium on you, you will be absolutely fine!!
4. Drink only sealed, bottled water.
Before going out there we were advised not to drink the tap water because it can apparently upset your tummy and to only drink branded bottle water. In local stores and on the beach they did sell certain bottles of water that you could see had been filled with dirty tap water (as it was brown) and resold. However we spent the week drinking branded and sealed bottled water from the hotel and if we did have to buy it from shacks or local stores we bought a brand called Golden Goa.
5. Don’t get into unlicensed Taxis.
You will have so many random people shouting ‘taxi’ at you as you walk down the street but a lot of them aren’t at taxi ranks or even have taxi written on the side of their cars. This is not to say they’re not legit and not going to take you to your desired destination, but as two young girls we preferred to ask the hotel to book our taxis so that no only did they know we were going should anything have happened, but also knowing that we were in a legit taxi made us feel a lot more comfortable. We were also told that the local bus could take us into the town of Baga for just 5 rupee which is about 5p but we didn’t actually use the bus so I can’t promise that this is accurate.
6. Be Vigilant.
Last but not least is stay vigilante and aware when walking around as there aren’t always sidewalks and if there are they can be poorly looked after. The roads are very busy and have lots of mopeds weaving in and out of the traffic. You will see a lot of stray dogs and cows walking around not only the streets but in the middle of the roads to but, particularly with the cows, if you ignore them they won’t harm you and to be honest they’re uninterested in humans, I think because they’re so used to seeing them, just like the locals are with the cows. I didn’t expect to see cows when I first got there and I stepped out my hotel to be less than a metre from about 3, and let me tell you that was a shock haha. Also, beware of pickpockets, especially in busy, touristy places but this kind of goes without saying as it does happen anywhere.
Overall, I actually loved India and I did feel safe where we were. It’s a very beautiful country and I hope to go back at some point in the future and explore another part. These were just a few tips and things that I could think of that I would have liked to know before going.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post and I really hope it helped you out if you were going to or planning a trip to India … or even just for future trips alone.
