It's become more and more common to open a friend’s story on Instagram and see stunning images of a city-scape or the sun setting on a beach. It's become even more common for the taker of those pictures and videos to be travelling alone.
Since the conclusion of the pandemic, solo travelling has risen in popularity. Earlier this year it was reported that nearly half of Brits were planning a lone getaway, with young adults at the forefront of the trend.
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The growing solo travel market is being driven by women. Gabi Nowak-Jelonek, 25, is one of them - she found herself becoming more and more interested in the idea of travelling alone after the pandemic, before quitting her job to pursue it.
“After Covid I was in a job that wasn’t really fulfilling and was quite toxic," Gabi said. "I was in a relationship that I wasn’t happy with and there was an opportunity for me to go and work abroad in Thailand.
“I sort of took that as my way out and then I moved there, I was in that job for three months and got the travel bug while I was there. So I quit that job and I travelled around Thailand for a year and around Asia.
“When I was there working, I was young, I had all these savings and I felt like it was my time do something for myself and not just other people. I was allowed to take time off, spend time travelling and find out who I am - as cliché as it sounds, but it's true.”
A social media savvy millennial, Gabi documented her travels online - and also began giving tips after questions from her friends.
After a while her followers grew and she began getting questions from like-minded women who were interested in travelling solo but were apprehensive.
“I was receiving an influx of messages from women asking me ‘how are you doing this?’ I guess I didn’t realise that I’d had such a big influence over so many people and I wanted to put it to good use," Gabi added.
“The biggest barrier for women travelling is safety, that fear of not knowing how to stay safe in a different country. The other big one is dealing with loneliness, not knowing how to make friends and just being in an unfamiliar situation.
“Men are encouraged to be independent so the aspect of safety might not be the first thing they think about. Whereas for women there’s a stricter process we have to go to like 'destination, where are we gonna stay, how are we going to keep ourselves safe?'
In just over a year of blogging her journeys, Gabi has amassed thousands of views from TikTok and Instagram as Gabs_explores and she has recently set up her own newsletter.
Speaking about her recent success she said: “It’s definitely something that’s happened in the last six to ten months. My aim with posting content was never to get the numbers up but to make an impact on people.
“Blogging was never something I planned on doing but one of the reasons I did quit my job was to find a purpose.
“If I can inspire just one woman to take a trip abroad then clearly that means I can inspire multiple women across the world to do that, and that is my aim, that is my mission."
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