Travelling alone, I like markets for about forty minutes.

After that curiosity turns into fatigue and I start making poor decisions about bags of unidentified snacks. Knowing that has improved my travelling more than any packing list. #SoloTravel #TravelOver50

At a foreign card machine, always choose the local currency.

Paying in pounds sounds helpful. It means the machine does the conversion at a rate it picked, rather than your bank at a rate it didn't. Over a fortnight that difference buys a very good dinner. #TravelTips #TravelOver50

Choose the neighbourhood before you choose the hotel.

A lovely room is no use beside a six-lane road, three miles from useful transport, above a nightclub called something like Insomnia. #SoloTravel #TravelOver50

When someone says solo travel is dangerous, ask what part worries them most.

It is rarely the whole idea. It is the airport transfer, or arriving after dark. Those you can actually discuss. The whole concept, you cannot. #SoloTravel #TravelOver50

You do not have to feel ready. You only have to book something small enough that you cannot talk yourself out of it.

One night. One city. One dinner alone. The rest follows, quietly, after you have noticed the world stayed intact. #SoloTravel #TravelOver50

Read the one-star reviews before the five-star ones.

Glowing reviews tell you the teaspoons were amazing. Critical ones tell you the Wi-Fi fails and the walls are thin. Ignore the furious guest who disliked the eggs. Look for patterns. #SoloTravel #TravelOver50