{"id":4590,"date":"2016-04-10T05:26:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T05:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myculturecraving.com\/?p=4590"},"modified":"2023-01-05T20:08:18","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T20:08:18","slug":"is-it-safe-to-travel-alone-as-a-female-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/is-it-safe-to-travel-alone-as-a-female-in-india","title":{"rendered":"Is it Safe to Travel Alone as a Female in India?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whilst travelling around New Zealand, I have been asked on more occasions than I can remember – how was travelling around India as a girl on your own? Did you feel safe?<\/p>\n

My answer? One million times, YES.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Therefore, as safety seems to be such a big worry for a lot of solo female travellers who want to go to India (it also once was for me!), I thought I would write this post with lots of tips and tricks on how to calm your nerves and be extra safe as\u00a0well as, to give you that extra push to visit one of my favourite countries in the world.<\/p>\n

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Book your accommodation in advance<\/h2>\n

Not knowing where you’re staying when you arrive in a new place is likely to cause you some easily avoidable panic.<\/p>\n

To avoid this stress, use Hostelworld<\/a>\/Hostelbookers<\/a>\/Booking.com<\/a> or any other online booking provider to book your accommodation in advance. This way, you will be able to show your driver the address or, even better, request a pick up from the place you’re staying.<\/p>\n

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Don’t be put off by the staring<\/h2>\n

A lot of people who travel to India (especially women) say that they don’t like it when the locals stare at them. Although this is more than understandable as it can feel a little intimidating, try your best not to let it bother you. They mean no harm and are just intrigued by how different you are.<\/p>\n

TIP: dressing conservatively will help you blend in with the locals and thus, should stop you from being stared at\u00a0as\u00a0<\/em>much.<\/p>\n

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Stay in hostels<\/h2>\n

India has an up and coming backpacker scene (especially in the South) meaning hostels are quickly growing in numbers. If you are worried about being on your own for the whole of your trip, staying in hostels will pretty much guarantee that you meet lots of fellow travellers to share your experience with.<\/p>\n

From staying in hostels I met people, which I travelled with for a week or two at a time and was even given the opportunity to be shown around Bangalore by a local I’d met at a hostel in Goa.<\/p>\n

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Book onto a tour\/volunteer project<\/h2>\n

If you think you’d feel more at ease if you booked onto a tour or volunteer project, there are a great number of companies to choose from. The first time I went to India I did just this, and booked onto a volunteer project in Jaipur<\/a>, which eased me into life in India and meant I met lots of other travellers.<\/p>\n

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Read up on India’s common scams<\/h2>\n

If you are aware of the common scams in India, you’ll be a lot more prepared to avoid them if needed.<\/p>\n

Read other blogs (check out this post I wrote on scams in India), guide books etc. and you’ll feel a lot more prepped to dodge any scams, which may come your way.<\/p>\n

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Travel in daylight (as best you can)<\/h2>\n

If possible, I would recommend getting flights\/buses\/trains etc. in daylight hours. Like anywhere else in the world, travellers are more of a target at night-time and are therefore, more likely to feel at ease travelling in the day.<\/p>\n

However, if you find yourself with no other option than to travel overnight, don’t feel as though it is unsafe to do so – most of my buses and trains were overnight on my last trip to India – I just feel more in control travelling in daylight when\u00a0possible.<\/p>\n

Like everywhere else in the world (even your home village\/town\/city), as long as you’re careful, stay calm, follow your gut instinct and don’t go off with strangers, you will be absolutely fine. India is my favourite place to travel and having to go on your own is not something, which should put you off.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whilst travelling around New Zealand, I have been asked on more occasions than I can remember – how was travelling around India as a girl on your own? Did you feel safe? My answer? One million times, YES.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,68,94,95,216],"tags":[585,1068,1125],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12907,"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4590\/revisions\/12907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lydiagiles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}