This is a great article for Women who travel solo or who on occasion want to enjoy dinner alone.
Bella DePaulo, Ph.D in Psychology, recently conducted a very interesting survey comparing pictures of people dining alone versus people dining with the company of others. The results showed that any social stigmas our readers perceive are unfounded, and more reflective of your state of mind.
Think of dining alone as an opportunity to pick the type of food you really want; no need to please friends and family, or to make compromises; the only opinion that counts is yours!
- We have compiled a few ideas to maximize the experience of dining by yourself:
- Pick a restaurant with an open or exposed kitchen. There’s nothing quite like watching the chefs in action!
- Some people choose to eat at the counter. It is a good way to meet people or to strike up an interesting conversation with the bartender, or someone sitting next to you.
- Bring a book or a magazine.
- If you want to be alone with your thoughts, ask the Maitre D’ to find you a table in a corner, or near the back of the restaurant.
- A good hotel concierge should be able to recommend options for women business travelers.
- While there are exceptions, broadly speaking avoid restaurants in large hotels; they are often times impersonal and full of tourists.
- Avoid tapas places
Don’t think everyone is looking at you when dining alone. Enjoy the opportunity to relax, be with your thoughts, and enjoy a GREAT meal! And finally, for those of you that are still not convinced, find dining companions in our community of women business travelers by visiting our forum.
I love traveling. It is a passion of mine–even as a child I would day dream about far away places. After raising my daughter, I found myself a empty nester, widow, retired, and searching for a new quest in life. Travel has always been there for me when I wanted to escape and get away from it all. I have experienced traveling with other women and alone because after several years of traveling with my husband, I became a widow with time to travel but my friends and family are often not able to come along. So I established a travel business to help other women who were ready to travel or who life may have thrown them a curve because they have gone through a lose of a spouse or partner, divorced, or she may be a caregiver needing a escape, or feeling a little neglected because their husband is not able or not willing to come along experience the same connection, freedom and rejuvenation I did traveling with other women traveling together or Solo.