I'm a female solo traveller who's been to 39 countries - here's the common mistake almost everyone makes

Daily Mail​

01-07-2025

A solo traveller who has been to almost 40 countries across five continents has been sharing her opinions on travelling – warning that some may be 'unpopular'.
Karina Henry, who runs the @karinaworldwide Instagram account and has over 131,000 followers on the site, shared 15 of her strongest views.
She starts by addressing the mistake people make when they rush to visit as many countries as possible, writing: 'Travel isn't a race – no one cares about your passport stamp.'
Instead of the number of nations visited, people should instead impress with their experiences.
'Let's swap 'whew, I'd definitely go back there' stories, not just border-crossing bingo.'
Among the comments agreeing with her, a user wrote: 'I'm more impressed with someone who has visited only 5 countries but spent a longer time there than with someone who has visited 10 in 3 weeks.'
She warns against 'using Africans as props in your travel photos', stating: 'Poverty is not an aesthetic.'
'If you wouldn't take that photo in Paris or Tokyo, ask yourself why it feels acceptable in Ghana or Kenya,' she added.
'Your trip shouldn't come at the cost of someone's dignity.'
One of the most popular responses agreed with this point in particular.
'I HATE SEEING kids in villages in Southeast Asia in people's photo carousels. If you wouldn't take a picture of less fortunate American, don't do it in another country,' wrote @jadethetraveler.
However, one person questions this opinion.
'You have pics posing with a local in very traditional, simple dress, while you are decked out to the nines. ??,' wrote Katie Mendonça.
'I don't get the difference? Loved a lot of what you shared…but this one seems hypocritical.'
Another viewpoint that people disagreed with was around tipping, which Karina believes 'shouldn't be optional just because you're abroad'.
'The tipping culture is very different (give or not, how much, or actually bargain), I think it is best to study beforehand how they do and accommodate that instead of bringing your own tipping culture', said @cskmtrsztsz
Another, who identified themselves as Australian, wrote: 'Tipping can actually be seen as extremely rude in many countries- particularly places like Japan - so it's always best to actually research the tipping culture.'
Karina also shared her stance on how solo travel isn't a personality trait, why there's no shame in dating abroad, and how travel doesn't have to be transformational.
Most of the responses were positive, though one Instagram user wrote: 'I get where she's coming from, but many of these come from an odd, rather judgey place.'
The travel content creator, who has over 300,000 followers on TikTok, previously opened up about her most terrifying experiences abroad, ranging from a tourist scam to a parasitic infection she got from eating cat meat.
'In China, I was physically assaulted by a drunk man who said he didn't like me simply because I was American,' she shared.
The footage showed a man yelling at her in Chinese while she begged him to leave her alone, saying, 'I didn't do anything. I just want to go home.'
Karina then shared that she 'got an incurable parasitic infection after eating cat meat in Ghana,' but she didn't go into detail about her health scare.
'In Egypt, I was lured into a shop by a "tour guide" and then trapped inside until I agreed to pay for a belly dancer outfit I "broke" — only to later realize it was a scam,' she continued.
Another solo travel content creator recently shared her honest views on where she feels unsafe as a woman – and one of her picks is a hugely popular European destination.
Savanna Crowell, in a video that has been viewed almost 500,000 times, the New York-based traveller revealed three places where she didn't feel safe.
She told her 54,000 followers that she'd 'had a few uncomfortable situations' in one of the countries