Record-numbers of women are traveling alone. But what are the real stories beyond the highlight reel, the "Bali will heal you" fantasies and the doom warnings from your uncle?
Hosted by solo traveler and award-winning writer Julie Piñero, Solita explores the messier side to solo travel. What happens when your Paris fling takes you somewhere the rom-coms wouldn’t dare? When your trip to honor your grandparents means facing your worst fear alone? When you say ‘yes’ and it surprises even you?
Solita is Spanish for ‘a female alone’, but it drips with pity. This show takes that word back. Solitude - especially on the road - may be a time to follow a curiosity nobody shares, change your mind and push your limits.
Each week, Julie and a guest unpack one solo trip and what it reveals about safety, sex, money, heritage, loneliness, identity and other nuances that make solo travel more approachable, less fantasy. Because the world isn’t always your oyster. That’s exactly what makes the story worth telling.
Solita host Julie Piñero shares her solo travel nightmare and confronts hidden risks after a serious injury, offering insights into unexpected dangers.
20 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT
Are Flights a Portal to a Bolder Universe of Romance?
Host Julie explores how flights become portals to romance as Hannah Roodman, Nava Kavelin, and Ali Levin-Steinman share their unexpected romantic encounters during air travel.
13 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT
How to Go Clubbing Alone
Novelist Upasna Barath shares her solo clubbing experience at Berghain, revealing how embracing anonymity on the dance floor fosters personal growth and letting go.
6 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT
An Unsolved Murder, a Canceled Wedding and the Truth You Can’t Un-Hear
Nikki Vargas, founder of Unearth Women, shares her journey of uncovering family secrets and personal truths while exploring Colombia in this interview.
29 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Hate Being a Tourist? Take a 'Skillcation' Instead
Travel creator Amy Zhou shares how skill-based travel offers deeper connection and personal growth beyond typical tourist experiences in this interview.
22 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Solo Traveling to the Places Headlines Teach You to Fear
Host Nayeema Raza shares her solo travel experiences in challenging destinations, revealing how to navigate fear and discover authentic stories beyond the headlines.
15 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
Going Home to a Place Where You've Never Lived
Devika Parmar shares her solo journey to India, exploring belonging and confronting fear to find her own sense of home.
8 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
How to Run 20,000 Kilometers Alone
What's the biggest risk you'd take to see the world? Ria Xi will be the first person to run the length of the Silk Road across Asia and Europe, and she'll run it alone. Ria believes travel should happen at the pace of a single footstep - slow enough to savor everything between point A and B. Julie catches Ria from her nomadic training route, but stick around to the end of the episode to hear an update from Ria along her record-breaking run!
To support Ria's run, check out her GoFundMe (gofund.me/8d624216f) and follow along on Instagram @whereisriax (https://www.instagram.com/whereisriax/)for occasional chances to join her crew.
Check out Ria's podcast, Planetary Run Club (https://youtu.be/jw1R3Ip5ec8?is=BkvLFTrY7qwlcMJW), where she interviewed Julie for her debut episode!
Follow @solita_travels (https://www.instagram.com/solita_travels/) for bonus content and subscribe on Substack (https://substack.com/@solitatravels%20/%20https://www.instagram.com/solita_travels/) for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
1 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT
3 Cheaper Ways to Solo Travel that Skip the Tourist Script
Are flights really cheapest on a Tuesday? How do you find a great homestay? Can you travel with just a purse? Gillian Morris built the cheap-flight app Hit List and she's perfected the art of budget solo travel. She's living proof that the less you spend, the more open you are to help from strangers, vibrant detours, and truly connecting to a place -- if you do it right! This episode is packed with tips for how to save on flights, stays and luggage, plus strategies like "playovers" that let you squeeze a whole trip out of a layover.
Follow Gillian on her Substack "Supernuclear: A Guide to Living With and Near Friends (https://supernuclear.substack.com/)"
Follow @solita_travels (https://www.instagram.com/solita_travels/) for bonus content and subscribe on Substack (https://substack.com/@solitatravels) for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
25 Aug 2026TRANSCRIPT
Eat, Pray, Evacuate: Trying to Relax While Everything is On Fire
How do you cope when everything falls apart at home, and you're 8,000 miles away? Between jobs and craving a reset, TV producer Sam Schles books a solo trip to Thailand. Then, from a beach half a world away, she watches the LA wildfires close in on her home. With the help of some Buddhist monks, Sam gets a crash course in non-attachment and savoring the things that are actually worth saving.
Follow @solita_travels (https://substack.com/@solitatravels) for bonus content and subscribe on Substack (https://www.instagram.com/solita_travels/) for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
18 Aug 2026
The Paris Sex Club Incident and the Limits of Saying 'Yes'
How far can "yes" take you before it stops feeling like freedom? Comedian Kenice Mobley grew up on rom-coms where a woman flies to Europe, accepts an invitation from a man with high cheekbones, and gets a whole new life. So when a flirt in Paris turns into an invitation, Kenice follows it... straight into an underground world that asks her to keep saying "yes". She does, right up until she hits the edge of it: the line between freedom and fantasy.
Follow Kenice at @kenicemobley (https://www.instagram.com/kenicemobley/) and get tickets to her show, "Hot Guy Draft (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hot-guy-draft-first-crush-tickets-1989359961196)" on August 23rd, 2026 at Littlefield in Brooklyn.
Follow @solita_travels (https://www.instagram.com/solita_travels/) for bonus content and subscribe on Substack (https://substack.com/@solitatravels) for Julie's big 3 takeaways from each episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
11 Aug 2026
Can Julie Become a 'Regular' at a Pub in Ireland?
Solita host Julie Piñero has four nights in Galway on one mission: become a 'regular' at pub in Ireland. With advice from locals in her ear, 15 years of solo travel under her belt, and only 4 nights to make it happen, she's racing the clock to answer: how do you connect to a place when you're only just passing through, alone?
Special thanks to all of the Ireland impromptu-guests who agreed to Julie's interviews.
If you're in Galway, be sure to take a tour with Ana at Tribes Tours (https://www.tribestoursgalway.com/) or follow her at @anabnas. If you take a trip to the Aran Islands, go to Inisheer and visit Máirtín at the Aran Currach Experience (https://arancurrachexperience.com/) or follow them at @aran_currach_experience.
Follow @solita_travels on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/solita_travels/) and Tik Tok (https://www.tiktok.com/@solita_travels) to watch video of Julie's Ireland mission, along with extra reflections on solo female travel.
See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
3 Aug 2026
Introducing: Solita
See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.
Inside a recent episode
Will Julie Survive Her Solo Travel Nightmare?
Published 27 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] It's going to be so inconvenient to get off this flight. I take a deep breath and I try to imagine the next week attempting to constantly stabilize my balance on a sailboat with a hurt knee. And so I tell the flight attendant, please get me off of this flight. She puts me into a wheelchair and asks me if I'd like to see a paramedic. I scream, no, I can't afford a medical bill like that. She says, love, you're in the UK. It's free. The paramedic confirms, no broken bones, just get home as soon as you can and stay off of your leg for at least a week. I'm still sobbing when another airport employee comes around and says to me, hi, I'm going to wheel you to rebook your flight back home. […]
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