To ask for your experiences with yound adults travelling (interrail, Australia and south east asia)

[LDTrainTravel]

My DD is doing such a trip starting in Mar, and as it gets closer I getting more and more anxious about it.

I've done such trips in my early 20s, once in Uni, once between jobs. Back 30 years ago on my travels, I did get sometimes encounter the typical misogyny (verbal, groping) but was very used to that from student life/work in England - annoying but not really a problem. But beyond that I had a really bad experience in Australia, and it changed my outlook on those types trips.

Any of the younger posters, or people whose kids have done such things in recent times, can reassure me that these types of trips can be trouble free today? Things might be better now? All reassurance (or advice) much appreciated!

Much less adventurous now - because everything is so well connected and a lot of traveller routes so well serviced with decent hostels (as opposed to hovels)

You have a lot less to worry about than your parents did, but obviously it has it’s downsides in reduced adventure

Hello!I did a trip myself a decade ago in Australia. had a few unsettling encounters (also the opposite, as were I visited some Australians could sometimes be very direct and also very accepting of your answer, which I love). Travelling alone had the advantage of constantly having to go out of my comfort zone and I met a lot of people and had many great experiences, but the disadvantage was that because I only stayed in one place for a maximum of 5 days or so (I travelled from Cairns to Sydney, plus some Islands along the way) there was no time enough to find a travel mate or friend for longer, most people had companions or already made (different) plans. This made me not daring to go over the streets at night time for example, simply because of not being familiar in the town that I was visiting.There was a website back then, on which you could find another solo traveller, and travel together, or for some parts or just stay in the same places, whatever you like. In hindside I had preferred that option.

My nephew recently did a long trip Asia and Europe. He used Polarsteps app to keep family informed of where he was etc it was reassuring although some may find it Intrusive to be tracked like that

That's a good point on the value of various apps, tech and so on. Being in regular contact is so much easier.

I have friends who have worked in this industry for 20+ years (booking, arranging and helping keep people safe)
They say while nothing can be 100% safe its a lot better these days than back then.

It used to be a creepy guy could rock up to the hostels just be known as Steve, and he's from the home counties and that's all people ever knew about him. It gave the wrong uns so much anonymity that sadly it wasn't rare for incidents of SA and worse to occur. These days, not only does social media help keep people in touch while they are away, it also removes this cloak of anonymity that people hid behind, anyone under 20 is going to be looked at weird and as a potential creep if they don't have Insta/tik tok