Tracee Ellis Ross is showing the world what Black women like me have always known: solo travel isn’t just about how many destinations you can travel to. It’s about claiming space for yourself, your joy, and your truth. Her show, Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross, recently renewed for a second season, sparked so much conversation in the Black female community because it centers the very things my blog has always been about: confidence, self-discovery, and freedom.

As someone who has been traveling solo for years, eight years to be exact, I saw myself reflected in Tracee’s journey. This is what I learned about her, what I reflected on about myself, and what I considered about solo travel from watching her:

1. Confidence is a Muscle You Build on the Road

One of the things I admire most about Tracee is how confidently she captures herself in each destination. She isn’t waiting for someone else to validate her experience. She documents it fully and openly on her own terms.

I’ll be honest: sometimes I hesitate to pull out my camera when I’m traveling alone. I worry about other people staring, the safety concerns, or the perception that i’m “doing too much.” Watching Tracee capture herself reminded me that these moments and trips are mine to capture. My life, as it is, deserves to be documented for my own memories. Over the last eight years of solo travel, I can say for sure that my confidence has grown every time I dare to plan a trip, show up alone, and enter spaces where I may sometimes be the only Black woman there. It’s a powerful experience to be curious, to desire to see the world and then be bold and daring enough to make it happen.

2. Solo Travel Holds Space for Grief

One of the things that struck me most was when Tracee admitted that traveling solo sometimes brings up grief and the ache of wishing you had a partner to share it all with.

Solo journeys seem glamorous, and they are, but sometimes throughout all of the adventures and independence, a sense of loneliness can surface. I’m learning to be okay with that, and it’s helpful to continually acknowledge that I love the life I live but I also desire partnership eventually. There’s room for both feelings. Tracee’s openness reaffirmed for me that’s okay to feel a range of emotions, especially as I age. There’s a special kind of joy in living a liberated life but it’s also okay to long for not necessarily more but other. Grief doesn’t erase the beauty of the journey, and embracing it can actually deepen the experience.

3. Make the Trip Yours, Completely

Tracee’s trips are unapologetically hers. She chooses every outfit, every activity, every hotel carefully. The way she explores a market to the way she sits in a café is all being done exactly the way she wants, and that is a powerful feeling to be able to curate a life in this way. Watching her reminded me that trips can have checklists, but they’re also about taking each encounter and experience as they come to reflect who you are in that moment.

For me, sometimes that looks like wandering down streets with no particular destination for a photo walk or spontaneously buying a $2000 ring or diving into a cave or curling up in my hotel room with a book. Travel is transformative when it mirrors who you are and what you desire.

4. Travel as a Mirror of Truth

At one point, Tracee says she hopes viewers of her show find their truth. That resonated with me because it’s the heart of this website, The Truth Traveller.

Every trip I take is about uncovering something more about myself, about the world, about what matters most to me. Tracee’s journey affirmed that travel isn’t just about discovery outwardly; it’s a path inward, too. When we dare to travel solo, we dare to meet ourselves fully.

Tracee Ellis Ross is giving us more than a travel show. She’s offering a blueprint for living fully and authentically. Watching her reminded me why I fell in love with solo travel in the first place: because it is mine. It’s my space to heal, to dream, to grieve, to laugh, and most importantly, to live truthfully.

If you’ve ever hesitated to book that trip alone, let Tracee’s journey and mine be your reminder: your truth is waiting for you out there. All you have to do is go find it.

More about Travel Wellness & Discovery