Beyoncé blew my mind

Plus tips for travelling solo

Me, posing outside Caesar’s Superdome stadium in New Orleans after Beyonce’s concert last month

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On to the main event: Beyoncé (sorry, Jess). As you may know, I went on my own to see her perform in New Orleans as part of her Renaissance World Tour about 10 days ago, and she blew my mind. It’s quite hard to write about how good she was without clichés, but I’ll try. 

Her show was vast: 60,000 to 70,000 people packed Caesar’s Superdome stadium, which looked like a silver flying saucer from the outside, and is usually home to American football team the New Orleans Saints.

Inside, it felt like a giant party in a glittering spaceship, and Bey had multiple costume changes, from a neon-yellow gown for her slower songs (Flaws And All, Dangerously In Love) to a sparkling red bodysuit, giant hat and thigh-high boots to perform Formation. 

Party time at Beyoncé’s show

She sang more than 30 songs, each with its own choreography and dance troupe in matching outfits, and had a brass-heavy band, who played a set I saw in a small jazz bar the night before her concert (that’s the kind of place New Orleans is). 

I’ve been lucky enough to see people like Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Rihanna, Elton John and The Rolling Stones perform, but Beyoncé was something else. 

Even from my high-up, way back seat, her voice, her dancing, her charisma and the fact that she made the whole thing into a huge show, with multiple moving parts, fireworks and lasers took the event to another level, and it’s had rave reviews. 

I’d never been to a concert on my own, and Beyoncé was well worth the 10-hour flight. 

My pics aren’t the best, but you get the idea!

Tips for solo travel

With any trip I plan to do alone I always have the ‘what if wobbles’: what if I’m lonely, what if I spend this money and I’m disappointed, what if I’m homesick, what if I get stuck somewhere, what if I don’t talk to anyone? 

About 10 years ago I went to Goa, India on my own, and walking back from the village next to mine along a minor (but well-travelled) road, I had a mini panic attack on my first day.

I didn’t feel entirely safe in the guesthouse I was staying in, I hadn’t spoken to anyone for about 24 hours and I started to feel wobbly. 

I was also too hot, too tired and I needed water. I wanted to hear the sound of my own voice, so I said ‘hello’ to the cattle in the field I was walking past. (They didn’t reply.) Shortly after, a rickshaw approached, and the family inside squished up so I could get a ride. 

The breeze helped me feel calmer, and I resolved to look for better accommodation then and there. The next day, I saw some people in leggings (I know, western cliché!), and asked whether there was a yoga class on the beach.

I ended up staying at their guesthouse, going to daily yoga sessions and a boat trip with them and we also spent our last night at a silent disco together.

What I learned was that planning at least the first few nights of a trip is key. I chose a quieter beach in Goa because I didn’t want to be among loud parties, but in hindsight I would pick a livelier place for my first few nights, and then explore other areas to see what suited me. 

New Orleans is full of characters, such as this artist, Simon Hardeveld, a Frenchman who has lived in Louisiana for more than 30 years.

Now when I travel alone, I book most of my accommodation and transport before I get there, and always have a car pick me up from the airport, giving the drivers’ details - plus as much information about my itinerary as possible (hotel addresses and contact info, tour leaders’ mobile numbers, insurance details) - to family members. 

I also love a hard copy guidebook, and found The Rough Guide to New Orleans invaluable for food and tour recommendations, information about online event listings and quite a full history of the city.

I do read online reviews, but tend to trust guidebooks more because they are written by local experts. New Orleans’ official tourism website, neworleans.com is also excellent.

I found that New Orleans is the kind of place you can go alone pretty happily and I never felt lonely - there are little jazz clubs where I watched performances, I joined two walking tours and a cycling tour by myself, and I loved sitting at the bar for brunch at Willa Jean restaurant where I got chatting to two other solo travellers.

With trombonist Ronell Johnson (left) of the Preservation All-Stars at the historic jazz club Preservation Hall, New Orleans

It’s also the kind of place you should definitely get taxis around at night: connect a PayPal account to your Uber and you won’t incur international fees. 

And, because I use use my phone for navigation, I always take a portable charger wherever I go and set my handset to ‘low power’ straightaway.

I also avoid bank fees using Monzo, a card you load up with money before you go, and take a spare credit card and cash, which I leave in the hotel safe.

When I was in Vietnam earlier this year, I met a woman a few years older than me who was on her first solo trip. She had a husband and teenage children at home, and was probably the most daring of all the people on the three-day Mekong Delta tour we were on, going kayaking alone and trying out a step-on swing across a river before anyone else.

I’ve found that when I join small group excursions, a highlight is the people I meet, and travelling solo means I get chatting to most of them, sometimes meeting up after, or following their adventures on Instagram.

I’ll be writing more about my Beyoncé experience soon, and I’ll post the link here once my article is published. If you’re interested in travelling solo, here are some pieces that might be useful:

I’m a solo female traveler from Europe. Here’s why I chose to go to Vietnam

What it’s like to visit Kerala as a solo female traveler

How a trip to Bali made me love traveling alone

She’s visited 63 countries by herself — and now coaches others on how to travel solo

Thank you, as ever, for reading!

Have a good week.