Welcome to Into the Wild Unknown!
This is a travel blog for those who crave adventure – not the kind with tour groups, luxury hotels, or rigid itineraries, but the kind that leads you deep into the unknown, where the path is less traveled and the connections are real. If you believe that the most rewarding experiences happen far from the tourist crowds and in the company of strangers who quickly become friends, then you’re in the right place.
Who I Am
Hi! I’m Rita, a solo female traveller, writer, and photographer from Portugal who’s been roaming off-the-beaten-path regions for a few years.
I didn’t set out to become a long-term traveller. As I was finishing my master’s degree, I was deeply depressed and disillusioned with the path laid out for me – career, rent, routine. I felt like life was passing me by, and I didn’t even like the life I was living.
So quit my masters and I left. I volunteered at a hostel in Prague, drifted to London, and ended up living in Switzerland during the pandemic. There I discovered wild camping and multi-day hikes in the Alps. That lit a spark.
In 2022, I started what was supposed to be a short trip through Turkey, Georgia, and Central Asia. But the road pulled me in. Since then, I’ve been slowly exploring the misunderstood corners of the world: hitchhiking through the Omani desert, camping in Kyrgyz valleys, sharing stories in remote villages in Pakistan. I travel solo, on a tight budget, using public transport, couchsurfing, and doing temp jobs when I run out of money.
Why I Created Into the Wild Unknown
I started Into the Wild Unknown because I was tired of seeing the same destinations over and over again – Paris, Bali, Rome – wrapped in glossy filters and packaged itineraries. But what about the forgotten corners of the world? The places where nature still feels wild, where the mountains haven’t been carved up by cable cars or luxury chalets?
Long before I ever thought of creating a blog, I was drawn to remote, raw landscapes: places where the silence is broken only by the wind, where the paths are barely marked, and the beauty hasn’t been polished for tourism. That love for hiking and wild nature is what first led me off the beaten path. I fell in love with the untouched valleys of Kyrgyzstan, the high-altitude trails in northern Pakistan, the rugged canyons of Oman – places where you don’t just admire the landscape from a viewpoint, you walk through it, often completely alone.
And I quickly realised something: while these places were life-changing, they were also incredibly hard to plan for. There was so little information online, especially for solo female travellers like me. Most blogs were written either by couples or male adventurers. Few talked about how to take local transport in Pakistan or what it’s like to wild camp in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan alone.
So I created Into the Wild Unknown to fill that gap – to help people like me who crave real adventure, who want to discover places untouched by mass tourism, and who prefer hiking boots to hop-on-hop-off buses. I write practical guides for places that most travel blogs overlook, and I share personal stories from the road – the real, unfiltered side of solo travel.
If even one person reads something here and thinks, “Maybe I could do that too,” then I’ve done my job.
Why I Travel This Way
Travelling independently isn’t always the easiest route, but for me, it’s the most rewarding. I’ve never wanted to be the kind of traveller who just follows a flag through a museum or watches the world pass by from an air-conditioned bus. When you travel on your own – without a tour guide, without a fixed plan – you’re forced to engage with the world in a much more honest way. You’re not being shown a curated version of a country; you’re seeing it with your own eyes, figuring it out as you go.
Yes, it can be overwhelming. There have been moments I’ve sat in the corner of a dusty bus station, crying from sheer exhaustion and confusion. But eventually, you breathe, you gather yourself, and you figure it out – because no one else will do it for you. Those moments, as hard as they are, have taught me more than any guidebook ever could. I’ve become more self-reliant, more patient, and more resilient.
What I love most about travelling this way is the spontaneity. I don’t have to follow a schedule — I can stay an extra week in a place that feels special, or change course entirely when someone recommends a hidden valley or a forgotten village. And because I’m navigating things myself – hitchhiking, taking local buses, and constantly having to ask locals for directions – I connect with people in a way that just doesn’t happen on tours. Strangers become helpers, then friends. Every journey becomes a human story.
Travel has changed me in ways I never expected. I’m no longer the scared, uncertain girl who left home six years ago. I’ve had to face myself, often in the most vulnerable moments, and I’ve learned that I’m capable of much more than I thought. I’ve learned that life isn’t black and white, and that most people – no matter where they come from – want the same simple things: safety, love, connection, a future for their kids. The more I travel, the more I see that we’ve been fed so many lies about countries that don’t fit into the West’s approved narrative. On the ground, people are just people.
That’s why I’ll always choose the harder road. Because it’s also the one that teaches the most, connects the deepest, and changes you forever.
On Travelling Solo as a Woman
One of the questions I get asked most is what it’s really like to travel alone as a woman, especially in countries that many people see as remote, conservative, or “risky.” The truth? It’s not nearly as scary as the headlines make it seem.
Yes, being a woman comes with extra challenges. That’s true everywhere – even in so-called “developed” countries where we still aren’t treated the same as men. But when I travel solo through places like Central Asia, the Middle East, or the Caucasus, I’ve often been met with more kindness and care, not less. Locals go out of their way to help – offering me rides, walking me to where I need to go, insisting I take the best seat on the bus. Because I’m a solo woman, people often look out for me like they would a sister or daughter.
And there’s another side to it, too: a deeper layer of connection that most male travellers don’t get. As a woman, I’m invited into homes, into women’s spaces, into kitchens and family gatherings. I get to sit with grandmothers, laugh with teenage girls, help cook dinner, talk about life. I see both sides of a society: the public world dominated by men, and the private world where women run the show. And when you sit inside those rooms, you realise that the media narratives about women in these countries are often wildly oversimplified. These women are strong, complex, funny, and far less “oppressed” than we’re told to believe.
That’s why representation matters. Adventure travel has always been dominated by men – from the early explorers to most of the travel shows on TV today. But the reality of travelling as a woman – especially alone, and especially off the beaten path – is very different. We face different challenges, yes, but we also gain access to different truths. And it’s important that those stories are told.
Do I ever feel unsafe? Honestly, not in the places you’d expect. When I think back to moments where I’ve truly felt afraid, they’ve almost always been in big European cities – walking alone at night or sometimes even during the day in London, Paris, Athens, or Budapest. But in places like Bishkek, Tbilisi, or Hunza Valley, I’ve walked home after dark and felt totally at ease. The people there weren’t the danger but the reason I felt safe.
To any woman dreaming of doing what I do but feeling afraid – I get it. It’s a big leap. But don’t let fear win. You don’t have to start in the most challenging place. Begin with a country that feels a little out of your comfort zone, but not completely foreign – somewhere like Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, or Oman. Travel teaches you in layers. The more you learn to navigate on your own, the more confident you become. Eventually, you realise there’s nowhere you can’t go.
Final Reflections
Travelling independently to off-the-beaten-path places has changed me in ways I never expected. What started as a way to escape the conventional path became a journey into myself and the world’s many hidden stories.
I’m no longer the scared girl who left six years ago. I’ve grown stronger, more resilient, and deeply empathetic. Travel has taught me that the world isn’t black and white but full of complex and countless shared human experiences. People everywhere want the same things: safety, kindness, connection, and purpose. The only real difference is where they were born and the opportunities life handed them.
Through Into the Wild Unknown, I want to challenge the stories we’re told about “dangerous” countries and the people who live there. I want to offer honest, practical advice and share moments of beauty, kindness, and humanity that mainstream travel media often overlooks.
Most of all, I want to encourage you – whoever you are, wherever you come from – to question fear, to open your mind, and to embrace the unknown. Because if I can do this as a solo woman traveller, so can you. The world is waiting.
A Note to You, the Reader
If you’ve made it this far, thank you – truly. This blog is a piece of my heart. I created Into the Wild Unknown to share the kind of travel stories and guides I desperately searched for when I first set out: honest, detailed, and from the perspective of a solo female traveller who doesn’t take the easy road.
I know how intimidating it can feel to venture into the unknown, especially when you’re doing it alone. But I also know how deeply rewarding it is to travel this way – to make genuine connections, to challenge yourself, and to see places that most people will never even think to look for on a map.
I hope what you find here gives you the confidence to step a little further off the beaten path, to question what you’ve been told about certain places, and to discover the beauty that lies in the unfamiliar. You’re stronger than you think and the world is far kinder than they make it out to be.
See you somewhere wild.
– Rita