1. FIT travel anxiety: x (full)
I suggest that all travelers suffer travel, anxiety to some degree. Travelers, both domestic and foreign, by definition, leave the comfortable, confident security of their home environment for something unfamiliar: different language, money, streets, rules, mannerisms, foods, clothing, etc.
Foreign travelers, particularly SIT (solo independent travel) traveler’s, may suffer even greater ‘travel anxiety’ because no LBT tour or cruise company has done all the required research, planning to create a highly efficient travel itinerary. No one else has their back!
A foreign country’s culture can vary radically from USA and even more so, between different foreign countries. An American in Europe will feel more comfortable than in Asia because the American culture is a somewhat familiar mishmash of European cultures.
Anecdote: My Egypt Revolution: I arrived at my Cairo, Egypt hotel on 1st day of Egypt’s “25 January Revolution” as tanks began rolling down the street below my hotel window. I was initially very anxious walking in Cairo’s tank-barricaded streets with soldiers everywhere; bearded men & hijab covered women, both in flowing robes.
Walking its streets, I respectfully smiled, nodded slightly & uttered “As-salamu alaykum” (hello) to those who met my eyes. Women, I was particularly respectful toward for fear of somehow offending. Men responded naturally; women with a subtle gentle nod. Egypt: when VIDs edited
One group of men seated on a stoop came unglued when in passing, 
I politely said ‘As-salamu alaykum’ (hello), en masse they inviting me over to chat for several minutes.
After a few days, I realized my presence attracted very little notice presumably because I was just one of millions of foreign tourists who had traveled through Cairo.
In Asia, the differences in a culture’s language, history, customs, etc. can be even more dramatic: China vs India vs Bali.
Ironically, it is EXACTLY this anxious uncertainty that is a KEY exciting benefit of solo independent travel, not only testing you, but providing novel, rich experiences. OTOH, it is your knowledge, preparation, experience, character, and prudence that guides & protects you.
I hope my information & personal experential anecdotes will aid & protect your journey.
TIP: If truly wise, you always have a back door — an escape strategy to extricate yourself from
dicey situations.
Anecdote: China’s Longi Rice Terraces: After a long hike up from 700 yr old Dazhai village across Longi’s rice terraces with few humans in sight…. at the very top, my path encountered an old asphalt road. I turned left away from the asphalt road onto what seemed like my ‘continuing’ trail.
I hiked for ¾ mi before I realized I was NOT steadily descending the mountain to my hike’s end at Ping’an village below.
Fortunately, after years of hiking Utah’s deep confusing slot-like canyons I was always aware of my ‘back door” escape route; sometimes placing rocks in an arrow PIK arrow configuration to point the way back. In this case, I could just retrace my trail back to the old road.
Life & travel are very much a balance between danger perceived, & the travel knowledge & experience that reduces those risks.
A. My Strategy:
I combat these differing travel anxiety levels (call it what it is —fear) with exhaustive, detailed pre-trip research & planning melded into my detailed Personal Guidebook-like itinerary easily carried in paper form or on my cell phone for instant access. 
1. Research: exposes issues & information critical to your travels: transportation kinds & schedules, available lodging, and location & directions to sites & experiences. Deeper research dives into your choice of Travel Bud sites & experiences makes your visits more impactful, fulfilling ...& memorable.
Travel Buds are the domestic & foreign sites & experiences that we have silently hidden in our brain’s that tickle our curiosity and intuitively lure us to visit them.
Who doesn’t want to visit:
Russel Crowe’s Roman Coliseum,
Washington, DC’s Lincoln Memorial,
Paris’ now-restored Notre Dame Cathedral
'A Gone With the Wind' civil war antebellum plantation estate?
Athen's Acropolis & Parthenon
These are just a few of the Travel Buds I, and perhaps you,Today’s internet dramatically simplifies your travel research, for example:
a. rome2rio.com simply & fully discloses your transportation options 
including routes etc …. for almost ‘everywhere.’ 30 to 40 years ago travel agencies guarded this info like some arcane priesthood.
No more — all available, instantly for free.
b. hostelworld.com & other sites/apps list hostels everywhere; booking & a myriad of hostel specs.
30 to 40 years ago I had to rely on terribly outdated guidebooks. (except Rick Steves guidebooks; always were updated yearly)
2. Classic Novels: Finally, I often read 1 or 2 of a nation’s classical novels taking me deeper into its history & culture.
Anecdote: Historical Novels: Read 1 or 2 of a nation’s classical novels for deeper ‘spirit’ of its history
& culture.
Italy: “The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance”
Australia: “Hell West & Crooked”, “For the Term of His Natural Life”, “We of the Never-Never”, “True
History of the Kelly Gang”
China: “Rickshaw Man”; “Empress Dowager Cixi’, “From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese History
video series ”(YouTube)
Balkans: “Black Lamb & Grey Falcon’
Japan: “Before the Dawn” (Samurai era & Nakasendō road)
India: “Burmese Days”, “The Piano Tuner”,
B. Two TIPs:
1) ALWAYS carry hotel info: (name, address & phone #) in cell phone & written down in your
pocket)
2) Allergies: food, bees, etc: Ask hostel staff, guide, or driver to translate English allergy name into local language. Keep translation down on person on paper & in cell phone — keep it simple.
ANECDOTE 1>3: 3 Sea bass ‘anaphylactic shock’ episodes. A ‘sea bass’ allergy may seem humorous, but it can be deadly, very deadly because you & your doctors may not see the connection to sea bass fish. 
Anecdote 1: Dating Game Euro trip: Amsterdam’s Red-light District. At 28, after my Dating Game’s free Italy experience, I visited several other European countries including Netherlands.
In Amsterdam, a high-level advertising executive of an international advertising agency I worked for in Los Angeles, took his wife & I to dinner, at a historically famous Red-light District restaurant.
Note: (Still a tourist site) https://www.urbstravel.com/post/history-of-amsterdams-red-light-district#:~:text=)
Sometime during dinner, I went to the men's room, fainted & awakened by my friends who found me writhing in bathroom floor’s filthy swill. I remember little afterward except for 3-day recovery in my hostel.
US doctor tested me for some kind of seizure, but found nothing.
Anecdote 2: 2nd experience - getting worse. A few years later, skiing Mammoth Mountain, CA, I had dinner, slept & awoke in bathroom screaming & trashing about knocking a shower door off its track until an Olympic athlete friend grabbed me around my shoulders … containing me.
Again, curious & concerned, I sought a doctor’s opinion, nothing conclusive.
Anecdote 3: Even worse effects, "Next time could kill me". At 39, in solo law practice, I awoke in my apartment’s bathroom semi-conscious, thrashing in delirium whites of my eyes were totally blood red (like Michael Jackson's "Thriller") .... hours before I had to appear in court. Scary as hell!!!
When I approached the court clerk, & she immediately ushered me into her Judge's chanbers. Instantly, after a quick glance, he asked if I had eaten sea bass. "Yes" I said. We sat & he related his 2 near-death experiences from sea bass. resukting in the same red eyesin chambers for his response which I did.
After his earlier recovery, Los Angeles Coroner, Dr. Tom Noguchi*, Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for LA County, analyzed the Judeg'es stomach contents discovering sea bass bacteria toxins found ocassionally in random Mexican cpastal bays. , advising me that I was allergic to sea bass fish. Not every sea bass fish, only those fish from certain bays along Mexico’s western coast.
My Solution: My sea bass allergy’s travel strategy:
1. Avoid ALL fish, but just to be sure .......
2. Carry foreign language translations of “sea bass” for host countries I traveled in cell phone & on my
language cards. e.g.: Thailand: “allergy” = โรคภูมิแพ้. Rokh p̣hūmiphæ̂.
"sea bass" = ปลากะพงขาว. Plā kaphng k̄hāw
4. Once in host country, find someone fluent in both languages & confirm your translations are correct.
If you have allergies, Prepare before a trip to cope with your known allergic reactions, in case, for some reason, you don’t/can't avoid them.
Please SEE: Travel Healthx Full Sea Bass Allergy Anecdote
The more you know about a country’s history & culture AND its travel infrastructure (transportation, foods, lodging), …. the richer your travel experiences & lifetime memories. AND … the less ‘travel anxiety’ I can almost guarantee you will have.
Bus & cruise tourists almost totally & intentionally avoid travel anxiety
BY abdicating all travel’s responsibilities & needs to those corporations.
Anecdotes: -- some SIT travelers I have met:
- A young women traveling the world solo on her bike.
- A middle aged woman who had been SIT traveling - continuously- for 10 years.
- A young man whose litany of countries visited during his 9 month odyssey sounded like he ws reading an atlas’ index. What a lifetime of memories.
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