This week's question comes from Susan in Omaha, NE, home of the world's richest man:

This week's question comes from Tamyra in Baton Rouge, La., home of the giant Frostop roadside root-beer mug:

“Are you all by yourself”?
“Is it just you”?
“Only one tonight”?

If you’ve ever traveled by yourself, then you’ve probably faced one of the questions above, all of which seem to imply that you’re somehow, shall we say, lacking, for being unaccompanied. But the truth is, many solo travelers, like myself, are perfectly happy to be alone. Who doesn’t want free reign over an entire hotel room, or the chance to do everything on your list and nothing you don’t want to do, or the power to set the pace of each day?

Based on a recent trip to wonderful Waikiki, here are some of my tips for solo travelers:

I don’t know about you, but in the day of the digital camera, I’m a prolific and perfectly undisciplined photographer on my vacations, snapping random pictures of every flower, tree, rock, and seascape that catches my eye. Funny-looking bird? I take a picture. Pink sunset clouds? Shutter-click. Friends laughing at some inane joke we’ll never remember later while posing in front of a very serious statue? Smile for the camera.

When I return from my trips, I always look forward to downloading my camera’s memory card and seeing the pictures in their full pixellated glory. At most, I might then download these photos from my computer onto a public gallery site, to share with my friends and family, but I admit that beyond that, I haven’t made an actual physical photo album in years.

But, there are a few ways to parlay pictures into practical day-to-day items. Here are a few crafty, non-album ways to put your favorite vacation photos to use:

You know those Facebook profiles that are absolutely cram-packed with applications: Wall, Super Wall, Fun Wall, quizzes, compare-your-friends tools, What Kind of Car Are You? assessment, and so on? They’re the visual equivalent of a noisy construction site, a virtual brain dump that doesn’t really tell you a lot about a person besides revealing their propensity for accepting every application invitation they receive. These junked-up online profiles are my latest pet peeve. But while I don’t really care which of my friends was voted #1 hottie or which Disney princess everyone is, I’ve long held that knowing how someone travels is an excellent indicator of personality.

If you’ve ever heard or uttered any of the following on the road, my guess is that you were in the midst of a stress-induced, sleep-deprived travel meltdown: “I hate you.” “I can’t believe you’re being this mean to me.” “I can’t handle this anymore.” “All you do is freak out.” “There’s hatred in my blood right now.”

This season, on the Amazing Race, team Nate and Jen have responded to every stressful travel situation by completely unraveling into shouting matches, name-calling, and even shoving. Yet somehow, they’ve managed to eke through the finish line week after week. Sunday night, after making all the above quotes in the course of just one episode, they finally met their elimination with Jen confessing sadly, “I think we killed our relationship along the way.”

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member globalroamer.

The best traveling companions aren’t always the ones with whom you left home. Some of my most memorable travel buddies are people I’ve met along the way: Erwin of the indigo hair in the Paris Laundromat; Paula of the free pizza on the train to Rome; Christos and Jason of the ouzo on the Greek ATVs. The list goes on.

A few weeks ago, I spent two days with a group that inspired me in ways none of my previous friends of travel happenstance can claim, and, perhaps not surprisingly, I met them in New Zealand, the friendliest and most inspiring place I’ve ever visited.

Their names are Niko, Baldy, Auntie Sugar, Reina, Corrinne, Claire, and Brent; their mountain is Ruapehu; their river is Whanganui.

China is a fantastic country. China is also an enormous country, and enormous countries equal enormous guidebooks. Seriously, the Lonely Planet China---which I carried around with me for two weeks last summer---comes in at a whopping 1012 pages and weighs close to two pounds. And since I was only visiting Beijing and Shanghai on that trip, meaning I only really looked at two sections of the book with any frequency, I'm estimating that I carried around about 700 pages and a pound and a half more paper than I actually needed.

But there's good news for travelers with weak upper body strength: Lonely Planet has just come up with a solution to slim down its more portly tomes with a concept it calls the Pick & Mix.

It’s hard to say those three little words. You may have been friends for years, or perhaps you’ve only just met. You might be constant companions, eating meals together, going to parties together, and spending rainy Sunday afternoons side by side. You may have even met each other’s families or shared a holiday together. But it’s those three little words that truly put your friendship to the test: “Let’s travel together.”

Watch one episode of The Amazing Race, and you’ll see how interpersonal dynamics can affect a trip. Of course, most of my trips don’t involve racing other travelers to shovel two pounds of caviar into my mouth or corral a herd of unruly cattle, but I’ve weathered my fair share of travel drama.

Since today is Equal Pay Day, I thought it’d be a great chance to write about women’s travel, which has gone way beyond weekend-at-the-spa, shopping-extravaganza, sit-around-and-have-tea kind of travel (not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things). But more and more, we women are spending our hard-earned pay on some “me time” without the “he.” Do a Google search on “women’s adventure travel” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.