Solo Baseball Road Trips — Pros and Cons

Let’s see a show of hands from all you solo baseball road trippers!

Umm, hello?

Anyone out there?

Just me?

In all seriousness, while I know a few people who take most of their baseball road trips on their own, it’s more typical to find people who travel with their families or with a group of friends. I’ve done spouse/family/friend trips a handful of times over the years, but I’m definitely more of a solo traveler when it comes to baseball.

* Desperately trying to resist the urge to go through my game database to give you some stats on what percentage of games I attend on my own. *

For me, the biggest reason that I mostly travel to games by myself is that I’m documenting the ballparks for this website. If you read my travel blog, you know that my visits are atypical — I never sit in the same seat for very long and I seldom pay a whole lot of attention to the game itself. Instead, I wander about, checking out every nook and cranny of the ballpark and documenting what I find.

Solo travel is definitely my favorite for a number of reasons, but it’s not without its drawbacks.

I thought it’d be fun to look at the pros and cons of solo baseball travel. For my solo travelers — I know you’re out there — I hope these points will resonate with you. For those who haven’t yet traveled in this manner, I hope this post will help you feel encouraged to take a solo baseball trip at some point and see how you like it.

Pro: You Can Arrive When You Want

One of the things that I enjoy the most about traveling to baseball games on my own is that I can show up at the ballpark as early as I want. Whenever I go to a game with someone else, the topic of arrival time always comes up — and it’s easy for me to downplay just how early I want to get there. If your road trip partner isn’t a die-hard baseball fan, suggesting that you show up at the ballpark sometime between 3 and 4 p.m., which is my usual arrival time for a 7 p.m. game, can feel a little awkward. I mean, the other person may go along with the plan, but I tend to feel badly dragging him/her along. It’s a fun, free feeling as a solo baseball traveler to make my way over to the ballpark whenever I please.

Con: You Might Do Less Touristy Stuff

While I’ve had some exciting touristy adventures on my solo baseball road trips, I find that it can be easy to shy away from these experiences when I travel alone. I like to do as much blogging as I can when I’m traveling, so I have often skipped the opportunity to play tourist in a new city in favor of sitting in my hotel room and pounding away at my laptop keyboard. When a trip is over, I often regret not getting out and witnessing more of an area while I’m there. When I was in Philadelphia in 2019, I traveled with my brother-in-law and we had just as much fun doing touristy things around the city as we did at the games. We ran the Rocky steps, toured a battleship museum, saw the Liberty Bell and scarfed down cheesesteaks. When I visited Philly back in 2013, I did none of these things because I sat in my hotel room and worked on my blog.

Pro: You Can Move Around More Freely

As I noted above, I don’t spend very long in one single spot during a ballgame. During any given game, it’s common for me to sit in five or six different seats, watch an inning or two from a few standing-room spots and make my way around the concourse between five and 10 times. That’s how I like to experience ballparks, but I realize it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Another big reason that I love solo baseball trips is that I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, inside of the park. I’ve had some great road trip partners over the years who are accepting of how I do things, but who may not share the same approach to attending games as me. This means that they’ll either tag along as I wander around, or sit in their seat by themselves while I’m off checking out the sights. I never like to feel as though I’m hindering someone’s ballpark visit, so attending on my own helps me to avoid feeling this way.

Con: You Miss Out On Others’ Enjoyment

There’s certainly something to be said about watching people enjoy their ballpark visits when you’re attending a game together. I’ve had a number of truly great times over the years going to games with family and friends, and I always get a kick out of seeing them enjoy themselves. Whether it’s standing near a bullpen and watching the subtle details of a starting pitcher warm up, finding a unique concession item to eat or sitting close enough to hear players talking in the dugout, there’s a happy feeling that comes from seeing someone you care about having a good time. When you’re at a game on your own, of course, you don’t get a chance to experience these moments.

Pro: You Don’t Have Ticket Dilemmas

Over the years, I’ve had various baseball-loving friends with dramatically different mindsets about buying tickets. I’ve known guys who always want to sit in some of the priciest seats in the park, and others who will only look for the cheapest tickets. I don’t belong to either camp, and this means that when I’m traveling solo, I can simply buy a ticket wherever I want to be. No need to get pressured into spending more than I want for a ticket, and no need to be 500 feet from home plate, either.

Con: You Can Get Lonely

Sometimes, attending a game by yourself can feel a little lonely. There, I said it. This can especially be true toward the end of a 10- or 12-day road trip. I certainly love long road trips by myself, but I’ve definitely encountered times that I’ve thought, “Man, I wish so-and-so were here with me.” While it’s obviously possible to call, email or FaceTime the person in question to share the experience, it’s not the same as being on the trip together.

Pro: You Get Time To Yourself

I’m a big fan of having quiet time by myself. My wife knows me well enough that she’ll sometimes see a certain look in my eyes if we’ve been around groups of people for long periods of time, and she’ll encourage me to go hang out alone for a bit until I feel recharged. I think many other introverts can relate. Quiet, alone time is something that I highly value, but it can occasionally be a challenge on a road trip with a group of people. Even though I always enjoy the time spent with my travel partner(s), I also appreciate the quiet, alone time that comes with solo road tripping.

Con: You Might Shy Away From Certain Adventures

I try to be as adventurous as I can when I visit different ballparks in an effort to bring my readers interesting and engaging blog posts. “Do it for the story,” I always tell myself, and this mindset over the years has resulted in some wonderful moments. I’ve climbed up onto ballpark roofs for cool photos, fought my way through muddy, overgrown ravines to look for batting practice baseballs and I may have even snuck into a ballpark before the gates opened. Allegedly. There have been a few times, however, that I’ve shied away from an exciting adventure because of being on my own. Some things require an audience, or at least someone who can egg you on.

Now it’s time to hear from you — what’s your favorite thing about attending games either on your own or with family/friends?