TravelDay buddy

Priya Raghunathan

@welllit · she/her · Toronto, Canada

Plan the walk home first, then plan the evening.

  • Solo dining
  • Night markets
  • Walkable cities
  • Medium pace
  • Mid range

Priya Raghunathan is a drawn, fictional companion written by TravelDay. The places below are real entries in our catalogue, and each one names the guide it came from.

How Priya Raghunathan travels

I am thirty three and I travel alone about four months of the year. People assume that means I am anxious. I am not. I am organised.

I pick where I sleep by how the street feels at eleven at night, not by how the lobby photographs. I learn one transit line properly on the first day. I keep the late part of the evening near where I am staying and put the far-flung things in daylight. That is the whole system.

It is not about avoiding places. It is about arranging a day so that the last hour of it is easy. Do that and you can go anywhere, eat at a counter on your own, and enjoy it.

  • Solo
  • Walking
  • Neighborhoods

Cities Priya Raghunathan keeps going back to

  • Tokyo

    Japan

    Counters built for one person and trains that run to the minute.

  • Singapore

    Singapore

    Late transit and lit walkways, so an evening never has to end early.

  • Lisbon

    Portugal

    Miradouros are full of people until late, which makes the walk home feel ordinary.

  • Copenhagen

    Denmark

    I can cycle everywhere and the city is still awake when I ride back.

  • Taipei

    Taiwan

    Night markets and a metro that is clean, cheap and signposted in English.

What Priya Raghunathan recommends

Copenhagen

  • Restaurant Alouette · Meal

    Out on Refshaleoen, so I go early and cycle back while there are still people on the bridge.

    • Seen in Time Out. Named in Time Out's list of must-try Copenhagen restaurants

  • Tivoli Gardens · Sight

    A good solo evening. It is bright, it is busy, and the station is on the other side of the road.

    • Seen in VisitCopenhagen. Named by the official Copenhagen tourist board among the city's headline experiences

Lisbon

  • Time Out Market Lisboa · Market

    Communal tables mean eating alone reads as normal. It is also a short, lit walk to Cais do Sodre.

    • Seen in Time Out. Time Out's own page says the market opened in 2014 in the Mercado da Ribeira with 26 restaurants and 8 bars

Taipei

  • Raohe Night Market · Market

    Six hundred metres, one entrance, a metro station at the end. Easy to leave whenever I want to.

    • Seen in Taipei Travel. The official Taipei tourism page lists its specialities as oyster vermicelli, herbal spare ribs and pepper meat buns

  • Mountain & Sea House · Meal

    Ask for a seat in the courtyard room. They are good with a table for one and they do not hurry you.

    • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. The Guide's page describes Taiwanese farm-to-table cooking in a 1930s mansion on Ren'ai Road

Tokyo

  • Tsukiji Outer Market · Market

    A morning place, which is exactly what a solo traveller wants on day one. Eat standing, then walk.

    • Seen in Go Tokyo. The official Tokyo travel guide says the outer market holds around 460 shops and serves sushi from breakfast

  • Sensō-ji · Sight

    Lit until late and busy with families. I walk here after dinner when I want company without conversation.

    • Seen in Go Tokyo. Listed by the official Tokyo travel guide as Tokyo's oldest temple, at 2-3-1 Asakusa

Plans you can copy

Five days alone in Tokyo

5 nights · March to May · Medium pace · Mid range

One base near a JR line, morning markets, museums in the afternoon and the evenings kept local.

  1. Day 1

    Asakusa, to get my bearings

    • Sensō-ji · Afternoon · Sight

      Start where the map is obvious. Lit late and busy, so a good first evening on your own.

      • Seen in Go Tokyo. Listed by the official Tokyo travel guide as Tokyo's oldest temple, at 2-3-1 Asakusa

    • Kaminarimon · Afternoon · Sight

      The gate everyone photographs. Useful landmark for finding your way back.

    • Nakamise Shopping Street · Evening · Walk

      Shops close earlier than the temple. Walk it before six.

  2. Day 2

    Market morning

    • Tsukiji Outer Market · Morning · Market

      Go at eight and eat at three different stalls. Nobody looks twice at a person eating alone here.

      • Seen in Go Tokyo. The official Tokyo travel guide says the outer market holds around 460 shops and serves sushi from breakfast

    • The National Museum of Western Art · Afternoon · Museum

      Cool, quiet and right by Ueno station when you have had enough.

  3. Day 3

    Ueno properly

    • Tokyo National Museum · Morning · Museum

      Give it three hours. The Japanese galleries in the main building are the ones to do first.

    • Ameya-Yokochō · Afternoon · Market

      Loud, cheap and under the railway. I eat early here and head back before the after work crowd.

  4. Day 4

    East of the river

    • Tokyo Skytree · Afternoon · Sight

      Book a timed slot for about an hour before sunset and stay through the change.

    • Sumida Hokusai Museum · Morning · Museum

      Small enough to do before lunch, and it makes the river walk afterwards better.

  5. Day 5

    Design and knives

  • Seen in Go Tokyo. The official Tokyo travel guide says the outer market holds around 460 shops and serves sushi from breakfast

Taipei alone, mostly after dark

4 nights · October to April · Medium pace · Mid range

Museums and hills by day, night markets by night, and the metro home every time.

  1. Day 1

    Get high, get orientated

    • Taipei 101 · Afternoon · Sight

      Go up once on the first day so the rest of the city makes sense from the ground.

    • Xiangshan Park · Evening · Walk

      The Elephant Mountain steps are busy at sunset, which is why I am comfortable doing them alone.

  2. Day 2

    The collection

  3. Day 3

    Memorial, then a proper dinner

    • Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall · Morning · Museum

      Go for the exhibition downstairs, not just the steps. It is more honest than people expect.

    • Mountain & Sea House · Evening · Meal

      Book ahead and say you are one. They seat solo diners well and the room is worth dressing for.

      • Seen in MICHELIN Guide. The Guide's page describes Taiwanese farm-to-table cooking in a 1930s mansion on Ren'ai Road

  4. Day 4

    Hot springs and a night market

    • Beitou Hot Spring Museum · Morning · Museum

      The wooden building is the point. It is free and it takes forty minutes.

    • Thermal Valley · Midday · Sight

      Steam, sulphur and a short boardwalk. Handrails all the way round.

    • Raohe Night Market · Evening · Market

      Enter at the temple end, walk to the far end, take the metro home. One straight line, no backtracking.

      • Seen in Taipei Travel. The official Taipei tourism page lists its specialities as oyster vermicelli, herbal spare ribs and pepper meat buns
  • Seen in Taipei Travel. The official Taipei tourism page lists its specialities as oyster vermicelli, herbal spare ribs and pepper meat buns

Four nights in Lisbon on my own

4 nights · April to June · Medium pace · Mid range

Daylight for the far neighbourhoods, evenings within a short walk of the room.

  1. Day 1

    Learn the hill

    • Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara · Evening · Walk

      Busy with locals until late. Good first evening, and it fixes the geography in your head.

    • Time Out Market Lisboa · Evening · Meal

      Eat at the counter, then walk up the lit main street rather than cutting through the side alleys.

      • Seen in Time Out. Time Out's own page says the market opened in 2014 in the Mercado da Ribeira with 26 restaurants and 8 bars

  2. Day 2

    Castle in daylight

    • São Jorge Castle · Morning · Sight

      Morning light and fewer people. The walk down through Alfama is the good part.

    • Miradouro de Santa Luzia · Afternoon · Walk

      Sit for an hour. This is where I plan the next day.

  3. Day 3

    A museum and a lift

    • Calouste Gulbenkian Museum · Morning · Museum

      Go for the garden as much as the collection. Easy to spend a whole morning alone here.

      • Seen in Visit Lisboa. Featured by the official Lisbon tourist board among the city's museums

    • Santa Justa Lift · Afternoon · Sight

      Use it as a lift, not a ride. It saves a climb at the end of a long day.

  4. Day 4

    Belem and out

    • Tower of Belém · Morning · Sight

      Early tram, early queue. By eleven it is not worth it.

    • Jerónimos Monastery · Midday · Museum

      The cloister, then out. One hour.

    • Pastéis de Belém · Afternoon · Meal

      Sit inside at a table for one with a book. Nobody minds.

      • Seen in Time Out. Time Out says these tarts follow a 19th century convent recipe known only to the house's master bakers
  • Seen in Time Out. Time Out's own page says the market opened in 2014 in the Mercado da Ribeira with 26 restaurants and 8 bars

Priya Raghunathan is a TravelDay buddy: drawn, fictional, and not an account in the network. Research edition 2026-09-17.