Iain Banks, on travelling alone.

[randomness]

"You travel fastest by yourself for a start. And you're more exposed to what you're doing....You are more open to the actual place, much more involved in the place around you: you haven't got someone else to talk to in your own language. Obviously you might meet people in youth hostels, but it does expose you more to the country: it's a comprehensive experience of the foreignness of a place, if you're by yourself. And also I decided where I wanted to go, and wasn't trailing around with someone who wanted to go and see yet another bloody cathedral."

From an interview with Isobel Murray, in Scottish Writers Talking 2.