Going Walkabout: Tracee Ellis Ross’s Guide to Solo Travel (And the 2026 Border Admin You Can’t Ignore)

Thinking of packing your bags and heading off on your own? Tracee Ellis Ross reckons you absolutely should. The actor—probably best known for gigs like black-ish and Girlfriends—happens to be single and child-free, and she doesn’t let either of those things stop her from living a ridiculously full life, especially when it comes to holidays. When her mates or family can’t tag along, or she just desperately needs to decompress, Ross will happily jet off solo and have an absolute blast doing it. She aims for at least one solo trip a year, and even when she’s travelling with a crew, she’ll often tack on a few extra days just for some quiet downtime.

If you want to see how she actually pulls it off, there’s a new three-part docuseries streaming on The Roku Channel right now called Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross. A camera crew tails her as she knocks about Marrakech, Cancún, and Marbella.

Ross started travelling by herself back in her twenties, and she’s figured out over the years that leaning into the awkward, lonely bits has actually armed her with coping mechanisms for everyday life. “What I find is that I gain a muscle strength around being uncomfortable,” she told the AP recently. She likens it to a baseballer swinging two bats in the warm-up so the single bat feels lighter at the plate. When you come home and life inevitably throws a spanner in the works, you’ve got that muscle memory to know you can push through it on your own.

Easing Into the Solo Gig

If the thought of flying halfway across the globe by yourself gives you the sweats, Ross says you just need to ease into it. Start by taking yourself out to dinner. If you’re feeling a bit sketchy about the idea, hit up a local restaurant on a quiet Tuesday evening at 6 pm. Once you’re comfortable with that, work your way up to a bustling Friday or Saturday night. Walk right up to the front and tell them you need a table for one. You need to suss out how that actually feels in your own neighbourhood, because on holiday, that exact feeling is magnified by ten.

She also suggests keeping a book or an iPad handy when you’re eating alone, or just to have in your hotel room. That way, if you end up having a day where you just can’t face the outside world and only make it as far as the hotel pub, you won’t feel like you’ve completely binned your trip and made a massive mistake.

Before you even look at flights, you need to know your underlying reason for going. Are you single and keen to meet new people? Are you absolutely slammed with kids, the dog, your job, and the general chaos of keeping your head above water, and you just need to hit pause? Or are you chasing a proper adventure?

The 2026 Reality Check: Sorting Your Digital Admin

But let’s be real for a second—no matter what your ‘why’ is, wandering off on a global adventure in 2026 takes a fair bit more prep than just chucking some bathers in a suitcase. The romantic idea of border-hopping has completely shifted gears. According to the latest 2026 guidance from Travel Smart Travel Fast, digital travel authorisations are now the absolute baseline for getting into most countries, and it’s catching a lot of travellers off guard.

Take Europe, for example. It’s the clearest example of this massive shift. Since April 10, 2026, the Entry/Exit System (EES) has been fully operational across participating borders. You can say goodbye to the novelty of getting your passport stamped. It’s all digital records now for non-EU nationals coming, going, or getting knocked back for short stays, complete with biometric tracking like facial images and fingerprints.

On top of that, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) is kicking off in the final quarter of 2026. It’s not a visa, but if you’re from one of the 60-odd visa-exempt countries—which includes us Aussies, plus the Yanks, Brits, Canadians, and the Japanese—you’ll need this digital clearance linked to your passport before you even get near a departure gate. It covers short stints across 30 European nations.

The Cost of Crossing Borders

This whole shift towards e-visas and biometric checks is just the way the wind is blowing. Industry research reckons the global e-visa market will hit around $4.30 billion USD by 2030, driven heavily by governments tightening up digital identity verification.

Naturally, this extra admin comes with fees attached. The European Commission has set the ETIAS application at €20 (with a few age exemptions). The UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation is £20, the current US ESTA will set you back $40.27 USD, Canada’s eTA is $7 CAD, and even our own ETA carries a $20 AUD service charge on the app.

Missing this stuff isn’t just an inconvenience; airlines will straight-up deny you boarding if your digital paperwork isn’t sorted. Travel Smart Travel Fast points out that with different eligibility rules, validity periods, and passport-linking requirements for every destination, you really have to be on top of your game, especially if you’re bouncing between a few different countries on the one itinerary.