Dining Alone,
LuxuriouslyThe free guide tells you where to go. This one makes you the woman who walks in.
For the woman who has the trip booked, the dress ready, the reservation in her name, and a small voice in the back of her head wondering whether she'll feel awkward when she walks in. You won't. Not after this.
The free guide tells you where to go. This one makes you the woman who walks in.
For the woman who has the trip booked, the dress ready, the reservation in her name, and a small voice in the back of her head wondering whether she'll feel awkward when she walks in. You won't. Not after this.
You know the feeling before you can name it.
The flight is booked. The hotel is the one you've been saving. There's a restaurant you've read about three times, and a reservation in your name for one. And somewhere underneath the excitement is a smaller, quieter question. What do I do when I walk in? Where will they put me? Will the whole room notice that the chair across from me is empty?
That question has kept more beautiful evenings small than I can count. Not because the women weren't ready. Because no one ever taught them the walk in.
This guide is the thing I wish someone had handed me before my first solo dinner.
If you have my free guide, start here.
My Favorite Solo Dining Destinations gave you my short list. Ten cities, the rooms I trust, the tables to ask for. Keep it. It's accurate.
What it couldn't give you is the part that happened before I ever sat down. The hour of getting ready that changes who walks through the door. The one sentence I say at the host stand, with no qualifier and no "just." The way I order wine so the sommelier becomes an ally by the second course. The email I send when I want the table by the infinity pool, and get it.
That's this guide. The destinations are in here too, thirteen of them now, with what I ordered and where to stay. But the destinations were never the hard part. The walk in was.
What’s Inside:
Forty-four pages, in three parts
Part one: The Mindset
Seven small shifts to make before you ever pick up the menu.
How to walk in so the room receives you instead of seating you out of the way.
What to wear, and why the room reads it in about three seconds.
How to order so you're a regular on your first night.
The phone rule, and the first ten minutes that decide the whole dinner.
The ritual the hour before, the one that changes who walks through the door.
Where to sit, and why the seat changes the dinner more than the menu does.
Part two: The Destinations
Ten are cities and islands where I've dined alone myself. Plus three bonus cities I love from my own travels with girlfriends.
For each: where I dined, what I ordered, and where to stay.
Plus the booking toolkit, the reservation email I actually send, and a closing reflection, A Table for One.
Part three: The Toolkit
The exact reservation email I send. The booking toolkit I use for my own personal travels, even as a travel advisor.
Who this is for:
The woman who wants to travel alone but isn't sure she'll feel at ease doing it.
The woman who's booked the trip after a milestone, a birthday, a win, a new chapter, and wants the dinners to feel like a gift, not a hurdle.
The solo traveler who wants the experience elevated, not just survivable.
Anyone learning to enjoy her own company at the table.
Why this is different:
Most travel guides are written from a desk, by someone who has never sat alone at the table they're recommending.
This one was written by a woman who has actually been alone in the room, in the seat I'm telling you to ask for. Every shift in these pages I learned the slow way, one dinner at a time, so you don't have to.
$37. Less than the one wrong restaurant it saves you from on a trip you've already invested thousands in.
You know the feeling before you can name it.
The flight is booked. The hotel is the one you've been saving. There's a restaurant you've read about three times, and a reservation in your name for one. And somewhere underneath the excitement is a smaller, quieter question. What do I do when I walk in? Where will they put me? Will the whole room notice that the chair across from me is empty?
That question has kept more beautiful evenings small than I can count. Not because the women weren't ready. Because no one ever taught them the walk in.
This guide is the thing I wish someone had handed me before my first solo dinner.
WHERE THIS BEGAN
The night this began
I went to Santorini alone after a record-breaking, exhausting year, and quietly, after a heartbreak. I wasn't running from anything. I was giving myself something.
On a cool, rainy May evening, I had dinner alone at Botrini's, at a table by the infinity pool with the whole caldera below me. The staff saw me. They brought a heater to my side and laid a soft blanket over my lap. Each course came with its own small story.
And somewhere in the middle of it, tears began to slip down my cheeks. Not because I felt lonely. Because I felt proud. I had taken myself somewhere beautiful, and the room had received me like the guest of honor.
That night is why I wrote this. Not a guide about eating alone. A guide about learning to take yourself somewhere lovely, on purpose, and belong there completely.
The thing no one tells you
Here is what I've learned across every one of those dinners: the room responds to how you arrive.
Walk in apologizing, with your eyes, with a half-shrug, and you'll be seated quickly and quietly, out of the way. Walk in calmly, expecting to be received, and you will be. The awkwardness you're bracing for almost never belongs to the room. It belongs to the story you carry through the door, and that story is the one thing you get to choose.
That's the part most women never get taught. It isn't confidence you're born with or without. It's a skill, made of small, specific choices: how you walk in, what you wear, how you order, where you sit, what you do in the first ten minutes. Learn the choices and the ease follows.
The whole guide is those choices, written down.
If you have my free guide, start here.
My Favorite Solo Dining Destinations gave you my short list. Ten cities, the rooms I trust, the tables to ask for. Keep it. It's accurate.
What it couldn't give you is the part that happened before I ever sat down. The hour of getting ready that changes who walks through the door. The one sentence I say at the host stand, with no qualifier and no "just." The way I order wine so the sommelier becomes an ally by the second course. The email I send when I want the table by the infinity pool, and get it.
That's this guide. The destinations are in here too, thirteen of them now, with what I ordered and where to stay. But the destinations were never the hard part. The walk in was.
WHAT’S INSIDE
Forty-four pages, in two parts
Part one: The Mindset
Seven small shifts to make before you ever pick up the menu.
How to walk in so the room receives you instead of seating you out of the way.
What to wear, and why the room reads it in about three seconds.
How to order so you're a regular on your first night.
The phone rule, and the first ten minutes that decide the whole dinner.
The ritual the hour before, the one that changes who walks through the door.
Where to sit, and why the seat changes the dinner more than the menu does.
Part Two: The Destinations
Ten are cities and islands where I've traveled and dined alone myself.
Plus, three bonus cities I love from my own travels with girlfriends.
For each: where I dined, what I ordered, and where to stay.
The Toolkit
The exact reservation email I send.
The booking toolkit I use for my own travels.
Who this is for
The woman who wants to travel alone but isn't sure she'll feel at ease doing it.
The woman who's booked the trip after a milestone, a birthday, a win, a new chapter, and wants the dinners to feel like a gift, not a hurdle.
The solo traveler who wants the experience elevated, not just survivable.
Anyone learning to enjoy her own company at the table.
Why this is different
Most travel guides are written from a desk, by someone who has never sat alone at the table they're recommending.
This one was written by a woman who has actually been alone in the room, in the seat I'm telling you to ask for. Every shift in these pages I learned the slow way, one dinner at a time, so you don't have to.
The free guide tells you where to go. This one makes you the woman who walks in.
For the woman who has the trip booked, the dress ready, the reservation in her name, and a small voice in the back of her head wondering whether she'll feel awkward when she walks in. You won't. Not after this.
You know the feeling before you can name it.
The flight is booked. The hotel is the one you've been saving. There's a restaurant you've read about three times, and a reservation in your name for one. And somewhere underneath the excitement is a smaller, quieter question. What do I do when I walk in? Where will they put me? Will the whole room notice that the chair across from me is empty?
That question has kept more beautiful evenings small than I can count. Not because the women weren't ready. Because no one ever taught them the walk in.
This guide is the thing I wish someone had handed me before my first solo dinner.
If you have my free guide, start here.
My Favorite Solo Dining Destinations gave you my short list. Ten cities, the rooms I trust, the tables to ask for. Keep it. It's accurate.
What it couldn't give you is the part that happened before I ever sat down. The hour of getting ready that changes who walks through the door. The one sentence I say at the host stand, with no qualifier and no "just." The way I order wine so the sommelier becomes an ally by the second course. The email I send when I want the table by the infinity pool, and get it.
That's this guide. The destinations are in here too, thirteen of them now, with what I ordered and where to stay. But the destinations were never the hard part. The walk in was.
What’s Inside:
Forty-four pages, in three parts
Part one: The Mindset
Seven small shifts to make before you ever pick up the menu.
How to walk in so the room receives you instead of seating you out of the way.
What to wear, and why the room reads it in about three seconds.
How to order so you're a regular on your first night.
The phone rule, and the first ten minutes that decide the whole dinner.
The ritual the hour before, the one that changes who walks through the door.
Where to sit, and why the seat changes the dinner more than the menu does.
Part two: The Destinations
Ten are cities and islands where I've dined alone myself. Plus three bonus cities I love from my own travels with girlfriends.
For each: where I dined, what I ordered, and where to stay.
Plus the booking toolkit, the reservation email I actually send, and a closing reflection, A Table for One.
Part three: The Toolkit
The exact reservation email I send. The booking toolkit I use for my own personal travels, even as a travel advisor.
Who this is for:
The woman who wants to travel alone but isn't sure she'll feel at ease doing it.
The woman who's booked the trip after a milestone, a birthday, a win, a new chapter, and wants the dinners to feel like a gift, not a hurdle.
The solo traveler who wants the experience elevated, not just survivable.
Anyone learning to enjoy her own company at the table.
Why this is different:
Most travel guides are written from a desk, by someone who has never sat alone at the table they're recommending.
This one was written by a woman who has actually been alone in the room, in the seat I'm telling you to ask for. Every shift in these pages I learned the slow way, one dinner at a time, so you don't have to.
$37. Less than the one wrong restaurant it saves you from on a trip you've already invested thousands in.
Less than the one wrong restaurant it saves you from on a trip you've already invested thousands in.
The guide is new.
The standard behind it is not.
Here is what women say after I've planned the real thing for them.
One more thing
Every hotel in the guide is bookable through the provided link.
You pay the same nightly rate as booking direct, with complimentary breakfast, a room upgrade when one's available, and a hotel credit on arrival. A gift from the hotels for booking through my advisory. A single stay can return many times what the guide costs, before you've eaten your first dinner.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Book ahead and note that you are a table for one so the host can place you well. Ask for a banquette, a window, or the counter rather than the center of the room. Arrive a little before the rush. Bring something to read if you want it, but you do not need a prop to belong there. Order what you actually want, including the wine and the dessert.
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Yes, with ordinary care. Choose restaurants in walkable, well-lit areas, tell your hotel where you are going, keep your bag in your lap or against the wall, and trust the host and staff who are there to look after you. A hotel vetted for women will brief you on the neighborhood and arrange your return.
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Ask when you book, not when you arrive. Say: a table for one, and I would love a banquette or a spot by the window if you have it. Restaurants respect a guest who knows what she wants, and a quiet, confident request is almost always met.
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Decide before you sit down that you are not waiting for the awkwardness to pass, because it does not arrive unless you invite it. Order a glass of something to start, watch the room, and read if you like. No one is really watching, and the few who notice are usually a little envious. A woman dining alone is not sad. She is at peace.
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Start smaller than the dinner you are dreading. Take yourself to a good breakfast or a long lunch first, somewhere bright and busy, and sit at the counter if the empty chair feels loud. Each time you do it the fear shrinks, until one evening you book the restaurant you were told was for couples and realize nothing felt hard.
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Dining Solo, Luxuriously is a digital guide to taking yourself somewhere beautiful and feeling completely at home there. It covers the mindset of dining and traveling alone as a woman, thirteen destinations with the way I would order in each, and a practical travel toolkit. It is $37 with instant digital access.
Instant digital download. Read on your phone, tablet, or laptop. Created from real travel experiences.
You don’t have to figure this out alone.