I went on my first solo vacation in 1997, when I was 24 or 25 years old. I had just gotten my first TV show, The Dish, on Lifetime. I had worked really hard and made a nice amount of money, so I wanted to take myself somewhere lovely. I found this beautiful place in the Bahamas called Pink Sands Resort that I had seen in Condé Nast Traveler. I used to rip pages out of magazines and put them into a travel folder—I still have boxes of all the old tear sheets. In the pictures the sand looked so pink and the water so turquoise. At first I thought, This place can’t be real. But it was, and it was glorious. I spent four days alone there, and I didn’t leave the resort. I’m not an ocean person—I’m a pool person—but the sea was so clear there that I played in the water for hours like a little kid. I wore my pretty clothes, went to the different restaurants, even tried my first cocktail. I remember wearing a Ralph Lauren bandeau bikini, the one that twists in the front, and I was just hanging around, doing that silly George Washington wet-hair flip we all used to do. It defined for me how solo travel can allow you to just…be. My career is very much do, do, do, and when I’m on vacation by myself, I get to sit and be. Which is why I love a good resort. Everything is taken care of, and I don’t have to think or plan anything. The trip taught me to enjoy the quietness of my own company. For me, luxury is really the ability to follow my heart around—like, ‘Today, I want to sleep in,’ or ‘You know what, I’m going to take a nap!’ Or ‘I’m going to go night swimming.’ All those simple pleasures are on the table when you’re by yourself and you get to follow your own schedule. It was my ideal solo trip and one that I’ve been re-creating ever since.
Hear more about Tracee’s solo travels…
Solo Traveling With Tracee Ellis Ross will premiere later this year on the Roku Channel. This article appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of Condé Nast Traveler. Subscribe to the magazine here.
