Jen Ruiz found herself suddenly single when she was brutally dumped while on vacation with the man she thought she would marry.

She embarked on a cruise with her then-boyfriend-of-two-years back in December 2021 to ring in the New Year and celebrate her 35th birthday.

But when he ended their romance mid-trip, the travel influencer and blogger was not only stuck at sea with the ex who had broken her heart, but she also had to forge ahead as she was on a work trip.

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‘I was on the Mediterranean on a work cruise (and) my partner of two years was there as my plus one,’ she told the Daily Mail.

‘I had really been looking forward to this trip,’ she admitted. ‘So when (I was dumped) understandably, it was a damper on the whole occasion.’

Ruiz recounted her life-changing trip in her upcoming book, All You Need Is Flights, sharing the journey she went on after finding herself with a broken heart courtesy of her ex, whom she called My Prince in the book.

Ruiz recalled the days after the breakup being painful, as they embarked on her birthday excursion in Greece the next morning.

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‘That was when the pretending started and I had to smile despite being heartbroken,’ she recounted. ‘My eyes were puffy from all the crying and I had to take pictures with sunglasses on.’

Ruiz, who also authored 12 Trips in 12 Months: Make Your Own Solo Travel Magic, said she has a theory that for many people there’s a point where you feel like ‘life falls apart,’ or hasn’t come together how you had planned.

For Ruiz, that age was 35. But despite being devastated, she knew that continuing on her travels would be the best thing to mend her, despite being apprehensive at first.

She continued on her trip post-cruise, which included visiting Egypt, where she decided to keep traveling.

‘I figured, worst case, travel has always been a way for me to get perspective, a way for me to get different experiences and clarity, and I never regret the memories that I make while traveling,’ she shared.

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‘I was worried that maybe I’d be, you know, too emotionally distraught or distracted to really be able to be present for them all and take them in, but thankfully, as the year progressed, it became easier to go on them.’

The avid traveler admitted that despite ‘crying daily’ over her breakup, there was a part of her that was convinced the breakup was a maybe and not definitive – until she landed back at home in Florida.

‘Normally, Mr. Prince picked me up at the airport every time, but I got a message from him saying that I should get a taxi, that he wouldn’t be picking me up at the airport,’ she recalled.

‘Then he sent me a long letter detailing all of the reasons why he didn’t want to continue.’

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During her journey after the breakup, Ruiz visited a number of breathtaking sites and participated in a slew of endeavors all around the world, including eating pizza on a volcano in Guatemala, going to Japan to see the cherry blossoms and even seeing a baby gorilla being born in Rwanda.

‘Rapa Nui (in Chile) felt like that moment of rebirth,’ she recalled. ‘You are so secluded. Everywhere you look, it’s just endless ocean, so it feels really peaceful.’

Ruiz said she hopes her travels and books will inspire women to embark on their own adventures.

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‘I think women owe it to themselves to solo travel at all stages of their life as a way of maintaining integrity to where you are right now and everything you’ve done to get here as a way of celebrating yourself,’ she urged.

She also revealed the places that helped her heal the most after jetting around the world as a newly single woman, sharing that, surprisingly, Jordan is on the top of her list as a country to visit as a female.

‘It’s a great place to solo travel, particularly for somebody interested in going to the Middle East for the first time,’ the travel enthusiast said.

The author described Jordan as a ‘little oasis,’ and said a lot of women she speaks to are surprised at how easy it is to travel there.

‘(I didn’t experience) really any harassment, no issues whatsoever, so I think for me and my travel friends that we go, we really do have a soft spot for Jordan,’ she shared.

As for her birthday next year, Ruiz has already planned a solo trip – in Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida.

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‘I think my birthday sets the tone for the year, and so to set the tone for that this year, I am going to have a mermaid-themed birthday, and I am going to become a mermaid!’ she said enthusiastically.

‘I think that this would be a great way to do something unique that’s still bucket list, that’s still something I’ll never forget,’ she continued. ‘I’ll never forget the day I turned into a literal mermaid by the ocean.’