Going Solo: On Traveling Alone


I enjoy traveling with my husband, Scott, and with friends, but their schedules and destination desires don’t always match mine.  So, I have learned to travel on my own.  Not completely on my own, as some of my other friends are fond of doing, but on my own within a group.  My preference is for small-group travel, but I have also developed a love of cruising, which typically involves rather large groups. 

Hiking in Croatia
I like having my own space (room) and time to myself.  I sleep more peacefully when I don’t have to worry about disturbing a roommate.  In the morning, I can have coffee in my room before having to engage in conversation with anyone else, and at night I can read in bed for as long as I want.  I also enjoy being with other people and sharing the excitement of a new experience.  Even when traveling with my husband or a friend, I appreciate conversations with other people. 

But the best benefit of group travel, in my mind, is not having to book rooms, decide on an itinerary, find places to eat, or book private tours in foreign cities.  In addition, the tours I’ve taken often provide access to interesting cultural experiences that I would not have discovered on my own. 
Moroccan tea service

For example, driving through the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco, our tour guide noticed a small group of tents and stopped the bus to investigate.  He talked with a woman who invited us into her home and served us mint tea and fresh bread she had just retrieved from the bakery tent.  With our guide acting as translator, we learned that the woman had actually grown up in this small place.  Her husband was working elsewhere, and she stayed here with her children. 
Family tent in High Atlas Mts.


 They all lived in this two-room tent made of whatever they could find to construct a home:  barrels, plastic sheeting. She wove rugs, as do most women in the countryside, took her bread to the bakery each day for baking.

When I find a travel companion, we typically share a room because it is more economical, but when I am going solo, I am willing to pay the required “single supplement” in order to have my own space.  Many companies will pair single travelers, but I have not been willing to run the risk of being paired with someone I might not be compatible with.  The single supplement is typically affordable on land-based tours but can be prohibitively high on some cruise ships.  I tend not to travel with companies that do not have solo-friendly pricing.  Crystal cruises are very solo-friendly; Viking Ocean cruises are not.  In addition, cruise ships don’t usually offer roommate pairing.

Archaeology guide in Italy 
While small group travel might not be the least expensive option for seeing new places, I find that it allows for more intensive experiences while perhaps visiting fewer cities.  I prefer to stay in one place for several days rather than move to a new location every day.  I like to walk and see the sights up close rather than from a bus window or as part of a mob of people.  There are better opportunities for getting to know the tour guide when there are fewer people in the group, and small group travel offers more opportunities for meeting local people and learning about their lives.

There are a number of tour companies that specialize in small-group travel.  I haven’t tried all of them, but have enjoyed trips with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), Road Scholar, Odyssey, and Smithsonian Journeys.  Friends of mine would add Classic Journeys and Country Walkers to that list, but I haven’t yet tried them, so can’t comment.

I’ve traveled most often with Road Scholar, which was ElderHostel when my mother traveled with them.  Road Scholar offers a wide variety of tours, from active adventures to sight-seeing focused bus travel, within the US and around the world, and in small or large groups.  I’ve been hiking in Big Bend and in Croatia with Road Scholar. 
Photographing the Grand Canyon

I also stayed a week in Paris, took cooking classes in Tuscany, and learned to improve my photography skills with them.  Road Scholar offers either double or single accommodations.  They will pair you with a roommate if you want them to.  If you want your own room, there is typically an up charge, but it usually is quite reasonable.

OAT advertises only small-group travel (no more than 16 people) and no single supplements.  However, the number of single rooms available is limited so if you want one, book early.  Like Road Scholar, OAT will match you with a roommate if requested.  While I have enjoyed my OAT tours, they do not offer tours in the US and their tours are generic rather than theme-based.  While I have hiked, river rafted, and had a cooking class on OAT tours, these were single activities provided within a more generic sight-seeing tour. 

Safari Jeep
The elephants were very photogenic.
Smithsonian Journeys also provides small-group tours to interesting places—within the US and around the world.  Like OAT and Road Scholar, they provide roommate matching services, but also provide single options for an increased fee.  All of these tour groups provide educational components and include nice accommodations; Smithsonian tends to book higher-end properties and charges more for their tours. 

I have met interesting people and had excellent guides on all my tours.  My best travel advice is to decide on destinations that are of most interest, check out several different tour providers, compare itineraries and prices, and make decisions based on those factors.  

For example, I want to visit the former Soviet Union nations in central Asia known as “The Stans”—Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.  These countries were part of the ancient trade route between China and India and Europe known as the Silk Road.   Each of my preferred travel companies offers a tour to at least some of those countries—some visit all five, others go only to two or three of them.  Some companies offer travel primarily by bus, others fly between major cities.  And of course, dates and prices will enter into my decision-making process.  

No matter which company I select, I can be assured of an interesting and safe experience with people who want to explore all corners of the world and broaden their minds.  And I will stay in touch with some of my fellow travelers, seeking their advice on future trips, meeting for lunch or a hike when we are in the same location, or perhaps scheduling a future travel adventure with some of them.  Even when traveling as a solo, I am never alone.

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