Single and love to travel? 5 ways to make a solo trip fun

If you are single you’ve probably encountered this problem: Holidays are nearing and you want to spend them traveling like everyone else, but there’s just no obvious candidate to join you. You could ask a friend, but that can be tricky; they might have other plans or completely different ideas of what constitutes a “perfect holiday”.

But there’s really no reason why traveling alone has to be any less fun than traveling with someone – in fact, it can help you relax even more (after all, you won’t have anyone else’s wishes or plans to worry about!) and make new friends. Use these tips as a template to plan your next solo trip:

1. Travel off-season

Although you can usually find deals for city trips all year round, for longer holidays traveling off-season can be a really good idea. Apart from saving money, off-season offers also a lot of other advantages: You’ll get a table at that restaurant all your friends raved about (without booking weeks in advance!), you’ll get to linger at breakfast and enjoy the buffet in peace, and it’ll be easy to reserve yourself a poolside lounger for the day. As your hotel is also likely to be quieter in off season, it’ll be easier to find people – guests and staff – to chat to and make friends with.

2. Book a small hotel

It’s hard to get to know people at a really big, resort-type hotel, so when planning your next solo trip,  look for a small hotel instead; you’re much more likely to see familiar (and hopefully friendly!) faces at breakfast and at the pool every day. This makes it easier to start a conversation and maybe get some tips on the best sights and hippest restaurants.

3. Learn something new

When you travel alone you probably worry about getting bored. You can avoid this by keeping yourself busy and by mixing up all that time exploring the city or lounging poolside by learning something new. Consider signing up for dance classes, learning how to dive or taking a language course in order to learn the local language. Going to a class regularly means you’ll very easily get to know a lot of new people and maybe even find new friends.

4. Join an excursion

Going on an adventure with your (new) friends makes it much easier to bond with people, especially in small groups. You can book local excursions almost anywhere in the world – from quad tours on the Canary Islands, to elephant riding in Thailand and jungle tours in the South American rainforest. As you spend the whole day in the same group, you easily get to know the other participants, have interesting conversations and don’t even realize that you are actually travelling “alone”.

5. Travel in a group

If traveling alone still doesn’t sound like fun, group travel is a good option. There are plenty of group tours to choose from and you can combine your trip with your hobbies or interests. You can choose from sport tours focused on golf, sailing or yoga, for example, to tracking tours through Asia or Latin America, or cultural trips through Europe. Group travel is a little more limiting because you won’t be making your own plans, but it can also free up a lot of energy as everything from transportation to accommodation will be taken care of, leaving you with more energy to enjoy the ride, and yes, make new friends!