Travel solo

For many years working in the travel industry, I was fortunately able to take advantage of heavily discounted, if not free, holiday flights and hotel accommodation. Being single, I often travelled solo. I didn’t exactly ‘rough it’ as I enjoyed excellent standards of both and I’d often combine trips with visits to friends and relatives. To me it was just the obvious thing to do and so the growing popularity of solo travel – like it’s suddenly been discovered as some cool new lifestyle – amuses me. According to a recent Saga Travel (over 50s) survey, they see a 23% increase in customers booking solo trips this year though about half of solo travellers are actually travelling in solo groups so not exactly ‘solo’ in my opinion. Surprise, surprise – you make friends on solo holidays and even strike up romantic friendships! If you are confident enough to join a solo group travelling to a mutually desirable destination, why wouldn’t you find something in common with your fellow travellers? However, the benefit of travelling ‘proper’ solo is that if you do happen to meet someone who you’d rather not spend any more time with, then you can skip off to your next stop and leave them behind. Yes, I’ve done that too!