45 and never went on holiday alone… where could I start?

Ive done a couple of Exodus/Explore holidays. Good range of ages on both.

I've also done solo city breaks. Copenhagen and Stockholm are very safe and both interesting to wander.

Try a cruise, many have solo traveller meet ups.

Try Sri Lanka. 2 week Ayurveda holiday followed by a few days touring.
UK summer is the "rainy" season, but that just means short, heavy showers and does not generally impact on most activities.

Don’t worry about the show offs. We all start somewhere. You don’t need to trek round Tibet first go ( although Nepal was my first single holiday)

Work out what you want to do on holiday. I like sun, having a drink, smoking fags and seeing something brilliant.
Canaries was good..weirdly lots of singles. I guess it’s cheap and guaranteed sun.
Beaches are good - reading and watching people is done best solo.
Any fun city Barcelona, Rome,Amsterdam.

Anything you’re interested in horse riding, walking, cooking courses etc.

I’m just back from a solo trip to Copenhagen. I absolutely fell in love with it. I felt completely safe. Everywhere was so clean. The city isn’t huge so it’s easy to walk everywhere. I would highly recommend going.

A cruise. Some go from Belfast.

Hi op

I am in the Belfast area too. Check out Rorys travel club - picture attached from Facebook. Great tours and many for solo.

I know this is a terrible ‘women holidaying on their own’ cliche and probably not what you’re after, but DSis just did 10 days on a yoga beach retreat in Spain and had a brilliant time. Lovely group of people, solo travellers and other combinations of guests, chat and communal eating optional, time for sightseeing and exploring, lots of R&R. She felt it was a perfect mix of being able to do your own thing and choosing to socialise if you fancied it.

I can also recommend Exodus as fantastic options for a group holiday. They arrange everything, flights, transfers, accommodation and they go all over the world 😃

Cruising is good for solo travellers. You can buddy up/go to meet ups, or jusy stay solo and enjoy the combo of relaxing and site seeing. Some offer travel to the port and back if you sail from the UK

A group tour holiday can be quite tiring I.e. not a lot of down time.

As pp have suggested a river cruise or a fly cruise of the med are a good starting point. They are quite different but both give you the opportunity to rest and to sightsee.

A river cruise usually sees you sitting with the same people for breakfast, lunch and dinner. An ocean cruise with freedom dining allows you to choose to sit with different people or eat alone.

I have holidayed solo for about 15 years since being single. I even went to Vietnam on my own but joined a group tour there which was fabulous.

i would strongly suggest a group tour of some sort for your first foray, and then everything is organised for you and that takes away a lot of stress.

There’s an excellent tour company based in Dublin called The Travel Department, who offer group tours to lots of destinations, including tours specially designed for solo travellers. I have a relative in Northern Ireland who has done multiple trips with them and thinks they are great. I think they normally fly from Dublin but that’s manageable from Belfast as you know.

If you enjoy particular activities like cooking or walking, you will also be able to find group holidays based around those. What are your interests?

Have a look at 'Rory's Travel Club' on Facebook. It's a club set up by a guy from Co. Down. You can join for £12 per year and you get weekly emails with discounts for hotel stays. They also organise big group trips, you can book solo places but still go as part of a big group so safer than travelling alone. A friend recently went solo on one of their trips and really enjoyed it. They have offers of hotels all over Ireland, both North and South as well as trips leaving from Belfast or Dublin.

Are you thinking Europe? If so why not go on the Ryanair website and see where you can fly direct to from Belfast. Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Gran Canaria, Budapest, Copenhagen, Prague - loads of great options, have a look and see what you fancy.

I would start small then build up, so maybe a city break first. I went to Krakow last year and remarked that I would feel very comfortable visiting as a solo traveller. There is a 20 min train ride from the airport to city centre and isn't too big, so not intimidating to navigate. Also direct flights from Belfast.

Exodus. Friendship travel. Etc if you want company.

I went on a solos group holiday - a short city break, and found it a great intro to travelling alone. Some structure and an itinerary, and people to eat dinner with, but also individual time to explore.

When I was unexpectedly single in my 30s I went to Vietnam and joined a group tour thing. It was brilliant! Also did the same sort of thing in Bosnia.

I went to Budapest on my own and made friends whilst there doing one of those walking tours and had a great day.

Would you consider a cruise? I did a Mediterranean one last year which started in Majorca and we stopped somewhere different every day. I went sightseeing on my own but had dinner with other passengers so it was a good mix of being on my own and in company. I loved it.

Thailand, exploring the beaches and towns ☀️

Join solos in the sun on FB...loads of help on there it has solo events where you travel solo but can meet up with other solos should you wish.

As pp said, what sort of experience would you like to have? Meeting new people, learning something, immersing yourself in a book?

Does it matter if you speak the language? Do you want to go abroad or somewhere more local?

Depending on your answers, your ideal solo holiday might be a yoga retreat in Portugal, a diving course in Antigua, backpacking around Thailand or joining a group to climb Annapurna. It might be renting a shepherd’s hut in Devon, holing up with a stack of books and podcasts and spending a week knitting and reading (ooh, now actually…)

There are even homestay holidays where you immerse in a language in order to learn it.

I know someone who goes to banjo camp every year. Almost the only limits are budget and imagination!

Try Amsterdam in September, OP, 3-4 nights. The weather should be decent. There's probably a direct flight. It's a city organised well for non drivers & has nice parks, pretty buildings, museums, history, interesting 'culture' etc. Most locals speak enough English to help you. You can book a decent place all to yourself via Airbnb & probably find a flight in your budget.

I love going on holiday on my own.

I started out by going somewhere I already knew so I wasn't worried about finding my way around etc. I could just concentrate on finding my own rhythm of holidaying by myself.

If a whole holiday is too big an idea, start with a weekend. I often link a weekend to a plan: x is on in y city so I'll go to that and see what else there is to see there.

I went on holiday solo earlier this year. I joined an exodus group and it was fab. Nice group. Some couples. Some singles. And we all got on well. It was a cycling trip but they do other things. Highly recommended. I have also been alone in cities usually for a day tagged in to a work trip, but depends what you want!