Solo trip at 60. Too old or too young for the options?!

[Lumpycat]

Thinking about booking a solo holiday. I am a divorced 59 year old woman. Very active and sociable and am confident in travelling and life in general. I work full time. Live in London.
I live with my adult children and have zero interest in a new relationship.

Want to book a trip to ‘somewhere’ in September to celebrate my 60th. Thinking culture and history and beautiful landscapes and great food. So have decided Italy might work. Tuscany/Florence area.

As I want to explore the area and only have a week it might be useful to go on an organised tour. So the logistics and travel are handled and the itinerary organised in a logical way.

Might be nice to have some company for some of the trip such as mealtimes and then have my own room to retreat to and free time to fill how I want.
Am a bit unsure about the organised aspect of it though. I have always travelled independently before or with friend or family. I have visions of being herded by a tour guide and the time being over controlled.

Was almost ready to book when I saw on a review that a guide might meet me at Heathrow to help with the journey. Really don’t need that level of support! I know people are all different and it might just be an option for more anxious or disabled people.

I would also need to pick from a very limited range of options as the tour groups obviously have a few departure dates. In fact I can only find one option for the date and region I want. It’s around £2300 for one week Heathrow to Pisa. That is fine but I could obviously do it more cheaply and flexibly myself.

Anyway. Thoughts on how to travel solo as an independent person but with some elements of an organised tour? There will be local companies offering day trips and excursions but less likely to have company at mealtimes and get to know people.

The G adventure type places seem to run much younger and I don’t want to be 40 years older than everyone else!

I’m 57 and travel on my own and then book a few small group excursions and build the holiday around those, this works perfectly for me.

I can’t be trusted in a group tour as I make friends easily and would spend the whole time chatting to people and then I’d miss out on my solo time which I love.

Hi lovely, I’ve been a solo traveller for over 4 years since my love sadly died. I’ve been to Corfu, Ischia, Sorrento, Crete, Bulgaria, Turkey, Canary Islands and Albania on my journeys. Never had a problem x Find that people chat more with solo travellers. Enjoy. 👍

Take a look at HF holidays , they do solo trips where I believe the focus is on historical days out & hiking .

I’m 65 and took myself off for my first solo trip ever, 5 days hiking in the Lake District. I organised it myself and had the best time ever.

Friends and family were bemused and really didn’t know what to think. I’m planning my next trip now. The freedom to do as you please is a joy!

Just stay safe and let people know where you are. I hope you have a wonderful time!

I've literally just been telling my mum that she would smash the fire service physical whereas I would struggle to carry shopping home. Age no guarantee of fitness either way, I wouldn't assume you'd need much support but I appreciate that it might be nice to have company for meals etc and still free time alone.
When I went to Italy my lasting impression was I could happily just spend the day exploring on foot, stopping for coffee etc, honestly the time will fly, my recommendation would be you don't need an organised trip. It is so incredibly scenic and walkable that your days will fly by, I'd just book a place to stay and your flights and let the rest unfold. I met some chatty ppl so you will probably find company and little chats on your journey and when you relax outside cafes to eat. You probably don't need it to be organised for you, it's a wonderful place to just see where the day takes you 🥰 you can also easily travel by train to different cities and come back the same day, very cheaply. I went to Treviso and Venice and my favourite part was just the exploring on foot - absolutely stunning scenery you will have an amazing time whatever you do xx

Aw that's brilliant, I hope you have a terrific time. How long are you going for? Yes Florence will be very busy, but the buzz will excite you no end. Just stroll around, and try to get off the main drag to places like San Miniato al Monte - the vista from the viewpoint over Florence is something else. Also cross the Arno to the Santo Spirito neighbourhood (basilica is your landmark) and wander around for the real deal. Most tourists stay on the side of the Duomo and Ufizzi. Also, if you can locate them try a glass of vino from one of the wine windows. It's just a bit of fun.

If you plan to see the Ufizzi and the Duomo bell tower and dome (entry to the duomo itself is free access, or was!), and whatever else on your list, I'd plan on booking the first ticket time in the morning, or the last at night. The day trippers won't have arrived, and most will be gone in the evening.

I definitely echo a pp in urging you to take the train to Lucca for the day. It is just so gorgeous and has a wonderful unique atmosphere. Walk the walls!

In years past I've been on a few trips with Explore. Age was usually 40+. The only thing to look out for is lots of couples and you being the only singleton; you can ask them about who has already booked on. Tuscany Wine Walk Tour - Explore. All the trips were well organised and there was plenty of free time; with sadness I remember the joys of exploring (now ruined) Aleppo and Damascus on my own, and a group of us going for a Turkish bath in our free time.

How about a cooking based holiday or something like that?
On a train in Italy I spoke to some women who worked at a very posh villa where maybe 10 people (strangers to each other) stayed and they all cooked with a professional chef and ate together but the rest of the time was theirs. I think there was an option of going on group day trips if people wanted

GO. Do not think twice

I did Florence solo in May for 4 nights.
Don't bother with a guide you really won't need it.
Everyone is super friendly, you can get guided tours at the museums, there's cooking classes and you could do a winery tour if you wanted to see some countryside and not feel quite so "solo"
It's a wonderful city, felt safe everywhere and at all times of day and night.
Have a wonderful time x

Do it! Try these, hopefully info attached? Tends to be an older crowd on their Tours

... lots of decent Facebook solo groups, happy travels x

@Lumpycat have a look at Much Better Adventures. I went with them on a trip to Jordan and it was amazing. We ‘hiked’ (more a walk!) to the ‘exit’ of Petra and got to the monastery before the crowd arrived! Was amazing. I went solo and you can pay for a single supplement or get paired with another solo traveller to share a room. I went for the latter and got paired with a lady similar age and we both had sons of similar ages too! Age range was quite big (I was 47 then, 49 now) and I was fitter than two of the younger French women there. I would definitely recommend the company! And it’s small group travel so we had 13 in our group, max 16. The local guide was brilliant.

When I was 24 I saved up and went backpacking for a few years. I stopped in hostels in Australia, New Zealand and south east Asia and met plenty of other solo travellers. I remember meeting a 78 year old German woman in Australia. She said she always wanted to travel so thought why not. 🤷 Honestly travelling solo or solo holidays are great. You get to do what you want.

Bit late to the party but lots of great advice alread and I see you are now going solo which I highly recommend. I always find tours too restrictive, don't spend enough time to explore certain sights and the cost too.

Highly recommend using AI to help quickly pull an itinerary together so that cuts down the google searching, then use that to go through in detail and tweak it and definately use Get your Guide as they always have reasonably priced day trips. Also I found it really useful one time I torn my muscle and it wouldn't be fully recovered in time so it was easy to plug in my itinerary into chatgpt and ask for it to provide me a more accessible route that wouldn't irritate or make my recovery worse.

I hope you really enjoy your trip! Its so exciting and you will find you just strike up conversations with random people anywhere which is wonderful skill to have. Some of my most interesting conversations have been this way.

I did an Intrepid tour and it was a huge range of ages, from 21 through to 65. I was in the middle and had a great time if that helps with your decision making.

Try rsd travel. A German company with operators in many European countries. Ring to become a member for free, to access the really cheap prices. You do have to pay for extra excursions and sometimes extra meal plans too. Always solo travellers on there and mainly retired folk who have used the company multiple times.
It is cheaper than most so if you want luxury and guarantees, then try another more expensive operator but the hotels are usually really good and I’ve been on several fabulous trips all over the world.

I’m mid 50’s & widowed. I went with Riviera Travel around Italy. It was perfect.
It was the first time I’d traveled without my husband & it was perfect. There were several solo travellers but no ‘forced fun’. If your social battery is done, that was fine too.
Please book a trip, I promise it’ll be good for you.

Go it alone! You can do it significantly cheaper yourself. I travel alone constantly and book trips and excursions on Get Your Guide where it's great to chat with others ie wine tasting etc. It's a beautiful region of Italy, you'll have a wonderful time.

If you are looking for boujee hotel u can totally recommend 25hours: it’s beautiful

I would second Jules Verne. Husband and I went with them to China on an organised tour. Company at mealtimes and on excursions in the day if you wanted to do them but you could opt out and do your own thing if you wanted to.
riviera travel is similar. Age demographic 50/60 upwards.
Also have you considered a river cruise?

Hi OP,

For a future trip, take a look at Rory's Travel Club on Facebook. The trips are usually from Ireland I think but more of a casual group holiday rather than strict itinerates I think. I think suitable for your age group.

Good move to travel independently to Italy - so easy. Trains are efficient and you can book them via Trainline. Make sure you pre book Uffizi and other attractions using their websites.
I've been to Japan with Exodus as a couple, there were solos on this trip.
Solo I've been to Australia with Distant Journeys, age range 59-85. And going to NZ with Just You. The latter was well recommended by some of the serial travellers on my Australia trip. It's all a bit of an eye opener - some of the travellers (mostly women), seemed quite ordinary but exceptionally well travelled. I chose this kind of trip to deal with all the logistics (7 flights in Oz). My DH doesn't like long flights and some of the solo travellers were like me rather than divorced or widowed.

How do you find a hotel for a single woman traveller to be safe in, I e never travelled abroad and I really want to but find the whole airport, hotel travel really neevewracking

I check location of the hotel, trip advisor reviews but you can just ask AI now as it will search everything and find the information for you, rather than researching what areas to avoid. So for San Fran it was really clear on what areas were abit dodgy. Stay in chain hotels as they are generally safe and in good locations.

Do you mind me asking which cruise line this was? What you’ve described sounds fantastic!