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

[SparklingZebraShoes]

Separated several years now and I have to start moving on with life.

Ive taken the children on holidays 10/12 but it was for them, not me if that makes sense.

Im a teacher so find the summer very lonely when the children are with their dad.

I can’t spend my life not going on holidays because I’m too worried about going by myself. It has to be somewhere I can travel from Belfast so I know this makes it harder to get advice on here.

Any ideas where is a good starting point for travel? It would be a mixture of rest and sightseeing as I do have an extremely busy life.

I will no doubt be nervous and I know that sounds a bit embarrassing .

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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 😃

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.

Hi op

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

A cruise. Some go from Belfast.

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.

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.

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.

Try a cruise, many have solo traveller meet ups.

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.