Holidaying alone…

[SurreySideEye]

I’m happily single and I’m looking to go away abroad on a simple pool/beach holiday just for some change and rest, I don’t want to be involved with the ‘singles scene’ so I’m not looking to meet a prospective partner or even have a ‘holiday fling’ nor do I want to stay in a hotel where I’ll be seated with strangers at mealtimes…basically I’d just like to holiday alone. Are there any ‘Mumsnetters’ out there who’ve done this and could offer some suggestions ?

Before the edit it was a full on dig 😂

I think you must have read a different post from me then.

I used to go on hol by myself lots in my late 29s / early 30s. Rhodes, Crete etc, and would turn up and find accommodation when I arrived, which was easy and cheap, those days in Greece.

Now I would book ahead.

Price is the issue for solo travel. Loads of the Easy Jet discount fares turn out to be for couples only. Package tours or specialist solo holidays are very expensive for one.

I will be looking to book flights in September and find an affordable airBnB or similar.

I prefer at least a kitchenette so that I can self cater if I don’t fancy a taverna or hotel dining room on a busy night.

But I do really enjoy a week on holiday on my own.

Why not?

Don't go AI, just book yourself a flight to your preferred location, and then a decent hotel on a B&B basis (there are loads, and it's certainly my preference). Go somewhere there is a bit of a town, and then you can try out a few different restaurants - you wouldn't want to eat in the hotel every night, I imagine.
Or book a city break, and enjoy lots of lovely museums, galleries, concerts, restaurants etc.

I couldn't either but thats cause I have no confidence/struggle socially. I think it's great that people do though. A friend of mine did a city break alone for the first time(after splitting up from her husband) and really enjoyed it. I was really happy for her. I don't see why anyone cant away alone and enjoy it. Maybe one day I will myself but I have a husband and kids, so probably not atm.

I did this for the first time last year, enjoyed it much more than I expected to! I choose the Valamar Dubrovnik President hotel as I wanted a beach. I’d say it was a 4* rather than 5 but great for swimming, reading by the beach or pool, could get a bus easily into the town. Meal times were fine as it was a buffet each night so I just took my book or looked at the view. It was big enough to be anonymous, I went right at the end of the season so it wasn’t baking hot. Booked it through easyJet holidays and private transfers were included.

Just to add, the cost is mad for going on your own, would have been not much more for my husband to come. I looked at a flight and hotel but this trip seemed to work out ok via easyJet.

I've done city breaks on my own. There are so many people on their own in cities that this just feels perfectly normal to me. I work in central London and I'm generally unaccompanied as I move around London - so it is not much different to go to another city by myself.

I've also done Mark Warners / Sunsails / Neilsons as a solo and I think they are really good fun. They have social tables, so you can sit with other people at meal times if you want to and there are lost of activities to do. You can dip in and out as much as you want. Obviously, these are activity types of holiday, so not for everyone.

I've also done the specific type of solo holiday with companies that are geared up for solo travellers to places where I might not necessarily want to travel on my own and they have mostly worked well too. Sometimes I think the quality of the accommodation is not all it could be on those things, but that might be a me problem.

There are so many options nowadays. There is literally something for every type of single traveller. Have a blast whatever you decide to do @SurreySideEye .

Disadvantages? I don’t think so, I literally get to hang out with the best, funniest person in the world all day doing stuff I love and I don’t have to share them with anyone.

Yes, literally the only disadvantages I can think of with solo travel are minor things like having to leave something to show your table in a bar or restaurant is still occupied when going to the loo etc. But that's a tiny inconvenience compared to the pleasure of being able to lean into doing exactly what you want the entire time without considering anyone else's preferences or energy levels. I spent a week in Madrid by myself last year, and spent literally the entire time looking at art, from the moment the major galleries opened to when I was thrown out at night, after which I bought empanadas and beer, took them back to my gorgeous hotel for a long bath. DH or even my most art-obsessed friends would have wilted by the end of the second day. I was in my element.

Thanks for all your responses and for the comment about never being sat with strangers…really…maybe it’s not so common now but a woman on her own was often viewed as an object of pity and in need of company so would be seated with others in a dining or social situation it has happened to me and it happened to my widowed mother as well, and as for never wanting to go anywhere alone…ffs this is 2026 not 1826.

But you just say no, surely, you want to eat by yourself? I don't think this has been a thing for many, many years, apart from possibly on cruises with enormous through-puts of people for set-times dining. I go away regularly by myself and have for many years, and eat out in restaurants for lunch and dinner, and I have literally never been asked if I wanted to sit with someone.

I don't think fear of travelling alone is just something women worry about. I amazed a male colleague once, because I was talking about going on holiday to Spain, travelling around a bit, and he said he'd never do that alone, he couldn't imagine having the nerve to go on holiday alone.

I usually send a good friend an itinerary so they know where to start looking for my body if I don't turn up again... And I do book accommodation these days, after turning up in Melbourne in my 20s when the grand prix was on, and not being able to find a bed anywhere. (Formula 1 was not on my radar. I was surprised no one else on my email lust had mentioned it.)

For me, it's weirder to go on holiday with someone - I haven't usually had much choice, but I know I'd have regretted not going far more than going alone.

What? You don't have to meekly sit with other people if you don't want to. I've been out for food alone, here and abroad, hundreds of times and have never even been asked if I want to sit with randoms

The only time I've shared tables has been in really busy British tearooms at National Trust or art gallery type places, where it's that or stand awkwardly trying to balance a cup and and a plate with a cake... and then it's customers asking, not staff telling you.

StatingTheObvious’ post just wasn’t very helpful in answering the question. Was she implying that the OP shouldn’t go? That’s how I read it which is not very helpful either. But maybe she meant that the OP was much braver than she was.

I am equally unhelpful as I have never been on holiday on my own although I do quite fancy the idea. I have done the odd bit of sightseeing on my own which I have enjoyed (can decide what and how long etc) so an extended version of that maybe. No one has mentioned the downside of not speaking to anyone for the whole time but I guess you do get chatting to people if you want to - everyone is in the holiday spirit maybe.

But you do speak to people. You buy food and drink, go in shops, museums etc, use buses, go through the airport, say hello to random people when out and about.

I will usually do something like a boat trip or a watersport, so will be with other people for a few hours and speak to them then. But you don't have to be sociable with travelling companions for the whole trip. And if you have a partner/DC at home, you'd phone them most days and speak to them then.

I’d quite happily just book into a normal hotel as a solo traveler but the first year after I divorced I went on a gulet cruise in Turkey and it was outstanding. It did involve being on a boat with 9 other people and eating communally, but there was no pressure, it was so chilled. But I do love sailing holidays, although I’d never go on an actual cruise.

Going to Tenerife next Wednesday for four nights, 4* AI with flights, luggage and transfer was £480 in a single suite. Treating it as a retreat-type experience since an actual retreat is so expensive! Planning to meditate, gym, sunbathe, have a massage, a head spa and an emotional healing session - minimal alcohol and lots of fruit and salads

I absolutely love travelling on my own, been to Japan for 3 weeks a few years ago, and Bali for 3 weeks next year

Of course you talk to people -- I mean, if you want to. I had a nice coffee with a nice Italian art historian I met in the Prado when in Madrid by myself. I shared a taxi up to a hill station in India with a Canadian I met in my hotel in southern India. Other times, often when I'm blissed out by whatever I'm doing, I have no desire to talk to anyone at all for days. I sometimes go on silent retreats at a Buddhist centre in a gorgeous location where you're around people for meals and meditations, but no one is talking. I might come home then and have the urge to have friends over for dinner.

I’m going in a couple of weeks to Italy, but it’s a mountain holiday.
The plan is: lazy!
In bed by 8, lights off at 9, mountain air, I wake up when I wake up.
I planned 2 things: a spa for when it’s raining and a sketching class/trip.
Shopping. Walking/hiking. What I want, when I want. One trip to the pasticceria every afternoon for a cake. The Dolomites are really nice to sketch, I’m bringing watercolour pencils too. My kindle. A bottle of wine. My journal. Breathing space.
I’m in my 50s.

Oh I could 🤣
id be heaven, so peaceful and I wouldn’t have to worry about what my partner would like to do everyday!

I travel alone all the time. Been to turkey, Italy and Greece so far this year.

Planning another Italy later in the year.

For beach I tend to go all inclusive, really nice and easy, all in.

For Italy and similar weekends away I book all separately, but do hotels rather than Airbnb.

Well, do! You don't have to travel together. I adore my DH, and we've always travelled well together, but there are times I want to do something that would be more fun for me solo.

Like many PP, I travel alone and have a great time. Yes, things can cost more per head than if you're in a couple or group, but it's still possible to economise. As where I like to go and what I like to do are quiet specific, I either have to stump up or not go. I choose to go.
You do have to give a little more thought to personal safety etc than a man would, but that'd be true at home too.
Aside from being able to please myself another upside is that, being a short middle-aged woman, I'm not seen as a threat. So it's far easier to strike up a conversation with others if you want, or to ask for help if needed, than it would be if I was a huge bloke. The same happens vice versa: I'm quite often approached by others when away, who may need directions or whatever, as I'm seen as non-threatening.

@BuddhaAtSeawhere are you staying? The Dolomites are next on my list.