Boldly Go Solo

News on solo travel from Reuters

Is the market for solo travel slowly turning our way? Is the industry finally willing to cater to the solo traveler?

Hard to say.

But I would love to take at face value the following quote and others in a story about how the industry is wooing solo travelers irritated by the extra charges they face as a party of one:

"The tour industry is making way for the single traveler," said Margie Jordan, spokesperson for the American Society of Travel Agents. "This is nothing that's going to go away. The single traveler is going to have as many opportunities as anyone else."

She says that cruise lines, in particular, are offering solo travelers opportunities to travel without paying the single supplement. And indeed I've written here and here about a few that have waived the single supplement charge.

I'm not much into cruises myself. But how about we get the word out to tour operators?

17-plus ways to meet people when traveling solo and other solo travel tips

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Today's post is a roundup of solo-related pieces I found on the Web in the past few days.

First, in a continuation of travel deals from my last post, there are two cruise lines that are waiving the single supplements on certain voyages. 

Avalon Waterways has some European river cruises available with no single supplement. And Norwegian Cruise Line has introduced what it's calling Norwegian Epic Studios, "contemporary staterooms priced for the solo traveler." Cruises still are pretty pricey for my taste, but hopefully my cruising readers can take advantage of these deals.

For more info NCL's solo cruises and others, see this story in Cruise Critic.

The rest of these posts offer reasons for traveling solo and good places to do so.

The Travel Channel has a nice post on solo travel on the topic, saying that "few experiences offer the inspiration for self-growth and discovery as does the act of hitting the road solo." Despite the the apprehension one might feel before setting off.

For one, local women in countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, are quick to approach single female travelers with offers of hospitality, the writer found. Such as a a meal at their homes. Something that is less likely to happen if you travel with others. The post offers thoughts for traveling in India, Morocco, Iceland and Vietnam.

10 tips for avoiding the single supplement

In preparation for being interviewed on the BBC World's travel program, called "fast:track," I asked experts if they knew of tour operators that waived or markedly lowered the single supplement. (Who knew the BBC piece was going to involve a boy blowup doll?!)

Many respondents told me about companies they knew or, or represented, that don't charge the single supplement. But I know better than to believe that right off.

And indeed, after some simple checking, it turns out that for many tour operators only waive the single supplement if you're willing to share a room with another person signed up for the trip. I don't think that's what people are looking for when they ask about the single supplement. But it's a relatively common option and a saving grace for those looking to save money, and who don't mind sharing a room that they won't be spending much time in anyway.

Here are some other tips for avoiding the single supplement:

27 travel tips and what we learned in 2009 - a roundup of travel bits and pieces

I scour millions of pages of the Internet every day so you solo travelers don't have to. Below are some finds on lessons learned, cheap tips traded and discussion boards discussed:

Fodor's recently posted an entry on lessons learned from travel in 2009. One person learned from travel to third world countries how "very blessed with riches and people" she or he was. 

Another learned that people can "communicate without any common language." Any English speaker who has traveled in a non-English speaking country understands the beauty of this. Smiles and pointing fingers can accomplish a lot.

Lonely Planet came up with 27 travel tips. One of the many tips I liked was to take your hobbies with you. A big soccer fan? Get tickets to a game while in Buenos Aires. An architecture buff? Take a walking tour when in a city like Chicago. Pursuing your passion while abroad is bound to connect you to people.

And honestly? If I go to one more church or temple...

These are the sights most often touted by guidebooks. The churches and temples. They're fine. Nice to see. Especially if you happen to be a church or temple buff.

But I don't go to them in my own city. I'd rather dig deeper and get behind the tourist sights. I've seen way too many small churches that didn't need seeing.

Check in with solo sites such as Tripadvisor's solo travel forum. Just as a for instance, an entry on Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, says that the city comes highly recommended for solo travelers, especially female solo travelers. The writer says it's one of the friendliest places on earth and that you never feel like you're alone.

Solo travel in economically uncertain times

Lost a job but got a severance package? Now may be the time to travel. But your friends may still be working and unable to go with you.

Your job is safe but your favorite travel companion has lost a job? He or she might be hoarding pennies and be unable to join you.

In this topsy turvy economy, many people are traveling alone because family and friends don't have the money to join them, according to a foreign exchange Web site called Axia Fx. This sort of thing will pick up, according to the article, particularly if travelers want to go on a major adventure trip that doesn't appeal their friends. Whether it's skiing in South America or white water kayaking in Africa.

My opinion? I don't think now is much different from any other time in terms of finding a companion. People like to do different things and often can't travel when you want to go.  The beauty of solo travel is you don't have to worry about those things.

So, got a severance package and feeling secure enough to travel first, search for a job later? GO!

What also hasn't changed is the single supplement. In a story in Britain's Mail Online, about going on holiday being a "necessity," a travel analyst says the solo travel market still has too many "punitive" single supplements.

This is not news.

"In the long run," said Tom Rees, senior travel analyst at Mintel, a market research company, "hotels and resorts that choose to specialise in providing high-quality accommodation for singles have the potential to create new demand in a large and relatively "under-travelled" segment of the population."

One can only hope.

No more solo-only trips with Backroads but not to worry

Backroads, an "active travel company," is ending its singles and solos trips next year. The owners found that more of their solo travelers ended up on regular trips than on solo ones. There weren't getting enough people to make the singles and solo trips fun.

After doing some of Backroads solo trips years back, I realized I prefer a mixed group anyway. It's more relaxed. Less of that meet market feel.

Along with the change, the company has reduced the single room charges. Nice little benefit.

The part I like is where they say, "Just give us a call and we’ll help you find the departure with the most Singles+Solos, if that’s what you are looking for."

That's exactly what I did for my first major solo adventure, a rafting trip. I called Holiday Expeditions and asked them to find me a trip that other solo travelers had signed up for. I didn't want to be the only person traveling alone. I didn't need a LOT of solo travelers. Just some.

I ended up in a fivesome with one couple, one married guy traveling without his wife (she wasn't much of a rafter, he said), one single guy and me. We became tight as ticks. We hardly made make a move without one another. We simply enjoyed one another's company that much.

I would consider another trip with Backroads. I've taken three with the company. Biking in the Colorado Rockies, biking in the Canadian Rockies and biking and hiking in Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon.

They were all run well. And I wouldn't have gotten to those places without joining a group that was already going. None of my friends are that gung ho about biking to plan a week-long trip out West to do so.

And I did things I never expected, including biking 120 miles in one day. (Trust me, there was a lot of downhill. But the 80 mile-day uphill day it took to earn the downhill was a major killer.)

Backroads is not the only company that will provide the service of putting a group together and getting on the phone with you to discuss who is signed up for the trip. On the other hand, I would probably avoid a company that wouldn't be willing to share that information. 

Budget spa ideas including one with no single supplement

Fodor's recently ran a blog post on "Luxury for Less." They described five tips for budget spa visits. So why did they include Mandarin Oriental's "Signature Spa Treatments" that cost $450 to $470 for 110 minutes?! (Coincidentally, I've already written about one of the cheapest places they include - BodyHoliday at Le Sport, on St. Lucia. No single supplement.)

Fodor's, what exactly is your definition of "less?" Less than a million dollars? Anyway...

I liked some of the tips for solo travelers. Such as book short stays at hotels close to home. I could use one of those little spa holidays this minute.

If only I weren't going to Mexico in three short weeks...oh wait. I'm thrilled to be going to Mexico in two weeks! Si, estoy muy alegre!!

Any day now, the nice folks at my Spanish school in Guadalajara are going to email me with information about who my host family is for four nights.

Now the trick is working double time at my job to get everything done in advance so I can actually enjoy my vacation. This is why being independently wealthy would come in so handy sometimes.

 

Single people are getting a raw deal including on travel

Interesting story on single Americans. The percentage is up to 43 percent of the population versus 28 percent in 1969. Tell me again why tour companies focus mainly on couples and families?

Particularly when "the average American will spend more of her adult life unmarried than married?"

Discounts, discounts. Get your travel discounts here.

Since I'm all about adventure travel, it was interesting to read on the SmarterTravel Web site that several companies are offering discounts on 2009 trips. Actually, the entry offers up about 100 of the "best discounted trips," although the choices are from only five different companies.

For instance, Mountain Travel Sobek, an expensive company, is offering to cut $400 off a dogsledding trip to Sweden's Ice Hotel (how's that for a wildly different vacation?) It includes four days of dog sledding and two days of sledding with reindeer.

BUT...the trip costs about $6,500 for 10 days, including internal airfares and the single supplement! And that does NOT include airfare to get to Stockholm. Shocking.

$400 isn't going to make a dent. Mountain Travel Sobek is one of those companies that I likely will never travel with, but I do enjoy looking at their offerings and wondering how the other half...or is it the other 2 percent?...live.

But it might be worth checking to see if the discounts offered by Backroads, iExplore, G.A.P. Adventures or Overseas Adventure Travel (which is eliminating the single supplement on 24 adventures as I wrote about here) are worthwhile, in terms of your finances.

Photo: Iguazu Falls, Argentina side (as opposed to Brazil)

By Ellen Perlman

No single supplement?!

Whoa. Can this be true? A company called Overseas Adventure Travel, catering to travelers over 50, plans to eliminate the single supplement for all its land tours in 2009. And for many of its cruises, according to a USA Today blog entry.

But if you're not retired, be prepared to save up those vacation days. The group seems to run long trips - 13, 15, 17 days long and longer.

On another front, the company has found that the number of women traveling solo has more than tripled over the past five years. So it plans to launch a women-only line of vacations. That pretty much guarantees there won't be a lot of couples on those trips!

But I'm still marveling at the no single supplement thing. Is the travel world as we know it changing?