Tuscaloosa
Stella
A passionate solo traveler who spent a year living and working in France. She believes travel should push you outside your comfort zone, and she plans trips built around local life rather than a checklist.
The single supplement is the reason most people don’t go. It’s also the thing most easily avoided.
Traveling alone has a reputation for costing more, and on a badly booked trip it does. But over seventy ships now have dedicated solo staterooms, several cruise lines waive the supplement outright on select departures, and some tour operators will pair you with another solo traveler so you pay exactly what everyone else pays.
Knowing which sailings and which departures those are is most of the value here. The rest is picking a trip where being on your own is the point rather than a compromise.
Three ways to go
Solo doesn’t have to mean alone
Or it can, entirely. That’s rather the point — you decide each day.
Cruise solo
Purpose-built staterooms
More than seventy ships now have cabins designed and priced for one, and lines like Norwegian add a shared solo lounge so you can be social when you feel like it. Some sailings waive the single supplement entirely.
Join a small group
Company without commitment
Small-group journeys give you like-minded travelers, a tour director who knows the ground, and enough free time to disappear on your own. Several operators don’t charge a single supplement at all.
Go entirely your own way
Hotels that suit one
Some hotels are built for solo guests — a good bar for easy conversation, a location you can walk from, staff who notice you. We know which ones, and we’ll book the room that faces the right way.
Why go solo
What you actually get
Nobody to compromise with
Every trip with other people involves negotiation. On your own the itinerary is entirely yours, including the days you change it at breakfast.
Your interests, all of them
The museum nobody else wanted to see, the cooking class, the whole afternoon in one neighborhood. Private guides make this easy and cost less than people assume.
Ways around the supplement
Waived on select departures, absent entirely on some operators, or solved with a same-sex roommate pairing. We’ll find the version that works for you.
You meet more people
Traveling with friends is a bubble. Alone, you talk to more strangers — and on ships there are receptions and communal tables built for exactly that.
Someone watching the details
No one to swap a passport with or send back to the hotel. That’s precisely when having an advisor on call matters, and we’re reachable while you’re away.
Dinner, either way
Invitations to dine with officers and expedition leaders, or a quiet table for one. On the ships we book, both are normal.
Who you’ll work with
Stella travels solo herself.
Which makes her the natural first call — though any of our advisors can plan this, and all three offices do.
Athens
Madeleine
She’s backpacked Europe herself and is in her element with active, adventurous itineraries off the beaten path.
Dunwoody
Leslie
Planning travel since 1990. Ask her about the history nobody told you to look for.
Dunwoody
Steve
He took a year-long trip around the world on his own after leaving a career as a chiropractor. He knows what solo travel actually asks of you.
Go deeper
More on solo travel
Ships with solo staterooms, operators who waive the supplement, and hotels that suit a party of one — kept up to date through our relationships with colleagues around the world.
Ready when you are.
Tell us where you’ve been meaning to go on your own. We’ll find the version that doesn’t charge you double for it.
