Boldly Go Solo

How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler.

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Category: –Tour Operators

  • Solo traveler dreams about future trips. And just might take one or two.

    For me, love of travel includes daydreaming about where I might go next, and what I might do. At the moment, I’m in Park City, Utah with friends. We’ve skied Deer Valley Resort, Park City Mountain Resort and The Canyons. The snow has been awesome. (that’s ski-dude speak for "awesome"). So we’ve been having a…

  • Girl’s Night Out, stretched to a weekend, or a week, or more

    Many tour operators offer women-only trips. One major advantage that I can see for solo travelers is you’re definitely not going to be the only single person with a bunch of couples, no matter what.  I have never been on a woman-only vacation. Except, of course, when I’ve arranged to go away with my own…

  • Row, row, row your raft

    I talked to my friend Laura into going alone on a river rafting trip. We were in our 20's. I'd loved my trip and insisted she would have a great time too. Risky recommendation, I suppose. I couldn't guarantee her happiness. Her trip was on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho with…

  • Letting trip organizers do my bidding

    I’m not big on spending a week or more alone, as is obvious if you’ve read much of this blog. While I often love to explore museums and sights without others by my side, I can get lonely if I go for too long without connecting with someone. I happen to like the social life…

  • Changing the mindset of the travel industry

    My goal is nothing less than to change the travel industry. To benefit solo travelers, of course. Sounds pretty grandiose, eh? But I don’t think it’s that difficult. Out of self interest, the industry should consider paying more attention to the solo market. Too many would-be vacationers, with money to burn, are staying home because…

  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day six. All done.

    Due to high waters in the nearby canyons, we do loops around the hotel instead of going out to do a breakfast hike. We end up eating near a waterfall. Since this whole trip is about healthy eating, breakfast "on the trail" consists of fruit, peanut butter, cottage cheese, fruit, whole grain tortillas, nuts, fruit…

  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day five. Pain.

    I wish it hadn't taken me slamming into a prickly pear cactus to make a great point about traveling solo, but it did. Here's the sad tale. In heavy hiking boots, on a trail marked "difficult," I tripped and pitched forward. Under normal circumstances I think I would have been able to right myself. But…

  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day four. Laughs.

    Bridget, a fellow hiker, had some of us laughing all morning, after she showed us the "Michigan mitten" at breakfast. Someone asked her where she grew up and she held up her right hand and pointed to one side of her palm. "Right here." Huh? Apparently, Michigan children learn that their state is shaped like…

  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day three. Rain.

    Yesterday’s hail dusted the mountaintops here in Tucson, changing the desert palette. By this morning it was raining. If I had been out West hiking on my own, I might have spent a lonely day in my room, or hanging around the hotel, today. Maybe I would have gone shopping or to a movie. But…

  • Anatomy of a solo trip, day two. Hail.

    Tucson in December has its surprises for an East Coast girl: A loud, heavy hail storm has left quarter-inch balls of white ice on the hotel's lawns and sidewalks. An old water tank for cattle, which are no longer allowed where we're hiking, is filled with plump, healthy goldfish. Goldfish! In the Sonoran Desert in…