Boldly Go Solo

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

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  • Solo vacationers don’t have to get burned by single supplements

    Imagine walking up to a hotel registration desk and being told that you will get a discount because you’re only one person in a double room. Ha! Yes, imagine it, because you won’t often experience it.

    But…

    In researching a travel story on single supplements for the Kansas City Star, I learned about places that are a little kinder to the solo vacationer than others.

    One Caribbean resort built a whole wing of rooms for solo travelers, eliminating the single supplement. Many companies offer to pair you with a roommate to save you extra charges, if you don’t mind sharing.

    Some companies try hard to keep the single supplement as low as possible, passing along only the extra costs hotels charge for single occupancy, but with no further mark-up.

    I’m not saying that single travelers are on par with couples and families when it comes to travel deals. They’re not. Not even close.

    But it’s interesting to see that some travel and tour companies are taking them into consideration. Is this the way of the future? Can we dare hope?

  • Five days together on vacation equals 10 years of friendship

    It seems crazy but you can become friends "for life" with people you spend a week with on vacation. Why this happens, I don't know.

    I'm reminded of it because on Sunday, I had dinner with Barry and Viv from Tampa. We met years ago on a skating vacation. Shortly after that trip, I had business in Tampa and stayed at their house for two days. Viv and I lounged in the backyard pool and talked plants and gardening and other important topics.Netherlands_group_pictureellen_perl

    When they visited Washington the next year, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Adams Morgan and pushed spongy bread around a huge platter of delectable spreads. Barry and I skated in Rock Creek Park.

    Then we lost touch for several years. Out of the blue I get an email from Viv a couple of weeks ago: "We're coming to Washington. Are you around?"

    I was.

    We arranged to meet at La Tasca on 7th Street. On the phone, Viv asked if I'd recognize her and Barry. What a silly question. We spotted each other on the street and hugged hello. Inside we shared tapas and caught each other up on our lives.

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  • Solo travel in remotest Ecuador? Yes, and no.

    Butterfly_farm_sacha_lodge
    It’s easy to get Sacha Lodge, located in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador. All you have to do is take a small plane from Quito, the capital, to a little airport in Coca. Then, you hop a boat for a two-hour trip down the Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon.

    Then you hike for a half hour through the jungle to a dock, where you step into a dugout canoe and paddle across a lake filled with piranhas. Once on the other side, it’s just a few steps to the main lodge, where you will get a warm welcome. 

    When I say I like to travel with "groups," this is what I mean. You do not wander the mysterious rainforest, with its toucans, sloths and howler monkeys, on your own. I made my way to Ecuador solo but I had signed up for various Boy_with_monkey_sacha_lodge
    tours and stays, with Latin American Escapes. So I was alone, but I wasn’t alone. My favorite "place" to be.

    At Sacha Lodge, we were split into small groups for hikes into tarantula land, a climb up a huge tree for exotic bird watching and for hikes into the jungle to spot blue butterflies, squirrel monkeys and more.

    We ate meals as a group too, although we got friendly with pretty much everyone staying at the lodge.

    The point is, you can go to the deepest, darkest, remotest places alone. Without being alone.

    Read more about the trip here.

    Photos: By John Shively, M.D., a nice guy I met at the lodge, who gave me a disk with his lovely photos.

  • Two words solo travelers hate to hear. Okay, four words.

    Departures
    Besides "single supplement" the two most irritating words for solo travelers are: "companion fare." Translated: solo travelers, no deal for you.

    I got an email this morning from Amtrak offering "one free companion rail fare ticket with the purchase of one regular (full) adult rail fare ticket."

    (Somewhat amusing was the line, "the free companion and the paid adult must travel together at all times." Does that mean to the bathroom, to the dining car and everything?)

    Instead of ignoring it, as I usually do, I called Amtrak. For kicks. Tracy answered. I told her about the email I’d received and asked if there was anything for travelers who didn’t have a companion.

    This took her aback for a moment. Amtrak often runs specials, she said. And it always offers discounts for seniors, AAA members, veterans, students, the military, children and members of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.

    But she didn’t know of anything for solo travelers. She said she’d check and get back to me. I’m still waiting.

    Photo: Ellen Perlman.  Logan Airport. Okay, you got me. I haven’t been on Amtrak lately…

  • Men need to be pushed. Or something.

    I was amused by a story, on a site called EcoTravelLogue, that jumped to this conclusion: Because 67 percent of those who booked an "ethical holiday" were women, it "revealed" that women "care more about the environment and social impact of their holiday decisions than men."

    Snort.

    The truth is closer to this: women book more of all sorts of trips than men. Both the saving-the-environment types of tours, as well as the selfishly biking every day  for their own enjoyment types of vacations.

    I don’t really know what the men are doing while the women are out traveling the world with these groups. But I’ve noticed it during my travels too.

    Unless trips were specifically "singles" trips, where
    the company tried to balance the number of men and women, most of my
    group vacations have been made up of couples and women. With a
    smattering of solo men.

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  • There’s no whining in solo travel

    It was not an auspicious first day in Holland. My bags were still in London and my room at the inn had been given away. And I was to set off the next day for an inline skating trip in Friesland. Holland_skatingellen_perlman

    This is normally the time that many people explode. Or cry. Or pound their fists on their travel companion. I didn't have a travel companion. I'd arrived on my own, as I'm wont to do. Who was I going to scream at? Cry to? Pound on?

    No one. So I skipped the drama. And went about figuring out what to do next. The innkeeper called around and couldn't find any available rooms. He felt so bad that he put me up for the night at his home, five doors down from the inn. (That's another story for another time.)

    The next day, I joined my group. We hung around with our stuff, waiting for a van to take us to the starting point outside of Amsterdam. A woman named Vivian asked me where my luggage was. I told her I didn't have it. And I didn't know when I'd get it.

    She looked at me, surprised. "You're awfully calm." As I've said already, what were my options? Freak out. Or not. Either way, I didn't have my luggage.

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  • Best outfitters on earth, or so National Geo Adventure said

    Lastscan
    I may be sooo 20th century, but sometimes I prefer to pick up a magazine instead of heading for the Internet for trip ideas. I’m looking, as we speak, at a section I ripped out of my National Geographic Adventure from November 2007. It’s called Best Outfitters on Earth.

    When you don’t exactly know where you want to go or what you want to do, a listing like this can be helpful. And inspiring. The section sorts outfitters into: Do-It-All, Biking, Hiking and Trekking, River and Sea, Safari and Luxury.

    Five to 10 companies are listed under each category, along with each one’s "signature" trip and its price.

    If you know you want to go to Greece and bike with Aegea Adventures, you don’t need listings like this. But if you’re wondering what you should do for vacation, it helps to have a lot of random ideas and companies all in one place.

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  • Great Expectations, and the trips that change them

    Sua_in_thailand
    I was on the phone with a St. Louis travel agent for a story I’m researching, and our conversation turned to the mismatch between a traveler’s expectations and what happens once he or she arrives.

    Agent Stephanie (sounds like something out of "Get Smart") sent her daughter and a friend, both in their 20’s, on a motor coach tour, only to get a frantic phone call the first night. Her daughter wanted to come home. Everyone on the trip was so much older.

    Stephanie convinced her to stick it out for a day or two. The young traveler probably had been expecting a lot of people just like her, and freaked out when she found parent-aged people.

    But things turned around. The daughter and her friend got friendly with two women, one 30-something, the other 40-something, and they hung out together. The rest of the group "adopted" the two young women, as nice "old people" are wont to do. Stephanie’s daughter ended up loving the trip.

    I had a similar jolt. I booked a tour of Thailand, expecting a lively group of men and women. Instead, it was three women, including me, and a guide. I spent the first night fuming. I was so disappointed.

    At dinner that night, we sat at a table for four. It felt constricted. Where was the big, laughing group I’d pictured?

    Over the days, I calmed down and settled in. By having Sua, our guide, to ourselves, we learned a lot of the culture. We talked with him about his life and his time as a monk.

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  • Move along. There are no green alligators nor Easter bonnets to sing along with here

    Ever since posting the video yesterday of the Irish revelers singing the Unicorn song, an endless loop of "green alligators and long-necked geese" has been running through my brain. Never mind the humpty backed camels and the chimpanzees.

    If I have caused the same, um, let’s try not to call it pain, in your life, I do humbly apologize. Let’s all move on. The chain drug stores have changed out their shamrocks for bunnies and Peeps. And so I give you, in the spirit of the pink holiday: Pink Floyd. Hopefully, it clears your brain of that other song that shall not be mentioned.

  • In pursuit of torrone: a most excellent solo evening in Boston

    Boston is ka-razy lively on weekend nights. I almost missed it. After a long day of conference sessions,  I thought about staying in for the evening. Torrone_with_box_ellen_perlman

    But it was still shy of 6 pm and that would have been way too long an evening in a sterile hotel room. I briefly considered going to the hotel gym but nixed that in a flash. On a Saturday night? In a great city? Huh-uh.

    Instead, I choose a brisk hike to the North End, Boston’s little Italy, to pick up one of my favorite desserts: torrone. From Modern Pastry on Hanover Street. Pronounced "maw-din" in "Bostonese."

    If you’ve never had torrone, it’s like French nougat. If you’ve never had French nougat, it’s sweet, white, chewy stuff packed with nuts, most often almonds. And it’s goooooood.

    Torrone_and_cranberries2ellen_perlm
    The goal combined exercise with reward. It also was a goal that broke my tether to "safety." The tether to the comfort of a hotel room, and the lazy choice of staying still. Off I went.

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