Boldly Go Solo

Solo travel Valentine's Day ideas include Ecuador, Moscow, Tucson

Since I didn't start musing about what might make a good solo Valentine's Day trip until yesterday, these ideas obviously will have to hold until 2012 or beyond.

Solo travelers seeking roses should book a flight to Ecuador, the rose capital of the world. One airline, I don't remember which, handed a large, perfect rose to each woman leaving the airplane. And it wasn't even February.

I've never been to Moscow. Do they celebrate Valentine's Day there? I'm thinking it's either too cold or too dark or the restaurant service is too poor to make it a great place to go out for a romantic dinner. So it would be a good place to avoid the hokey Hallmark nonsense. But it sure is a long way to go to avoid a silly "holiday."

What about a ranch? I've loved all my visits to Arizona ranches. Do cowboys do roses? Either ranch hands will pay special attention to solo female travelers or the day will be celebrated at some kind of big barbecue event with families, couples and singletons. Just like any other day. Either way, I'm guessing there won't be the red-rose twosomeness of a city slicker Valentine's Day.

Those are my rambling thoughts. Any other fun or funny ideas for a solo Valentine vacation? I can collect them for next year.

Photo: Ellen Perlman. Chocolate and candy hearts.

 

Solo skiing in Davos and St. Moritz in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe

If you're a solo traveler and ski fanatic, you might want to follow Gabriella Le Breton's winter adventure. Le Breton is the subject of a series of articles in Britain's The Telegraph, called "Single for the Season" about a single woman who is visiting 20 ski resorts this winter.

In mid-January, Le Breton was in Klosters, Switzerland, solo skiing her way at the "preferred ski destination of Prince Charles."

In late January, in report a on Le Breton's solo skiing I found on a blog called Travel Blog Land she was at Courchevel, a ski resort in the French Alps.

I've never skied in Europe. It's such a romantic notion, though. I imagine skiing into huts mid-mountain for hot soup or buttered rum. And skiing right into town at the end of the day, perhaps directly to the back door of my chalet?

I base my fantasies on one spring visit to Zermatt, Switzerland, where these things seemed possible, although I wasn't skiing there. I was staying at the Zermatt youth hostel (I was definitely a youth then) and several fellow hostelers had skis stored against a wall near the door. A few bucks a night for a room near the Matterhorn? Not a bad deal, whether you're skiing or not. 

Chicago Tribune advice for getting the single supplement waived

The Chicago Tribune has a piece on how solo travelers can buy vacation packages without getting fleeced by the single supplement. I've written about these points before but they always bear repeating.

If you're willing to share a room, many tour operators will match you with someone of the same sex, eliminating the single supplement. Some will waive it, even if you end up with a private room due to an odd number of men or women on the trip. Don't get your heart set on it. You have to be lucky for circumstances to work out that way.

Booking early or late can help, as can going with smaller tour operators willing to negotiate.

The Tribune story says the single supplement is typically 200 percent. I don't believe that. On cruises, maybe. But I've been on a lot of vacation tours (biking, rafting, horseback riding and more) and perused many a travel catalog. I've never seen the single supplement listed as 200 percent. 

Instead, you usually end up having to pay several hundred dollars more than those who bunk with another, whether friend, partner or spouse. That's because the hotels charge by the room and if you're just one person, you can't split it with anyone. But that's not the tour operator's fault. It's the way of hotel pricing. The tour operator books a certain number of rooms and if two people are sharing a room, the overall costs are lower.

Over the years I've experienced most of the above. I've shared rooms with someone the tour company matched me with. I've gotten my own room because I was the "odd man out" among the women on the trip - the lucky one who asked for a share but got a single. I had a single when I was on a rafting trip because the sleeping quarters were tents. Which is not necessarily standard. On a camping and biking trip, I was assigned a tentmate.

I've rotated roommates on a trip where there were three solo female travelers. I thought that was a good, fair system, rather than giving the single room to one person for the entire trip. The only problem was, I got so friendly with the other two solo female travelers I felt lonely on the nights I got the private room! There they were chatting and laughing without me!

Anyway, don't let a single supplement put you off taking a vacation package with a tour operator. Choose one of the above options. Or, if you choose a private room,  calculate if there are savings based on group travel and transportation that the tour is providing that you wouldn't have gotten on your own.

If you can't bear the idea of sharing with a stranger or paying a single supplement, I'm out of ideas for group trips for you. But if you're willing to try the roommate route, just remember that you won't be spending a lot of time in your room anyway, particularly on an adventure trip...the kind I like to promote here.

Photo: Ellen Perlman. Hammer head shark, Georgia Aquarium.

 

 

Solo hikers on an evening jaunt to the display of lights at the Mormon Temple...and dinner

On Saturday, at 5 pm, under a full moon, a group of us set out in the chilly night air for an eight-mile hike. Along a road called Beach Drive in Maryland. In the dark.

We brought flashlights but never used them. Between the moon and our eyes adjusting we were able to see enough not to fall into the creek that we walked along for part of the way.

Six out of eight of us showed up solo. I didn't hang with the companion I came with for long. The leader for this Northern Virginia Hiking Club hike was walking really, really fast. I was not. Neither was Christiane, a French woman who works at the French embassy here in Washington, DC.

So we fell to the back. And I got to learn an awful lot about the life of a roving international worker who has lived for three to four years at a stretch in Canada, the U.S., Italy, Spain and elsewhere.

Stop one: the Mormon Temple in Silver Spring for its 33rd annual Christmas lights display:

This time of year people arrive at the temple not just for the twice-nightly musical performances or the life-sized nativity scene. No, people of all faiths come to gawk at the lights. More than half a million of them. And 16 Christmas trees. Even pagans would be likely to point and say, "Ooh, pretty."

Solo travel stories offering travel tips

It almost seems as if solo travel is becoming the vogue. 

The Los Angeles Times has a story on 10 vacations for solo travelers. It covers just about every option you can think of, from road trips to special-interest vacations to choosing villages over big cities.

Another highly useful LA Times story suggests ways to avoid the single supplement, from setting up a Google alert using the words "single supplement waived" to booking with companies such as Adventure Life to letting a tour company pair you with a roommate, which many will do.

A story in the Guardian offers strategies for traveling alone by a veteran solo traveler. And the rationale. "You travel alone, you do exactly as you want," says author Jenny Diski. Being on vacation with others makes her anxious. "Are they comfortable, happy, restless, bored?"

I totally get this. You feel selfish if you don't consider others' needs and yet you've paid all this money for a short time in a vacation place. Compromises make you feel resentful.

My absolute LEAST favorite words while on vacation are, "Do you mind if..." If I've had to say those words it means I've had to ask permission to do something I want to do.

Not permission, exactly, but I've had to let someone else know I want to do it and hope they come along happily or want to do the same. If not, I find myself thinking that I'm boring them or keeping them waiting. And how many times am I willing to do that? Argh.

Solo Friendly offers five reasons for solo travelers to take an organized tour. They include the ability to socialize, letting someone else do the driving and navigating and hearing the interesting stories of locals who are hired as tour guides on these trips.

And finally, (although there are plenty more sites to mention), National Geographic lists the Asia "Tours of a Lifetime" here. In case after reading Solo Friendly's reasons for taking a tour you're looking to book one.

National Geographic says it chooses these tours for the "outfitters' commitment to authenticity, immersion, sustainability, and connection."

One example is a tour in northern India that "has you riding camels, rickshaws, rafts, and jeeps to observe leopards, rhinos, monkeys, mongoose, and more at five national parks and wildlife refuges." Er, except that it costs more than $7,000 for the 19-day trip.  

My rich friends, please tell me how fabulous it was when you return!

On the less expensive side is a bike trip in Thailand, around the Chiang Mai area. 

Norwegian Epic offers Caribbean cruise with no single supplement

Norwegian Epic's solo cabins rated a major travel story in the Los Angeles Times today.

The reporter went on a Caribbean cruise specifically to check out the solo sailing on a cruise line has taken notice of the solo traveler market.

Norwegian Epic offers private rooms on a seven-day cruise for $1,271-$1,409. It would cost nearly twice as much for a solo traveler to book a double room, as they have to on most cruise ships.

The Epic "shows promise of being great fun for those who travel solo," the reporter says. The 100-square-foot studios are, however, a "small shock," although there was plenty of storage space for her stuff.

And the size didn't seem to bother other folks who took advantage of the low price to stuff two people in the room.

The writer met other solo travelers who told her they chose the ship not for the destination but for the solo cabins. Still, Epic could lose up to $5 million in the first year due to the lost revenue of two people in a cabin.   

I sure hope they find some major advantage in offering benefits to solo travelers. And that other people in the industry take note.

I don't want to rewrite the whole story here but I was amazed to read that not only are solo travelers freed from the nasty single supplement, they actually get special treatment. Like a lounge for solo travelers only.

What a great way for people traveling alone to connect. I'm impressed.

Photos: Courtesy of Norwegian Epic

 

Six tips for a great solo ski vacation

Although my friend Elaine is skiing in Park City, Utah, alone, she's making friends right and left. Okay, they're friends for five minutes, but what's the difference? She's being entertained, being social and not feeling lonely.

 "I have five-minute relationships with people on the chair lift," she says. "Then it's, 'Have a nice life.' " And off she goes, carving her way down the snowy mountainside.

 I worried that Elaine, who has gone solo on plenty of biking, skiing and other group adventure tours, would not have a good time going skiing for a week in Park City, Utah. All by herself. In a condo without her pals.

Instead, I'm envious of her vacation. No, it isn't perfect. Nothing's ever perfect. She misses the camaradie from the time a couple of years ago when she, our friend Andrea, and I traipsed out West together, eating out, waiting for each other on the slopes and laughing. A lot.

Top 10 Do's and Don'ts for single women scouring the continent for a date

A 30-something woman has written a somewhat amusing, partly crass (hey, my blog, my opinions) piece on her cross country dating adventure. The country being Canada. It seems to be connected to a PR campaign by a singles dating site, which surveyed women about their solo travel experiences.

The online dating site polled more than 2,000 single women about solo travel and found that 61 percent had traveled by themselves. The site finds this to be a "whopping" high number.

I don't. It's just that most travel writers pen stories about families or couples, and most coupled and familied (my blog, my invented word) people don't think about all the solos out there, having a grand time touring the world.

To continue...of those women who had traveled alone, 64 percent found it exciting. But, sadly, 36 percent said it they were "terrified." The news release doesn't say of what. Loneliness? Bears? What?

Anyway, the writer, with tongue in cheek I hope, offers such tips as: When you're in the Northwest, keep an eye out for indie rock stars but don't bother seeking out the "cute grunge guys." They don't exist anymore. Oy. (Lucky me, I've never been interested in cute grunge guys.)

Don't get overly attached to sailors or surfers because they don't commit. Now wait a sec. Did this person really head out West with the intention of finding a surfer for a long-term commitment? Or for part-time amusement while looking for a commitment? So let a sailor buy you a drink but move along quickly?

The 30-something writer claimed to be looking for a mate but here's the thing. I hope she has no problem with relocating or maintaining a long-distance relationship, because if she's on the hunt so far from home, those are likely scenarios.

Okay, take it all with a grain of salt (sea salt in this case, I suppose) and see if you find it funny. I, personally, would prefer to go out West to BE that sailor or surfer (or to try to learn how at least). And to have a great time on the road.

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. 

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?"