Boldly Go Solo

Six tips for a great solo ski vacation

We got our first crisp day of autumn today here in D.C. With the beginning of fall, some people's thoughts turn to vacation plans for the cold months ahead.

Maybe it's a trip to someplace warm. In other cases, the choice is winter sports.

For those thinking about a ski vacation but don't have friends who ski, here's a post I wrote about how a ski-loving friend dealt with the situation:

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 chairlift," 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 camaraderie 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.

Skiing Canaan Valley in 30 inches of new snow

If you're going to get stuck somewhere in a blizzard, make it a ski resort, is what I always say.

Actually, I'd never said that before this past weekend. But then, as serendipity would have it, I got "stuck" at a ski resort during a blizzard. Oh, poor me. 

All I could do at Canaan Valley Resort in West Virginia was ski--Nordic and alpine--snowboard, ice skate, use the whirlpool and head for the lodge's dining room for meals. 

I wasn't able to shovel, figure out what to do if I lost power, experience cabin fever or stare at empty supermarket shelves. 

Instead, I skied "first tracks" for the first time in my life. Got on a chair lift a little after 8 a.m. and before anyone else that day I skied pristine powder, along with a ski instructor and one other person.

We had a run called Timber Trail to ourselves. Wheeee.

Cross-country skiing on the beach, Cape Elizabeth, Maine

My tale of cross-country skiing on the beach in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, just south of Portland, is in The Washington Post today. A year later, that trip still feels magical. A beautiful inn. Fabulous skiing. Great food. 

It may be difficult to replicate the experience at the moment, due to the lack of snow this year. But it's something worth keeping on the "bucket list." 

I'm hoping that there will be snow somewhere in late February, when I plan to head North for another cross country ski weekend with my ski buddies. Somewhere.

We haven't picked a place yet. We're waiting for the white stuff to decide the best location. It seems it will have to be a last-minute decision.

Funny enough, I was just in Jordan - a desert country - where we drove by sandy ground dusted with snow! Our Jordanian tour guide cracked jokes about opening a resort, serving camel burgers for lunch, telling us to skip Switzerland and head to his country for the winter.

Uh, it wasn't THAT much snow. And Jordan's a tad tougher to get to. 

Although you may remember the solo traveler version of the cross-country skiing story posted here last year, today's Washington Post story has different photos and additional details on restaurants in Portland and Cape Elizabeth. And on the Inn by the Sea, where we stayed. Check it out. 

Solo cross country skiing in Cape Elizabeth in southern Maine

The sound of cross country skis in fresh snow has never mixed with the smell of the sea in my imagination. Until this year.

I met up with my friends Adele and Sheara in Boston last month for our 14th annual cross country ski weekend. After an overnight in Massachusetts, we headed to Cape Elizabeth, Maine, near Portland, a new destination for us. 

While my cross country skiing jaunts have never been solo trips, keep reading solo travelers. Everywhere we skied, we saw solo skiers. Mostly female. Several accompanied by dogs. But clearly the ski areas are popular and safe spots for solo skiers.

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. 

Yellowstone National Park in winter and deals for solo travelers

Winter visitors to Yellowstone National Park have the park, and the herds of native bison, practically to themselves. Apparently, it's a pretty special place to be in the next few months. 

“Winter for us means terrific cross country skiing, a sense of quiet and solitude and truly unparalleled opportunities for wildlife viewing,” said Jeff Brown, director of education for the Yellowstone Association Institute.

The bears may be hibernating, and the migratory birds off to warmer places, but otherwise the winter months are a great time to see wolves, elk and bison in their natural habitat. Without all the two-legged tourists getting in the way. Now that's adventure travel.

The non-profit institute offers private tours for small groups but also a "Lodging & Learning" program that provides guides for daily field trips, along with lodging in park hotels.

In a separate program, experts teach multi-day field seminars on wildlife, geology, history and more, a great way for solo travelers to get to hang with other people. You know, talk, laugh, discuss cougar mating habits.

Some of the courses are held at the Institute's Lamar Buffalo Ranch field campus, where you can stay in cabins for $30 a night per person. Sounds like no single supplement to me.

Online chat about solo travelers not wanting to pay single supplements

I landed on this chat about a traveler wanting to find a place to ski that offers rooms for one without a single supplement.

The comments range from "Singles are losers to be exploited" to "unfortunately the economies of being a hotelier make it difficult to achieve what you want" to "I travel on my own mostly and do not find it difficult to get single rooms in hotels and do not pay a supplement."

One of the people who posted about the "great single room debate" says she travels in a group of four people, none of whom want to share a room. I don't blame them. You hit a certain age and lifestyle...

She says she and her friends have managed to find hotels that charge either a small single supplement or none at all because they have single rooms.

She mentions hotels in the the ski resorts of Pila, Italy (Hotel Europe), Val D'isere, France (Chalethotel Moris, no supplement as they actually have single rooms), Sallbach, Austria (Bergers SportHotel) and Ischgl, Austria.  (Hotel Alpenrose). Write these down for the future.

You might find it interesting to read the varying points of view, many resisting the idea that solo travelers are a group to be catered to. And the notion that it all comes down to cold, hard cash for the tour operator or the hotel. No news there. 

The final comment, last time I read the thread was: Get a better job / marry a rich man / win the lottery / rob a bank, as suits and stay in nicer accommodation.

Okay, gotta go buy a dual-purpose ski mask. First using it to rob a bank. Then to enjoy my week on the slopes in Europe.

Solo skiers and hikers can find camaraderie via Maine Huts and Trails

My friend Diane and her husband Wessel recently visited Flagstaff Lake Hut, one of the huts that is part of Maine Huts & Trails. As a cross country skier, I was intrigued by her account of the two of them walking into the woods with all their cross country ski gear for a little winter getaway.

I want to do this! Though it will have to wait until next year at least.

I first heard about hut-to-hut hiking and skiing in Norway, where they have a good system of backwoods huts. I didn't know they also have them in Maine.

It seems to me like a really cool thing to do, hiking or skiing to a destination, rather than just taking a random hike or skiing for an hour then returning home. I like the idea of pushing toward a goal. It's why I also like week-long bike trips.

The huts I saw in Norway were quite spare. Diane says the hut they stayed at in Maine was more like a lodge, (although the photos on the site don't convey that.) Diane does say the bedrooms are quite spare. All the more reason not to hang out in them but to join others in the common room.

Introverts can travel solo but differently than extroverts

I enjoyed this story from worldhum on introverted travelers. It showed me how the other half of solo travelers explore the world. The introverts, that is. Clearly without gabbing with a lot with strangers:

"I am terrible at striking up conversations with strangers and I am happy exploring a strange city alone."

The writer doesn't seek out people to talk to but says she loves people watching. Fair enough.

It's worth reading this other story on solo travel, a story on solo snowboarding in Chamonix, just for the writer's take on his trip. Funny guy. As in this nugget:

"As with all snowboarding trips, there seems to be a self-destructive desire to finish yourself off if you haven’t already collapsed from exhaustion or been carted off in an ambulance."

Hm, and I've always wanted to try snowboarding. I don't consider myself self-destructive. I hope this doesn't mean I'll be terrible at the sport.

I have a beef, though, with how the writer envisioned what he'd find when he arrived for a solo vacation:

"It’s easy to build up stereotypes of the kind of people you expect to meet on a solo travellers’ trip. But instead of a bunch of socially inept nerds, those in my group are actually fairly normal."

Nice to know one man's view of us solo travelers. Thanks, buddy. 

Travelers stranded solo in big snow = a blast

What the heck would you have done if you had been a solo traveler to Washington, D.C., this weekend in the middle of a snow storm that's been called both "Snowmageddon" and "Snowpocalypse?"As well as one, big, "Historic Mess?"

And suppose you'd been here on Saturday when all the museums were closed? As well as most of the restaurants?

Yet you had no one to hole up with and be entertained by in your hotel room because you were traveling alone?

And unless you had great planning and research skills, you probably wouldn't have rented a pair of snowshoes or cross country skis in advance of the storm, and have been rarin' to go out and take on the drifts.

BUT...

You still would have had the time of your life. IF you're a snow lover. Yes, you would have.

For one, you could have made your way to the massive snowball fight at Dupont Circle and either watched or joined right in. People were throwing at strangers. And playing target with same.

You could have walked around in awe, taking in the sheer beauty of nature's little snow joke.

You could have just walked up and down the streets and found yourself smiling at everyone, noticing that most everyone was greeting you and smiling back.

You HAD to communicate because shoveled paths were so narrow that people had to step aside and take turns letting one another through.

(More photos on next page)