Solo travel later in life is discussed almost entirely in terms of safety, which is the wrong frame. The two things that actually stop people are the price of a room designed for two, and the prospect of fourteen consecutive dinners alone.
Both are solvable, and neither requires courage.
The single supplement
Hotels and cruise lines price rooms, not people. A solo traveller in a double room is charged a single supplement that can come close to paying for a second person — on a cruise especially, because the line loses two passengers' worth of onboard spending.
Four ways round it:
- Look for waived-supplement departures. Tour operators and cruise lines waive or reduce it on selected dates to fill inventory. These departures are published in advance and are worth planning the whole trip around.
- Book a line with real solo cabins. Several ocean lines now build studio cabins for one, priced accordingly, and some have a solo lounge attached.
- Choose operators that room-share. Many escorted-tour companies will match same-sex roommates and waive the supplement entirely. It is not for everyone and it is a large saving.
- Go where rooms are priced per person. Half-board hotels in parts of southern Europe and most guesthouses charge per person, which removes the problem.
The dinner problem
This is the real one and it is rarely admitted. Eating alone in a restaurant every night for two weeks is, for most people, the thing that makes solo travel wear thin — not fear, not logistics.
The formats that solve it structurally:
- Escorted tours, where dinner is a table of twelve whether you organise it or not.
- Cruise lines with shared dining. Traditional fixed seating puts you at a table with the same people every night, which is the single best solo-dining arrangement in travel. Ask to be seated at a large table.
- Small-ship and river cruising, where 150 passengers means you know most of them by Wednesday.
- Activity-based trips — walking, painting, cooking, language — where the shared purpose does the social work and nobody has to be charming.
- Bar seating and counter dining if you are travelling independently. Sitting at the counter is normal for one person; a table for one in the middle of a room is the version people dread.
The under-considered format. A self-guided walking or cycling package — luggage moved, hotels booked, route planned, but you walk alone each day — gives solitude by day and a booked hotel with other guests by night, at no single supplement in many cases. It suits solo travellers unusually well and almost nobody thinks of it.
The practical safety margin
The realistic risks of travelling alone at 60 or 70 are not crime. They are a fall, an illness, or a missed connection with nobody to help sort it out. Plan for those.
- Insurance that names your conditions, declared to the underwriter in writing. A voided medical section is the worst financial outcome in travel, and repatriation is the expensive part.
- Someone at home with your itinerary, your insurance number and a copy of your passport.
- Medication in hand luggage, in labelled packaging, with several days spare.
- An emergency contact on the lock screen of your phone, visible without unlocking it.
- Arrive in daylight. The single most effective safety measure in travel, at any age — book flights that land before dark in an unfamiliar city.
- Ground-floor or lift-served rooms if stairs are a consideration; ask when booking rather than on arrival.
Destinations that suit solo travellers particularly well
The criteria are: easy public transport, low friction, a culture where eating alone is unremarkable, and good medical infrastructure.
- Japan — solo dining is entirely normal, counters everywhere, superb transport, and among the safest countries in the world.
- Portugal and Spain — the set lunch culture and bar counters make single dining easy, and both are inexpensive.
- Scandinavia — high trust, excellent transport, expensive.
- Scotland and Ireland — pub culture makes conversation with strangers the default rather than an intrusion.
- Any river cruise — the format is built for it.
The short version
- The barriers are the single supplement and eating alone, not danger.
- Hunt for waived-supplement departures, solo cabins, and operators that room-share.
- Fixed-seating cruise dining and small ships solve solo dinners structurally.
- Consider a self-guided walking package: alone by day, company by night, often no supplement.
- Insure properly, declare everything, and tell someone at home the itinerary.
- Arrive in daylight.
