The idea of making proper friends with people you meet on holiday is so funny to British sensibilities that Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat turned it into a West End comedy.
FriendlessStarring Lee Mack and Sarah Alexander as a British couple who meet Elsa, an American woman traveling alone, the film is based on the premise that Elsa accepts their polite offer of a visit as a genuine invitation.
The game may be funny, but it seems like more and more people are on Elsa’s side. Solo travel is on the rise, and at the heart of this is the chance to make lifelong friends. According to the Association of British Travel Agents, the number of people going on holiday alone has increased from 6 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2023. Some operators saw large increases; bookings alone accounted for 46% of Tourhub’s business last year.
Alone doesn’t always mean lonely. Many solo travelers join group tours, like Jen Burton did last year. “I didn’t know anyone and arrived at the airport terrified,” said Burton, 40, who opened the Bea and Aud Lifestyle clothing store in Buckingham last year. “I’ve now made a friend for life.”
She had recently separated from her husband of 19 years and decided to join the Brave Travel trip to Jordan for 16 women organized by Claire and Laura Jopson, who run the travel blog. Twin Perspectives.
“I walked up to some women in the check-in line and they knew right away that I was having a really hard time,” she said. “The support you can get from a group of women you’ve never met is extraordinary.”
Burton, the oldest, added: “[I had] I’ve never laughed this much in my life. But then we would have these wonderful feminist conversations next.”
Many of the women have kept in touch since the Jordan trip, and last week Burton was hosting an Australian friend she met on the trip. Norway is next. “This time I will share the same room,” he said. “I felt a little incomplete in my own room.”
Companies such as Just You and Flash Pack cater specifically for solo travellers, while others, including Newmarket Holidays, Riviera Travel and Jules Verne, offer solo or solo travel-friendly trips only.
“Sixty percent of our travelers travel alone,” said Yves Marceau, vice president of products for G Adventures. He said the company goes to great lengths to design tours that foster friendships by ensuring people have enough time to meet and mingle with each other. Tour guides are trained to create a sense of camaraderie and to spot situations where people may not get along.
“A young man in his early 20s wrote to us about his trip,” Marceau said. “He was sharing a room with a 75-year-old man. ‘My first reaction was, Oh my God, this is going to be a terrible experience. But within the first few days I formed such a bond with this gentleman that we are still friends.’ Them [stories] These are the reasons why we do this.”
Some other companies, such as G Adventures and Hostelworld, have created their own apps with social elements, but smaller companies use other social media. Chris Bone, founder of Adventure Solos, invites each tour member to a WhatsApp group when booking.
“It really breaks the ice,” Bone said. It organizes adventurous weekends and weeklong trips around the UK with activities such as walking, canoeing and climbing. “Many times people may be traveling a long way and will carpool or take the same train. And often people have attended events before.”
This means that an hour into the walk, Bone’s guests are very relaxed. “The really cool thing is that all of this stuff is underwater. People have often experienced a recent life change. But nobody knows anyone and [there are] no preconceived ideas.
Not every group creates friendships. “There were a few guys who were persistently late every day,” said Carole Railton, Morocco trip author and body language expert. “We had buses to pick us up or trains to catch and they would come down. People were grumpy because it was taking time away from everyone else’s holiday.”
Makeup artist Joyce Connor was one of two solo travelers traveling to Vietnam, and the other woman was much older. “I am 60 years old,” she said. “I basically became his caregiver for two weeks. It wasn’t fun. She didn’t know how to use her phone or check in for her flight. She didn’t want to eat alone, but she wanted to go to places that only served English food. in Vietnam.
“But on the second day of another trip, I met a woman and it turned out we had a mutual friend. Now the three of us are going out together.”
There are still a lot of solo travelers who stay away from groups and life has become easier for them. According to freelance travel writer Georgie Darling, people looked down on solo travelers. “It was something people thought he did out of desperation. Now it’s become more of a ‘cool concept’.” Darling said travel influencers on TikTok and Instagram, like Janet Newenham, show that solo travel can be admirable.
They stay in shared living spaces such as hostels with private rooms and workplaces. “I look for foreign groups in my city or town. I’m currently in Mexico and going to a brunch for female entrepreneurs this morning. Everyone is here to meet new people; There was a taco bar crawl last night.
“I’ve just joined a WhatsApp group for women traveling alone in London. And there’s already been about 15 different trips and people saying, ‘I’ll be in Copenhagen this weekend.’ It’s so easy to find these things now.”