When you’re traveling solo, you’ll likely have to pay the single-traveler price, which can be double what you’d pay if you went as half of a couple on a cruise ship or at an all-inclusive resort. One way to get around the Solo Traveler’s “tax” is to join a group tour, and there are many tour companies who specialize in accommodating adventurous solo travelers.
For the 18 to 35-year-old singletons, I recommend Contiki Tours. They’re young, fun, relatively inexpensive, and take travelers on wild trips through Europe, Australia, Latin America, even Egypt. They can be fast-paced, but if you want to cover a lot of ground during the day and go clubbing all night, it’s perfect. You can also choose to room with someone to cut costs, or have your own room for a little extra cost. These tours are more about adventure and socializing than history lessons, but the history is there too – you just might be too tired from bar-hopping to remember much of it.
When mature adventurers come in, I turn to Globus or Cosmos tours. Globus covers Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East, and the accommodations are more comfortable and luxurious. Cosmos offers packages that are budget-friendly to places like Africa, Europe, and North America – I like their National Parks series in particular. Both tour companies emphasize education, not just sight-seeing. In fact, I’d recommend taking down notes so you don’t forget what happened where and when.
Women’s solo adventure travel is a quickly expanding market, but as women, we often don’t feel safe unless we have some sort of group around us. The boutique tour company, WanderTours, gives that safety net while providing authentic adventures to places well off the beaten path, like Cambodia and Vietnam, Bhutan, India, and Papua New Guinea. It’s not explicitly educational (there are no quizzes at the end), but you do get a crash-course in the history, culture, and social issues of your destination.
But, there’s also the purely solo route of hiring an independent tour guide and setting up your own private tour. You choose the places you’d like to go, you decide how long you want to shop, sight-see, and take photos, and you have an expert guide with you to help you every step of the way. Just let your travel agent know what you’d like to experience and learn about and they can connect you with cooking classes, language classes, and tour guides knowledgeable about local history, art and architecture. It’s not a budget option, but it sure is fun.
#EliteTravelGroup #TammyLevent #Honeymoongiveaway #EliteIncentiveTravel #EliteDestinationWeddings #UniqueAdventureTripsforTravelingSolo
