Holidays for the Single Traveler

If you are going on holiday by yourself, but you don’t particularly want to spend all the time on your own, book a special interest holiday or a touring trip. On tours, the tour group nearly always has meals together and what you do each day is organized for you.

On special interest holidays, everyone has one passion in common, be it gardening, painting, bowls or whatever. This brings people together and means that you are not stuck for an opening conversation.

Paying extra for sleeping alone:
It is grossly unfair on singles but if you want a hotel bedroom to yourself you often have to pay extra for the privilege. The only alternative is to shop around until you find a hotel that waives this supplement. This can happen, but usually only in the off-peak seasons, so you have to be prepared to take your holiday then.
On touring holidays, some operators will try to match singles of the same sex who are willing to share a room with a stranger. You certainly won’t be strangers at the end of the holiday.

It is often easier to team up for a friendly drink, a meal or an outing with a family you meet on holiday rather than with a couple. However, if you don’t like the idea of being the lone single in a hotel full of children, avoid any holiday that advertises kiddies’ clubs or low-price children’s places.

Eating alone:
Many restaurant managers resent the single diner because they spend only half the amount a couple would spend. These managers show their annoyance at you, the paying customer! – by plunking you on a neglected table by the kitchen or toilet and then, as soon as you have eaten, hustling you to pay up and move on.

If you don’t like the table you are shown to, be assertive and point firmly to a different empty table and ask to sit there instead. If this fails for you, you can try this ruse at restaurants. Book a table for two. When you arrive, say that you will wait for your friend at your table. Make a pretend phone call and announce that – what a shame, you will be dining alone after all.

• Don’t be bullied into leaving quickly if you want to linger over your coffee. After all, you are paying the bill.
• Take a book to read between courses rather than stare self-consciously into space.
• If you fancy some wine and they don’t serve half-bottles, ask for the cork and take your unfinished bottle away with you.

A broad abroad:
A woman traveling abroad on her own does not have to be a young blonde in a miniskirt to suffer hassle from men. It is worse in some countries than others.
Wear a large wedding ring and invent an husband. If the “husband” is “away on army or police business”, so much the better.

To avoid unwelcome visitors to your hotel room, do not flush around a room key that has your room number on it. If a waiter or barman asks for your room number when he is making out a bill, show him the key discreetly. Do not shout out the number for others to hear.

In all but the friendliest holiday hotels, it is easier for a man than a woman to strike up conversation with other men. Even though we are lurching towards the twenty-first century, a single woman’s attempt to start a conversation with a male stranger can be misconstrued.

Buy a ticket for an evening excursion or to a show or the theater. If all else fails and evenings become uncomfortable ordeals, change your daily routine. Go to bed early and get up early. Explore the local sights before breakfast. You will get the best views for photographs – no tourists in the way, and you will probably see far more of local life than when all the visitors are up and about.