Last week, I travelled around Turkey (after they finally issued me that eVisa) in the company of three English people. We were all doing a small group tour, and as it turned out, we were all solo travellers, thrown together in the back of a minibus.

One was a retired dentist from London who had already taken 46 trips with this particular tour company and has been to just about everywhere you can think of. His wife is not as keen on travelling, so stays home while he gallivants around. It works for them.

Another was an almost retired accountant from London who was also very well-travelled. He had a plethora of stories about tropical parasites (don’t google botfly larvae, whatever you do), and has planned a trip a month for the next year.

And then there was the nurse from the south of England who was on her first ever solo trip at the ripe old age of 48.

As a first-time solo traveller, she was a bit nervous about how she would go. Her main concerns seemed to be about whether she would get along with her fellow travellers (she did), and whether she would miss having a buddy to have a sneaky gin and tonic with in the evening or dinner with if there were no organised meals on a given night (she didn’t).

It turns out her fears were thoroughly unfounded. The four of us — unlikely friends on paper — got along famously. We laughed our way around Turkey, sipped G&T’s in the long evenings, went shopping together, signed up for hot air ballooning together and helped one another when someone fell over (the retired dentist, not me for once).

My new nursing friend is not the first person to be spooked by travelling on their own. Whenever I post about my trips on Instagram, I get private messages from people telling me how brave I am to go on solo adventures and suggesting that they can’t imagine feeling confident enough to do it themselves.

So, I’m here to dispel the myth that you have to be brave to do this. You absolutely do not. You just have to have a plan. And you have to be prepared to enjoy it more than you could imagine.

The joys of travelling on your own are that you can do exactly what you want to do at any given time.

If you want to sleep in one day, you can, without upsetting someone who wants to get up and about at sunrise. If you want to sit in a cafe watching the world go by for half the day, rather than traipse around a motorcycle museum, you absolutely can. If you want to eat baklava in bed instead of going out to dinner, oh boy, can you. You are utterly free to do whatever you want which is a very liberating feeling.

But similarly, if you are the sort of person who likes the company of other people, there are so many ways to achieve it, even when travelling solo. Small group tours have been an amazing way for me to connect with fellow like-minded people and have the safety of a tour leader with some inside knowledge, especially when I’m going to a place I’ve never been to before, or where there’s a significant language barrier.

When I’m not with a tour group, though, I like to seek out activities to keep me busy and to have the opportunity to meet and chat to other people. In Istanbul, I did a food tour where it turned out I was the only person on the tour, so I got a private experience where my guide took me to a bunch of her favourite spots and by the end of it, we felt like old friends. I also signed up for a perfume making workshop because, why not?

In Vietnam, I did a leatherwork class where I made my own coin purse, and a lantern making workshop. In a small town in Italy, I went on an ebike tour of the surrounding countryside.

In Florence, I learned how to appreciate aperitivo hour and in LA, I toured the Farmers Market with an enthusiastic woman named Jodie who loudly proclaimed to every vendor that “NATALIE’S ON THE RADIO” which was both mortifying and hilarious.

The reality is that if I was travelling with a group of friends, I never would have done any of these things because there’s no way we could have all agreed on any given activity.

Travelling solo forces you to try new things, to smile at strangers, to ask for directions, and to do whatever the hell you want. And I really, really like it.

Now excuse me, but I’m off to a Turkish bath house, because I can.

Growing up, I was always enamored with geography, so it’s no surprise that I developed a passion for solo traveling.

In my 20s, I assumed I would solo travel for a few years to “get it out of my system” before settling down. Instead, my destination bucket list grew while my desire for things that felt like societal norms at my age — kids and marriage, for example — dwindled.

By 30, it dawned on me that both of those things are choices, not requirements. While some women successfully balance it all, I’m not personally willing to swap spontaneous trips for dirty diapers.

My solo ventures have led me to experiences like road-tripping in Madagascar and seeing all 20 regions in Italy. Recently, they led me to my 90th country, Mauritius, where I snorkeled with colorful fish and ate street dholl puri.

What Mauritius really provided, though, was a moment to reflect on all that comes with solo traveling as a single, childless 34-year-old woman.

The judgmental comments are relentless, but I don’t let them deter me

I’ve built a business around solo traveling through my Instagram and blog, so I am no stranger to unsolicited comments.

My earliest trips were funded through my work as a bartender, and I quickly became skilled at traveling comfortably on my budget. I finessed systems like SkyScanner’s “Everywhere” search feature to find inexpensive flights, and I slept in affordable hostels.

Still, everyone from strangers online to coworkers in real life constantly insinuated that a man was paying for my trips — or my parents were.

I was taken aback by how frequently people asked how I could afford to travel, when I would never dare ask how someone could afford to raise a child.

I received other nosy questions, too. Whenever I dated someone, people asked if my partner was mad that I traveled alone, or said it was nice that he “let” me go on trips without him.

It made me wonder how often solo-traveling men are told it’s nice their partner “lets” them travel.

Naysayers aside, solo traveling has led me to a community of like-minded people

In my experience, it’s much easier to meet people when you’re traveling alone since you’re not stuck in your own group.

Solo traveling has led me to plenty of friends that I’ve met naturally in hostels, bars, and even on airplanes, and through my online community via social media.

Although solo travel — like babies and marriage — isn’t for everyone, I have found my footing in this world because of it. For me, it’s empowering to be in an unknown part of the world with nothing but myself to rely on.

Even as a seasoned traveler, I still learn something new on every trip, whether I’m dismantling negative stereotypes about places I’d been taught were unsafe or reminding myself I don’t need to wait for a partner to enjoy typical honeymoon destinations.

Solo travel has fed my curiosity, opened my mind, and given me the gift of enjoying my own company.

I wish that my life, passions, and career were celebrated in the way that marriage and kids are

If you had asked me when I was a kid where I saw myself in my 30s, “solo traveling the world” would not have been on my radar.

I assumed my life would consist of a stable career and a house in the suburbs with my husband and kids. However, looking back, I don’t know that I ever actually wanted kids — rather, it was something that was simply expected of me.

Now, I know that I don’t have the desire to have children, although I’m still open to marriage or a long-term partnership with the right person one day.

I recognize that for many, having a family is a dream come true. My dream life, however, is the one I’m living right now.

Perhaps that’s why it’s disheartening that my accolades, like visiting 90 countries alone, will never be celebrated by society the same way having a baby or a ring on my finger will.

Knowing this, I threw myself an “Antarctica send-off” party the night before leaving for my final continent — because, if nothing else, solo travel has taught me to be my biggest supporter and my own best friend.

When Tiffany Lumpkin got divorced after just two weeks of marriage in 2022, her immediate reaction was to book a flight to Cape Town. Lumpkin and her now-ex-husband had been in a relationship for eight years, during which time they often talked about going to South Africa. But the trip never materialized. The split made Lumpkin realize she couldn’t keep putting off her dream vacation. “It was one of those euphoric moments where I was like, I don’t have to wait on a spouse. I don’t have to wait on a friend.”

Once the 36-year-old landed in Cape Town, however, fear and anxiety hit. She’d barely gone to the movies alone before, never mind travel solo. “As the plane was landing and I saw the mountains and ocean, I was looking at the motherland like, What have you done? This plane lands and you have to get off,” she says. “I was terrified.” Still, she felt like she owed it to herself to see the trip through. Before leaving home, her mom had told her to look into group trips for safety reasons. Now she scoured social media in a panic for companies offering tours and signed up for as many as possible.

Rhino Africa, the company she had scheduled an excursion with, helped point her to some local guides. Over the next three weeks, Lumpkin tried new dishes, tasted wine, explored museums, and went on safari with total strangers. “I felt like a local,” she says. While she got to have alone time when she wanted it, she says her time in South Africa “just wouldn’t have been the same without the group.”

Lumpkin has since been on at least ten solo trips around the U.S. and abroad, including to France, Mexico, and Thailand, that she’s filled with group trips and excursions. While women make up more than 70 percent of solo travelers, according to the luxury travel advisory Virtuoso, many of them are looking to find connection and friendship while they’re exploring. There are cruise, adventure, and safari companies offering group travel specifically for women all over the globe; depending on the destination, the length of the trip, and the level of luxury, these trips can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Intrepid Travel reported that its all-female tours, which are led by locals, grew by 37 percent globally in 2024; an eight-day trip to Morocco with the company starts at about $1,200. An 11-day tour of Portugal with Insight Vacations, which began offering group packages for women in 2024 after seeing a surge in demand from female travelers, starts at around $4,800.

Anuja Bagri, a 25-year-old management consultant in Chicago, took a break from her corporate job last year to travel. Her friends and family didn’t have the flexibility to join up with her at any point, so she looked into group tours. She did a women’s retreat in Kerala, India, before visiting her grandmother in Bangalore. She then spent some alone time in Bali followed by group sailing in Australia’s Whitsundays. “You’re still stepping out of your comfort zone, but you don’t have to do any of the planning and someone is guiding you every day,” she says. “So you can just really be in the moment and the experience.”

Group tours also appeal to those who don’t want to deal with the drama that planning a vacation with friends and family can bring — or worse, get into a fight with people they love once they get to their destination. When Bisola Tijani, a Toronto-based content creator, went to Dubai with relatives in 2021, the trip got awkward after a flight carrying half the group was canceled. “We didn’t want to do the activities without our other family, and we weren’t even sure when they were arriving,” the 29-year-old says. It was difficult to reschedule nonrefundable activities and adjust the itinerary, which she says was “a mess for someone like me.”

Tijani is a self-described planner, that person in the friend group who’s always suggesting new destinations, booking restaurant reservations, and making sure everyone has paid their share. So she knows how heavy of a lift it can be to get everyone on the same page while traveling. “Some people just want to chill, but some people want adventure and to always be doing something, and some people are just there for the vibe,” she says. “Getting a trip out of the group chat can just be really hard.” She created her own travel company, Sabi Enjoy, in 2024. While the tours are open to all travelers, she says her clients have overwhelmingly been women — and most of them tell her that they booked because they couldn’t align on a trip with their friends.

Gabrielle Ybarzabal found herself struggling last year to recruit a group to travel around New Year’s Eve. The 26-year-old wanted to get out of Austin and ring in 2025 on a beach in a country she hadn’t visited before. She liked the idea of being one of the first people in the world to celebrate, so she decided on Thailand. “I asked friends if they were able to go with me, but no one really wanted to commit to it,” she says. “So I said, OK, this is the trip I’m doing by myself.” She booked with EF Ultimate Break (Ybarzabal noted she used a travel credit for this trip, without which the same package, including flights, some excursions, and meals, would have cost about $5,000) and was soon added to a group chat for the tour.  She was nervous about heading to a new country alone but hopeful that she would click with the other travelers.

“By the time I got there, we’d been following each other on Instagram,” she says. “That broke the ice.” While the 25-person tour group was co-ed, Ybarzabal says most were solo women travelers like herself. The company paired guests of the same gender for their hotel accommodations, unless they requested to share. The group explored Chiang Mai, Ao Phang Nga National Park, and Bangkok together. On New Year’s Eve, they made krathongs, floating floral lanterns that symbolize letting go of negativity. That night, at a beach party in Phuket, they went out on the water in kayaks to release the krathongs. Despite being away from her friends, Ybarzabal didn’t feel lonely, and she got the exact holiday she’d envisioned.

For her part, Lumpkin says that whenever she shares the story of recovering from her divorce while traveling with strangers, people always want to hear more. She’s now planning to lead her own retreat for women going through similar hard times in 2026, likely in Bali or Costa Rica. “Life is so much more special when you can do it with someone else,” she says. “We so often think it has to be a romantic partner, but it doesn’t.” And who knows? Maybe your future maid of honor is a stranger you’ll meet on a group tour.