Solo travel over 50: comfort, good company and no pointless supplements

People travel alone after fifty for all sorts of reasons. The children have left. A marriage ended. The person you used to travel with is gone. Or you simply want to go somewhere without waiting for anyone to agree. The reason shapes the trip, but the practical questions don't change much: who with, at what pace, and how much it costs to sleep alone.

This page assumes you don't need reassurance. You need specifics.

What actually matters

Pace. The first thing to ask a tour operator and the first thing to settle on a trip you plan yourself. Hours of transfers per day, number of hotel changes, kilometres on foot. An itinerary that changes hotels nightly wears anyone out, and alone there's nobody to take a turn with the bags.

Comfort without paying double. The single supplement bites harder the better the hotel. There are three ways round it: share a room on a tour, choose hotels and ships with rooms built for one, or go with operators that waive the supplement. Our guide to the single supplement covers all three.

Two examples built for older travellers. In the UK, Saga keeps its singles holidays for travellers aged 50 and over, and its Europe and Mediterranean hotel holidays come with single rooms at no extra cost.¹ In the US, Road Scholar, the educational travel non-profit, pairs you with a roommate of your gender if you choose the double option, with your own room available on most programmes for a small fee;² on selected dates it waives the fee entirely.³

Cruising, if it suits you. No packing and unpacking every other day is a real advantage. Some lines build cabins for one: Norwegian Cruise Line has Studios on ten ships, with a lounge reserved for Studio guests on most of them;⁴ Celebrity has Single Staterooms on its Edge-class ships;⁵ Holland America has Single Ocean View cabins on Rotterdam, Nieuw Statendam and Koningsdam, which it describes as carrying no single supplement.⁶

The right company. Travelling alone doesn't mean being alone all week. It also doesn't mean spending it with a crowd of 22-year-olds. Hostels skew young: in Hostelworld's 2026 report, 65.8% of solo travellers on the platform were 18 to 30.⁷ If you want company, courses (cooking, language, photography), small-group guided visits and adult-focused tours work better. Explore, for instance, includes a shared twin with a traveller of the same sex in its prices.⁸

Health cover. UK residents should carry a GHIC, which gives access to necessary state healthcare in the EEA and some other countries on local terms. The NHS is explicit that it's not a replacement for travel insurance.⁹ US travellers should check what their plan covers abroad before leaving. Either way, pack spare medication in your hand luggage.

Getting around. Every city page has a "Getting around" block with transport, hills and alternatives to taxis. A beautiful city that's all steps and cobbles may be the wrong pick for a knee that complains.

Using the Solo Score after 50

Ease, which covers public transport, walkability and how widely English is spoken, counts as much as safety. Nightlife all but disappears. If your evenings matter to you, switch profile: the score isn't an age label, it's a way of sorting places by what you're after.

The ranking on this page is generated from the data and updates on its own. The full method is on the Solo Score page.

Worth reading

• The single supplement and how to avoid it: solo cruise cabins and supplement-free tours.
• Eating alone: the counter method.
• Where to go alone in December: mild Europe and long-haul summer.
• Travelling alone after a breakup.