I have loved traveling alone. I meet so many interesting people. I am getting older and think I may like a travel companion.
I also prefer traveling alone, as when I get to my destination there are no restrictions on my time, in other words, I can do whatever I want and don’t have to ask the other person(s), if it is OK, for example, if we go to the zoo. I used to travel with an old boyfriend (he and I have since broken up), and I enjoyed traveling with him, but in general I prefer traveling alone. In addition, most friends of mine that travel prefer to go out to dinner when they arrive at their destination; I, on the other hand, just prefer to either order room service at the hotel, or going to a grocery store and buying food. I am pretty much set in my ways, as I don’t like eating in restaurants, it’s mainly the waiting. I am aware there are some very fine restaurants, so this is not an insult to restaurants. Traveling alone gives a person more emotional freedom, and this can be a good thing. To each his own, I guess.
I like holidays where a big group of friends go to one place and hang out for a week or so, so within that context I can still do my own thing if I want to.
If I did a multi destination travel holiday, I’d have to be the boss or go alone. It never works for me if everyone is compromising or competing ( learned from hard experience ).
I too appreciate the benefit of travelling alone of being able to choose your restaurant and other destinations. In my case, the destinations are hiking trips that no other person wants to take with me, even those who are fairly in shape. I don’t think a 15 mile day hike in the mountains is particularly extreme, and I even have a slight beer gut, but there you go.
If my hotel room is big enough, I also appreciate being alone in it to appreciate the luxury. But it has to be the exact right size, namely bigger than the average 2 bedroom motel room, up to as big as a decent size efficiency apartment. Anything bigger and it’s too empty. Not that I’ve ever had such a place all to myself on vacation, but I was at a party once where we rented a suite of 4 adjacent rooms and there were few enough people at the party that 2 of the rooms were empty most of the weekend and it was sort of creepy.
However, I do enjoy eating meals with people and trading off driving duties. Despite the fact that I drive thousands of miles on vacation each year and almost always eat at restaurants alone. I guess I appreciate the change when it occurs.
I’ve learnt the hard way that it is better to travel alone, than to tag along with someone else. For one thing, I can follow my own schedule, and I get to pick the radio station. For another, I do not want to have to make a conversation just to pass time. And finally, I get to do my own thing, which very likely not the same thing that anyone else wants to do. I adore shopping but I hate letting others see how much (or how little) I spend, and what I buy. Of course, friends/colleagues is either going to be bored to death flitting around from one shop to another, or is going to supply his/her own commentary on my purchases, which would be most annoying. So the only way I get to indulge in my little pleasures is by traveling alone.
Back in the days when I was single, I loved traveling on my own!
My first trip to Europe was by myself - and it was perfect. You are only really “by yourself” as long as you want to be - very easy to find someone going in the same general direction and hanging out for a day or two. I met lots of people that way.
But you are right - when traveling alone you can go to some oddball place to eat and try strange things at the spur of the moment. Or you can not eat hardly anything at all one day. You can sleep in, or get up early - go to a museum in crappy weather but blow off the touristy things in nice weather and just wander a neighborhood and explore on your own.
When traveling with casual friends, there is always some kind of compromise - where to go that day, what to eat, how long to stay at some place or go early…sometimes you feel like you are being forced to do (or not do) things simply to make the other happy.
So yeah, solo vacations are great!
I will admit, now that I have my SO and we have been together 32 years, we have very similar tastes and desires, so we don’t have many disputes about what to see and do, and when to see and do them. So that is cool too!
I most enjoy going places with the person I’ll call my S.O.- we dated back in the ‘90s and havent’ been romantically involved since but each of us is probably the most significant friend in the other’s life. We bicker like an old married copule, but it’s the type of bickering where you know you’re still going to be speaking to each other tomorrow, and while he has interests that I don’t (I swear he could go on a tour of Europe and not see a single castle, cathedral, or museum but would be able to tell you the name and location and pros and cons of every gay dance club from Antwerp to Zagreb) he’s fine if I don’t come along and I’m fine if he doesn’t come along everywhere I go.
Unfortunately, he is usually too damned broke to pay his own way so I have to subsidize, and I just can’t afford to do that very often. (There’s nothing wrong with being broke- I’ve been there many times- but his is due more to, um, “interesting”… career and life choices than to unforseeable misfortune, which is why it frustrates me.)
Friends who do have money usually go places I’ve no interest in (ski trips, Caribbean cruises- places that if I won a trip to them on The Price is Right and couldn’t exchange it I’d probably go on, but they’re far from my choice when I’m paying- and in general I much prefer cities to nature.)
I take the same vacation every year and it involves traveling with or meeting up with friends. But once I’m there I’m pretty much on my own schedule which of course involves crossing paths with my friends.
Best vacation I had managed to combine the best of both worlds. I spent a week in NYC, staying at a youth hostel which happened to be two floors of the YMCA. There was this group which had coalesced around someone with very long vacations; we’d get together at night to talk until whenever and people would mention their plans: if anybody else liked it, they joined. So I got to go with friendly people on some stuff, and alone on other stuff, and so long as I hadn’t made an appointment it didn’t matter if I was up at the crack of dawn or didn’t bother come down until lunchtime.
I love having long(ish) roadtrips so long as I don’t have to be anywhere at a specific hour, because it means I can stop if I see anything that looks interesting. Doing that with another person is much more difficult - I have some close relatives with whom it can work, but it requires them to be in the mood, and there are things which each of us knows perfectly well the others will never want to stop for.
I love driving long distances alone, and am perfectly happy camping and fishing alone. Not sure I’d prefer doing typical touristy-sightseeing stuff alone, though.
What’s a vacation? Honestly, it’s so hard for me to get away, I spend my time off work mowing fields, painting my house, or just hanging at home and reading. I have too many animals to leave for more than an overnight trip, and mostly I don’t even do that. Memorial Day weekend I went up to my niece’s college graduation - drive 5 hours one day, 7 hours home the next, sitting through a three hour commencement ceremony in the middle. I worried about my animals the whole time.
StG
I like to travel alone. Over a decade ago I went to NYC and had a blast. Ever since, a trip by myself usually means tents and mountains, while a trip with my gf will probably mean hotels and airplanes. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but last year I got up really early and just got out the door, drove 8 hours and got ready to climb some mountains. Other people are just too slow or something to even allow for a start like this.
But then again, travelling with my gf means more expensive treats and more comfort, even though flying makes me think I am going to die.
I love driving long distances too, though I will most often find an inexpensive motel to spend the night in before driving on the next morning. To each their own.
Real vacations though? It’s been years since I’ve had one, but I am looking forward to one later this year. It will be solo, as I am not attached. But I am looking forward to deciding what I want to do, what I want to explore and see, when I want to do it. So, to answer the OP, I guess I’d like vacationing alone.
I love vacationing alone. I have travelled with all sorts of people - my parents, my former spouse, my child, friends, strangers (on tours, etc.), and travelling alone is often the best. As you noted, the freedom and flexibility when travelling is priceless. To me, travel is about discovery, and being open and aware - which is much easier to do if you aren’t discussing what time to meet for dinner and whether to take the ferry ride, etc. And, like you, if I want to linger in the folk art museum beyond any other human being’s saturation point, it is fine! It bothers no one, and satisfies me.
I think you stay more present when travelling alone. You’re looking out the train window, rather than at your companion. You’re seeing and listening and tasting, rather than accommodating, or attending to, or chattering with your travel companions.
Some people make excellent travel companions, and sometimes you really want to share the wild or beautiful or extraordinary experience you are having. But some of my best travel experience have been alone, or just me and my dog.
Sampiro, we have some things in common. My “SO” is always too damned broke too! Kinda funny, because I am subsidizing a short trip in the next week for him, because I want to go, but I it’s going to be only 3 days, and “medium budget,” because I can no longer afford to take him to the Virgin Islands, or Vietmam for 10 days. And, we are no longer partners, really just lifelong friends now. Still, he is a good travel partner for me.
I also am not a cruise person, and my richer friends either do the nosebleed-expensive Telluride ski vacations, or don’t travel at al, but stay home with their dogs. Travelling alone, or having part of the trip alone and being joined at some point by a friend, is a very fine alternative.
I hate vacationing alone, and prefer sharing new experiences with a companion. I’d like to go see Paris, Rome, etc, by my wife has no interest. She sees vacationing as sitting on a beach, and has little interest in culture or history. We’ve been to various Hawaiian islands something like 11 times in 15 years. I may have to travel to Europe by myself if I want to see it, and I don’t like the thought of doing so by myself. What’s the point?
They have tour groups for single people that are not meat hunting, a friend of mine went on a couple, one to Paris and environs and the other to Ireland.
How about a Viking River Tour? [I keep thinking riverine…:p] She can blivet on board in the sun and you can get off in the cities and wander around, and you don’t need to keep packing and unpacking.
Ten years ago (damn - it’s more than 10 years ago now, I got back in April '03!) I booked a round-the-world ticket and went off on my own for nearly six months. I loved it - total freedom to change my plans at the drop of a hat, go off and see weird places that a travelling companion might not have been interested in, or whatever. If I wanted company, then that’s easy enough to find - just head for the “backpacker circuit”, stay in hostels or whatever and it couldn’t be easier to meet people.
I’m really glad I did it. It was only a year or so after I met the woman who is now my wife (she was in her final year at university when I went away, so she was keeping busy!) and now we have a family I’m not likely to be given a pass to disappear off on my own for some time.
I went away on a few shorter overseas trips on my own in my early 20s, too. A week in the Baltic states, a fortnight in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Places I wanted to see while I was young and single that might not have appealed to my friends.
Sign up for a small group tour. Companies like Rick Steves offer tours with only 20-25 participants; in a group that small, you quickly get to know everyone and make new friends, so you’re sharing the adventure together. And some of them will pair you up with another single of the same sex if you like, so you don’t have to pay a single supplement.
And as arvuquan said, a river cruise might be an excellent choice which would keep both you and your wife happy. Ditto a Mediterranean cruise (although you typically have less sightseeing time in the port cities on those than you do on a river cruise). And don’t forget, Europe has beaches, too! Park your wife on the Italian Riviera, and you could day trip to Rome via the train, and you’d both be happy.
Vacationing with anyone else feels like waiting…the whole time.