alone on tour
 

Spent a month last April in Italy. Fell in major love with Italy. Really want to go back. I am thinking of going alone (girlfriends don't have $ or time). on a two week tour to Tuscany/Umbria (Perillo). What's holding me back is traveling alone with the group. I am married but my husband does not wish to go to Italy. Do you think I'll have any problems?

I have gone on Christmas market tours alone for the last three years. I love it. Yes, most of the people are either married or travelling with friends but, to me, it is the best of all worlds! Someone else makes the arrangements, provides the skeleton (city tours, etc.) and then lets me loose in various places. I can decide exactly what I want to do. I have a hotel key in my pocket and, generally, meet others for dinner. Many people talk to me about going with me but I love being single on the trip. (I also am happily married and enjoy travelling with my husband.)
I think you would have a ball. I have met really nice people on the tours and sort of move around, joining different people for breakfast, lunch, happy hour and dinner. But in the end, I have my own room and make my own schedule in my free time.
Let me know if you have any specific questions. GO! You will love it. CJ

No, I don't think you'll have any problems. In fact, you may meet other married women traveling alone because their husbands aren't interested. I've taken four tours and have met both married and single women traveling alone within the group.

Give yourself a little push and do it -- you'll have a great time.

I've done a lot of solo travel the last few years, either independently, or occasionally on a tour. Love it! (BTW - there's a Solo Traveler board on this site with some hints for enjoying travel on your own.)

If I'm doing tours I use Intrepid for Asia and Rick Steves for Europe. Both have no single supplement (for most tours) but expect you to share a room with a same-sex fellow-traveler. I've met some really great people that way! I've looked at the Perillo tours, but don't like the itineraries. I can't imagine that being on your own would result in any problems, though.

Posted too soon. I should have added that I was traveling alone and met other women who were traveling alone within the group. I've kept in touch with three of them and shared a room with one recently on another tour. Two of the other women, one single, one married, have become good friends and have taken tours together since they first met while on a group tour.

There are people traveling alone on the tours that I go on. They had no trouble fitting in. If I am not re-married by the time my daughter is on her own, I will be going alone. Go for it!

I went on two tours alone some years ago, and there were no problems. IN fact, I would have thought someone traveling alone outside a tour would think there would be more problems than one on a tour. They make all the arrangements for main transportation and hotels, so what kind of problems could there be?

It was actually a good way to travel alone, I thought, because you could always go off on your own to do whatever you wanted, if you chose (just as if you were traveling on your own), but it was easy to make friends, or at least have some acquaintances, to ask to do things with if you didn't want to be alone--such as going out to dinner, to a theater event or concert, etc. I only took tours that had a considerable amount of free time, deliberately, though.

When these tours were in more remote places or the country, where you couldn't easily go out in the evening on your own (meals would often be group at an inn or hotel), it was nice to have a group to dine with. One tour I took was to Egypt (where I really wouldn't go alone), and several of us got together to hire a felucca for a boat ride on the Seine, I went horseback riding on the Sahara with another younger person, etc. I never could have done some of these things if I'd been on my own, it wouldn't be feasible.

The tours I were on did have mostly couples, but there were not mostly married couples, actually. A couple were single parents traveling with their teenage children, a few were couples that were just friends, sisters, etc. There were also a few single people, also. These tours weren't huge, maybe 30 people or so.

I met some fascinating people on that tour, of all ages, and went to the theater or out to dinner with people ages 16 (the daughter of a single parent, whom I went out dancing with as I was closer to her age and she couldn't be unchaperoned , but didn't want to go out with mom) to 75 (a fascinating older woman who had had polio, but managed to be touring Greece with us). I think you can find interesting people at all ages and in all demographics and social groups.

I would me more concerned about what the tour actually gives you and if it meets your needs. Tours are not all couple - often groups of friends or other singles - and there's alwasy someone to do things with.

The question is are you ready to deal with:

Lots of 7 am starts

Lots of souvenir shopping stops

Hotels outside the center of towns (and perhaps no public transit into towns)

Meals that are often lest common denominator

Frankly - I would simply do the trip myself. (I have often traveled to europe on business and frequently add a few days (most often alone) before or after the trip. I've always enjoyed it - even a mini road trip through Rhine area - and never felt uncomfortable.

And I've often encountered people to have meals with - either in the hotel public areas/breakfast room or on local walking tours.