Solo travel in a group: the adventure without giving up your freedom

There is a thought that turns up at almost exactly the same hour: at night, scrolling photos of a place you are dying to see. And right behind it, the sentence that switches everything off: "but who would I go with?".

It is not that you do not want to go alone. It is that completely alone gives you a bit of vertigo. And waiting for someone in your circle to line up dates, budget and enthusiasm can take years. Meanwhile the trip sits on hold. And with it, a little, so does life.

There is a third option, and it is the one almost nobody mentions: solo travel in a group.

Hannah's story (which may sound familiar)

Hannah had been saying she would go to Budapest for three years. Three summers running. The first, her best friend got pregnant. The second, her sister could not get the time off. The third… she did not even look for an excuse: she simply did not go.

She was not short of money, or days, or desire. She was short of who with. Until one day she did the maths: if she kept waiting for other people's lives to fit around hers, she would never travel. So she looked for another way. She went alone… but accompanied by other people who wanted exactly the same thing. She came back with five new friends and one certainty: the trip was never about the destination. It was about no longer waiting.

If you recognise yourself in Hannah, this article is for you.

What solo travel in a group actually means

It sounds like a contradiction, but it is the opposite. Solo travel in a group means going on your own terms, your own decision and your own pace, but accompanied by other people doing exactly the same.

It is not a traditional package trip where the group is assigned to you. It is not depending on your friends agreeing on dates. It is something in between and far freer: you choose when, where and — this is the important part — who with.

And you are not the only one looking for it. Searches for "solo travel" grow steadily and spike every summer, and solo travel — particularly among women — is, by the industry's own account, one of the fastest-growing trends of recent years. What used to be unusual is now one of the most wanted ways to travel. What holds people back is rarely the destination. It is the company… and the safety.

Travelling solo does not have to mean travelling in solitude

When you search "I want to travel alone", you almost never actually want solitude. You want autonomy: to decide without asking permission, to change plans without consulting anyone, to sit and watch a sunset with nobody rushing you.

But you also want to be able to have dinner with someone, to share the surprise of arriving somewhere new, and to know that if something goes wrong there is somebody close by. Autonomy and company are not in conflict. The trick is who you share the trip with.

And this is where almost everybody gets it wrong.

The three things that make it work (or make it a disaster)

Travelling with strangers can be the best trip of your life or the most uncomfortable. The difference comes down to three things:

1. Compatibility. Travelling with someone who wants a night out every evening is not the same as travelling with someone who is in bed by ten to catch the sunrise. Neither is wrong — they should just not share an alarm clock. A good group trip is not about putting people together at random: it is about putting together people who travel like you — same pace, same budget, same appetite. When it fits, the group flows as if you had known each other for years.

2. Safety. This is not negotiable, especially for a woman travelling alone. Knowing who the person is that you will share a room, a route or a car with completely changes how relaxed you are. Knowing who you are going with is not a luxury: it is what stops "travelling with strangers" from being frightening.

3. Freedom. The group has to add, not tie you down. The best group trips are the ones that leave you your own moments, your own whims and your own pace, while giving you people to share the important bits with.

Get those three — compatibility, safety and freedom — and solo travel in a group is, quite simply, the best way to travel.

💬 If you do not yet know anyone to take that first trip with, you can join TravelMatch and start finding companions who fit you. No commitment.

How to take the leap (without letting fear decide)

If it is your first time, you do not need to cross the planet. Start close, start easy:

• Pick a comfortable first destination. Europe is full of places that are perfect for a first solo-in-a-group trip: well connected, safe and with plenty to do.
• Go with people who fit you, not with the first who turns up. That is 80% of whether the trip works.
• Tell someone you trust. Share your itinerary. Not out of fear, but for peace of mind — yours and theirs.
• Let yourself be surprised. The best moments of a trip are almost never in the itinerary.

Destinations for your first solo-in-a-group trip

If you want ideas, these work particularly well for travelling alone but accompanied:

• Andalusia: warm, walkable and used to solo travellers. The ideal first step.
• Portugal — Porto and the Douro: city and vineyards in three days, and a train that does half the work.
• Budapest: one of the fastest-growing destinations among people travelling alone — beautiful, affordable and very easy to get around.
• The Camino de Santiago: the one place where you meet people without having to try.

Whichever you pick, what turns a destination into a memory is not the place. It is the people you live it with.

Life is not lived on hold

You can keep waiting for the dates to line up, for someone to be up for it, for the perfect moment that never quite arrives. Or you can do what Hannah did: go — alone, but accompanied by people who fit you.

That is exactly the gap TravelMatch was built to fill: finding compatible travel companions, so solo travel in a group stops being a nice idea and becomes your next ticket. It is not about travelling with anyone. It is about travelling with people who fit you.

Your next adventure does not need anyone in your circle to say yes. It only needs you to.

→ Find your group on TravelMatch · Free, in a minute.