Vacation deal for one?

April 4, 2005 6:07 AM

Hi folks, I love to travel but unfortunately all the vacation deals (hotel and airfare) seem to be based on traveling for 2. Are there any special sites or methods I should look into that don't rely on traveling with someone else? I have no problem traveling alone and am open to going to almost anywhere (provided the price is right.) Please stop punishing me for being single.
posted by derekislost to travel & transportation (4 comments total)

Ugh, I hate to do this, but Priceline's vacation packages are priced "per person". Expedia, Travelocity, etc. seem to have similar setups. Or do you mean Sandals or Club Med-esque "vacations"?

I need to go wash my hands now.
posted by Plutor at 6:40 AM on April 4, 2005

Plutor: Generally, though, the per-person price assumes at least two people travelling. There is usually a "single supplement" fee that can be much larger than you would expect.

Derek: On occasion you can find agents and packages with reasonable supplement rates. It takes quite a bit of searching though. If you can't, the best advice I can give is to shop around, looking especially for airfare that's competitive with the package rates. Having flexibility in your departure dates helps. If you can find that, it's often possible to find single rooms cheaper than the packages. For international travel, check major 'hub cities' for where you want to go, and see if you can arrange a discounted fare with a bucket shop or the like: the travel section of the paper New York Times is often a goldmine for this kind of thing. Travelocity and its americanexpress.com doppelganger have a convenient feature by which you can search within a date range for all fares which on occasion has yielded pretty good deals as well.

Alternately, try really hard to find a friend who can go with you. I know how hard this can be given schedules, expenses, destination preferences, etc. though.
posted by monocyte at 7:23 AM on April 4, 2005

I traveled alone for 14 months and spent a lot less money than I thought I would. When I wasn't in "third world" countries, I spent my time in hostels.

In places like India, Thailand, and Cambodia, it's pretty easy to afford a hotel room, though.

Just in case you don't know what hostels/youth hostels are, they're hotels where you share a room with about three or more other people. Generally everyone is in their twenties and travelling with just a big backpack. If you're over thirty, it's good to have a good, adventurous, and youthful attitude or it's likely that people are not going to like you.

If you've got a good attitude, you're likely to meet some wonderful people from all over the place with good tips on things to do. I never had a problem with sleeping in a room with others. I never had anything stolen. In fact, I think it's rather lonely to stay in my own hotel room if I'm traveling alone. Hostels are the best way.
posted by redteam at 7:59 AM on April 4, 2005

If you go on a tour like Contiki, they will usually match you up with a roommate if you don't want to pay the single supplement. Since their only criteria for matching is "same sex", this is a bit of a crapshoot and you might get some weird guy who doesn't speak English, collects the hotel soap (for his mother) and the matches (for himself), and snores loudly.
posted by smackfu at 10:50 AM on April 4, 2005