For a lot of Australians over 60, the thing holding them back from a solo trip isn’t nerve, it’s arithmetic. Single supplements can tack on 50% or more to a cruise or coach fare, turning a modest holiday into an expensive one before you’ve left home. The answer, it turns out, isn’t to travel in a pair you don’t have. It’s to pick trips where an operator handles every transfer, hotel and ticket, and a group of fellow solo travellers supplies the company for free.
That shift is already showing up in the numbers. Research from Booking.com found that the majority of solo travellers are now over 55, with 40% of respondents having already taken a solo trip and 21% planning one. Travel blogger Lorie Kleiner Eckert has her own blunt way of putting it: for her much-dreamed-of trip to Italy, “she’s not invited. Indeed, I’d rather go it alone.” Here are three October-ready trips built on exactly that logic.
New Zealand’s volcanic trail, built for good company
An 11-day North and South New Zealand tour crosses both islands, moving from Auckland down to Christchurch by coach. Along the way it takes in the Waitomo glowworm caves, Rotorua’s geothermal fields and Māori cultural traditions, the Art Deco streets of Napier, Wellington and Nelson.
The tour is currently listed at $5,759 per person twin share for the 10 nights, discounted by a running $150 Birthday Sale on the operator’s booking page, and is open for solo travellers right now. It is rated a steady pace, with sealed paths at the geothermal sites and ground-floor options at most lodges, and the coach handles every island transfer. On tours run this way, solo travellers are often rotated to a new seat each day, a deliberate operator practice Eckert has described as the quickest way to know everyone on board by the end of the trip.
This is our pick for a first solo trip. There’s no single-supplement hunting required, because the escorted group format absorbs that conversation before it starts.
Dedicated solo-only departures that scrap the surcharge question
Road Scholar has gone further again, building an entire Go Solo collection of 14 trips worldwide designed from the ground up with no single supplement. Prices range from roughly $5,400 for a 9-day Peru itinerary taking in the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, up to about $14,700 for an 18-day Central Europe program. It’s a steep upfront figure on the longer trips, worth weighing against a shorter option if budget is the priority.
Closer to home, National Seniors Travel runs its own Tasmania Complete Solo Departures, with fixed dates of 16 February and 27 April 2027. These solo-only departures run on set calendar dates rather than flexible booking windows, so they reward planning ahead rather than last-minute decisions.
River cruising’s best solo pricing window is open now
October sits inside what the cruise industry calls wave season, the period when cruise lines release their sharpest solo and early-booking pricing for the year ahead. TravelMarvel currently has solo deals running on river cruising through Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt, and APT has matching solo offers on Vietnam and Cambodia river itineraries. For a reader weighing up a river cruise for next year, this window is worth acting on rather than letting slide.
Readers after a different pace again might look at Explore Worldwide, which runs small-group adventure tours averaging around 11 people, roughly half of them travelling solo. Each tour is graded from relaxed to full-on, so the day’s pace is matched to what the traveller actually wants rather than what the group assumes everyone wants.
What to check before the single supplement bites
Even on products marketed as solo-friendly, confirm the actual surcharge before paying a deposit. Operators such as Tripadeal, CostSaver and Holiday Max are reported to offer reasonable single supplements, and some solo travellers sidestep the fee altogether by opting to share a room. Watch too for tipping kitties, optional excursions and drinks packages that sit outside the headline price on almost every coach or cruise itinerary.
Travel insurance deserves its own check. A solo traveller over 60 should confirm the policy covers solo medical evacuation and doesn’t quietly load a surcharge purely for travelling without a companion. For anyone eyeing further ahead again, Kimberley bookings for 2027 are already open, and locking in a departure now is what secures cabin choice before the season fills.
Confirm before you book: fares, discounts and departure dates across all of these move, so check the current price and inclusions directly with the operator before paying a deposit.
What all three trips share is the same quiet trade: hand the logistics to someone else, and the company turns up on its own. As Eckert put it, choosing to go alone isn’t a consolation for anyone. It can simply be the better plan.
