Solo Travel: Independent or With a Group?
By Bernie Bruggeman, Tour Operations Manager, Two’s a Crowd
It’s one of the first questions every solo traveller asks themselves: do I go it alone, or do I join a group?
Both approaches have genuine merit. Both suit different people, different destinations, and different moments in life. And the honest answer is that many experienced solo travellers do both — independent travel for some trips, small group tours for others.
So rather than tell you what to do, here’s a clear-eyed look at both options. By the end, you’ll have a pretty good sense of which one is right for you right now.
Going It Alone: The Case for Independent Solo Travel
There’s something undeniably liberating about independent travel. You answer to nobody. You go where you want, when you want, at whatever pace suits you. If you fall in love with a city and want to stay an extra three days, you stay. If a destination disappoints, you leave early.
For confident, experienced travellers — particularly those who’ve visited a destination before or speak even a little of the local language — independent travel can be deeply satisfying.
The genuine advantages:
Total flexibility. Your itinerary is entirely your own. No compromises, no group consensus, no waiting for the slow walkers at the back. You’re in charge of every decision.
Deep immersion. Travelling alone, you’re more likely to strike up conversations with locals, wander off the beaten track, and stumble upon places that don’t appear in any guidebook. Serendipity is independent travel’s great gift.
Cost control. You decide exactly what you spend — where to stay, where to eat, how to get around. Budget travellers can strip costs right back; splurgers can upgrade wherever they choose.
Personal growth. There’s no denying it — navigating a foreign country alone builds a particular kind of confidence. Problem-solving on the road, managing the unexpected, making your own decisions: it’s character-forming in the best possible way.
The honest challenges:
But independent travel has its difficulties too, and they’re worth being honest about.
Loneliness is real. Sitting alone at a restaurant table night after night, having nobody to share a spectacular moment with, returning to an empty hotel room — for many solo travellers, these are genuine low points rather than romantic notions of solitude.
Logistics can be exhausting. Researching destinations, booking accommodation, navigating transport systems, managing visas, dealing with the unexpected — it all falls entirely on you. Some people love this. Many find it draining.
Safety requires more vigilance. Travelling alone in unfamiliar destinations, particularly for women, requires a level of constant awareness that can take the edge off the experience.
And some destinations are simply harder to do alone. The logistics of an African safari, a cruise, or a multi-country itinerary through developing nations are significantly more complex — and expensive — for a solo independent traveller than for someone travelling as part of a group.
Travelling With a Solo Group: A Different Kind of Freedom
Small group tours designed exclusively for solo travellers are a relatively recent phenomenon — and they’ve changed the equation entirely for many people.
The key distinction is what kind of group you’re joining. A solos-only tour is fundamentally different from a mainstream group tour full of couples and families with kids where you happen to be the only single traveller. The dynamic, the conversation, and the sense of belonging are completely different.
The genuine advantages:
Built-in companionship. You arrive alone and within days you’re travelling with a group of like-minded people who chose this trip for the same reasons you did. The friendships that form on small group tours are often surprisingly genuine — and frequently lasting.
Logistics handled. Accommodation, transfers, local guides, restaurant bookings, drivers — all managed. You can be fully present in the experience rather than managing the infrastructure around it. If something goes awry, the guide and tour host are on hand to sort it out. That’s their job!
Access you may not have alone. A private game drive at dawn on the Serengeti. A cooking class in a Vietnamese family home. Access to places and experiences that are less available — or aren’t safe — for an independent traveller.
Cost efficiency. Group buying power means better accommodation and experiences at lower prices than you’d access independently. And the dreaded single supplement — the extra charge hotels levy on solo travellers — disappears on tours designed for solos.
Safety in numbers. Particularly relevant for women travelling alone, or anyone venturing into less familiar destinations. There’s genuine comfort in knowing you’re part of a group with an experienced local guide, and, with some companies, a Tour Host as well.
The honest trade-offs:
You do give up some flexibility. The itinerary is set — if you’d rather spend the morning wandering the souk than visiting the palace, that’s not always possible.
Group dynamics vary. Most of the time the chemistry is good; occasionally it’s not. In a group of 10–15 people all travelling solo by choice, the odds are strongly in your favour — but it’s worth acknowledging.
And not all group tours are equal. The quality of the operator, the size of the group, and the experience of the host and guide make an enormous difference. A poorly run group tour is worse than travelling alone. A well-run one is better than almost anything else.
How to Choose: Four Questions Worth Asking Yourself
- How experienced are you? First-time solo travellers almost always find a small group tour a more comfortable, confidence-building entry point. Seasoned travellers with 20 countries under their belt may prefer the independence they’ve learned to navigate.
- Where are you going? Some destinations suit independent travel beautifully — Japan, New Zealand, much of Western Europe. Others are significantly better experienced as part of a group — East Africa, India, Morocco, South America. The complexity, the logistics, and the local knowledge required vary enormously.
- What do you want from the trip? If solitude and self-discovery are the point, go independently. If shared experience and human connection are what you’re after, a small group tour delivers these far more reliably.
- How do you handle the unexpected? Flight cancelled. Hotel booking lost. Illness in a foreign city. How you feel about managing these situations alone versus having support around you is a strong indicator of which style suits you.
The Third Option Most People Don’t Consider
It’s worth knowing that the choice isn’t always binary. Many experienced solo travellers build hybrid trips — joining a small group tour for the complex, logistically demanding portion of a trip, then spending a few days independently before or after.
A Two’s a Crowd tour to Vietnam and Cambodia, for example, handles everything from Hanoi to Siem Reap. But there’s nothing to stop you spending a few days in Northern Vietnam (e.g. Sapa) independently before the group meets, or extending in Cambodia or even Laos after it ends. The best of both approaches.
Our Honest Take
We’re a small group tour company, so you’d expect us to advocate for group travel — and we do. But the reason we do is that we’ve seen what happens when the right people find the right group.
Solo travellers who were nervous about joining a group arrive wondering if they’ve made the right decision. By day three, they’re wondering why they waited so long. The combination of extraordinary destinations, genuine companionship, and freedom from logistics turns out to be, for most people over 40, exactly what they were looking for.
That said, if you’re an independent spirit who thrives on navigating the world entirely on your own terms, that’s a completely valid way to travel. Not everyone needs — or wants — a group.
The question is simply: what do you need from travel right now?
If the answer involves companionship, simplicity, and the confidence of knowing everything is taken care of — we’d love to show you what small group travel for solo travellers looks like.
[Browse our upcoming solo travel tours →]
Two’s a Crowd is Australia’s leading small group tour company exclusively for solo travellers, operating since 2012. ATAS accredited for your peace of mind.
