Travel Tour Companies for Solo Travelers

[Andrew]

My mother is recently retired and would like to begin traveling a bit more. She'll probably be looking to take one or two large trips a year. She is 68 and widowed, and has not done much traveling during her life so she would prefer to utilize tour companies or groups instead of traveling on her own. This is both for convenience and so as not to travel alone.

She'll be able to travel with friends occasionally and my wife and I are planning to take her places, however she also wants to have some autonomy with this and not need to rely on us or have to wait until a friend can travel with her.

Just wondering if any of the members of this forum have any recommendations for companies that do a good job with tours with solo travelers my mother's age. My wife and I have never used tours so we don't really know where to start with this.

 

[Belisarius]

A lot of university alum orgs offer senior trips.

 

[smittytabb]

My mother is recently retired and would like to begin traveling a bit more. She'll probably be looking to take one or two large trips a year. She is 68 and widowed, and has not done much traveling during her life so she would prefer to utilize tour companies or groups instead of traveling on her own. This is both for convenience and so as not to travel alone.

She'll be able to travel with friends occasionally and my wife and I are planning to take her places, however she also wants to have some autonomy with this and not need to rely on us or have to wait until a friend can travel with her.

Just wondering if any of the members of this forum have any recommendations for companies that do a good job with tours with solo travelers my mother's age. My wife and I have never used tours so we don't really know where to start with this.

I have a great resource for you. A friend of mine, Janice Waugh, owns Solo Traveler, a resource for exactly the kind of travel your mother is considering. There's a blog, publications, advice and also she sends out solo travel deals regularly with companies that have no single supplement via email. Her website has tons of great information and is a great place to start.

http://solotravelerblog.com/

Probably the best known company that offers no single supplements on its tours ever is Overseas Adventure Travel.

 

[Tricia]

My sister was in a similar situation. She used our local Van Galder Bus Company (Southern Wisconsin), which is associated with Coach USA. She has gone to places in the USA and overseas. They do have a single supplement. She felt the other people on the bus were very inclusive of her.
She also has gone with a university based tour group, and since they had other single women on the trip, she was able to room with one of them.

 

[Andrew]

Thank you all for contributing. I'll def. have her look into her undergrad and graduate alum programs to see what they offer. Smittytabb, that site looks great and I have already send it over to my mother.

 

[smittytabb]

Thank you all for contributing. I'll def. have her look into her undergrad and graduate alum programs to see what they offer. Smittytabb, that site looks great and I have already send it over to my mother.

Great. I travel solo all the time and have found the site to be terrific. I would just point out that although I am an alum of several universities (as is my spouse), I always look at the alum offerings for travel and find the prices to be very high and rarely have no single supplement. I would not put them first on my list of options.