Silver solos: Meet the 60- and 70-something travellers setting off on adventures

Going it alone is firmly in style. Solo travel is on the up this year, with many travellers who spent the pandemic cooped up in house shares, family homes – or even relationships that subsequently ended – inspired to jet off alone. Adventure tour operator Wild Frontiers reports that traffic to the solo travel page on its website surged by 30 per cent in 2022 compared to last year, rising above pre-Covid levels.

“There’s a new need to seize the moment post-Covid, and people are not letting anything stop them from taking that dream trip, even travelling on their own,” Wild Frontiers founder Jonny Bealby tells The Independent.

One intriguing portion of the solo travel pack is the “silver solo” – travellers within or approaching retirement age who feel newly empowered to get away without a travel companion.

This trend seems to have grown since the depths of the pandemic, too. Intrepid Travel told us that half of UK bookings this year have been from customers aged 50-plus, compared to a third in 2019.  More than half of these bookers are solo travellers, and of those solos, 60 per cent are female. Meanwhile, river cruise specialists Uniworld saw an uplift of 43 per cent for solo travellers aged over 55 this year, compared to 2019.

“Over the last nine months, we’ve seen bookings on the rise from the over-50s market,” says Erica Kritikides, global product manager for Intrepid Travel. “I suspect a lot of that growth is being driven by the new premium range and we are seeing a big pick-up from solo travellers.”

Wild Frontiers

Traditionally a backpacker-spirited, local-bus-riding tour operator, Intrepid’s new premium range of tours launched last year, expanding to a total of 55 itineraries in 2022. These trips go to similar far-flung locations to its existing range, but groups spend more time at each stop, sleep in comfier four-star accommodation, and enjoy first class train transfers. This isn’t to say that they’re tame: the range includes an eco-lodge trip through the Amazon rainforest and a Ganges cruise in India, as well as a 10-day New Zealand itinerary and an India two-weeker. They’re partly inspired by the silver solo.

“It’s a time in your life where you’ve almost got that new-found freedom,” says Erica. “You might have kids who are fully grown, you might be retired. You’ve got more time to do this type of thing, but more importantly you’ve got time to reflect on what you really want to get done.”

Andrew Laugharne, 71, started travelling solo in 2015, just after retiring. Happily married to his wife, who he says prefers more relaxed beach and sightseeing holidays, he found himself drawn to more adventurous destinations, and decided to go solo. Like many solo travellers in his age group, he opts for small-group tours to unfamiliar spots such as Ethiopia and Jordan. Now he takes a couple of recharging holidays a year with his wife, but saves the real Michael Palin stuff for solo jaunts.

“I’d always been interested in travel, watching travelogues on the telly and so on, and fancied going beyond European cities and beaches,” he explains. “I looked for places I knew my wife was less bothered about – like a lot of people, she doesn’t necessarily want to camp in tribal settlements or deserts.”

To pick his destination, Andrew goes to tour operators such as Wild Frontiers and Explore to find out their most exotic or unusual itineraries. Part of the fun, he says, is getting to know new people completely from scratch. “I was quite fascinated with the chemistry of the group,” he says.

Andrew Laugharne

“You don’t have any history or baggage; you could tell someone you’re a nuclear scientist or an astronaut and they wouldn’t know any better. It’s a bit like university on the first day. You start afresh,” he explains.

Another aspect Andrew likes is the challenge of an ambitious or active tour. He recalls the time he booked a cycling tour of Jordan – despite not having been on a bike since he was 18. “I bought one three months before I went,” he laughs.

Gill Waterton, now 70, started travelling solo aged 56 and has been to Myanmar, China, India, Tibet, Vietnam, Zambia and more over 10 solo trips. She likes to join small group tours of around 12-20 people, which feature either all solo travellers or a mix of solos and couples. As well as having a lifelong fascination with long-haul destinations, she was inspired to set off after going through a divorce.

Gill with cheetahs in Zambia

(Gill Waterton)

“What sparked it was being on my own for the first time and realising family holidays weren’t going to happen. I wanted to do something for me, to see a bit of the world,” she says. “The first place I went was Thailand, over Christmas and New Year – I’d always wanted to go there since seeing The King and I in the 1950s, and didn’t want to worry about being alone at that time of year.”

Finding that she loved the freedom of jetting off solo as well as the companionship of a small tour group, Gill started to seek out tour operator trips that ticked off her personal bucket list. “I just started to get more wild – I went to South Africa, I’d always wanted to go to India, Machu Picchu… I could do Nepal, Tibet.”

Gill Waterton

One fascinating mission took Gill to Myanmar, China and Tibet, following in her father’s wartime footsteps – he was posted to Asia as an RAF officer in 1942 and was involved in the retreat from Myanmar, then Burma. She looked at itineraries with Cox & Kings and Saga to shape her journey, and says she found operators flexible about her taking side trips or spending time on her own to follow the right trail.

She says she was surprised at the range of adventurous destinations older-age specialists such as Saga offer; the operator helped her plan a trip to Zambia to volunteer with a local organisation. “They’re very good at grading their trips for various mobility issues, and knowing what’s too much,” she adds.

Erica agrees this is a key point for 60-plus solos. “The pacing thing is really important. The one thing we know customers in that demographic don’t like is to feel super rushed,” she says. “They want to experience something properly. They want free time to explore.” To that end, Intrepid has started offering longer itineraries, such as 15-day trips, alongside shorter eight-day itineraries for certain destinations.

“Next I want to go along the Silk Road,” says Andrew. “Or to Guatemala – I’ve not been to Central America.” Gill, meanwhile, is eyeing a trip to Costa Rica to see the sloths and cloud forests.

Tour operators are clearly taking note of the silver solo. Saga Travel yesterday announced a major overhaul of its over-50s offering, including gap-year-style trips, and a campaign to highlight its longer-haul trips to those who may think of the operator as merely a European short-break specialist. Older solos considering dipping a toe might try Friendship Travel, which arranges a spectrum of breaks – from short spells in the UK countryside to Nile cruises and ski trips in the Alps – none of which involves a singles supplement.

Nigel Blanks, Saga

For those who may have been inspired by the golden backdrop for a gathering of curious solo pensioners in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Wild Frontiers has put together a Golden Triangle tour inspired by the film.

Cruise travel providers are also keeping an eye on the solo market. Saga Cruises CEO Nigel Blanks says: “Solo travel is so popular that when we designed our current ships we purposely ensured that 20 per cent of the cabins were designated and priced for solo travellers only. And those solo cabins get snapped up.

“It’s an incredibly important group of customers that the industry at large has to do more for when it comes to designing travel experiences.”

Gill says that she would recommend a solo-friendly small group tour to anyone curious but cautious about jetting off alone. “I’ve never been lonely on any of these tours, the tour guides are there to help you mix – and you’re going to find somebody in a group of 12 or so people that you get on with,” she says. “There is a general etiquette that says you don’t leave anybody out.”

She’s never felt unsafe or overwhelmed in the small group setting, either. “I did get lost in the middle of the Forbidden City in Beijing, because I didn’t listen to the instructions properly! But someone will always come and find you.”