One of my most interesting clients is a well-known child psychologist who celebrated her 80th birthday on safari in Africa. She did not wait for anyone to join her, she simply decided it was time, called me, and we started planning. Another of my most interesting clients is an older Spanish gentleman who travels for the stories and culture rather than the sights. His most recent journey took him deep into Oaxaca, Mexico, a region tied to his own heritage, where travel felt less like a trip and more like a homecoming.
Some people call trips like this “me-moons,” solo journeys built entirely around what one person actually wants, with no milestone required and no permission needed from anyone else. Solo travel has no demographic ceiling and no expiration date. What started as a niche dominated by young backpackers, me included, has become one of the most diverse and financially significant segments in leisure travel. Advisors who are not actively positioning to serve it are leaving real revenue on the table. Wellness travel is rising right alongside it, and the two are increasingly becoming the same trip.
What This Traveler Needs From Their Advisor
Solo travelers are, in many ways, the ideal advisor client. Every decision lands on them alone, which means the trust lands entirely on you. Women mostly cite safety as a barrier to solo travel, compared to men. They don’t want brochure-level assurance that a destination is “generally safe,” but specific intelligence: which neighborhoods work for a solo woman at night, which properties have 24-hour staffed reception, which guides have strong solo female (or male) track records. Become the advisor who knows this and the referrals will follow.
The single supplement is a huge issue for solo travelers who say that the added cost of traveling alone has kept them from taking a first solo trip. Knowing which cruise lines have reduced or eliminated the supplement, and which boutique properties price solo rooms fairly, make the advisors invaluable.
An important framework to understand is “solo but not alone.” Many travelers, especially those new to solo travel, want the independence of going alone while having the option to be part of something larger. A client visiting Auschwitz or standing at the Western Wall may want to do that alone or with a private guide rather than a group. The architecture of the trip is solo; the support within it is curated.
Solo travel plays out differently depending on traveler type. The heritage traveler wants emotionally significant sites without managing a companion's reactions. The wellness traveler wants programming, yoga, shared dinners and guided hikes that build community without requiring a partner. The gastronome wants to eat exactly where and when they want. The cultural explorer wants to move at their own pace, lingering or skipping sites as they choose.
Heritage and cultural travel is one of the most underserved solo niches, and it is growing fast, especially among Jewish travelers visiting Israel, Eastern Europe and Morocco, as well as anyone tracing family roots through Ireland, Italy or Portugal. Memorials and ancestral sites may require private processing without a companion to consider. Positioning yourself here means knowing which guides specialize in unrushed heritage tours and which properties sit near the sites that matter.
Pro Tips From Specialists
It is vitally important that advisors choose the right tour guide for their solo travelers, and two countries come up constantly when clients ask me about traveling alone: Mexico and Africa. Here is what the specialists on the ground want advisors to know.
Africa: Ruby Travel Solutions & WunderWay Tours
Sandra Lee built Ruby Travel Solutions and WunderWay Tours around a simple observation: women traveling alone are rarely looking for a vacation, most are carrying some version of invisible weight like a job, a household or a calendar that never slows down long enough for them to ask what they actually need. Sandra has hosted solo female travelers across every age and stage of life, including a guest who traveled to Victoria Falls and Botswana entirely on her own as a retirement milestone and still messages Sandra about Africa years later.
“A woman traveling alone is often seeking a total reset more than a holiday," said Lee. "We build an invisible safety net around her, the right guide, the right vehicle, the right lodge, so she can fully switch off and feel entirely secure."
Oaxaca, Mexico: Oaxaca Experience Tours
Omar Rito of Oaxaca Experience Tours recently guided my client through Oaxaca's culture and cuisine on a weeklong adventure. Mexico carries a reputation that does not always reflect conditions on the ground destination by destination, and that gap matters to an advisor reassuring a hesitant client. Solo female travel in Mexico is comparable in safety to countries nobody questions like Spain, Italy and Greece, provided the destination is chosen well. Oaxaca consistently comes up as one of the strongest choices in the country for solo travelers thanks to its walkable historic centro, extraordinary food and mezcal culture and local rhythm that makes meeting other travelers effortless.
“It is safe for women to travel solo to Mexico. And yes, we usually get more solo travelers in Oaxaca,” Rito said. His guides routinely host travelers arriving on their own, and the steady demand from solo clients is, in his experience, the clearest evidence the destination delivers on its growing reputation.
Different clients, different continents, same advisor role: knowing a destination and the right tour guide to work with so that going alone becomes one of the easiest decisions a client makes all year.
About the Author
comments