There’s a certain magic to solo travel. You can set your own agenda, go where you want, and discover a new place on your terms. Want to spend the day sightseeing? Want to go clubbing deep into the night? It’s your vacation, so you can do whatever you’d like without the worry of keeping a family member, friend, or significant other happy.
Who Travels Solo the Most?
Female travelers take the bulk of solo trips; 84% of them, in fact. And although the average age of a solo traveler is still around 50, Gen Z is strongly trending in that direction. A recent study confirmed that 58% of prospective Gen Z travelers plan to take their next trip solo.
The question is, where should solo travelers go? We can make a few suggestions, but it’s all down to the kind of experience you’re after. Consider putting one of these five destinations on your solo travel bucket list.
Vietnam
Vietnam continues to be a solo travel hotspot because it’s so well-suited to so many people. There’s a vibrant tourist and expat scene, so you’re bound to meet a lot of people from all around the world. It’s also a backpacker’s paradise, with myriad temples and shrines to explore, plus hostels to stay the night for very little money. Combine this with popular attractions like Ha Long Bay and Hanoi, and Vietnam could be the perfect solo destination.
Iceland
Iceland is a place with seemingly contradictory experiences that somehow go perfectly together. On one hand you have Reykjavik, Iceland’s thriving capital and largest city. It has all of the shopping, dining, and partying options you could ask for. On the other hand, Iceland is a magnet for nature lovers. Few other places give you the option to see volcanoes, glaciers, black-sand beaches, and geysers all in one country. In addition, Iceland is one of the safest places in the world for solo travelers.
Chile
A land of captivating contrasts, Chile is a place where you can explore deserts, glaciers, lakes, and some of the highest mountains in the Western Hemisphere. You can even see the largest penguin colony in the Strait of Magellan on Magdelena Island. When you’re ready to be social, just head to Santiago. It’s home to lots of expats, has legendary cuisine, and is inexpensive and quite safe by South American standards.
Slovenia
Want to ski the Alps in the morning and sit on the beach in the evening? You can do that in Slovenia. This vibrant and welcoming nation avoids the kitschy tourist areas of more popular European locales and replaces them with jaw-dropping scenery, quaint villages, and comparably low costs. Slovenia is a place where you can truly dive into local culture without being funneled into tourist traps. Plus, as a Schengen nation, it’s extremely easy to incorporate it into a larger European trip.
New Zealand
The geographic isolation of New Zealand over tens of millions of years has made it a unique destination, to say the least. You can see plants and animals that are found nowhere else on (middle) earth. But solo travelers shouldn’t go thinking that New Zealand is all kiwi birds and hobbit movie sets. There are also thriving cities like Auckland and Wellington, so you can get a good helping of culture to balance out all of the natural wonders.
Buying Solo Travel Insurance
When buying travel insurance for a solo trip, the type of coverage you need depends on where you’re from, and what your priorities are.
Often referred to simply as “travel insurance,” trip cancellation insurance is typically only available to US residents, with the primary benefit being trip cancellation coverage. The basic gist is this: If you have to cancel your trip for a covered reason ahead of departure, travel insurance allows you to be reimbursed for the nonrefundable portion of your prepaid trip costs. Travel insurance offers many other benefits including emergency medical coverage, travel delay coverage, and lost luggage protection as well. The exact benefits all depend on the plan you choose.
Travel medical insurance primarily focuses on protecting you from large medical bills if you get sick or hurt outside your home country. You may or may not know this, but your domestic health insurance most likely won’t be accepted abroad. If you break a bone, catch a virus, etc. and need medical attention, you could wind up getting a hospital bill that you cannot afford to pay on your own. Travel medical insurance reduces this worry by allowing you to get the care you need abroad, without the massive financial setback.
Whatever plan you choose, just be sure to travel insured. When you go solo, you won’t have friends or family to depend on if something unexpected happens. But you can depend on your insurance, making the right coverage worth its weight in gold.