Solo travel has a reputation problem. People hear it and picture sitting alone at a restaurant table for one, wandering through a city with nobody to talk to, going to bed early because there’s nothing else to do. That is not what solo female travel actually looks like — or at least it doesn’t have to be.
I have traveled solo more times than I can count at this point. Mexico four years in a row. Ecuador for a month. Shorter trips scattered in between. I have also watched friends do Egypt on a group tour, Croatia on a bike tour, Bali on a yoga retreat. There are more ways to travel alone without being lonely than most people realize, and finding the right one for you makes all the difference.
This is what I have learned — from my own experience and from the women I travel alongside and compare notes with.
Start With the Fear, Because It’s Real
My first time in Sayulita, Mexico I was intimidated. I knew the town had a good reputation but I was coming from the East Coast where Mexico means Cancun, and the Pacific side was unfamiliar territory. I did not know much about where I was going or what I was walking into.
What I found was a town that felt safer than most places I’ve lived. But more than that, I found that the structure I built around my trip — surf lessons, getting to know the instructors, showing up at the same break every day — created a community faster than I expected. Within a week people were waving at me. Within two weeks I had people to grab coffee with. The loneliness I had braced for never really arrived.
That’s the thing about solo travel that nobody tells you: the loneliness is usually in the anticipation, not the experience. Once you are somewhere and doing something you care about, the days fill up on their own.
Option 1: Guided Group Tours
If you are going somewhere large, unfamiliar, or logistically complicated, a guided group tour is one of the safest and most social ways to do it solo. Two of my coworkers have done this — one in Egypt, one in China — and both speak highly of it.
The tours line you up with other travelers, usually 10 to 15 people, handle all the logistics, and give you a packed itinerary with a local guide who knows the country. You pay a premium for that convenience but you also get a built-in group of people who are there for the same reasons you are. The age range varies by tour and some skew older, which may or may not fit what you are looking for. The pace is usually intense — early mornings, a lot of movement, hitting all the highlights — which is great if you want to see as much as possible and less great if you prefer to slow down.
For countries that feel genuinely intimidating to navigate solo, this is the move. You still get the experience of being somewhere new. You just have support around you while you do it.
Option 2: Activity-Based Tours
A step more adventurous than the fully guided tour is going somewhere built around something you are already passionate about. Bike tours are the best example I have seen up close — one of my coworkers has done two of them, one in Victoria, Canada and one in Croatia, both bike-based with hotels arranged along the route.
The structure takes care of itself. You ride, you stop somewhere beautiful, you eat dinner having genuinely earned it, you sleep, you do it again. The group is self-selecting — everyone is there because they like being on a bike — so the social part happens naturally without anyone having to try too hard. The cost is higher because of bike rentals and accommodations but you are paying for a trip that is genuinely taken care of.
These exist for more activities than most people realize. Hiking tours, cooking tours, photography tours, sailing trips. If there is something you love doing, someone has probably built a small group trip around it.
Option 3: The Camino
The Camino de Santiago — the famous pilgrimage route across northern Spain — is one of the most solo-female-friendly long trips in the world. You walk, you stay in small hostels called albergues that are donation-based or very cheap, you meet other walkers at every stop. The community builds itself.
I did a portion of the Portuguese Camino and it was hard on my feet — you are carrying everything on your back and walking more than you think you will — but it made me want to do the full Spanish route. The Spanish Camino is more popular, which means more people, which means more opportunity to meet fellow walkers and form the kind of friendships that happen when you are all doing something difficult together.
You can also bike it if walking the full thing feels like too much. The apps now make planning straightforward — you can map your daily distance, find where to sleep, and adjust as you go. It is solo travel in the truest sense while also never really being alone.
Option 4: Surf Towns (My Personal Recommendation)
If you ask me where to go solo as a woman, my answer is almost always a surf town. The culture of surfing welcomes a certain kind of person — curious, outdoorsy, not taking themselves too seriously — and the towns that form around breaks tend to reflect that. Every surf town I have been to has felt safe, social, and genuinely welcoming to solo travelers.
Nicaragua, Ecuador, Mexico — all three of my long-term solo surf trips have followed the same pattern: show up, book a lesson with a local instructor, start becoming a familiar face at the break, meet people. The lesson is the key. Not because you necessarily need the instruction — though you probably do — but because it connects you immediately to someone who knows the place, who will recognize you the next day, who might introduce you to someone else. I wrote a full breakdown of the three surf towns I have done solo — Sayulita, Olon, and Playa Gigante — including what each one costs, how safe they actually are, and who each one is best for. For a more in-depth look at each destination, check out my article Best Surf Towns for Solo Female Travelers.
Surf towns also tend to have hostels and social spaces built for people traveling alone. You are not going to be the only solo traveler. You are not going to struggle to find someone to eat dinner with if you want company. And if you want to spend the afternoon alone reading on the beach, that is equally available.
Option 5: Yoga and Wellness Retreats
For something more structured and intentional, yoga retreats have become a genuinely good solo travel option. A friend of mine has done them almost yearly — Sayulita, Bali, Lake Atitlan in Guatemala — and the pattern is consistent: you arrive not knowing anyone, you practice yoga two or three times a day with the same group, you do excursions together, and by the end you have a group of like-minded women you are genuinely sad to leave.
The cost is higher than booking things yourself but it includes accommodation, programming, and often meals. Bali in particular has become a hub for these retreats and the combination of cheap accommodation, great surf, and established wellness culture makes it an obvious destination. Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan is another — a town built on a lake surrounded by volcanoes that has developed a strong expat and retreat community.
If you have a yoga practice you want to deepen, certification programs abroad let you combine travel with something genuinely useful. Two to four weeks, a teacher training, a new place. Not a bad way to spend a month.
The Safety Stuff: What Actually Matters
I grew up in Philadelphia. I joke that people worry about me in Mexico when Philly was where I actually encountered sketchy situations. Living in a city gives you a baseline for reading environments and trusting your gut that translates well to travel. But there are still things I do differently when I am abroad and alone.
Phone and valuables: I had my phone stolen in a Mexican Walmart because I left it in a back pocket of shorts where it was clearly visible. Entirely my fault. Keep your phone in a bag, a front pocket, or a fanny pack you can see. Do not pull it out in crowded markets. Same with cash — go out with what you need for the day, not everything you have.
Cards: I keep one credit card at my accommodation and carry a different one when I go out. If something happens I always have a backup. Same principle applies to keeping your passport at your place rather than carrying it unless you specifically need it.
Drinking: I barely drink, which makes this easier for me, but it matters. Going out alone and drinking heavily in an unfamiliar place is genuinely risky anywhere in the world. If you go out, know how you are getting home before you start drinking. Know the person you are with well enough to trust them.
Taxis: Research what is standard in the place you are going before you arrive. Uber and Cabify exist in a lot of cities now and remove most of the uncertainty. When I had to take a taxi in Ecuador without cell service I researched the local taxi situation beforehand so I knew what to expect. The movie Taken has scared a lot of people off taxis but a legitimate marked taxi from a legitimate stand is usually fine. Trust your read of the situation.
Scams: If something sounds like a great deal and you are not sure why, find out why before you put money down. Most excursions and surf schools and hostels are exactly what they say they are. The ones that are not usually have a quality to them you can sense if you are paying attention.
General: Trust your gut. Talk to strangers but feel the vibe first. Be outgoing but not reckless. These are the same rules that apply anywhere.
The Loneliness Question
Here is what I actually think about solo travel and loneliness after doing it for years: sitting alone at a taco stand while the sun hits you is not lonely. It is one of the better feelings available to a person.
The stigma around solo travel — that it is sad, that it is for people who could not find anyone to go with, that you will spend your trip wishing you had company — does not match the reality. When you are somewhere doing something you care about, the days fill themselves. You meet people at the break. You talk to the person next to you at the bar during the game. You sit next to someone on a tour who becomes a friend.
And when you want to be alone, you can be. That is the other side of it that nobody talks about. When I am in Mexico I come home and cook my own dinner and sit by myself and it is exactly what I want. Solo travel gives you both — company when you want it, solitude when you need it — in a way that traveling with other people rarely does.
Everyone should try it at least once. Not because it will be perfect or easy, but because figuring out that you can do it — that you can land somewhere alone and make it work and come home having had a real experience — changes something. It makes the next trip less scary. And the one after that even less.
You do not have to start with a month in Mexico. Start with a week somewhere that feels manageable. But start.
