“Family holidays”, “romantic breaks”, “18-30”, “group holidays”, “all inclusive holidays”, “budget”, “adventure”, “honeymoons”, “luxury”… Go to any travel website and you’ll find countless types of holiday advertised, but there’s one type of holiday you’ll hardly ever see. This type of holiday has an unfair stigma attached to it; it’s not something people tend to shout about. It is: the Singles Holiday.
If you’re single, or even if you’re not, taking a holiday on your own can be a hugely liberating experience. After all, isn’t the whole point of a holiday to get away from it all? Sure, if you’ve never been away on your own before it can be daunting catching a flight, getting to your hotel, venturing to the hotel bar and – God forbid! – eating alone, but you’ll discover new places, meet new people and perhaps discover a side of yourself you never knew existed before you ventured out into the world on your own.
Despite the fact that they’re rarely advertised by travel agents (including On the Beach, but that’s set to change!), the number of people going on singles holidays is actually on the up. Take our customers for example. Last year, 10,789 customers travelled solo, compared with 10,100 the year before. If anything, single travellers are becoming the travel industry’s fastest growing sector, and tour operators are struggling to catch up with them! Forget the stigma that’s long been attached to solo holidays. Enough people travel the world alone, and no one looks at them as if they’re loners. Why should seven days in the Canaries be any different?
In one sense, it’s all about demographics. There are more single people in Britain today than ever before. A depressing thought? Hell no! It’s not that people are splitting up – most single people are affluent, travel-hungry people in their late twenties and early thirties. Travelling the world is tempting, but let’s face it, in today’s economic climate, who has a spare £8,000 to see as many of the seven wonders of the world as they can in as many months? And who can realistically take any more than two weeks off work at any one time? The solution? A solo holiday with a short flight time and plenty of like minded individuals. Destinations such as Turkey, the Canaries, Egypt and the Balearics are big favourites with single travellers. They’re cheap, they have great beaches, great nightlife, and great opportunities (should you be looking for them) for a bit of single fun.
There are many other factors at play. In 1986, Willy Russell wrote a play about a woman who summoned up the courage to head off to Greece on her own and drink wine in the sun. Nearly 25 years later, both women and men are perfectly happy to leave their partners at home for a week or two and go on a solo holiday. You can be completely in love with and devoted to someone, but their idea of a dream holiday, a week freezing to death on a ski slope, brings you out in a cold sweat. Sometimes, people simply have different interests, and that’s when the freedom of taking a holiday on your own can be an absolute blessing. While he’s flying down the side of a mountain in a blizzard, you could be relaxing on a stretch of white sand, not a cloud in the sky, a cocktail in your hand without a care in the world.
If you are single, well, that’s even more reason to head into the great unknown on your tod. People these days – women in particular – see being single as an opportunity rather than a hindrance. An opportunity to see the world, to have some fun, to live new experiences. And perhaps the very best thing about singles holidays is that everything you do is down to one person: you.
Take your own path. Make like Shirley Valentine and go for it!
On the Beach offers fantastic cheap holidays to all your favourite destinations. Visit www.onthebeach.co.uk today and start planning your perfect beach break!
