Escorted Holidays for Solo Travellers: 13 UK Tour Companies Compared

Day one in Venice, and the Holiday Director is handing out room keys in the hotel lobby. By dinner you might know the retired couple from Cardiff, a nurse from Leeds and the two other people who came on their own. Nobody has to find a station, book a museum slot or eat alone unless they want to.

That’s the appeal of escorted holidays for solo travellers. If you’d like to travel solo without the planning, there are more ways to book one in 2026 than ever, but each operator only tells you about its own tours. So we’ve put the main UK operators side by side: who charges a single supplement, how big the groups get, who tends to go and how your money is protected.

Every company below was checked as trading on 23 October 2026.

What are escorted holidays for solo travellers, and how do they work?

An escorted tour is a package where almost everything is arranged for you. Return flights from a UK airport (or the Eurostar, or a coach), transfers, hand-picked hotels, many of your meals and a set run of excursions are all in the price, balanced with some free time, while a tour manager travels with the group from start to finish and local guides take over at the big sights.

For anyone on their own, the tour manager matters most. They’ll do the introductions at the welcome drink and make sure there’s always a table to join at dinner, which is how most people make new friends on tour.

Solo travel is growing fast, too. Titan quotes the 2025-2026 Holiday Habits report, which found almost 19% of people had taken a solo holiday in the past year, up from 17% the year before. What changes between them is the solo bit:

• Whether everyone in the group is travelling alone, or you’re one of a few among couples and friends
• Whether you pay a single supplement for your own room, or the price already covers it
• How big the group is, from about 15 people to a full coach
• Who goes: some firms are for over 50s only, others welcome any adult

Three ways to book an escorted tour on your own

1. A solo specialist

Just You, One Traveller and Solos sell holidays to solo travellers and nobody else. Your own room is built into the price.

2. A big operator’s solo-only dates

Riviera Travel, Newmarket Holidays, Titan, Wendy Wu Tours, Mercury Holidays, Saga, Leger and Shearings all set aside dates or whole tours just for people travelling alone. You get a household name’s brochure and usually no supplement, which often makes them the best value of the lot.

3. A standard tour, with a supplement

Join a normal departure with couples and friends and pay extra for a room to yourself. Dearer, yes. But every date is open to you.

Escorted tour companies for solo travellers compared

Tap a heading to sort the table, or use the Yes/No buttons to filter.

From company websites, 23 October 2026. “Max” is the limit on solo departures.

The solo-only specialists

Everyone’s in the same boat here, travelling with like-minded solo travellers, so the ice breaks quickly.

Just You

Picture a welcome drink on a terrace in Sicily with twenty-odd people who’ll be your dinner companions by Friday. Just You runs solo tours across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas with return flights, breakfast every day and a Holiday Director, and its FAQs promise a twin or double room to yourself. The average group is 27, though a few small group tours, like the Croatian Island Explorer cruise, stop at 20. Around three quarters of guests are women.

Discover Sicily was listed from £2,219 for 8 days in October 2026, with 7 nights in 4-star hotels and 15 included meals. It even runs a Christmas tour of Jordan. Our Just You review has the rest.

One Traveller

Customers rate this one highest. In the Which? survey of solo holiday providers published in November 2025, One Traveller came top with a customer score of 83%, ahead of Just You on 68%.

It’s a family-run singles holiday specialist in Norfolk for the over 50s, started in 2007 by a tour manager. Every guest gets their own room in hand-picked hotels or on its solo cruises, with no single supplement, and many meals and excursions are in the headline price.

Solos

Running since 1982, Solos calls itself the first specialist singles holiday firm in the UK. It keeps an average group size of 15 and says plainly that it doesn’t charge single supplements. If it’s your first go at solo travel, its themed weeks in the sun are a gentle start.

Friendship Travel

Run from Antrim since 1999, Friendship Travel sells singles holidays that feel more like a house party than a coach tour: a hotel by the sea, a host on hand, and the freedom to join in or wander off. No-supplement rooms come on selected dates, and there’s a range for the under-50s.

Big tour operators with solo departures

Better still, several big names now keep whole departures for solo travellers.

Riviera Travel

Small group sizes are part of the pitch. Riviera’s solo tours average 12 to 25 guests and never top 25, from Krakow to a Botswana safari, with a double room to yourself and a welcome dinner on night one. There’s a solo river cruise range too, with new festive Danube sailings for Christmas and New Year, and from 2027 its ship MS George Eliot is being given over to solo travellers with no single supplements.

Newmarket Holidays

Prefer Bristol or Newcastle to Heathrow? Exclusively for Solos tours include flights and a private double at no extra cost, in groups averaging 18 to 20 and never more than 24, and many leave from regional airports. Its 8-day Croatia tour, taking in Trogir, Split and Dubrovnik, was listed from £2,129. It’s award-winning too: customers have voted it a British Travel Awards winner 13 years running.

Titan Travel

Titan’s solo dates come with your own room and a welcome drinks reception. The real draw is the shared chauffeur service, included on every tour, from your front door to the airport. Book a standard date and you’ll join a mix of couples, friends and single travellers, with your own room but perhaps a supplement.

Saga

For 50 and over only. Saga’s single departures have a solo host and no more than 30 in the group tour.

Long-haul solo tours in Asia and beyond

Wendy Wu Tours

From the Great Wall to Kyoto’s temples, Wendy Wu gives you three choices: a Group Tour with a solo room and a single supplement (up to 28 on Classic Tours), Happy to Share a twin room with another solo traveller of the same gender, or a dedicated solo group of no more than 18. Its 10-day Taj, Temples and Tigers tour of India was listed from £1,990pp in October 2026.

Mercury Holidays

Mercury’s solo group tours head to Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Japan, Morocco and Peru, with sole use of your own room, no single supplement and an average of 15 people. It’s a proper solo adventure. Rather than a UK tour manager, an English-speaking local guide meets you on arrival and stays until your flight home.

Coach tours if you’d rather not fly

You can travel solo by road, too. Leger’s solo traveller tours go by coach or Eurostar to places like Lake Garda and the Austrian lakes, with no single supplement and sole use of your own room, and its rail tours are graded Easy, Moderate or Active. Shearings has a similar solo range across the UK and Europe, again with sole use of your own room.

Joining a mixed group: is Travelsphere right for you?

Travelsphere welcomes solo travellers across its range, but you pay a single supplement on every tour, and it doesn’t publish the amount, so ask when you book. Solo travellers typically make up around 10% of a group, and on some departures you might be the only single traveller.

So why consider it? Choice, mostly. The range runs from Italy and Switzerland to Japan, Egypt and Canada, on a fully escorted group tour with return flights, 3 and 4-star hotels, included excursions, local guides and a Holiday Director. Groups average about 27 and it’s adults only. It’s run by G Touring, the same firm behind Just You, under the same ATOL licence.

It suits you if a particular trip or date matters more than a singles group. One solo guest who paid the supplement for Lake Maggiore summed it up on Trustpilot:

Fellow travellers were good company. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Three tours that work well on your own, per person sharing, checked 23 October 2026:

• Secret Lakes of Italy, 8 days from £1,449, with 11 meals and quieter lakes like Iseo, Idro and Molveno
• The Best of Switzerland, 8 days from £3,379, with 13 meals and the Bernina Express, Glacier Express and Golden Pass line
• Grand Tour of Italy, 15 days from £3,249, Venice to Sicily in 4-star hotels with 24 meals

Add the supplement to those figures, and check Travelsphere’s current offers first. Prefer a guaranteed room at no extra cost? Look at Just You instead. Our Travelsphere review covers the rest.

Is the single supplement worth paying?

Sometimes. A supplement-free solo date might run twice a year while the standard tour leaves weekly, so if the date matters, paying extra can be the right call.

Compare prices fairly, though:

1. Take the per person sharing price and add the supplement.
2. Set that against a solo specialist’s price for the same length of trip.
3. Count the included meals and excursions on both.

Our guide to no single supplement holidays has more money-saving tips, and it’s worth watching the operators’ offers pages, as supplement-free places come and go.

Tips for choosing the right escorted tour

Travelling solo for the first time? Run through these before you book:

Weighing up more than touring? Our comparison of solo travel companies covers sun, ski and adventure trips too.

Solo travel FAQs: escorted tours

Whichever you pick, you won’t have to plan a thing, and you won’t be the only one who came alone. That’s worth celebrating! Find more honest company reviews and trip ideas at Holiday Alone, and start planning a tour that’s built for one.