Solo travel should make all church members think

With Spring almost sprung, it’s high time for small talk to turn to travel: ‘Are you going away this year?’ The real question, though, is are you going alone? 2024 is, according to Forbes magazine, the year of the solo traveller. The Association of British Travel Agents reported that 16% of trips booked last year were solo – up from 6% in 2011 – and the trend looks likely to continue.

I have one old friend who is a serial solo-tripper. He waxes lyrical about the ease of travelling on his own: he can decide where he wants to go, how long he wants to stay there, what to eat, and when. A recent article in The Guardian celebrating the rise of the older female solo traveller picked up on many of the same benefits: ‘It’s a midweek morning and I’ve just woken up in a hotel room in Madrid on the first day of a mini-break. The day stretches deliciously ahead: shall I go first to the Prado, or the Reina Sofía museum? Shall I have brunch and a late-afternoon main meal, or tapas here and there? … The fact is, I can do exactly what I want, when I want, because I’m holidaying alone.’

A few days later I read the approving response in the letters pages and wondered if I was missing out on something. But my controlled experiments in solo travel – 36 hours alone on the South Downs Way, and two nights in a European city tacked onto the end of a work trip – have so far proved less than invigorating. I want to find my own company inspiring, but it turns out that my inner monologue is not all that interesting, and it doesn’t take long for the decision fatigue to set in. It’s ok. But I’d rather have someone else present to help make decisions. And, most importantly, to laugh at my jokes.