Four ways a tour company prices a solo traveler
You want to see the world without waiting for someone to come with you. The bill depends far more on which company you pick than on where you go.
Every operator’s solo policy, side by side
Policies change every season, and most companies bury them in an FAQ. This is what each one publishes today.
| Operator | Roommate match | Own room | Waivers and discounts | Solo-only trips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| O.A.T. | Same gender; no supplement if unmatched | 92% of single spaces free (company figure) | Free on every extension and Stopover | No; half its travelers are solo women |
| Road Scholar | Same gender, many programs | Supplement covers the full room | Room free if no roommate found; “Singles at No Extra Cost” offer | No; nearly 1 in 4 go solo |
| G Adventures | Same sex, most trips | My Own Room, a “modest” fee, not every night | No supplement on most trips; Signature charges one | Solo-ish, 18+ |
| National Geographic Journeys | Twin share, as on G trips | My Own Room (Discover Egypt from $1,619) | Signature trips charge a supplement | No |
| Intrepid | Same gender, by passport marker | On most trips at extra cost; none on some Japan trips | Morocco: $99 supplement on 10 trips, book by Nov 3, 2026 | Women’s Expeditions theme |
| Trafalgar (Saver, Classic, Premium) | Same sex, twin price, nearly all solo tours | Supplement; 17–27% on five tours we quoted (Aug 2026) | Discounted supplements on select departures, on request | Women-Only (ex-Insight); confirm for 2027 |
| Globus | No program | Own room, not a set number of beds | Escapes: first five singles per departure, select tours | No |
| Cosmos | None published | Supplement | Waived on select 2027 Europe tours; 50% off select North America | No |
| Collette | None advertised | Single rooms on all tours, often smaller | SOLO26 (up to $1,000 off) closed July 15, 2026 | No |
| Tauck | None published | Supplement on land | 2026: land cut up to $600 on 105 departures; river Category 1 waived | No |
| Rick Steves | Ended in 2026 | Private room guaranteed; about $60 a day in 2027 | Refundable to 60 days out | No |
| Contiki (18–35) | By gender; twin or multi-share up to 6 | Extra in most regions; often none on hostel trips | None published | Everyone’s 18–35 |
| Abercrombie & Kent | No matching (third-party report) | Supplement | March 2025: half price on select departures of 50+ Small Group Journeys | No |
| Adventures by Disney | Not published | Ask for the single rate | None published | No |
Read the word “select”
Nearly every waiver on this page applies to select departures, select cabins or the first few bookings. Get the solo price for your exact date in writing before you pay the deposit.
Formats where traveling alone is the norm
Being the only solo on a coach full of couples is a common worry. In these formats, traveling alone is normal.
G Adventures Solo-ish
Solo travelers only, ages 18 and up, with a female local leader, a free arrival transfer and a discounted private room. The first night is a welcome dinner.
- Solo-ish Egypt: 9 days from $1,899, My Own Room from $349
- Solo-ish Japan: 11 days, $5,499 regular, My Own Room from $379
- Groups max 16, average 12
Trafalgar Premium Women-Only (ex-Insight)
Insight ran Women-Only tours with female Travel Directors and local female experts, averaging 18 to 20 guests; 42% of guests came solo, per a December 2025 trade report.
- Routes included Country Roads of Italy, Portugal, Egypt and Peru
- Insight becomes Trafalgar Premium for 2027
- Whether the Women-Only name and format carry over isn’t published; ask for your date
Intrepid Travel
Intrepid lists Women’s Expeditions and Solo travel among its trip themes. On standard trips you share a twin room with a traveler of the same gender at no extra cost.
- Own room on most trips at extra cost, requested at booking
- Some trips can’t sell a single room at all, including one Japan itinerary
- Single supplements don’t cover boat, sleeper-train or camping nights
Overseas Adventure Travel
O.A.T. sells to travelers 50 and over and says it offers about 25,000 single spaces a year, 92% of them free. The other 8%, it says, carry the lowest supplements in the industry.
- Ask for a same-gender roommate; if none is found, no supplement
- Free single supplement on every extension and Stopover
- Groups of 16 or fewer on land
Road Scholar
Many programs offer same-gender roommate matching at the double-occupancy rate. If Road Scholar can’t find you a roommate, you get the room to yourself at no extra cost.
- Your roommate isn’t confirmed until you arrive
- A separate “Singles at No Extra Cost” offer covers select programs
- The company frames the supplement as the cost of the whole room, not a solo surcharge
Contiki
Not solo-only, but built for people traveling on their own: rooms are shared by gender, twin or multi-share up to six, and festival trips up to eight.
- A private room is extra in most regions
- Often not offered on multi-share hostel trips
- Over 35? Its Reunion trips run for ages 35 to 45
Solo deals on the table, with their end dates
A waiver with no end date is a waiver you can’t plan around. Here’s the date on each one we could confirm.
| Offer | What you get | Book by | Travel | Status, Oct 26, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cosmos 2027 solo | Supplement waived on select Europe tours; 50% off select North America | May 31, 2027 | 2027 | Open |
| Globus Escapes | No supplement for the first five singles per select departure | While the five last | Escapes dates | Open, first come |
| Intrepid Morocco | $99 supplement on 10 Original and Comfort Morocco trips | Nov 3, 2026 | Through Dec 31, 2028 | Ends in days |
| Tauck 2026 solo savings | Land cut up to $600 on 105 departures; river Category 1 waived | Announced Jan 20, 2026 | 2026 | 2027 version not yet announced |
| Trafalgar | Discounted supplements on select departures | On request | Ongoing | Ask per departure |
| Collette SOLO26 | Up to $1,000 off select Explorations tours | Jul 15, 2026 | Through Mar 2027 | Closed |
| A&K | Half-price supplement, select departures of 50+ Small Group Journeys | Limited time (March 2025) | 2025–26 | Ask if renewed |
Tauck has announced solo savings year after year (we found releases going back to 2016), so a 2027 program is likely but not yet in writing. Treat it as a reason to ask in January, not a promise.
Set a reminder for the date in the third column. Then book the departure, not the brand.
Run your own solo numbers
The supplement is only one line of a solo bill. Put it next to the tips, meals and extras, then compare trips by the day.
Solo cost calculator
Your trip, solo, all in
We filled in a 2027 Rick Steves tour, where tips are already included. Swap in your own quote: the fare, the supplement and the extras the fare leaves out.
Starting figures: Rick Steves Best of Italy in 17 Days, 2027, from $6,395 per person sharing, $1,020 single supplement, guide and driver tips included. On a Trafalgar, Globus or Cosmos tour, add the tour director and driver tips from our tipping guide. Flights and insurance aren’t included.
Solo price per day
Three solo trips, one yardstick
Enter each trip’s price with your own room (fare plus supplement) and its length. We started you with three real ones.
Rick Steves 2027 prices include guide and driver tips; G Adventures’ don’t (its CEO tip runs about $6 to $9 a day on its Egypt trips). All prices are per person, before flights.
Which solo setup fits you
Answer for the trip you’d actually book this year. The three best matches show up as you tap.
Matcher
Find the company and format that fit how you travel alone
Five taps. The matcher weighs each operator’s published solo policy against your answers.
Safety when you’re the only one who knows your plans
Traveling alone on a tour is rarely about danger. It’s about having a plan for the moments the group isn’t around.
No tour company publishes safety statistics, so we won’t pretend to rank them. What a tour changes is who knows where you are.
You have a leader and a group who’ll notice if you’re missing. Several solo formats add an arrival transfer: G Adventures includes one on Solo-ish trips and National Geographic Journeys, and Intrepid on most Comfort trips.
The State Department’s advice for women travelers is short and blunt: “Think ahead and come up with a safety plan,” and “Being safe is more important than being polite.” It also suggests finding the nearest police station and hospital and checking local transport with reliable sources.
Its older-traveler handout adds two habits worth keeping at any age. Leave a copy of your passport and itinerary with someone at home, and enroll in STEP so the embassy can reach you, or your family, in an emergency.
Before a solo departure
The fine print that catches solo travelers
Solo pricing has more conditions than any other line on a tour invoice. Four of them come up again and again.
You booked with a friend, and your friend cancels. At Collette, the traveler left behind pays the single supplement, and Collette’s protection plan won’t cover that charge. Rick Steves gives you two choices: find a new roommate or pay the supplement.
A private room isn’t a bigger room. Globus’s terms say the supplement “ensures your own room but not the number of beds,” Rick Steves guarantees a private room rather than a bigger one, and Collette warns single rooms are often smaller.
Not every night is covered. G Adventures says a private room may not be available every night, and Intrepid’s supplements leave out boat, sleeper-train and camping nights.
Roommates are assigned, not chosen. Road Scholar doesn’t confirm yours until you arrive, and O.A.T., Trafalgar and Intrepid match by gender, not by habits.
Ask three questions before you pay: is my room guaranteed every night, what happens if my roommate cancels, and is the waiver locked in at deposit.
Who fits where when you travel solo
Good fit if
- You want your own room and the lowest supplement: O.A.T. if you’re 50 or older, a Globus Escapes or Cosmos 2027 waived date if you book early
- You don’t mind sharing: Trafalgar, G Adventures or Intrepid, at the twin-share price
- You’d rather not be the only solo: G Solo-ish, or a women-only departure
- You want everything included and a private room: Rick Steves, at roughly $60 a day for the room
Look elsewhere if
- You need a guaranteed private room on every single night of an adventure trip
- Your chosen date isn’t on the waiver list, and the supplement is close to half the fare
- You’re over 35 and the trip is Contiki
- You want a roommate matched by age or interests; nobody on this page promises that
Our take
The single supplement is a choice more often than people think. Between room shares, O.A.T.’s free single spaces and the 2027 waivers, plenty of solo travelers pay the same as a couple.
If you want your own room, price the day, not the percentage. Rick Steves at about $60 a day with tips included can beat a cheaper tour whose private room adds a third.
Take the quiz, then send us the two departures you like. We’ll get the solo price for each date in writing.
Where to go from here: solo guides by operator
Free · No obligation
Traveling alone? Let us find the waiver.
Tell us where you want to go and whether you’ll share. We’ll check which departures carry no supplement or a matched roommate, and get the solo price in writing.
What solo travelers ask us
Which tour companies don’t charge a single supplement?
O.A.T. says 92% of its single spaces carry no supplement. G Adventures charges none on most trips if you share with a same-sex roommate, and Trafalgar does the same at the twin-share price on nearly all solo tours. Road Scholar gives you the room alone at no extra cost if it can’t find you a roommate. Globus Escapes waive it for the first five singles per departure, and Cosmos waives it on select 2027 Europe tours booked by May 31, 2027.
Do tour companies match solo travelers with roommates?
Some do. Trafalgar, G Adventures, Intrepid, O.A.T., Road Scholar and Contiki pair you with a traveler of the same gender. Globus doesn’t run a room-share program, Cosmos publishes none, Collette advertises none, and Rick Steves ended roommate matching in 2026.
How much is a single supplement on a land tour?
It varies by company and by trip. On 2027 Rick Steves tours it works out to roughly $60 a day, about 12% to 16% of the fare. Our own August 2026 quotes on five Trafalgar tours ran 17% to 27%. A G Adventures private room ran from about 7% of the fare on Solo-ish Japan to 36% on a Greek islands trip.
Are there women-only or solo-only tours?
Yes. G Adventures’ Solo-ish trips are solo travelers only, ages 18 and up, led by a female local leader. Intrepid lists Women’s Expeditions among its trip themes. Insight ran 11 Women-Only itineraries with female Travel Directors before folding into Trafalgar Premium for 2027; ask whether your departure keeps the format.
What’s the best tour company for solo travelers over 50?
O.A.T. is built for travelers 50 and older, says half its travelers are solo women and waives the supplement on most single spaces. Road Scholar matches roommates and gives you the room free if no match turns up. Trafalgar and Tauck suit solos who want everything handled: Trafalgar will match you with a roommate, and Tauck has cut its land supplements on select departures.
Is the Cosmos single supplement waiver still available?
Cosmos’s 2027 solo offer waives the supplement on select Europe tours and takes 50% off on select North America tours, for bookings made May 25, 2026 through May 31, 2027. It applies to select departures only, so confirm yours before you pay the deposit.
Is a group tour safer than traveling alone?
No operator publishes safety statistics, so we can’t rank them. What a tour adds is people who know where you are: a leader, a group and often an airport transfer. The State Department advises leaving a copy of your passport and itinerary with someone at home, enrolling in STEP and planning ahead for unsafe situations.
What happens if my roommate cancels?
At Collette and Rick Steves, the remaining traveler pays the single supplement or, at Rick Steves, finds a new roommate. O.A.T. charges no supplement if it can’t match you, and Road Scholar gives you the room alone at no extra cost. Ask your operator before you book.
Sources · 25 links · checked October 2026
- Trafalgar: Solo travel (room share at twin price)
- Globus: Escapes (single supplement waiver)
- Globus: Travel terms and conditions (revised Sept 8, 2026)
- Cosmos: Deals (2027 solo offer)
- Collette: Solo travel tours
- Collette: SOLO26 campaign (Travelweek)
- Tauck: 2026 savings for solo travelers (Jan 20, 2026)
- Rick Steves: Best of Italy in 17 Days (2027 single supplement)
- Rick Steves: Heart of Ireland (2027)
- Rick Steves: Best of Portugal (2027)
- G Adventures: Solo travel
- G Adventures: Solo-ish Egypt
- G Adventures: Solo-ish Japan
- G Adventures: Journeys: Discover Egypt (My Own Room)
- Intrepid Travel: FAQ (solo rooming)
- Intrepid Travel: Trip styles and themes
- Recommend: Intrepid cuts Morocco solo pricing through 2028
- O.A.T.: Leader in solo travel
- O.A.T.: Terms and conditions (roommate matching)
- Road Scholar: Solo travelers
- eGlobal Travel Media: Insight Women-Only tours (Dec 2025)
- Contiki: On-trip FAQ (room sharing)
- Travel Daily: A&K savings for solos (March 2025)
- U.S. State Department: Women travelers
- U.S. State Department: Older travelers handout (STEP, itinerary copy)