Seeking self-care and a respite from the pressures of the season, more Americans are viewing the holidays as a perfect time to take a trip on their own.
Last Thanksgiving, Dennis Friedrichsen, a 43-year-old tech worker from Minnesota, found himself dining on the banks of the Nile, sharing a feast of kebabs and chickpea stew with 11 strangers from three continents. Then he spent Christmas in Tanzania. Like a growing number of travelers, Mr. Friedrichsen saw the holidays as the perfect time for a solo adventure.
Spending the holidays away from friends or family has long carried a stigma of loneliness. But that is changing as more people replace the pressures of gift giving and holiday traditions with self-care and the chance to make up for travel opportunities they missed during the Covid pandemic, often making new friends along the way.
Flash Pack, a company that connects almost entirely solo travelers in their 30s and 40s for group adventures, said its bookings had doubled during the holidays in the last two years. Mr. Friedrichsen was among those customers.
Other tour organizers and lodging companies are seeing the increased interest, too. The low-cost European lodging chain a&o Hostels has experienced “a massive influx of solo travelers booking during the holidays,” with single-person Christmas reservations soaring 51 percent from 2019 to 2023 said the company’s chief executive, Oliver Winter. “December weekends used to be absolutely off-season and we would think about closing,” he said. “Now it’s a high-occupancy time.”
A mix of factors is fueling the growing popularity of solo trips in general, Mr. Winter said. Traveling alone is safer than ever, thanks to online destination and transportation information, widespread cellphone coverage, and location-sharing tools, he said. It is also easier than ever to find social activities online, on apps or through a lodging provider — visits to popular Christmas markets and ice skating outings, for example. Mr. Winter added that he sees people still making up for the trips they skipped during the Covid years.
The pandemic brought self-care to the fore, with some people now opting to swap pressure-filled family holiday gatherings for a solo escape, said the Seattle-based psychotherapist Stephanie Brownell. “Holidays come with expectations,” Ms. Brownell said, and people are realizing they have options. “They are feeling more flexible and not bound by preconceived ideas of what a holiday means,” she said, adding that they are “attending to their emotions.”