Group trips vs solo travel: Which teaches you more?

The group versus solo travel debate is one that all committed travellers should consider when booking their next getaway. This is particularly the case for a language student such as myself, as the prospects of travelling alone are ones I will need to consider prior to my year abroad. There are obviously many merits to identify in both sides of the debate, but this article isn’t going to be one of those GCSE essays in which you are told to come to a conclusion that is ‘somewhere in the middle’. I’ll be honest with you – I’ve never travelled alone. I’ve travelled with friends, but never alone. The perspective I will bring is one of an itchy-feet undergraduate who is currently in favour of group travel, but is tentatively dipping his toe in the water of the big wide world, to see whether he can venture into it alone.

I admire solo travellers. My favourite travel writer (a certain William McGuire Bryson), makes millions from his ‘Notes From [Wherever he is in the world’] , and he brings an unparalleled humour and excitement to solo travel, which makes me want to grab a backpack and take off (even though I proclaimed myself to be starkly in favour of ‘group travel’ mere sentences ago). More importantly, reading Bryson’s books has made me realise that the beautiful insights and love of travelling he instils in his readers is largely a result of the unique experiences he has gained from travelling solo; it is hard to imagine someone who recently went on a package holiday to Marbella could write with equal perception.

Travelling alone means you can tailor your holiday perfectly to your habits and preferences, which is especially commendable if you, like me, prefer authenticity to mass tourism

It has long been the case that travel companies have incentivised group travel for the not-so well-travelled man-in-the-street. I hate this idiom by the way. First of all, sexist! Second of all, why do we use this rather derogatory turn of phrase to refer to someone stereotypically common and uneducated, when the subject in question is just minding his own business walking down an unnamed street? You kind of feel sorry for the guy. When looking through my TraillFinders 2026-27 catalogue of Canada and the US, all of the prices are quoted on the proviso of two adults sharing a single bed in a two-star hotel between 5pm on the 12^th March and 8:17am on 2^nd April, assuming that they don’t have hashbrowns for breakfast. Or something similarly unrealistic and obscure; the economic benefits of travelling en famille have never been stronger.

And yet, travelling alone means you can tailor your holiday perfectly to your habits and preferences, which is especially commendable if you, like me, prefer authenticity to mass tourism. When it is just me, myself and I (or I suppose in this case you, yourself and you?), you can find quaint little chalets in the Swiss Alps, try raclette in the sleepy little village restaurant, and try out your best GCSE ‘Je voudrais s’il vous plaît…/Ich möchte bitte…/Vorrei per favore…’ depending on where you are in Switzerland. When you are travelling en masse, you have usually already spent the entire trip to Marbella from Gatwick with a plane full of other Brits abroad who live up to their stereotype. When you’re solo backpacking in the Swiss Alps, you hear ‘Ah madame, la raclette était si délicieux que je ne pouvais pas imaginer ! Merci de donner mes compliments au chef’. When you’re at the hotel-resort in Marbella, it’s ‘Dave. Daaavve! Av u seen my uva flip-flop Daaavve?’ – Michael McIntyre

But what I hope we have come to realise is that neither situation is more conducive to a ‘superior’ holiday than the other

To be honest, that might be ever so slightly snobbish of me as a language student to disparage Brits abroad such as I just have; after all, if you don’t know the language you shouldn’t be judged for it. I am trying to critique tourists who too readily succumb to the ease of package holidays. They prefer to surround themselves with other Brits whilst on holiday, instead of truly experiencing another culture; that is a real shame.

That’s why I am so looking forward to my year abroad, with the entire French and Spanish-speaking world at my disposal. As I mentioned before, it will be my first time travelling alone, and thus I approach it with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. It is easy for me to enjoy the view up here on my linguistic high horse and claim that I won’t naturally gravitate towards other English-speaking exchange students (wherever I am in the world). But my primary intention will be to explore a different culture with my best efforts and most open frame of mind.

Thus resolved, we may now return to the merits of individual versus group travel. I prefer group travel because it is a known entity. Solo travel is in my case, yet unknown, and therefore uncertain. But what I hope we have come to realise is that neither situation is more conducive to a ‘superior’ holiday than the other. Whether it is just you and the big blue sky, or you, the big blue sky and fifty other British people alongside you, ‘You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.’ – Dr Seuss.