Solo Travel Groups: How to Find Your People | Yacht Week

The best way to meet people while travelling alone is to join a solo travel group: a trip built around a small, fixed group of people who arrive on their own. Unlike a hostel dorm or a one-off walking tour, a solo travel group removes the two obstacles that make travelling alone hard. The first is the single supplement, the extra cost of a room priced for two. The second is the work of starting every conversation from scratch. On Yacht Week, that group comes built in through the Solo Spot. You share a cabin with another solo traveller of the same gender, join a full yacht crew and sail the route with the wider fleet from day one, without bringing anyone with you.

Why Solo Travel Groups Are Growing

Travelling alone is no longer a niche choice. According to Go2Africa’s Luxury Solo Travel Report, searches for “solo travel” reached 1.6 million in January 2026 alone, the highest on record, and searches for solo travel terms have climbed 230% over ten years. Group solo travel is one of the most searched themes within that growth, alongside travel tips and female solo travel.

The reasons are practical as much as personal. People choose to travel alone for freedom over their itinerary, to push themselves into something new, or simply because friends can’t travel on the same schedule. Solo travel groups answer the obvious follow-up question: how do you go alone without being alone the whole time? They attract a wide range of people, from first-time solo travellers in their twenties to guests who don’t want to wait for a friend’s calendar to clear before booking.

The Two Biggest Challenges of Travelling Alone

Ask solo travellers what worries them and the same answers come up. In the Solo Female Travelers 2026 survey, 68% named personal safety as a top concern, tied with the higher cost of travelling without someone to split expenses with.

The cost problem is structural. Most travel, from hotel rooms to private charters, is priced for two, so travelling alone often means paying a single supplement. The loneliness problem is about design rather than mood. A solo trip built around passive sightseeing gives you plenty of scenery and very few natural openings to meet anyone.

How to Choose a Solo Travel Group

The right solo travel group gives you repeated, structured contact with the same people, not just proximity to other travellers. A few things make the difference:

• A fixed, small group. Seeing the same faces at breakfast, on the same outings and around the same table each night is what builds familiarity.
• Shared time from the first day. The first meal or activity sets the tone for the week. Skipping it to rest usually costs more in missed connection than it gains in recovery.
• Pre-trip tools. Group chats and shared apps mean you’re not meeting everyone cold on arrival.
• Communal formats over private ones. A private guide or a solo hotel room removes the stress of logistics but creates no social contact.

How Solo Travel Groups Compare

Hostels put you near other travellers, but proximity isn’t structure. Whether you meet anyone depends on who happens to be in the common room that night.

Small-group solo travel tours build in a shared itinerary and a guide, which helps. The pace is usually fixed, though, and the group often stays in guided-tour mode rather than a social one.

Cruises work for some people, but on a large ship it can be hard to find your crowd among thousands of passengers, and the single supplement is often steep.

A solo spot on a group sailing trip combines a small, unchanging group with daily shared structure: meals, swim stops and evening events. There’s also enough unstructured time for friendships to form the way they usually do, through repeated small moments rather than one forced icebreaker.

Why Yacht Week Works as a Solo Travel Group

Yacht Week’s solo sailing option turns a yacht into a ready-made solo travel group. Here’s how it works in practice.

The Solo Spot

You book a place in a shared double-bed cabin and are matched with another solo traveller of the same gender, with your cabin mate assigned around two weeks before departure. The beds are 140cm wide in the aft cabin of a monohull and 150cm on a catamaran. The rate includes your Skipper and Host, breakfast and lunch every day, and two dinners. You pay for your spot, not a whole cabin or a whole yacht. If you’d rather have a room to yourself, you can book a full solo cabin instead.

A crew that’s already social

Your yacht is a mix of solo travellers, couples and small groups, so you join a crew rather than attaching yourself to someone else’s trip. Before you arrive, the Yacht Week app shows everyone confirmed onto your route, not just your yacht. Around two weeks out, you join a group chat with your yacht’s crew, Skipper and Host. By the time you reach the marina, you’ve usually already spoken to some of the people you’ll spend the week with.

Arriving alone, leaving with a crew

Guests often describe stepping onto a yacht of strangers and leaving with people they now travel with. Some meet through Yacht Week’s guest community before the trip, then book their next week together once they’re home. Nothing guarantees friendship, but the shared cabin, shared meals and shared route make it far more likely than a trip you navigate alone.

The structure does the social work

A typical week includes raft-ups, shared dinners, swim stops and evening parties. Conversation happens at all of them without anyone having to force it. Your Skipper and Host handle the logistics, so all you need to do is turn up.

You’re never on your own

For the full week, you live on a yacht with a Skipper, a Host and a small group of guests, and the wider fleet gathers at each stop. Solo travel stops feeling solo very quickly.

No sailing experience needed

Your Skipper handles the yacht. Some guests get hands-on with the sails, most don’t, and neither is the point.

Best Yacht Week Destinations for Solo Travel Groups

Croatia

Croatia Original is where Yacht Week began, and it’s the busiest route. It takes in Trogir, a UNESCO World Heritage old town, Hvar, often called the St Tropez of Croatia, and Vis, where dinner at Fort George takes place inside a fortress built by the British in the early 19th century. Bigger fleets mean more people to meet across the wider group, not just on your own yacht. The Solo Spot is available here.

Greece

Greece Original runs smaller and more intimate. The route crosses the Saronic Gulf between Poros, Hydra and Ermioni, with more time in quiet bays and a stronger focus on local food and culture alongside the parties. If Croatia is the busiest introduction to Yacht Week, Greece is the version with more room to breathe. The Solo Spot is available here too.

Sicily

Sicily Original sails the Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The route includes a trek up Stromboli, one of the world’s most consistently active volcanoes, and evenings shift between secluded bays and venues like Raya on Panarea. The shared-cabin Solo Spot isn’t currently offered in Sicily, so solo travellers book a full solo cabin and still join a mixed crew on board.

What a Typical Week Looks Like

Arrival

You meet your Skipper, Host and cabin mate at the marina. Bags go on board, cabins get sorted, and your Skipper runs through a short safety briefing before you set off.

The first day

Expect an easy first sail and a swim stop rather than a packed schedule. Most crews spend day one finding their rhythm: who’s up early, who wants to swim before coffee, who’s already planning the evening.

Days on the water

Days move between sailing, swim stops in quiet coves and time ashore in the towns along the route.

Nights with the fleet

Evenings bring raft-ups, where several yachts tie together for a shared party on the water, along with dockside events and DJ sets, depending on the route.

Where friendships form

The friendships tend to form in the gaps: the swim before breakfast, the queue for the shower, the long dinner table. Guests often say the people end up mattering more than the itinerary. Yacht Week co-founder Erik Biorklund has described the brand as built on “shared experiences rooted in adventure, shaped by real social interaction.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a solo travel group?

A solo travel group is a trip built for people travelling alone, where a small, fixed group shares accommodation, meals and activities for the whole trip. On Yacht Week, your solo travel group is your yacht’s crew, with the wider fleet around you at every stop.

Is Yacht Week good for solo travellers?

Yes. The Solo Spot is designed for it: a shared cabin, a full crew and a route built around group events, so you’re part of the social side of the week from day one without having to organise anyone.

Will I share a cabin?

If you book a Solo Spot, yes. You share a double-bed cabin with another solo traveller of the same gender, matched around two weeks before your trip.

Can I have a cabin to myself?

Yes. Instead of a Solo Spot, you can book a full solo cabin and keep the room to yourself while sharing the rest of the yacht with your crew.

Is Yacht Week safe if I’m travelling alone?

You’re never travelling in isolation. You’re on a yacht with a Skipper and Host for the full week, alongside a small group of guests, with the wider fleet at each stop.

What’s the age range?

Most guests are in their twenties and thirties, and the minimum age is 20. Solo travellers of any age within that range join cabin yachts, alongside couples and small groups.

Can I join if I’ve never sailed before?

Yes. Your Skipper handles the sailing. No experience is needed, and plenty of guests spend the week as passengers rather than crew.

CTA: Find Your Solo Spot