Solo travel surge

Going alone is becoming the easiest way to get a trip on the calendar. Adventure company Much Better Adventures says solo bookings are up 55% in 2026 versus 2025, and up 200% versus 2023, with 75% of its customers now joining trips on their own. (rte.ie) That changes the kind of holiday people buy. A guided hiking trip, cycling tour, or small-group trek solves the hardest part of solo travel in one purchase: transport, itinerary, and a ready-made set of people to eat dinner with on night one. (rte.ie) The timing is not random. Sam Bruce, the co-founder of Much Better Adventures, told RTÉ that people are no longer waiting for plans to escape the group chat, and the booking data suggests travelers are choosing certainty over coordination. (rte.ie) Another operator is seeing the same shape of demand from a different angle. Backroads said in December 2025 that bookings for its women’s adventures were projected to grow 100% in 2026, while the solo travel market overall was expected to grow 14% over the next five years. (backroads.com) The catch is that solo travelers feel every extra fee in full. A couple can split a taxi, a family can spread one hotel bill across four beds, but a person traveling alone pays the airline surcharge, the entry permit, and the city tax without anyone else absorbing part of it. (blog.wego.com) This summer’s price rise is also arriving in smaller pieces than a simple headline airfare jump. Wego says the extra cost is showing up through fuel surcharges on flights, new border paperwork charges, and accommodation levies in popular cities rather than through one clean inflation number. (blog.wego.com) Some of those new charges are now official. The United Kingdom’s Electronic Travel Authorisation costs £20 from April 8, 2026, and the European Union’s European Travel Information and Authorisation System is listed on the official European Union site at a planned €20 fee when it starts. (gov.uk) (travel-europe.europa.eu) Cities are adding their own layer on top. Venice’s access fee applies on scheduled days for visitors entering the historic city, and Amsterdam’s tourist tax in 2026 is widely listed at 12.5% of the overnight room rate before value-added tax. (cda.veneziaunica.it) (thebudgethotel.eu) Put those two trends together and you get the 2026 travel market in one picture: more people are willing to travel without a partner, but they are increasingly buying trips that reduce friction and surprise costs. The winning product is not “cheap travel” so much as “book once, know the plan, and don’t wait for anyone.” (rte.ie) (blog.wego.com)