Brand g has a lot of solo travelers. Some are happily single, some are divorced and looking for a new relationship, some are widowed, and some just want to go somewhere that their partner doesn’t so they travel without them.
But they travel! In fact, some of them are our most frequent guests. And we love them and do everything we can to make them feel not only welcome, but truly appreciated. Many of our solo travelers have traveled with us six, eight, ten, even a dozen times – which hopefully gives you an indication of how positive their experience is.
WHO ARE BRAND g’s SOLO TRAVELERS?
They tend to be mostly male, mostly in their 50’s and 60’s (and some 70’s), and they’re generally quite active and friendly people. Now, by friendly, we don’t mean that they’re big, suck-all-the-air-out-of-a-room personalities; they just tend to enjoy meeting others. Which is why they don’t mind traveling alone in the first place!
Of course, we don’t want to scare any shyer solo travelers. We’ve had extremely shy singles end up in group hugs at the end of a trip. You don’t necessarily have to be the one to initiate interactions. People will also just come up to you. One of the things we always say about our guests is that they’re exceptionally friendly. But if you ARE able to extend yourself just the slightest bit, you’ll find even more willing friends on a Brand g trip.
WHAT IS THE ATMOSPHERE LIKE FOR SOLO TRAVELERS?
Welcoming.
Our Brand g hosts do everything they can to make solo travelers feel like an integral part of the group. They will set up solo traveler tables at dinner, so the singles on that trip can meet one another. They will introduce guests to one another on shore excursions, at happy hour, etc. Creating a sense of family is extremely important to us, and we try to make it as easy as possible for people to get to know each other and bond.
I always admire how our hosts will go around and check on each table at dinner, how they’ll sit with different guests at every meal, etc. Every human being just wants to be acknowledged, and Brand g goes out of its way to ensure that that happens.
I – the author of this blog post – will never forget when my husband and I took our very first Brand g trip in 2016. It was a river cruise from Burgundy to Provence. And if you haven’t been on a river cruise ship – there’s generally just one main dining room. So the first night at dinner, which was our first meal onboard, we were walking around, feeling for all the world like the new kid in the school cafeteria. And some guys said, “Would you like to join us?”
From there on in, it was smooth sailing, because we realized that this is a group that WANTS to make new friends. After that, we’d just waltz up to a table and say, “Do you mind if we join you?” No one EVER turned us down. I’d like to think it’s because I’m so hot, but trust me, my friends (and any tangential grasp on reality) would differ with this notion. It’s actually because Brand g guests are just nice, warm people.
HOW MANY SOLO TRAVELERS ARE THERE ON A GIVEN TRIP?
That varies widely. On a recent 200-passenger Mediterranean cruise, there were about 25 solo travelers. We had a whole small section of the dining room just for solo guests. But that’s an anomaly. Generally, about 5-8% of the guests will be solo. So if you’re on a river cruise or small-ship ocean cruise where the total guest count is like 120-200, you’ll encounter maybe 6-10 solo travelers as a rule.
On a small-group trip, like our land tours, or our exotics that include a river cruise and land tour, where the group size is anywhere from 30-60, you’ll just have a handful, maybe 2-4.
HOW MUCH EXTRA DOES IT COST TO TAKE A TRIP AS A SOLO TRAVELER?
The single supplement varies widely, depending on the trip – but Brand g routinely offers the lowest single supplements of any LGBT+ tour operator. We make far less money on solo travelers, since they’re almost never paying double, but we don’t think that solo travelers should be penalized.
Of course, with that said, there are economics involved, particularly in smaller group travel (our land tours can be 30-40 people, and our largest cruise passenger count is 200), since each room is a larger share of the cost/profit than with, say, a 4,000 passenger cruise. Also, as we all know, the travel industry bases its pricing on two people per room or cabin, and that pricing model is something no tour operator has control over.
Now, some of the river cruise ships that we charter do have a solo cabin or two, which is great, because it can cost literally nothing extra to travel solo. (And in some cases, it can even be cheaper than half the cost of a regular double cabin.) Those go quickly, of course, so you need to book those as soon as the trip becomes available.
But on other cruises – and on land tours – there will be a single supplement. And that can vary widely, based on the ship or hotels or destination involved. On most of our river cruise and river cruise/land tour combo vacations, the single supplement is $2,500 on a number of cabin categories. (So, it’s the per person cost plus $2,500.)
On our luxury ocean cruises, the single supplement is $3,500 on a number of cabin categories.
On our land tours, it varies – from a single supplement of $600 on Cuba to $1,500 on Thailand to $3,500 or more on some other, lengthier trips. Again, this varies because of the trip length, the destination, and the hotel properties involved.
As a point of reference: if you take a mainstream (i.e. non-LGBT) cruise, they typically charge double the price for a cabin. If a cruise is $5,000 per person, you’ll pay $10,000 to travel in that room alone. The mainstream cruise lines do sometimes offer last-minute bargains where the single supplement is dramatically less, but that’s only on cruises that are not selling. So, the single supplement is certainly not something relegated to LGBT-only trips.
WHAT IF I’D LIKE TO SAVE ON COST BY SHARING A ROOM WITH SOMEONE?
Brand g does not offer a roommate matching service. But we do have a private Facebook group called CARE TO SHARE, where guests can post and chat about a trip they want to find a roommate for. If you’d like to join it, just click on this link, ask to join, and you’ll be vetted and admitted within 24 hours.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3205004466284850
DO SOLO TRAVELERS HOOK UP?
We’re aware that this does happen sometimes, but our trips are not designed to be sexfests, so guests are generally quite discreet about it. We have had guests meet and marry thanks to our trips, and even more importantly, many solo travelers have developed longtime friendships with other guests. We have many “Ring Them Bells” stories. (Ring Them Bells is a famous Liza Minelli song about a girl who travels to another country and – by sheer coincidence – ends up meeting the guy who lives next door to her in New York.) Guests discover they live in the same city and end up getting together when they get home and developing true friendships. Or guests who live in different areas of the country meet, strike up a friendship, and become travel buddies, planning trips together because they share the passion for seeing the world.
FINAL THOUGHTS
We think you’ll find being a solo traveler on a Brand g trip to be an extremely positive experience, and a more cost-effective option that you may have thought. As I mentioned earlier, we have solo guests who travel with us year in and year out, so we must be doing something right.
But you be the judge!
