Strangers as Travel Companions: Why Group Tours for Solo Travelers Keep Growing
An adult can have dozens of contacts in their phone, colleagues, a partner and close friends - and still find no one free to take a vacation with. After 30, matching dates with friends gets harder, and going solo doesn't suit everyone: it's expensive and not always safe. The travel industry has found an answer - grouping travelers of similar age, introducing them in chats before departure and putting them together for days of close contact.
Marin, 35, from Marseille, had plenty of friends, but when she planned a trip to Bali none could join her: schedules clashed, some preferred traveling with partners, others couldn't afford it. She booked a tour for women traveling without acquaintances, met ten fellow travelers, and years later was a bridesmaid at one of their weddings. "The fact that the group was only women reassured me," she told Le Monde.
Such tours have become a business of their own. Companies assemble strangers of roughly similar social status and sell the trip on the promise of like-minded company. Fabio Bina, co-founder of the European travel service WeRoad, notes that finding a companion after 30 is hard even for people with wide circles - one wants a beach, another the mountains, a third won't spend the money. About 90 percent of WeRoad's clients book without companions, the service says.
The World Health Organization estimates roughly one in six people worldwide experiences loneliness, which doesn't necessarily mean lacking friends. Not everyone on a group tour considers themselves lonely: some simply have no one available on their dates, others want new acquaintances, and some prefer not to depend on friends when choosing a route.
Prices vary widely. In October 2026, a nine-day G Adventures Solo-ish tour of Egypt was offered at $1,294 instead of $1,849. WeRoad's ten-day Paris-to-Berlin trip cost from $2,290, with a WhatsApp group chat opened about two weeks before departure. FTLO Travel's eight days along the Amalfi Coast and Puglia start at $4,999, with groups capped at 16 and an emphasis on shared dinners and aperitivos.
In Russia, such offers come mostly from organizers of author tours, sports camps and small group trips. CULT CLUB runs four-day art tours to Venice from €1,320; the "Red Hat Cousteau" travel club offers a Kamchatka tour for 299,000 rubles. Yeti Tour's summer hike in the Polar Urals costs 50,000 rubles per person excluding tickets, and a winter ski trip to the Manpupuner plateau 69,000. The "Sila Vetra" sailing community runs expeditions from 80,000 to 200,000 rubles, with Antarctica from 1.2 million.
Jeffrey Hall of the University of Kansas studied how long friendship takes, surveying 355 adults who had recently moved cities and observing 112 first-year students over nine weeks. Moving from acquaintance to casual friend takes dozens of hours of contact, and closer friendship more still; time together at work or study mattered less than shared leisure. "You can't snap your fingers and make a friend," Hall said.
On a trip people spend nearly the whole day together - breakfast at one table, bus rides, walks through unfamiliar cities, choosing a restaurant - and sometimes solve problems together, like late transport or a wrong turn. A week can stack up more such moments than months of occasional meetings at home.
A WeRoad survey of more than 5,000 people in Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Britain found 83 percent feel more open to communication while traveling, and 66 percent formed at least one relationship they considered significant on a trip. Psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad of Brigham Young University has noted that even small friendly contacts strengthen a sense of belonging - repeated moments of talking, helping and doing things together matter more than exotic experiences.
Stories of lasting friendship do follow some trips. Amrita Langbur went to Colombia with Flash Pack, met six group members, and they later traveled together again. Andrea, 25, had taken six WeRoad trips by autumn 2026 and booked a seventh. Adele, who moved to Prague and lacked friends, went to Morocco with the Russian-language WannaSurf project, met four women, and one became her best friend; a year and a half later they were still meeting and even traveled to Madeira together.
But such tours don't suit everyone and hardly guarantee new acquaintances. Companies readily share success stories but rarely publish how many participants stay in touch a year or two later. Becky, 53, a Briton who traveled both independently and in groups, told The Guardian she sometimes felt lonely precisely on an organized trip. Group travel doesn't mean people will get along: habits, ideas of rest and budgets can differ sharply, and even among peers common ground isn't guaranteed.