Fed up with single supplements whenever you try to book a solo holiday? Savvy firms are cottoning on, and now there's a wealth of penalty-free packages if you're by yourself but keen to meet people, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER

HOLIDAYS SHOULD mean stress-free basking in the sun. The whole concept is designed to help you unwind – if you’re lucky enough to have friends, relatives or partners who want to travel with you on the dates you can depart. But what if you have to go it alone? Up until now you either paid the single-supplement penalty or stayed at home.

Not any more. Singles are the fastest-growing part of the travel market, according to Jane Cardnell of Solos Holidays, one of the largest speciality agents in the sector. Over in Britain, she says, the number of single travellers has increased by 5 per cent over the past five years. In Dublin the Travel Department now has group holidays for solo travellers. “Through focus-group research we discovered that there’s a negative connotation to the term ‘single’,” explains marketing manager Stephen Galvin. “So we call ours solo-friendly holidays. They’re aimed at anyone who is travelling alone and are all single-supplement-free.”

The ratio of women to men averages six to four. “Females want the security of the group, rather than travelling alone,” Cardnell explains. None of the companies we spoke to is offering the mad-for-it excesses and coupling activities that take place on 18-30s holidays. These new solo holidaymakers are interested in making friends rather than dating, for the most part. One online travel outfit even lets you make friends with your fellow travellers before you leave.

We’ve found a range of holidays to suit all interests.

Singalong a Greek walking holiday

BEST FORENERGETIC MOVIE BUFFS

"I'm going to Greece for the sex!" Shirley Valentine declared. These days Greece is the word if you fancy a toe-tapping time. UK-based Solos Holidays (00-44-844-8150005, solosholidays.co.uk) is calling all campers to follow in the footsteps of the musical Mamma Mia!with a walking holiday that explores the film's locations on the islands of Skiathos and neighbouring Skopelos, in the Aegean Sea.

You stay on Skiathos, at the 38-room Kivo Hotel and Suites, three kilometres or so from Skiathos town and just under a kilometre from Vassilias Beach. There are shady terraces, a bar and restaurant and an outdoor pool where you can drink in the views while cooling off. Four guided walks are included in the trip. They average between seven and 12km a day, so a certain level of fitness is required, and you're expected to bring your own boots. You can explore monasteries, ghost towns and even the little church where the wedding in Mamma Mia!took place. And then there are the island's beautiful beaches. It's enough to make you break into song.

The next trip leaves on May 7th from both London Gatwick and Manchester. Seven days costs about €1,113 (£995) from Dublin, including BB, four lunches and seven dinners. The price does not include any overnight accommodation you might need in the UK between transfers

Calling all sun worshippers

BEST FORANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE ALONE

If all you want to do is fly to the sun, bask in the rays and make like Greta Garbo and be left alone, then maybe a package to Agadir, in Morocco, is for you. Sunway (01-2311888, sunway.ie) has no supplement on selected self-catering holidays in Tunisia and Morocco. The big draw of the thoroughly modern resort of Agadir is its 10km golden strand and promenade. Sunway has self-catering in the three-star Intouriste apartments for €409. If you prefer something a bit more social, then BB at the three-star Oasis Hotel costs €439; the same type of accommodation at the Argana Hotel is €439. What remains of the kasbah, the port and main souk are all worth exploring, and be sure to buy some argan oil, which is fantastic for dry skin.

These prices are for seven nights, leaving on April 17th, and include taxes and transfers

Cook up new skills in Italy

BEST FORPOTENTIAL FOR MAKING FRIENDS

A Taste of Rome (085-8181032, atasteofrome.com) has a weekend cookery course in a 15th- century mansion in the village of Casperia, high on a hill about 75km from Rome. “We cook, sleep and eat in the beautifully restored Palazzo La Torretta,” says owner Mark Minihane. “The village is full of nooks and crannies and cobbled alleyways. It has three bars, and there are some lovely restaurants.” There are no single supplements, and the maximum number in any group is eight.

A three-night weekend, excluding flights, costs £599 (about €700). What is included is BB, a Friday-night dinner, a pre-dinner lesson to whet your appetite for supper on Saturday, and a Sunday-morning lesson, with dinner that night followed by wine and olive-oil tasting. (Fly to Rome, then take a train to Casperia.) Alternatively, a five-day course, from Friday to Tuesday, with three cookery lessons, costs £799 (about €900), excluding flights

Meet people and learn moves

BEST FORTHE SHY AND RETIRING

If the idea of heading into the wide blue yonder with a bunch of strangers brings you out in a rash, then try Vida Loca Travel (vidalocatravel.co.uk), a recently launched social-networking travel website. It offers group holidays with the option to build friendships, either virtually or in person, before you go. The site is aimed at professionals between the ages of 25 and 45 who have only a few weeks off each year and find it hard to match up their holiday dates with their friends’, says founder Mark Thompson. “I think the majority want to meet some friends who they can then go on holiday with.” Register, then click on the holiday types you’re interested in. The “I’m interested” button lets you see the other people who’ve already expressed an interest in that vacation. You can then send a private message to one of the other individuals or post a public comment. The dance packages are great ice-breakers, says Thompson.

A week of salsa dancing in Barcelona, from June 20th to 27th, costs £699 (about €800), excluding flights. Aer Lingus flies to Barcelona from Dublin, Cork and Belfast. EasyJet (easyjet.com) flies from Belfast. Ryanair flies to Barcelona Girona from Dublin. A Salsa Splash in Alicante, from June 15th to 21st, costs £325 (about €375), excluding flights. Ryanair flies to Alicante from Dublin, Cork, Derry, Kerry, Knock and Shannon. Or learn how to flamenco in Jerez, from August 1st to 8th, for £529. Ryanair flies via London Stansted

Camp in the wilds of Africa

BEST FORTHE INTREPID EXPLORER

If you’ve always been excited by the idea of camping in Africa but have postponed the adventure because of a lack of a co-pilot, then Wild About Africa (00-44-20-87584717, wildabout africa.com) has a Three Country African Adventure that takes in Namibia, Botswana and Zambia. This is basic rather than posh safari camping. You pitch in the bush, surrounded by the sounds of the plains. Each adventurer gets a tent with foam mattress and cotton-lined sleeping bag. It’s fairly rustic, admits Chris McIntyre of the company. “You even put up your own tent.” You’ll explore the Kalahari, navigate Botswana’s Okavango Delta and camp on the banks of the Zambezi, close to Victoria Falls. An assistant does most of the chores, but you may be asked to help out. “If breaking a nail upsets you, then maybe this isn’t for you,” says McIntyre.

Prices in May are from £2,116 (about €2,400) from Dublin, including flights, full-board camping and a night in a guest house

Get into shape in Switzerland

BEST FOROVER-55s

If you long for a pace of life that harks back to the golden age of travel, then how about Great Rail Journeys's Jungfrau Express and Golden Pass? (00-44-1904-521900, greatrail.com). The nine-day voyage leaves St Pancras International, in London, for Brussels, Luxembourg and Bern, travelling along Lake Thun to Interlaken. Then it's on to Bernese Oberland and through the Eiger tunnel to Jungfraujoch and Europe's highest railway station. The tour continues to Mürren, set high in the Bernese Oberland, where you take a cable car to the summit of the 2,970m Schilthorn – with views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, all from the comfort of the Piz Gloria revolving restaurant, which cameoed in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The journey continues through Germany and along the Rhine Gorge to Cologne, then back to Brussels and London. These trips, which target over-55s, offer sociable eating tables, a get-to-know-you drinks reception, sightseeing trips and individual accommodation in four- and five-star hotels. You travel first class on the trains. "It's all very sociable," says Great Rail's Richard Adams. "We take over almost an entire carriage, and friendships are generated very easily."

Travel in May costs £1,598 (about €1,800) from London. Trains leave at 9.30am, so you will need to stay overnight in the city beforehand

Explore Prague in a weekend

BEST FORBEGINNERS

If this is your first time flying solo, then you might prefer to test the waters with a short break rather than commit to a longer break. The Travel Department (01-6371600, thetraveldepartment.ie) has a range of “solo-friendly holidays” that include Estoril, in Portugal, Tuscany, the Costa Brava and Barcelona, in conjunction with a Mediterranean cruise. There’s also a three-night break in Prague. For this one, you stay at the four-star Clarion Congress Hotel, in a modern part of the city, 15 minutes from the historical centre. Also included is a half-day sightseeing and walking tour. On one of the evenings you take a supper cruise on the Vltava, travelling under Charles Bridge and getting unparalleled views of Prague Castle, Mala Strana, the National Theatre and Vysehrad Fortress.

Flights leave Dublin on the evening of Friday, May 14th, and return late on Monday, May 17th. The price of €529 includes return Aer Lingus flights, three nights’ BB and the excursions

Dry all season long

If you’re one of the estimated 195,000 people in recovery in Ireland, and the idea of going on a holiday where people will be drinking alcohol terrifies you, then check out Sober Holidays (01-8704988, 086-7832727, soberholidays.ie). People in recovery are afraid to take vacations because four in 10 of them relapse while away, says the company’s Andrew O’Loughlin, who is himself in recovery.

His 19th-century Villa Renovatio, near Faro in Portugal, is a five-bedroom property with pool and sun terraces where you can holiday with like-minded people. It is on the edge of a national park, and there are long woodland walks and a beach nearby. A solo holiday week from May 1st to 8th costs€895, including transfers and all meals but excluding flights. Aer Lingus and Ryanair fly to Faro from Ireland.

Happy to share?

Many travel companies require you to share with someone. The adventurous embrace this opportunity to meet new friends, but others are not so convinced. Embrace the new, says Colette Pearson of Abbey Travel. “You’ll be put into a room with someone like-minded, and it’s an opportunity to grow a new circle of friends. Just be sure to pack earplugs.”

If you’re happy to share, Exodus is a UK company that offers adventurous solo holidays through Abbey Travel (01-8047153, exodus.co.uk or abbeytravel.ie). Groups range from six to 16 people, mostly in their 30s and 40s. Its Discover Sri Lanka 15-day tour costs between €1,008 and €1,204. Expect to pay an additional €1,800 for flights to Colombo.

Lisdoonvarna by the Danube? Not quite

writes KEVIN O'CONNOR

AS MOST OF EUROPE was hunkering under duvets in the cold snap, I was trudging through Hungary’s frozen lakes. Well, it wasn’t quite that dramatic, but some of us who emerged from Budapest’s main airport wondered what brought us into this fairyland of frost and snow. Having left the snarl of Dublin’s traffic, everything was now silent, brooding and Gothic. Buses, cars and trams glided on roads quiet with carpets of snow.

We had signed up for this singles escorted tour of Budapest a gloomier month or two earlier, when, watching RTÉ’s Jim Fahy up to his oxters in waders on the nightly news, it seemed the west might drown.

We agreed, as the guide counted us out of the coach, and we had our first sight of our fellow holidaymakers, that the imperative of getting off the island had propelled us into meeting strangers in hotel lobbies. Twenty- seven of us, all from Ireland and all doing a runner to Budapest in winter. Were we mad? Yes, a little. But we were all over 40 – some by a good stretch – and, yes, a tad eccentric.

“I like snow, but not at home,” said a woman in a fur coat and matching hat, dragging on her first cigarette outside our hotel. “We’re not equipped for it.” “I agree,” said Harry, a retired railwayman who had seen more climates than most of us, through a lifetime of concession travel, via the railroads of the world. Although happily a grandfather, he felt a break from an overly loving family might do him no harm. Such snippets of revelation filtered over an evening meal as we got to know each other a little more.

Some of the men were widowers, and more of the women were widowed or divorced. And, no, it wasn’t Lisdoonvarna by the Danube. It was simply a way for people to get away for a long weekend with people they didn’t know and probably wouldn’t see again. They had earned their single status, one felt, and were unlikely to discard it over a weekend, however cold the climate and pleasant the company.

Many had been farther afield with the Travel Department, our tour company, whose style suited them. You meet at the airport, go with a coach and guide to a hotel, have a coach on call, have meals organised for you, and have the option of sightseeing. You are also given free time in which to follow your curiosity. The guide just warned us not to get lost, get robbed or go missing. What’s more, the single supplement once imposed by hotels has been relaxed in leaner times, meaning you get a double room at little or no extra cost.

Istanbul, Bejing and Tokyo were among the cities mentioned by hardy veterans of singles travel as we got to know each other over the next few days. And now Budapest.

For those unfamiliar with this jewel of the Austro-Hungarian epoch, I recommend a walk over Chain Bridge, which divides Buda from Pest. Stop midway to look into the murky Danube, whose course determined European history for millennia. Admire a pilot in a small tug driving six huge containers ahead of him through the eyes of the huge bridges. Visit any of the fabulous hot-spring bath houses, either in the open air or indoors. Gellert, Kiraly and Szechenyi are among the better known. The restored Opera House is worth visiting for its grandeur even if you’re not into opera.

Our group divided evenly during free time, with the women opting for the Opera House and the men, to a man, locked inside Beckett’s pub for the 6 Nations rugby. But as the song says, it was cold outside.