There’s that moment after the maitre d’ seats me alone at the four-top when I start doubting my travel choices. I busy myself with the menu, trying hard not to feel conspicuous as the only person by herself in a dining room full of couples.
“Will someone be joining you?” my waiter asks, overly eager to remove any unnecessary place settings.
“I hope so,” I tell him, anxiously scanning the dining room. And then I see the maitre d’ leading a couple my way, and I sigh in relief. I won’t have to dine alone.
Solo cruise travel is trending, but that doesn’t make it less intimidating. On ships designed for double occupancy, travelers cruising alone must work harder to socialize and face the prospect of dining alone or sharing a table with strangers every night. There’s no built-in buddy for sharing airport transfers or wandering around port together. And on top of it all, they often have to pay double for the privilege.
Yet more and more, singles, widows and widowers, and travelers who just need “me time” are asking travel advisors to book them on solo cruises.
Some 12% of cruise travelers sailed solo in 2024, up from 6% in 2023, according to the Cruise Lines International Association's 2025 State of the Cruise Industry Report. Riviera Travel is launching a new ship in 2027 where every cabin is a single.
“The increased demand [for solo travel] in my business is mainly coming from the baby boomer segment,” says Barbara Henkel, owner of Henkel Travel Services, an independent agent of Cadence. “From my observation, women are more commonly outliving their husbands and they aren’t ready to give up their dreams and desires of travel.”
Is your client really prepared to go it alone on a couple-y cruise? Should you encourage wannabe solo cruisers to vacation alone, and how should you prepare them? I set sail solo on Windstar Cruises’ 312-passenger Star Legend on a winter Italy and Croatia cruise to find out firsthand what it’s like to be a borderline introvert alone on a cruise.
Spoiler alert: It was more fun than I anticipated, but with some surprise stumbling blocks I didn’t foresee.
The Ship Is Key to a Successful Solo Sailing
Windstar was the ideal line for a solo cruise. Its ships carry fewer than 350 guests, so I kept running into people I’d met earlier in the cruise. Its passengers come aboard looking to socialize; couples request shared tables and strike up conversations with people they meet in the pool, the lounge, or at the line’s signature sailaway each afternoon. Several crew members quickly learned my name, chatted with me when I sat alone, and made me feel cared for.
“Smaller and more intimate vessels allow guests a chance to bond through shared experiences,” says Henkel, who finds river and expedition cruises to be great options for solos.
On smaller ships, a majority of guests will go to the evening show or afternoon activity as there aren’t competing options. Plus, these sailings tend to be more destination-intensive, so solos are often too busy to feel lonely or isolated on board.
However, solo travelers who want to be entertained but not necessarily socialize might prefer the anonymity of a big ship, where something is always going on that they can watch and enjoy.
If your clients are nervous about handling travel logistics on their own, steer them toward lines that package together airfare, transfers, and pre- or post-cruise extensions. Henkel also likes to book solo guests on lines like Viking that include shore excursions in the fare, as it’s another logistical piece hesitant solo cruisers don’t have to plan.
Price is a concern but often not an insurmountable stumbling block. Tauck and AmaWaterways are among the lines that consistently waive or reduce the single supplement on entry-level rooms. Shoulder-season cruises can often be more affordable for solo travelers, but don’t assume price is the determining factor for your clients. Many solo vacationers are willing to pay what it takes to keep traveling.
“Many of my solo travelers have become less price-sensitive and are embracing a sentiment of YOLO [you only live once],” says Henkel. “Paying close to double in some cases is not as big of a hurdle as it was in years past.”
The true luxury travelers will pay top dollar to get the cruise they want, rather than compromise to save money. Sell them on the value of the right itinerary and ship, and the solo supplement becomes less of an obstacle.
Managing Tours and Transfers for One Can Be Tricky
Some solo travelers will be content to explore a port on their own or hire a taxi or car to tour around. Others will feel safer on group tours and prefer them for their social opportunities. Ask your solo cruise clients how they prefer to handle port days because that will impact the best ship and itinerary for them.
On my Windstar cruise, I was interested in tours, either because I wanted to visit a destination outside the cruise port or because I wanted to learn more about the history of the area. But the combination of being on a small ship and quiet-season travel made my quest for tours a bit tricky.
Carrying just over 300 guests, Star Legend (and ships of similar size) can’t support the vast excursion roster offered by the big ships, so your client might find, as I did, that the ship-sponsored options didn’t always appeal. And as the ship was roughly half full, tours didn’t always have enough participants to operate.
I turned to third-party providers — Viator, Eating Europe, Shore Excursions Group — to look for alternatives; these can often be more affordable than ship-sponsored tours, but you’re responsible for finding your way to the meeting point if it’s not the pier. I had one tour canceled because I was the only one who signed up. I avoided this problem by convincing the friends I made on the ship to join me on tours later in the cruise. If I hadn’t, another would have been canceled as well.
Private tours, by independent operators or aggregators like ToursByLocals, provide a personal touch and local insight but are a more expensive choice. Yet I had an incredible day touring Dubrovnik with Marijana through ToursByLocals because she was both knowledgeable and wonderful to hang out with for five hours. I also met other solos who reached out directly to the local operators after the aggregators canceled and found the tour companies were amenable to a direct booking for one for just a slightly higher price.
On the other hand, during the busy season, when tours and shared transfers fill up quickly and sell out, solo travelers can grab that one last available spot when couples are out of luck.
I also had some transfer trouble: Shared rides, including Windstar’s, were not running from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport to the Civitavecchia cruise port because the tiny Star Legend was the only ship in port. Solo travelers who aren’t comfortable with a cab, especially for long transfers like those in Italy, might need to pay extra for a private car when traveling in the shoulder season.
Socializing Takes a Little Nerve
Some first-time solo cruisers will be most concerned about navigating international travel and logistics on their own, especially older travelers accustomed to traveling with a spouse. As a shy person, I was most nervous about socializing on board. I didn’t want to be alone on the whole trip, but I’m not always confident about striking up conversations with strangers.
“If you are just a little friendly and engaging, others will gladly respond to that vibe,” Henkel had advised me pre-trip, so I put on my game face and put myself out there.
I forced myself to talk to the couple stuck at the Rome cruise port with me early on embarkation day, the woman sitting next to me at breakfast, and the couple standing next to me during sailaway. I walked into afternoon trivia and brazenly asked a two-person team if I could join them. And I went to dinner each evening and asked for a group table.
Many cruise lines, especially smaller ones, will schedule drinks or coffee meetups and group dinners for solo guests, so have your clients ask about such events on board. Affinity group meetings, craft workshops, and wine tastings are other opportunities to make friends.
I can vouch that the advice works. My first-night dinner mates became my shipboard crew; they joined me on two tours and we arranged to have dinner together on several evenings. I invited my trivia team to join me at the steakhouse specialty restaurant, and when I ended up dining alone at Star Legend’s new Basil + Bamboo, I requested a bar seat by the open kitchen and chatted with the servers and chefs.
Cruising might be designed for couple and group travel, but encourage your solo clients to try a sailing, whether they prefer to enjoy their own company or socialize with like-minded, fun-seeking vacationers. They won’t be lonely, and on the right cruise line, they’ll be well cared for.
As Henkel says, “You’d be surprised how positively most people respond to the simple question of ‘may I join you?’”
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