I was thumbing through ”The Art of Living Single” (Avon Books paperback, $4.95) by CBS radio shrink Michael Broder when the chapter on vacations stopped me in mid-skim. In the chapter, Broder asks questions designed to narrow your vacation options.
”Do you want to travel to some exotic place with a group?” (Exotic, yes!) ”Lie on the beach, bask in the sun, and have someone deliver pina coladas?” (Make him tall, taut and tan!) ”Is this vacation an opportunity to meet new people or travel with friends?” (Sure!) ”Looking for scenery, exercise, a healthful atmosphere?” (Yeah!) ”Do you want parties,
entertainment and luxuries to pamper yourself with?” (Champagne on the veranda! A hibiscus blossom for my hair!)
Heck, it all sounds good. I need a vacation. Perhaps you need one, too, but you`re unattached right now and apprehensive about traveling alone. Don`t be. Readers who travel solo say their experiences have greatly enriched their lives.
Bobbie, a fortysomething single, collected cruise brochures for years, hoping to find a man who would enjoy the same type of trip she did. Rather than wait for the man, she finally decided to take the sail cruise she had been eyeing.
”Oh, what a group!” Bobbie writes. ”Professional adventurers, I`d call us. People who make their own fun, try most anything that looks interesting, appreciate the differences in people, enjoy everyone and everything around them and, in general, know how to have fun.”
Charlene, 33, took a trip to the North Carolina mountains two years ago after a divorce. She was apprehensive at first, but she forced herself to go. ”It turned out to be one of the best vacations I have ever been on. I did exactly what I wanted to do, saw only the sights I wanted to see without having to discuss or squabble with anyone about what we were going to do next, and ate all the food I liked.”
Vacation styles are as endless as the number of possible destinations. There are health spas, personal-growth or stress-reduction retreats, religious retreats and outdoor-adventure tours or cruises. Ask a travel agent about cruise tours for singles. Because most packages are priced for double occupancy, you may have to pay a supplement fee that is 50 to 75 percent higher than the per-person rate for a couple. You can get a price break by being matched with a companion. Of course, there`s no guarantee that room-sharing will work for you.
”I once invited an acquaintance to accompany me to Banff and Lake Louise,” writes Maxine, a seasoned traveler. ”However, this was her one and only travel experience and by the end of the tour I could have cheerfully pushed her off a cliff for the $85 I saved.”
She has learned other lessons. ”A fairly attractive woman alone must avoid married couples. The wife feels threatened,” Maxine says. Also,
”Travel groups attract few single men, so the expectation of meeting someone is a waste.”
Attitude is everything. If you go on vacation with the express purpose of meeting someone, you probably won`t. If you simply go with the idea of having a good time, that`s when you`ll probably connect.
Don`t let the fear of loneliness stand between you and a good time. Solo travel can be liberating. It was for Charlene.
”I conquered my worst fear-being all alone,” she says. Way to go.
