Travel tip #131: Is solo travel independently cheaper than group travel?

Hi from Madagascar, Reader!

I finally got home yesterday after a month of travel and trying to process the many experiences and people I met while sorting out a mountain if laundry.

I will spend most of the weekend going over the photos from our Madagascar trip and selecting the best ones for our team to edit and I can't wait to revisit this amazing trip.

If this is a destination that interests you, join our waitlist to be notified when the 2027 dates go live.

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This week's tip is about whether group travel for solos is more expensive than organising your own trip.

I hear this a lot in the group, as if it was a universal truth that doing-it-yourself is always cheaper. While it many be the case that you can organize a more affordable solo trip independently, being able to do so very much depends on the type of trip you are looking for.

Apple to apple, the exact same trip is likely to be cheaper when booked as part of a small group tour than on your own, but you have access to more affordable options if you book all by yourself.
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Solo independently or with a group, what's cheaper?

"I always book it myself for less."

I often read this statement in the group when members ask whether joining a group tour is a good idea.

While this can well be the case for many types of trips, an independently planned trip is not always the cheapest way to travel, especially if you don't need to do so with the lowest budget.

This week I wanted to look at what makes a group trip cheaper and what makes an independently planned trip cheaper.

When an independent trip is cheaper

Traveling solo on your own is the most budget-friendly option when you find ways to share the costs with others and choose to travel frugally.

Here is when a solo trip planned on your own is cheapest:

• Hostel dorm accommodation: This is usually the cheapest accommodation option because you pay for a single bed and on a per person basis, instead of paying for a room which can fit more than 1 person and can be shared with someone else.
• Self-guided activities: You don't book a guide to explore a destination because you do it yourself with online guides, Google, ChatGPT, a guide book and alike. If you are a traveler who enjoys to discover on you own, independent travel is definitively cheaper because it has no cost. If you are visiting a destination where it is all about nature and the outdoors (beaches, national parks, hiking), you may not need a local to accompany you.
• Public transportation: Destinations that can easily be explored on foot or by public transportation lend themselves to being great independent trips since the cost of transportation is low.
• Popular day trips, tours or excursions: You join a budget pre-scheduled excursion which you share with others and is charged on a per person basis. These tend to be the most popular activities in town and are also booked by others so you can make sure they will go ahead and not be cancelled because of low participation. A free walking tour that works with tips is a good example, vs. a private guide.

Essentially, a solo trip can be cheapest when you take care of the planning yourself, you use free resources available to learn about the destination, take public transportation and join organized group activities you share with others.

When a group trip is cheaper

There are many situations where a group trip is cheaper.

• Private transportation required: If there are long distances involved that are not easy or very efficient to cover with public transportation, or you want to go on a road trip (eg. Iceland or Scotland), or driving is part of the experience (eg. a safari), a group tour helps share the cost and logistics involved with others.
• When a guide is involved: Some activities require the services of a guide, or you may want to hire one for the cultural context, to help you navigate language barriers or simply to enrich the experience. If it's just you on the trip, the private guide cost for one person can be quite high. A group setting allows you to split the cost of the guide among the group.
• Premium accommodation: If you enjoy staying at nice hotels, lodges or resorts, traveling on your own can make this pretty pricey. Having a travel buddy to share this with will half the cost. On our tours, we stay at nice 4-5* hotels and if we wouldn't offer the option for guests to share, the prices would be much higher (as the single supplement indicates).

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There are also other considerations that I always think are being missed when comparing group travel vs. independent travel from the point of view of cost only.

Access to unique experiences

When you travel on your own, without a local expert, you simply do not have access to the same experiences that are available to groups.

A private opera singer concern at dinner, a cooking experience with a famous chef, a workshop with an expert artisan, an afternoon sharing tea with a monk, a morning sailing the Amalfi Coast, a blessing ritual by a priestess, a visit to a private winery, a blind tasting lunch, etc. there are so many activities and experiences that are not accessible unless you are part of a group because they aren't offered to individual travelers (or the cost would be prohibitive).

This is a downside of independent solo travel and one of the reasons I find group travel invaluable, you just have access to moments that you wouldn't on your own.

Time planning and organizing

Tour companies charge a service fee in the form of a commission to take care of everything for you. When you organise it all yourself, you are paying for it with your time spent booking, researching and preparing.

On a group trip, you can simply turn up and take the curated tips and advice the tour company shares to get ready.

Peace of mind and local insight

A group trip offers more than just the itinerary and a group of people to share the cost and experience with. It also gives you the local expertise and knowledge that you wouldn't be able to gather from online research.

This expertise comes in the shape of a local guide, of years living and exploring a destination, of hundreds of local contacts ("Do you know a person who can take me to X during our free time?"), of answers to questions you didn't know you had ("Where do I buy the white and blue tablecloth I see in every restaurant?"), of cultural context that you cannot read in books ("don't lean on this wall, it is seen as rude").

The local guide and contacts can also help manage issues that unexpectedly happen when traveling. Coups, political unrest, flight cancellations and no access to speak to the airline, an allergic reaction or food poisoning, getting around with a broken ankle, getting stitches taken off, navigating transportation strikes, etc.

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I hope you have a GREAT weekend!

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Solo Female Travelers Co-Founders