To want the same standard of holiday even though I’m a solo traveller?

I can fully appreciate that you would like a holiday and not have to be penalised for being a solo traveller. I have never been on a cruise of any kind but many on GN have so will probably be able to give you some advice. In the meantime here are two links which may be helpful.

www.rivieratravel.co.uk/river-cruises-for-solo-travellers
www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles.cfm?ID=4375

What company are you planning to go with? We’ve just come back from one and had the lower deck cabin which was fine. We spent most of the time on deck or in the lounge. There were quite a few singles on our cruise, our cabin had two large singles pushed together, I can’t imagine they would remove one of them if there hadn’t been two of us.

Unfortunately this is the lot for a single traveller. I've got used to paying single supplement, often more than half again. But I too looked at a river cruise and would want what you want .ie a decent size cabin and a floor to ceiling window and balcony and found the cost prohibitive.

As a single traveller, I object to paying a supplement and still to be given an inferior room! Once in Austria my room was so small that it did not have a wardrobe or drawers, just a few hooks on the wall and an open shelf. I could stretch out my arms and touch both walls! I reckon it used to be the cleaners cupboard!

I don’t mind paying the supplement if I get a double room like couples get.

The single cabins on cruise ships are often tucked away near the lift shaft or in an awkward corner with no window - puts me off going.

This has always been my grouse and when you travel with a package holiday you have no leverage. That was why I stopped using package holidays and always put my own holiday together. To be fair I am not attracted to regular tourist destinations (with the exception of Dubai which I visited several times). My trips were to places like Nepal, Syria. Iran and so on.

Pre-pandemic it became so simple to book direct with the hotel and book my flight separately. On arrival at the hotel (usually at some weird hour am) I just tumbled into bed. Next day I would contact the duty manager, tell them I did not like my room, and ask him to show me what others were available. I never failed to negotiate a much better deal and a much nicer room. Because I had booked independently they knew I was free to walk out of the door and go next door. So they negotiated. This is not possible with package holidays. Single people are second class citizens because they are not going to spend as much money as mummy, daddy and their yelling kids.

Having said that I love to bargain and never take the first price offered.

Thank you all for the really helpful comments. I thought I had found one through Riviera, but the departure dates were November or March. Yet again, solo traveller, so stick ‘em on the least desirable sailings ?. I’m still researching, and will report back if I find anything, as there seems to be a few of us with the same mind-set.

Thanks for the links and suggestions, I will look into them all. The Cruise Critic one has lots of info too.

I would love to travel more round Europe but the cost and rooms are a real put off. Rome was a humid basement room. I find you have to cough up and accept. Solo traveling round Cuba one room didn’t even have a window. I had read up about this hotel, on TripAdvisor, before booking and had told them I didn’t want this particular room but had no choice when I arrived, there were no others available.

Ive been traveling solo last 4 years There’s a brilliant website from Janice Waugh „
Solotraveller“
Hope you have some luck

Took a look at the Janice Waugh website - £1500 for 5 days in Scotland!!! I don't think this will fit my bill!

I always go self-catering - my first planned on my own was scuppered by surgery in May, but I know I will have to bite the bullet on paying the full cost of a place for 2 or 4 in order to get the place I want where I want.

That’s flying from Canada though . Janice gives good tips about travelling „ solo“

Try looking at One Traveller onetraveller.co.uk on all their tours, cruises and canal holidays you have a double room for single occupancy

Airbnb have some lovely places for just one person.

I stayed on my own in a lovely little place last year, just for three nights and really enjoyed being away on my own.

In some properties you are completely independent, but others are a room in the owner’s house, usually with access to their kitchen. The hosts are generally people who will be sociable if you want them to be, or leave you alone if you don’t.

My experience has been that as a singleton you are subsidising everyone else in almost every situation. Dont even get me started about council tax!!!!!

Ive had some real ding dongs with travel reps in the past about crap rooms and have ended up with all kinds of cheapies/freebies to shut me up and make me go away. Nowadays you can threaten hotels with a shitty review on every travel site going so be aware of your power.

I so agree with OP
I was lucky with the last holiday I did before the pandemic- a train holiday on the Harz Mountains in Germany where my room was the same as a double and I paid no single supplement as far as I can remember, but it is easy to feel at a disadvantage. Upgrading to first class on the trains for the long journeys (we travelled by Eurostar, Deutsche Bahn and local trains) helped and I generally had a wide spacious, often single seat. Surely the room itself is the least part of the cost!

Many thanks for all the replies. The onetraveller site looks really good, but they only have river cruising on the Nile at the moment. But I’ve saved the site as it looks good for future reference.