Is Solo Travel Really More Expensive?
Not As Much As You Might Think.
Most people assume travelling with someone else is cheaper. You split the hotel room, share taxis, divide the cost of fuel. Sounds logical, right?
But through my own solo travel I've discovered something surprising — although a few things genuinely do cost more on your own, there are countless little ways solo travel saves money. And by the end of a trip, they really add up.
From my own experiences, here's where the savings actually come from.
1. Your budget is your budget. Full stop.
Imagine you want to stay in a £20 hostel. Your travel companion wants a £120 boutique hotel. Nobody wants an argument every night, so you compromise. Suddenly you're spending three times what you planned and quietly resenting someone you actually like.
Travelling alone removes that entirely.
I recently cycled around Lake Constance staying in my one-person tent at campsites along the way. Lakeside views, fresh air, amazing sunsets, and the occasional swimming pool, all for the price of a takeaway pizza for one. Not everyone's idea of luxury, granted — but it suited me very well, and when I fancy one night in a proper hotel, I have the budget to do it without any guilt whatsoever.
No negotiations. No compromises. No passive aggressive silences over breakfast.
2. You eat exactly what you want — and you pay for exactly what you ordered
Ever noticed how restaurant bills expand in direct proportion to the number of people at the table?
Someone wants starters. Someone orders cocktails. Someone suggests dessert. And sometimes, there is someone that orders the lobster.
I once had a meal out with friends where I ordered pasta and a beer, kept a close eye on my budget, and felt quietly pleased with myself. Two people at the other end of the table ordered lobster and cocktails. At the end of the meal, someone cheerfully suggested splitting the bill equally.
I was deflated, and I will remember that meal for the rest of my life.
Solo travel means street food one day, a nice restaurant the next, and absolutely nobody suggesting you split a bill that definitely shouldn't be split.
3. You don't spend money keeping up
We've all done it.
"I don't really want to but everyone else is going..."
The expensive boat trip you weren't bothered about. The cocktail bar. The spa. The shopping street that somehow turned into an afternoon and a bag you didn't need.
Travelling alone, if it doesn't interest you, you simply don't go. That money stays exactly where it belongs — in your account, ready for something you actually want.
I feel like this is where most of my savings coming from. I’m a real people pleaser and will usually agree to others plans when I’m traveling with them.
4. Flexibility is free
Groups make plans. Plans cost money. And then circumstances change but nobody wants to be the one to say so, so everyone does the thing anyway.
Travelling alone, you can wake up and decide it's raining, you're tired, you love this town and want another day, or you've seen enough and you're leaving. No awkward conversations. No sunk cost activities. Just a quiet recalibration and off you go.
5. Free activities become highlights, not fillers
Solo travellers become surprisingly good at finding the free stuff — walking tours, museums with free entry days, markets, local festivals, hiking, swimming, sitting in a café watching the world go by with a single coffee you've made last forty-five minutes.
When you're not trying to entertain anyone else, these things stop being "something to do until dinner" and start being the actual point of the trip.
6. You shop considerably less
Travelling with other people, shopping somehow becomes an activity. Window shopping becomes buying. Buying becomes needing extra luggage. Which then requires extra luggage allowance on flights. This has happened to me more times in the past than I should probably admit.
Alone, I rarely wander into shops unless I genuinely need something. The combination of no one to browse with and already carrying everything I own on my back, is a remarkably effective spending deterrent.
7. You become more resourceful
As a solo traveller, you learn and pick up habits quickly. Hand luggage only. Public transport over taxis. Reusable water bottle. Travelling off-season when everywhere is cheaper and slightly less full of other tourists.
I've also discovered volunteering through organisations like Workaway and WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), and house sitting — both of which can dramatically cut accommodation costs while actually adding to the experience rather than reducing it. Which brings me to where I am right now.
I'm currently on a farm in Germany through WWOOF. Five hours of work Monday to Friday — helping with planting, harvesting, and preparing stock for the local farm shop and deliveries to businesses around the town — in exchange for free accommodation, free meals, genuine connection with other volunteers, and a crash course in organic farming I never expected to find interesting but absolutely do.
Free bed. Free food. New skills. New people. Slightly aching back, but worth it.
To be fair — some things do cost more
Hotel rooms. Taxis. Car hire. Apartment rentals. Private guides. These are genuinely more expensive solo.
But most of them have straightforward alternatives — hostels, camping, public transport, joining day tours where costs are shared among strangers who become temporary friends. Once you start looking for the workarounds, they're usually there.
So, the honest answer…
When people ask me whether solo travel is expensive, I tell them: some individual things cost more, but I nearly always spend less overall.
When every decision is yours, you naturally become more intentional about where your money goes. You're not paying to keep someone else happy. You're not splitting bills that shouldn't be split. You're not doing the expensive boat trip because everyone else had already agreed.
You're spending on the things that actually matter to you.
Which is actually one of the biggest freedoms and privileges solo travel gives you.