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Budget Travel Advice

December 24, 2011 by · Comments Off on Budget Travel Advice 

Budget Travel AdviceBudget Travel Advice, Holidays for single travellers, Andrew Saunders writes, I am a 63-year-old widower thinking about next year’s summer holiday, probably limited by budget to Europe. I just want to relax, but preferably not alone or with people who are far older than me. Do you have any ideas?

Sophie Butler replies
It sounds like you want a stay-put, catered break in a resort that’s reliably warm with the opportunity to meet like-minded people. One tour operator which offers this sort of holiday is the singles’ specialist, Friendship Travel (0289 446 2211; friendshiptravel.com). This company offers sole-use of twin or double rooms in a range of hotels throughout the summer alongside a “house party” programme. But far from full-on socialising, the aim is to create a convivial, relaxed atmosphere and to cater to all budgets – from around £725 with flights – and prices usually include breakfast and communal dinners with wine, as well as the services of a resident “host”.

A couple of hotels – the two-star Era Hotel in the Turkish resort of Oludeniz-Hisaronu and the three-star Aeolos complex on the Greek island of Paros – are exclusive to Friendship Travel; it also offers holidays on gulets (fully-chartered Turkish boats). There’s no upper age limit but most guests are aged between 30 and mid-sixties.

Other singles specialists offering resort-based holidays in the Med include Solitair Holidays (0845 123 5515; solitairhols.com), which bands its departures into those aged 25-45, 30-59, over-fifties and “all ages”, again, with no single-room supplements.

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