TravelMatchThe TravelMatch blog
Advice on travelling solo, travelling in a group and travelling with people who fit. So you never put a trip on hold again.
Solo travel14 October 2026
Solo surf trips and surf camps for solo travellers
Three summers of saying this is the year you learn to surf, and your friends always have something else on. You do not need anyone to go with: surf camps group you by level, not by who you came with.
Read →Solo travel14 October 2026
Solo ski holidays: go alone or join a group (2026-27)
Someone posts a photo of a snowy chair lift in the group chat and writes "this year?". By February the photo is still there and the trip is not. Three ways to ski this winter without waiting for anyone.
Read →Group travel14 October 2026
Solo road trip or a road trip buddy: how to plan it
The route is saved and the playlist is done. What nobody has decided is who is coming. Going alone, finding a road trip buddy, and the three things to agree before you set off.
Read →Group travel12 October 2026
Split travel costs app: how to share trip expenses fairly
Third night of the trip. Someone gets their phone out at dinner and asks: "Hang on, who paid for the taxi from the airport?" Nobody is quite sure. One of you thinks you did the first supermarket shop, another…
Read →Solo travel12 October 2026
How to meet people while travelling solo (and keep them)
Meeting people on a solo trip is the easy part. The hard part is the step after the chat, and it comes down to one sentence with a time and a place in it.
Read →Never a trip on hold10 October 2026
Taking your dog to Europe from the UK: AHC, ferry or tunnel
What GOV.UK asks for right now, the 10-day window that catches people out, which crossings let your dog stay with you, and why who you share the car with matters more than it seems.
Read →Solo travel10 October 2026
Solo holidays with your dog: ideas, over 50s and who with
Going away alone with your dog is easier than it sounds. The hard part is rarely the dog: it is the evenings, the places it cannot go and paying for a whole cottage on your own.
Read →Group travel10 October 2026
Dog friendly breaks in the UK: 8 places and who to go with
Eight places in the UK where your dog is genuinely welcome, what the national parks and councils actually ask of you there, and why a dog friendly cottage is better shared.
Read →Solo travel8 October 2026
Best places to travel solo beyond Europe (and who with)
Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, Peru, Morocco and New Zealand: what each one is like on your own, when to go, and how to find someone for the part of the trip that is better shared.
Read →Solo travel7 October 2026
Travelling alone without feeling lonely: what really helps
Loneliness on a solo trip rarely lasts all day. It turns up at dinner, on the third night and on long days with no plan, and most of what fixes it is decided before you leave.
Read →Group travel7 October 2026
Travel itinerary template: how to write one (free layout)
Most itineraries are a list of places with nothing in between. The fields that make one usable, a day-by-day example, and how to keep it in one place when several of you are going.
Read →Group travel7 October 2026
Interrail itinerary: 1, 2 and 3 weeks (with who to go)
Most Interrail plans fail on paper before they fail on a platform: eleven cities in fourteen days. Three routes that fit the time you actually have, the pass for each, and the trains you must book.
Read →Group travel7 October 2026
Group trip planner: app, template or Google Sheets (2026)
Planning a trip together is three jobs, not one, and most groups spread them across four apps. What to use instead, and the spreadsheet columns if you would rather not install anything.
Read →Solo travel7 October 2026
First solo trip: where to go (and how to make it easy)
Five places you can reach by train or a short flight and a metro ride, what to do with the first evening, how many nights to book, and how to have company for part of it if you want.
Read →Group travel7 October 2026
Bank holidays 2027: turn a few days off into long weekends
Every 2027 bank holiday with its day of the week, how many days in a row you get for each day of annual leave, and why the long weekend usually stalls on the people, not the dates.
Read →Group travel7 October 2026
Backpacking Europe: routes, costs and who to go with (2026)
Count nights, not cities. Three routes by length, what the train pass really costs, and the decision the route maps leave out: who you go with.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
Best places to travel solo in Europe: 8 easy cities
Eight places that leave little room for a first solo trip to go wrong, how to reach them from the UK, and which ones are better with company.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
How to travel with friends and stay friends
Nobody searches «why is traveling with friends so hard» about a holiday they enjoyed.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
Best travel buddy apps (2026): TravelMatch, GAFFL and more
Five apps that all promise travel friends, and they do quite different things. What each says it does, what it charges, and which one fits the trip you have in mind.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
Solo travel over 50 (and over 60): who with, not whether
At 50 or 60 the question is rarely whether you can travel alone. It is who you go with, and whether you want the group picked for you or to pick it yourself.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
Solo travel in a group: the adventure without giving up your freedom
The third option almost nobody mentions: going on your own terms, but with people who travel like you.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
Solo holidays at Christmas 2026: who, not where
Nobody searches «solo holidays xmas 2026» because they cannot think of a destination. They search it because everyone they would go with is busy.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
Solo female travel groups: what to look for
A lot of women searching for solo travel are not looking for how to be alone. They are looking for who to go with.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
Singles holidays: what they are, over 50 and over 60
Not a dating holiday: the product is the room. Over 50 is the middle of this market rather than its edge, and the two UK names people search for both build the room into the price.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
The single supplement: what it is, and the three ways operators handle it
It is not a penalty for being single. It is the cost of a bed nobody is sleeping in, and there are exactly three things an operator can do about it.
Read →Never a trip on hold10 July 2026
My partner doesn't want to travel but I do: what now?
One of you is looking at flights at eleven at night and the other says maybe not this year. It is almost never about not wanting to be with you.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
Is it safe to travel with strangers? An honest answer
Nobody can promise it is safe. What changes the odds is what you know about the person before you leave, and your plan if it goes wrong.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
Interrailing as a group: what nobody tells you before you book
A trip that feels like one decision is actually a stack of separate ones, and two of them catch people out at the station rather than at the booking page.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
I want to travel alone: the guide to taking the leap without fear (even if you have no one to go with)
The wanting is clear; what stops you is the gap between wanting and going. This guide is that gap, in small pieces.
Read →Never a trip on hold10 July 2026
I have no one to travel with: the real options
When nobody in your circle can make it, the trip does not have to wait. The four real options, and two questions to choose between them.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
How to travel with a group of strangers
They are not asking whether to. They have decided. Almost everything written about this answers the other question, at length, with warnings.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
How to find travel companions and a travel buddy
Finding a destination is easy; the hard part is finding who with. Where people look for a travel buddy, and what to check before you say yes.
Read →Solo travel10 July 2026
How to choose travel companions (and spot a bad fit)
Liking someone and travelling well with them are different things. What decides it, how to find out before you book, and the red flags.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
Group travel: the three completely different things that phrase means
Same words, three different trips. And the question that decides it is not where you want to go — it is whether what is missing is the plan or the people.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
G Adventures vs Intrepid vs Contiki vs Flash Pack (2026)
Four operators, four ways of deciding who is on your trip. What each says about age, group size and rooms, and the option where you pick the people yourself.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
Group tours for solo travellers: group holidays worth it?
A tour sells you decisions, not a destination. And the one thing it cannot sell you is the only part you cannot change once you have paid.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
Christmas market trips 2026: when to go before they close
Booking the week between Christmas and New Year sounds obvious. By then most of them have packed away.
Read →Never a trip on hold10 July 2026
DiscoverEU: 40,000 free Interrail passes, and you can apply as a group of five
If you were born in 2008, Europe pays for your train. And you do not have to go alone: you can apply as a group of five, even from different countries.
Read →Group travel10 July 2026
The Camino from Sarria: the six official stages, and why everyone sells you five
The day that breaks most plans is not on the itinerary you were sold. And the hardest stretch of the week is the first 4.2 km, which is official.
Read →