TravelMatch
I have no one to travel with: the real options
You have thought about it more than once. You have the urge, you have (roughly) the money, you even have the destination in your head. And still you do not go. Because when you run through the list of who with, it is short: one is working, another has a partner and other plans, another cannot make the dates, and the rest stays at "let's see".
That "let's see" turns into months. Sometimes years.
If you have no one to travel with, you have four real options: find people who want the same trip on the same dates (a companion-matching app such as TravelMatch is the most direct way), go completely alone, try forums and messaging groups, or pay for an organised group tour. Which one fits depends on two things: how much you want to know about the people before you go, and how much you want to decide yourself. The rest of this is how to tell.
Why "no one to travel with" is more common than you think
Almost nobody says it out loud, but people type it into Google all the time. In the UK, "no one to travel with" completes to "reddit", "no friends to travel with" and "no one wants to travel with me": people looking for someone who has been in the same spot.
It is rarely loneliness. It is being out of sync. Almost all workers in the UK are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, but when each person can take it, what they can spend and what stage of life they are at almost never line up at the same moment as someone else's. The older you get, the harder it becomes: diaries fill with children, partners and other people's plans. Waiting for four people's calendars to align is, in practice, waiting a long time.
When it is your friends who don't want to travel
This one stings more, because it feels personal. Usually it is not. Some friends do not like travelling the way you do, some cannot afford the trip you have in mind this year, and some would come to a weekend in Cornwall but not ten days in Portugal. Asking "does anyone fancy it?" in a group chat makes it easy for everyone to say nothing.
Two things help. Make the plan concrete (destination, dates, a rough daily budget) so people can give a real yes or no. And stop making the trip conditional on the answer. Some friendships travel well and some do not, and that says nothing about the friendship; there is more on that in how to travel with friends and stay friends. If it is your partner rather than your friends, that is a different conversation, covered in my partner doesn't want to travel.
Option 1 · Find people who want the same trip
The most direct way out is to flip the order. Instead of finding people first and then agreeing on a trip, you decide the trip and then find the people who want exactly that.
This is what TravelMatch is built for. You post the trip you have in mind with a destination and dates, or ask to join a trip somebody else has posted. Before accepting anyone you see their budget, their pace, their daily rhythm and how they like to plan, and you can set the age range you want to travel with. Reviews can only be left by people who actually travelled with that person, and you talk inside the app before deciding anything. If something feels wrong, you can block and report. It is free.
The honest limit: you are still meeting people you do not know yet, so it is worth a video call and a short first trip before committing a fortnight. There is a step-by-step on what to check in how to find travel companions.
Option 2 · Travelling completely alone
Absolute freedom: your own pace, your own plans, nobody to negotiate breakfast with. Many people find it gives back far more than they expected. The first time can be daunting, though, and there are moments, a long dinner or a wrong turn late at night, when company would be welcome.
It suits anyone who already has some mileage, or who wants exactly that: their own company. If that is you, here is how to take the leap if you want to travel alone.
Option 3 · Forums and messaging groups
Forums, discussion threads and social media groups where people post "looking for a travel buddy for X". They are free and there are plenty of people. What you usually do not get is any record of how someone has been on previous trips, or a way to see whether they travel like you before you start messaging. It works for people with time to sift through a lot of posts and patience to ask the right questions.
Option 4 · Group tours and singles holidays
You pay for an organised trip with a fixed itinerary and a group of people you have not met. Everything is sorted and there is usually a tour leader. In exchange, dates and destinations are set by the operator, the group is assigned rather than chosen, and travelling alone you may face a single supplement. It suits anyone who would rather pay to organise nothing and does not mind who the group is. The details are in group tours for solo travellers.
How to choose: two questions
Whatever you are looking at, ask yourself only this.
- Do I know anything about this person? If others have travelled with them and said how it went, you know something. If there is no trace of anyone, you are guessing.
- Do they travel like me? Same pace, same budget, similar expectations. They do not need to be the nicest person alive; they need to travel like you.
If an option cannot answer both, it is a lottery, and on a week-long trip a lottery is not worth it.
"No one wants to travel with me"
If that is the sentence in your head, look at the facts before the feeling. Usually the people around you said no to a date, a budget or a destination, not to you. Every no from your circle tells you something about their year, not about whether you are good company.
The fix is the same as above: pick the trip first, then look for the people it suits. The trip you have been putting off is not waiting on a destination or more enthusiasm. It is waiting for you to stop depending on somebody else's calendar.
Where we fit
TravelMatch is a free app for the trip nobody in your circle can make. Post it with your destination and dates, or join a trip someone else has posted, and see where you match on budget and pace before you accept anyone. Reviews come only from people who actually travelled together.
→ See who wants your trip on TravelMatch · Free.
Reviewed in October 2026. Search phrases are from Google's autocomplete in the UK, checked on 6 October 2026. The holiday entitlement figure is from GOV.UK (holiday entitlement rights), checked on 7 October 2026.