I’ve been home over a week now, and have been looking back on the holiday. It’s the first time I’ve been on a “singles’ holiday”, and it definitely had a different atmosphere to my more usual trips.
After the flight out, my suitcase seemed to take ages to arrive at baggage reclaim at Toulouse airport, with the result that I was one of the last to join the group at arrivals. As I climbed onto the tour coach, I automatically looked for a free “double seat” – and saw that everyone was sitting on their own in a double seat. Durrr! Of course they were – everyone else was travelling on their own too, so nobody had a travelling companion to sit with! That immediately reminded me that this holiday would be a bit different.
The outings each day were organised so that you could do as much or as little with the group as you wanted. Nothing was compulsory, and indeed I think that at least one person sat out the trips each day, either due to lack of interest, ill health, or because they had family living nearby that they wanted to visit. On my particular trip, all the coach trips were included, so there were no annoying “optional excursions” at additional cost. However, entrance fees to sites, castles, museums etc were not included. That meant that if all you wanted to do was to take the coach to a place of interest, then find a café on the main square and soak up the atmosphere over a coffee, that was fine – and some people did just that. On the other hand, if you wanted to see the sites, the tour leader usually managed to procure us a group discount on the standard entrance fee. Most of the group went to the Toulouse-Lautrec museum in Albi, which houses about 1000 of his works. However, I think a little Toulouse-Lautrec goes a very long way, and decided to give that a miss, instead spending my free afternoon wandering around the old town.
I am used, when travelling with Andante, to almost everything being bundled into the holiday price, including all entrance fees and most meals. This way meant that I spent considerably more during the holiday, buying meals, drinks and tickets, but also offered more flexibility. If you didn’t want to eat with the group – and I generally didn’t – then you were encouraged to do your own thing, with the tour manager pointing out where the restaurants / bistros / cafés were. Or you could meet up with several of the group at a prearranged time and place, and eat together. Support was always there if you wanted it, and I know that some of the group, who were less confident travellers than I am, really appreciated that safety net.
I chose the holiday because it went to some places I particularly wanted to see, without me having to work out how to get there by public transport or do a fly-drive on my own. That worked well – I had the structure I wanted, and ticked some places off my bucket list. The fact that it was a “singles holiday” to me was pretty much incidental. In fact, I’m not really sure that, for a coach tour, there is all that much difference between a dedicated “singles holiday” like this one, and an ordinary tour. Except of course for the notorious “single person supplement”, but even that I suspect was rolled into the overall cost of the holiday – it just wasn’t explicitly visible.
Overall, it was a good holiday. I particularly liked Albi and some of the bastide towns; I’m pleased to have seen Carcassonne, even though I found it far too touristy; and I had some decent meals, particularly duck confit which was delicious. Above all, it was a very welcome break after a very busy period at work, and it did me a lot of good to get away. I will think carefully though before booking another “singles holiday” as I think there are likely to be a wider range of options available with a standard tour.
