How to Book a Group Day Tour as a Solo Traveler

The most annoying part about being a solo travel– besides nobody being there to watch your suitcase while you run to the airport bathroom– is trying to join a group tour and getting stuck at the “2 people minimum” requirement.

This is how I’ve been able to get around the minimum person requirement while doing a heck of a lot of day tours around the world. Note: this is specifically for short tours of a few days or less, aka day tours and excursions. I’ll write another post about solo travelers doing long group tours in the future. 😉

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Book a tour through your hotel/hostel

This is the easiest in places that get a lot of tourists (especially backpackers).

Hotels partner with local tour providers to promote their tours, and they almost always allow solo travelers to join in without a problem. I’ve booked dozens of tours through my hostels and have never been denied for being a solo traveler.

Bonus: they’re usually cheaper than booking tours online, and the hostel sometimes gives freebies for booking through them! I got a free breakfast in Da Lat because I booked a day tour through my hostel.

There is a downside to doing it this way, though.

There’s no way to verify the tour’s quality before you book, as it’s just whatever company the hostel is partnering with. You can’t vet the tour by checking reviews, either, as they don’t always say who the provider is when you book. And mostly the other people in your hostel are just as clueless as you are, so there’s no way to get social proof, either.

I’ve have some very good hostel-booked day tours and some very boring ones. If you’re short on time and quality over quantity is important to you, then do research online and book your tours that way.

Message the tour company directly

I prefer to search for day tours on Viator as you can see the company name, reviews from past guests, the specific itinerary and any other thing I might have a question about.

However, because of the commission fees, a lot of tour companies have the “two people” thing as a requirement to join in. It’s less fees for them if they get two guests at once, instead of two individual guests booking separately.

To get around that: message the tour company directly and ask if they have a tour that a solo person can join. Usually tour companies will have their own website or contact info, and you can find them by Googling their company name.

If it’s a very small local company, you might have to use Whatsapp to contact them and ask. I’ve had good luck finding company Whatsapp numbers on their Facebook pages, for instance.

Find a temporary travel buddy and book together

This can be as simple as finding another solo traveler at the hostel you’re staying at, or asking in a travel Facebook group if anyone’s interested in joining. Be sure to talk to the person before you go in on an expensive tour together! You don’t wanna be stuck with someone who has totally different travel expectations than you, or who snores in your shared room. 😉 Discuss your budget and what kind of travel you like to do, at the very least.

My best success with this specific tip was when I meet another solo female traveler at a hostel in Kuala Lumpur, and we then went traveling around Borneo together for 3 weeks.

We did some sightseeing together in KL before we decided to go to Borneo, which I think helped us both figure out we weren’t weirdos and we could get along well enough to do a longer trip.

Related: How to make friends while traveling solo

Be willing to pay for 2 people anyway

This is technically the easiest way, but the most expensive. Think of it like the dreaded solo supplements cruises and longer tours have: you pay for the “privilege” of traveling solo, but at least you can get on the tour you want.

You might have to suck it up and do this for places that don’t have lots of tourists, or if there’s really no suitable tours for solo travelers to join in.

Depending on the tour, you might be better off booking a private tour if it’s the same price as paying for two people on a group tour. Sometimes it works out that way in certain countries because they’re still increasing their tourism offers and they have a lot of extra tour guides.

Private tours are expensive, but they’re super nice because you get to choose where to go and how long you’ll stay there. I booked a private tour in Phonsavan to see the Plain of Jars, and it was an excellent experience. I ended up paying maybe only double what I would’ve paid if I did a group tour.

Final Thoughts

It’s annoying to have to consider these things as a solo traveler, and a little unfair that we have to pay more sometimes just to go on the same tour as a couple. Luckily I think it’s becoming more common for tour companies to accommodate solo travelers, and hopefully in the future it’ll just be a standard option and we won’t have to worry about it any longer.

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