Travelling alone is one of my favourite ways to explore the world. Today, I’m sharing with you the best solo travel destinations to visit in Europe in 2022, whether this is your first time travelling solo or you’re a seasoned pro looking to expand your European horizons.
Note: I’m also listing two cities in the United Kingdom as ‘solo travel destinations in Europe’, even though I know they officially left the European Union in 2020. Sue me.
Europe is home to many of the world’s most historically and culturally relevant cities. For people like you and me, that means it’s got plenty of solo travel destinations to discover. In other words: you could spend days — or even weeks — in every major European city without getting bored.
These are my favourite solo destinations in Europe for a quick city getaway.
Ahh, the city that started it all. I went to Dublin on my very first solo trip, and that’s an experience I’ll always cherish. The Irish capital is a city with plenty of things to keep a solo traveller entertained for a few days. If you’re worried about solo travel safety: Ireland is consistently listed among the safest countries in the world to travel by yourself.
Read more: Budget Solo Travel in Dublin: Travel Tips and Tricks
Everything Amsterdam does, Rotterdam does better. At least for solo travellers. The city has the same culture, the same people and the same food, but better and cheaper. Especially if you’re not a fan of crowded cities with many attractions aimed at tourists, you’re better off in Rotterdam.
Read more: Where To Eat In Rotterdam: The Ultimate Foodie Guide
Then again, if you do happen to be a fan of crowded cities, London is the place to be if you’re travelling solo. Other travellers tend to agree: it’s the third-most visited city in the world, and for good reason. You could easily spend a week (or more) in each of the city’s 12 boroughs. London is home to world-class restaurants and museums, not to forget its historical districts and splashes of innovation, such as the Shard, Tate Modern, and the Sky Garden.
Are you looking for a bit of everything when you travel? Luckily for you, Europe is rich in cities that offer something for everyone. Culture, nature, adventure and gastronomy go hand in hand in these solo travel destinations.
The Maltese capital is not only a sight to behold — it’s also the perfect base for solo travellers to explore the three islands of Malta. Some highlights around the country are Rabat, Mdina, the Azure Window remains on Gozo, the Blue Lagoon in Camino, the Three Cities, and Marsaxlokk. English is one of the official languages in the country, so if you can read this, you’ll have no trouble getting around.
Read more: Solo Travel in Malta: A Conclusive Guide
With its impressive cultural neighbourhoods, modern art and electronic music scene, Berlin is the city that truly made me love travelling solo. Whether you just want to visit the essentials — Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag Building, Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall, for starters — or you’re looking to go off the beaten path: Berlin has something for everybody.
Read more:
A stunning historic city centre, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland, and the Scott Monument walk into a bar… No idea what the punchline to that joke is, but the city is there to please every solo traveller. The cultural sights (you know, the ones from the joke in the first line), a breathtaking hike (Arthur’s Seat), plenty of shopping opportunities and the Royal Botanical Gardens make Edinburgh the amazing city it is today.
Read more: Edinburgh Solo Travel Guide — Things To Do In Edinburgh
Are you a seasoned solo traveller looking for a new thrill? Or just a first-timer who wants to do something just a little bit different?
Take a look at some of my favourite offbeat solo travel destinations in Europe.
The second-largest metropolitan region in Belgium and host of the 1920 Summer Olympics, Antwerp is a great, albeit slightly unusual, solo travel destination in Europe. (And, coincidentally, it’s also the city I call home at the time of writing this. Come say hi!)
Read more: Best Restaurants in Antwerp: The Ultimate Foodie Guide
If you’re a solo traveller with an interest in international politics, there’s really no competition for Strasbourg. The city is home to several European institutions and non-European international institutions. Its historic city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, although the city has been at the centre of violent disputes throughout history, it now serves as a cultural bridge between French and German culture.
Read more: 10 best day trips from Strasbourg for slow travellers
Bologna is known as the Fat, Red, and the Learn’d City — respectively due to its rich cuisine, the red Spanish tiled rooftops, and being home to the oldest university in the western world. Oh, and one of the best pasta sauces of all time — Bolognese sauce — is literally named after the city. But if that won’t convince you to travel to Bologna, I’m not sure what will.
Whether you’re looking for a day trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park or you simply want to absorb the atmosphere of the Central European lifestyle, Zagreb is where you want to be.
Read more: Zagreb (Croatia): Is It Worth a Visit or Not?
Just because you’re travelling alone, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy nature. Whether it’s snowboarding down a mountain slope, going for a hike in the mystical forest or catching waves with your surfboard that gets your adrenaline going, there are plenty of solo travel destinations in Europe for nature lovers.
The enchanting town of Braga is a budget-friendly alternative to bigger Portuguese cities, like Porto and Lisbon. The town is located in northern Portugal, between rugged mountains, mystical forests, grand valleys, and soothing plains. Additionally, Braga enjoys a warm Mediterranean climate with mild winters.
Many solo travellers avoid travelling to Switzerland because of its high cost of living. But what if I told you that you can also do it on a budget? Sivan from The Blonde Abroad gives plenty of tips on travelling to Interlaken on a budget in this blog post.
If you don’t know why Iceland is the perfect solo travel destination for nature lovers by now, I don’t know what to tell you. For example, you can bathe in the Blue Lagoon, chase the Northern Lights, explore an ice cave or discover the black sand beach with the unpronounceable name — Reynisfjara.
Looking for a big-hitter city with a lavish history where you’ll never run out of things to do? Consider the following solo travel destinations for culture lovers.
When you know that Dubrovnik was a filming location for Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Robin Hood, you’ll realise why it’s worth your precious travel time. The city on the Adriatic Sea is mostly known for its characteristic Old Town and ancient city walls, and many places of interest in Dubrovnik rely on its rich cultural heritage to attract travellers.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do, they say. The Italian capital might be one of the most romantic and charismatic cities on earth, but that doesn’t mean solo travellers will get bored in Rome. The city has been a major human settlement for almost three millennia, leading to a cultural history Romans are rightfully proud of.
Athens is the cradle of Western Civilisation and the birthplace of democracy. That’s why it’s the place to be for solo travellers looking to get all cultured up. For example: you can walk in Plato and Aristotle’s footsteps on the Acropolis, learn about the city’s culture in the Benaki Museum, and stroll through the labyrinth of streets in the oldest neighbourhood of Athens — Plaka.
As you can see, it’s not difficult to find the best places for solo travellers in Europe. It’s a continent so rich in cultural, natural and gastronomic history that you can spend years here and still not see everything there is to see.
If you’re a seasoned solo traveller, what’s your favourite solo destination in Europe and why? Be sure to leave a comment down below and inspire your fellow solo travellers.
-S
PIN IT!
Yes, I know. I’m a few days late with this 2019 travel report.
It’s been a busy few weeks here in Belgium, but I couldn’t resist writing another article like the one I wrote last year. So here it is.
This is my 2019 travel overview.
Note: when I mention ‘blog post/video coming soon’, it might already be up and I forgot to update this post. So please take a look at my recent blog posts and my YouTube channel to stay up to date with all my content.
Note 2: to ensure that I can continue creating content, I’ve decided to make it easier for you to donate to Ars Currendi. Just click the link or scan the QR code below. Thank you for your support!
Click the links below to skip to the destinations you’re most interested in!
In February 2019, I took my third solo trip (after going to Berlin and Malta in 2017).
This time around, I went to the German capital Berlin (which is an awesome city for solo travellers, by the way).
I visited the Berlin essentials, like the DDR Museum, Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag Building, on my first day. But after that, I went a bit more off-the-beaten-path. I went on a street art walking tour, hiked up a hill with a man-made Nazi station and explored an abandoned children’s hospital and an abandoned airport.
Video might be coming soon, but it might never come.
I’d say I’m sorry, but I don’t know if this video can deliver the quality that I want it to deliver.
All by myself, baby. It might seem strange to some of you, but I love travelling alone.
And, although there are plenty of reasons why solo travel sucks sometimes, I still think it’s one of the best ways to explore the world.
I went to Edinburgh in June to celebrate graduating from university.
So, we celebrated. (Pro tip: Dragonfly has the BEST cocktails.)
We also walked along the Royal Mile, took a ghost tour in Mary King’s Close, admired university buildings, climbed Arthur’s Seat and visited some museums, among other things.
Check the embedded map below to see more of what we did, ate and drank.
I’ll probably end up writing an article (or several articles) about Edinburgh in the near future.
I went to Edinburgh with my two best friends (@febelamkowski and @onanas_vandenameele).
Whelp. This is the big one.
In August, I went on a 3-week road trip in and around Rajasthan, India.
We definitely did too much to boil it all down to one paragraph, but I’ll try.
We admired countless palaces, forts and temples. After a wild camel ride, we slept in the desert. We zip-lined between hill forts and ridge tops. We took sleeper trains across the country. Indian ladies taught us to cook traditional Indian dishes. We went on a sunrise hike. We visited the Taj Mahal and the place where the Beatles spent three months. And, lastly, we took yoga classes and got Ayurvedic massages.
God, I want to go back.
I might write another article about India, but I’m not sure yet.
I went to India on a group tour, organised by Evelien from Joker (a Belgian travel agency).
My last trip of this summer was a quick weekend getaway to Lyon. I was going on a trip with my mom, and I wanted to surprise her by planning everything. She only found out where we were going at the airport.
Fun fact: I was originally planning to go to Budapest with her, but a few weeks before the trip, our flights were cancelled for no apparent reason. I had to find an alternative, and I chose Lyon.
We mostly walked around the city without having a real plan, and it was great.
I won’t be making a video of this trip, because I don’t have enough suitable video footage.
I went to Lyon with my mom, as previously mentioned.
Since this wasn’t our first time in London, we decided to combine some of the must-sees – like Oxford Street, Hyde Park and Notting Hill – with some more obscure locations – like Southwark, St Dunstan in the East Church and Leadenhall Market.
It’s always been one of my big dreams to experience the Big Smoke around Christmas. And this year, I made it.
Article coming soon.
I went to London with my parents and my sister.
So, this was my 2019 travel report.
Now, that only leaves me with my current travel plans for 2020. And it’s going to be a big one.
For starters, I’m going skiing in France with my parents.
Next up is a Joker reunion (you know, those people I went to India with) in Bucharest, Romania.
That will be followed by a visit to two friends who are doing an internship in Pamplona, Spain.
In the summer of 2020, I’ll be going on a kayak trip to Sweden, a road trip through the south of Norway, a sibling trip to Snowdonia NP (Wales) and a surprise trip with srprs.me to top it all off.
If there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s this: 2020 is going to be a good one.
Although I travelled less in 2019 than I did in 2018, the same message applies.
I didn’t write this to make anyone jealous of ‘how I’m able to do this’ or to rub my travels in your faces.
If anything, I did it to show you that — if travel is your priority — you can do it.
And also, I think I might make these travel reports an annual thing. They’re fun and easy to write, and they give you a quick overview of where I’ve been and where I’m going next.
Again, I know that I missed the mark by a few days. But hey, what can you do?
Catch you guys on the flippity flip!
Last summer, my mom and me spent just over two days in Lyon. And, since we both enjoy taking pictures and sharing them with anyone who cares, we wanted to show the city’s best side to our followers.
Let me tell you: while you could easily spend weeks, months or even years in this city and still not see it all, you’ll need no more than a weekend break in Lyon to get to all these Instagram spots.
This is the definitive guide to an Instagrammer’s Lyon weekend break.
Let’s start off with some good news: most Lyon Instagram spots are free to visit.
Yay!
During your 48 hours in Lyon, you’ll probably pass this bridge a few times. So why not take advantage of this and take some gorgeous scenery pictures for the gram?
The beating heart of the Presqu’île region of Lyon is called Place Bellecour. Although it might not seem very Insta-worthy at first, you’ll quickly find out that many events that might give you some new photo ideas are hosted on this square.
This is probably the first entry in this list that could be classified as ‘off-the-beaten-track’, for the simple fact that most travellers don’t go here. All the more reason to check it out, if you ask me.
Europe’s largest mural is located in Lyon, and it’s a great spot for your next Instagram post.
One of the most Instagrammable places in Lyon is Place des Jacobins, and you’ll soon find out why that is.
Besides being a popular theatre and concert hall, Lyon’s National Opera is a beautiful building in the city centre. Bonus: it’s right across City Hall (Hôtel du Ville).
At first glance, this might not seem like a very picture-worthy location. However, should you make it here during the weekend, you’ll find a very quaint book market that will look great on your Instagram story.
Admittedly, Vieux Lyon is one of Lyon’s main tourist areas, but there’s a good reason for that. The whole area is so picturesque and authentic that you might forget you’re in the twenty-first century and not in the middle ages.
This cathedral is one of Lyon’s main religious buildings and also one of the most popular Lyon Instagram spots. And, although the inside is nothing special – aside from its astronomical clock – the building itself and the square at its foot are worth a visit.
Other names: Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Primatiale Saint-Jean de Lyon
Granted, this tower might not look like a very Insta-worthy building at first glance. But wait until you see the view from up above.
Place des Célestins, which is home to Théâtre des Célestins, hasn’t changed its appearance since the eighteenth century. In case that’s not enough to convince you to stroll through, this square is also home to an outdoor food market every morning.
This square is home to one of Lyon’s most famous fountains: Fontaine Bartholdi. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enter Place des Terreaux because scaffolding was set up all around.
That’s completely fine.
Not everyone travels for the Instagram stories. Some people would rather take in their destination instead of hopping from one picture spot to the next.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think one style of travelling is better or worse than the others. Imagine how boring life would be if we all lived and travelled the same way.
If you’re one of the people who would rather soak it all in, check out this article: How to be a traveller, not a tourist.
I’ve never done as much travelling in one year as I have in 2018. I travelled to three countries in Asia and four countries in Europe. Not only did I travel with friends and with family, I also travelled with a bunch of people I had never met before. This is a short overview of all the trips and crazy experiences I was fortunate enough to go through this year. This is my 2018 travel report.
Note: whenever I mention ‘blog posts/video coming soon’, it might already be up and I forgot to update this post. Check my recent blog posts and my YouTube channel to stay up to date with everything I do!
Click the links below to skip to the destinations you’re most interested in!
I’m not sure if everyone will count this as travelling, but I’m including it anyway. There’s nothing you can do to stop me.
In September 2017, I set off on my most ambitious project abroad to date. I spent four months studying abroad in Salamanca, Spain. Since I came back home in January 2018, I’m going to say it technically counts for my 2018 overview.
During my semester studying abroad, I met amazing people from all over the world (see Instagram picture below), I learned how to be independent and how to solve problems that I had never come across earlier. My Spanish also improved tremendously.
(The only reason I’m not on this picture is because it was taken the night before my first exam and I went home early to revise. See, Mom, I can be a responsible student.)
Studying abroad is usually something you do on your own. I was in a special situation, where I had a classmate who went on her Erasmus stay to the same city as me. We made friends together during the first few weeks, we were in class together and we studied together for our exams.
Big shout-out to Amy for helping me out with all kinds of problems I came across. <3
I went to Amsterdam in February.
One of the artists I had been following for a few years, Quinn XCII, was touring Europe in January and February 2018. When he dropped the announcement for the Europe leg of his The Story Of Us tour, I saw that the closest he would come to Belgium was Amsterdam. I messaged a few of my friends and one of them was willing to go to Amsterdam with me for a concert by an artist she had never heard of. What an absolute legend.
I combined this show with a visit to my sister, who was studying abroad in Amsterdam at the time. She was in the middle of her exams and we met up a few times to go for dinner and to explore the city.
In total, we ended up staying in Amsterdam for three days. We didn’t really visit any popular tourist hotspots, since my friend and I had both been in Amsterdam before (on the same school trip, by the way) and my sister obviously didn’t need to visit them anymore after having spent a few months there.
As I mentioned before, I went to Amsterdam with one of my best friends from high school and we met up with my sister a few times once we were there.
I went to La Plagne in February.
As I mentioned in my travel story, yearly ski trips have been an essential part of our family bonding since I was four years old. Before 2018, we hadn’t gone skiing for a while, but this year we went to La Plagne for a week of fun plowing through the snow.
We skied a lot. I reached a top speed of over 90 km/h (55 mph) rushing down a slope with nothing but two long sticks attached to my feet. I believe everyone should go skiing at some point, but that’s not the question here.
Also: I ate a lot of food. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
I went skiing in La Plagne with my parents and my sister, and we met up with a friend of my sister’s who was there with her family at the same time by chance.
I went to Lille in May.
After I came back from my four-month stay in Spain, I realised how much fun it was to be in an international organisation of exchange students and Erasmus students. While I was in Spain, I went on many trips that were organised by the local office of ESN (Erasmus Student Network).
Many of these trips can be seen in my Travel Videos playlist!
And so, when I was back in Belgium, I wanted to return the favour to the international student community. I contacted ESN Ghent (the city I’m currently studying in) to see if there was anything I could do for them, and it turns out there was. We agreed that I would join an upcoming ESN trip to Lille and take care of the pictures and video.
No sooner said than done, I found myself filming an international group of students I had never met before in a French city.
I went to Lille with two guys who volunteered at ESN Ghent and a group of 30-something international students who were out to explore the best Lille had to offer.
I went to Japan in August.
It’s been almost four months since I came back from Japan, but it still feels surreal to me that I actually went there and it was not a dream.
I spent two weeks in Japan and I visited Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, Itsukushima, Hakone, Shirakawa-go and Kanazawa. (More blog posts about Japan coming soon, by the way)
It was action-filled, ridiculous, exceptional, adventurous, unbelievable.
I can’t wait to go back and explore more of this crazy, crazy country.
I went to Japan with my parents and my sister. We also met up with a few people my dad knew from work when we were there.
I went to Bali in September.
After our two-week trip to Japan, my sister and I were still feeling energetic and ready for another trip. So we went to Bali for a week.
Admittedly, we had booked all this in advance, so it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment kind of deal.
While we were in Bali, we visited Ubud (Monkey Forest, rice terraces and Bali Swings), Canggu and Nusa Penida (Kelingking Beach, Broken Beach & Angel’s Billabong). We also ate. A lot. And we got a few massages. #thegoodlife
Bali might be on your bucket list, but you might want to revisit that. Here’s why Bali may or may not be worth a visit.
I went to Bali with my sister.
I went to Singapore in September.
Since I was only in Singapore for a 30-hour layover, I didn’t do a whole lot.
In our short available time period, we managed to check out the Supertree Grove at Gardens By The Bay (during the day AND at night), the Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, Little India and Chinatown.
We also admired a light show at the Supertree Grove (called the Garden Rhapsody) and one at the Marina waterfront. We experienced both shows within about half an hour of each other and it was the perfect end to a perfect trip.
Blog posts and video coming soon.
I went to Singapore with my sister, after our visits to Japan and Bali.
I went to Slovenia in September.
We arrived in Ljubljana, where we stayed for two days and mostly wandered around its quaint streets and neighbourhoods and discovering everything the Slovenian capital had to offer. Some recommendations: a stroll along the Ljubljanica river, Dragon Bridge, Preseren Square and Ljubljana Castle.
After two days in the capital, we took a bus to Bled, where we stayed in an Airbnb located at about ten minutes of Lake Bled. Also, I accidentally walked all the way around the lake on our last day. But that’s a story for later.
Related: get €30 off your first Airbnb booking here.
From Bled, we also went on a day trip to Vintgar Gorge. It was extremely tiring since the hike up there took us a lot longer than we had anticipated, but it was totally worth it. The views were gorge-ous. (I’m so sorry.)
Blog posts and video coming soon.
I went to Slovenia with one of my best friends from school (who is also an avid world traveller and one of the biggest fans of this blog, by the way).
This 2018 travel report wasn’t just meant to make anyone reading this jealous of how much I travelled. It was meant to show you that anyone can travel. If I, a full-time university student, can go on seven trips in one year, there’s no reason for you not to be able to do the same thing.
I’m not rich. I don’t have more time than you do. But I do make travel a priority.
As a travel blogger, writing a travel report like this is like a photographer making a photo album. In the future, I’ll be able to look back at this post and relive everything I experienced in 2018.
All I’m trying to say here is that it doesn’t always have to be a big, fancy trip. You can go to a city one hour away from your hometown and discover things you had never seen before.
Travelling is not about collecting trophies from the most extreme destinations across the world. It’s about experiencing life and living your dreams.
Here’s to travelling more than you think you can in 2019. Let’s make this the best year of our lives.
Right after I came back from my semester abroad, I went skiing with my family for a week, and I forgot how amazing it feels to be on the slope. I’m convinced everyone needs to try being on skis at least once in their lives, and this post exists to convince you of that.
Of course, if you have your mind set on staying at home and not going to the mountains, it’s unlikely that this post will change anything. However, I’m also convinced that you wouldn’t be reading a travel blog post about skiing if you weren’t at least a little interested. Right?
Anyway, here are seven reasons why I think you should go skiing, or even snowboarding, some day – and preferably sooner rather than later.
It might sound cliche, but when you’re going down a ski slope, you can’t help but be amazed by the breathtaking scenery all around you. Every day, you’ll discover something new, or something you haven’t seen before. And every day, you’ll be more than grateful that you decided to go skiing after all.
Chances are, you’ll be seeing something like this
Or this
Or this.
Tip: if you want a more lively view of what it’s like to go skiing and what you’ll be seeing, your best bet is to check out the travel video I made of our week in La Plagne.
It must be said that a week of skiing is going to be a lot colder than, say, a week in Morocco. However, spending time in the mountains is good for your health, for several reasons.
First of all, the fresh mountain air may help you fight obesity, asthma and heart disease.
Secondly, on a winter holiday like this, you’re probably going to be spending a lot of time on the slopes. Say you’re skiing between 9 am and 3 pm, with two hours of breaks. That still leaves four hours of intense physical activity. Yes, the food you’re going to be eating will probably make up for that, but a little bit of sport can only be good for you, right?
Lastly, skiing has been proven to be beneficial to both your physical and your mental health.
Most likely, you won’t go skiing by yourself – unless you’re already a very experienced skier, in which case you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog post.
A ski holiday is usually a perfect way to bond over shared experiences of the mountains with your friends, your family or your loved ones. You’ll laugh together, you’ll be in pain together, and you’ll enjoy your time together.
Skiing leads to happiness. It’s as simple as that.
You might not feel this way when you’re just learning the ropes, but I promise that you’ll love skiing once you understand how to do it.
There’s nothing quite like hearing snow crunch under your skis, making the first tracks in a slope of fresh snow or going down a mountain at 70 km/h.
It’s always a good thing to learn a new skill, right?
I know, I know. It might seem terrifying to realise that you’re going to cross down a mountain with two small, slippery sticks attached to your feet. You might even think you’re too old to learn something new. But are you ever really?
Skiing will teach you that it’s okay to make mistakes and fall down, as long as you get up again. As a matter of fact, you don’t even have any other options than to get up and try again. You’ll learn to stop looking back and have faith in the people behind you.
And, most important of all, you’ll learn what it feels like to conquer your fear.
I guarantee that, once you really get the hang of it and you’re able to go down any slope you desire, you will have fun. And I’m not talking about the happy feeling you get when that one class you didn’t want to go to is cancelled. I’m talking about a kind of fun that you have to experience in order to know what I’m talking about.
It’s a lot more difficult to describe this than I had anticipated. Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m doing it justice. I can’t really explain it as well as I would like to, but this is as close as I’m going to get.
I’ve already talked about speed a few times in this blog post, but it definitely deserves to be one of the reasons you should go skiing some day.
Logically, you probably won’t be going very fast the first time you go skiing. Or the second. Or maybe even the third. But I can promise you that once you do get there, it’ll be more than worth it.
In La Plagne, where we spent a week recently, my top speed was 90 km/h. On skis. While you’re going that fast, it’s easy to realise that making one wrong move could end up being the worst decision you’ve taken in a long time. But that’s what makes it so exciting. You’ll quickly feel the adrenaline rushing through your veins.
Well, yes. Of course it does. Sometimes, you’ll have to queue at a lift for a long time. You’ll probably spend more time on lifts than on the slope. It’s expensive. And when the weather is bad, there is nothing fun about skiing.
However, I strongly feel that none of these disadvantages compare to the liberating feeling of skiing. I stand by the belief that everyone should ski at least once in their lives.
As always, thanks for reading!
-S
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