Taking to the road and travelling alone is more than just a fad, it’s a fundamental trend. Late last year, a study conducted in France showed that no less than 41% of travellers were planning to go off on their own in the coming months, while almost the same proportion (43%) said they wanted to take time for themselves and disconnect from their daily lives.
The question now is, where are they going? At the end of last year, leading travel guides such as Lonely Planet, Condé Nast Traveler, Booking, and Time Out all released rankings of their top destinations for 2025. But when it comes to pinpointing the places on the planet where vacationers will be going this year, user reviews and comments offer unrivalled insight.
As such, TripAdvisor maintains a powerful presence with its Travelers’ Choice Awards. The American review aggregation giant has now released its first ranking of the year, highlighting the destinations likely to prove the most popular in 2025.
And for the first time, in addition to the general ranking, which successively crowns London, Bali and Dubai, a category is reserved for solo travellers.
While Dubai features on this list as well (in 6th place), the ranking includes plenty of other travel ideas promising cultural and/or urban thrills. For example, solo travellers will be carrying their backpacks to visit Seoul (South Korea), Kathmandu (Nepal), Cuzco (Peru), Bangkok and Chiang Mai (Thailand), Osaka and Kyoto (Japan), Reykjavík (Iceland), and Melbourne (Australia).
Options in Europe include Dublin (in 12th place), Edinburgh (13th), Zagreb (16th), Barcelona (18th), Berlin (20th), Prague (22nd) and Copenhagen (23rd). For the full list of destinations, click here.
TripAdvisor’s top 15 locations for solo travellers:
- Seoul, South Korea
- Kathmandu, Nepal
- Cusco, Peru
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Osaka, Japan
- Dubai, UAE
- Kyoto, Japan
- Chiang Mai, Thailand
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- Melbourne, Australia
- Toronto, Canada
- Dublin, Ireland
- Edinburgh, UK
- Singapore
- San Francisco, US