Every solo journey
starts with a place.

Reinvented and irresistible — coffee mountains, Caribbean coast and the most welcoming people on the continent.

Best time: December–March and July–August (dry seasons)

Colombia is the most biodiverse country on Earth per square kilometre — home to more bird species than any other nation.

Andean peaks, ancient ruins and a food scene that punches far above its weight.

Best time: May–September (Andean dry season)

Peru grows over 4,000 native varieties of potato — more than anywhere else on the planet.

Steak, tango, Patagonian wilderness and a capital that never sleeps.

Best time: October–April (spring to autumn; Patagonia is best Dec–Feb)

Argentines eat more beef per capita than almost any nation — and dinner before 9pm is considered scandalously early.

Otherworldly salt flats, high-altitude markets and South America’s best-value adventure.

Best time: May–October (dry season); Jan–Mar for the salt-flat mirror effect

Salar de Uyuni is so vast and flat that NASA uses it to calibrate satellite altimeters — and after rain it becomes the world’s largest mirror.

Volcanoes, Amazon, Andes and the Galápagos — a whole continent in one small country.

Best time: June–September (highlands); December–May for warm Galápagos seas

Thanks to the equatorial bulge, the summit of Chimborazo — not Everest — is the point on Earth’s surface closest to the sun.

Sun, surf, soulful fado and Europe’s friendliest budget for solo travellers.

Best time: March–May and September–October

Portugal and England share the world’s oldest active alliance, signed in 1386 — and bacalhau (salt cod) has, famously, more than 365 Portuguese recipes.

Caucasus mountains, ancient wine and an emerging solo-travel favourite.

Best time: May–June and September–October

Georgia is the cradle of wine — archaeologists have dated qvevri (clay-vessel) winemaking here to 6,000 BC, and the tradition is UNESCO-listed.

Art, espresso and impossibly good food in every direction.

Best time: April–June and September–October

Italy has more UNESCO World Heritage Sites than any other country — and its espresso culture is so codified that a cappuccino after 11am marks you instantly as a visitor.

Alpine lakes, green capitals and outdoor adventure on a tiny, walkable scale.

Best time: May–September (June for emerald rivers, September for quiet trails)

More than 60% of Slovenia is forest, and the country hides over 10,000 karst caves — including one with a castle built into its mouth.

Late nights, tapas crawls and a different culture in every region.

Best time: April–June and September–October

Spain has the second-most bars per capita in the world — and the Sagrada Família has been under construction longer than the Great Pyramid took to build.

Medinas, mountains and the Sahara — sensory overload in the best way.

Best time: March–May and September–November

The University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, founded in 859 AD by Fatima al-Fihri, is recognized by UNESCO as the oldest continuously operating university on Earth.

Safari, wine country and one of the world’s most spectacular coastal cities.

Best time: May–September for safari; November–March for Cape Town

South Africa has 11 official languages — and Table Mountain is home to more plant species than the entire United Kingdom.

The Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and the spice-island beaches of Zanzibar.

Best time: June–October (dry season); January–February for calving season

The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera — a natural enclosure holding some 25,000 large animals, including one of Africa’s densest lion populations.

Pyramids, the Nile and millennia of history at every turn.

Best time: October–April

The Great Pyramid was the tallest human-made structure on Earth for over 3,800 years — and we still don’t fully agree on how it was built.

Towering dunes, ghost coasts and some of the emptiest, most cinematic roads on earth.

Best time: May–October (dry season)

Namibia was the first country in the world to write environmental protection into its constitution — and over 40% of its land is under conservation management.

Street food heaven, motorbike adventures and a backpacker trail that just works.

Best time: March–April and September–November (varies by region)

Vietnam is the world’s largest exporter of robusta coffee — and invented egg coffee (cà phê trứng) in 1946 Hanoi when milk was scarce.

The classic first solo trip — easy, cheap, social and endlessly varied.

Best time: November–February (cool and dry)

Bangkok’s ceremonial name is the world’s longest place name at 168 letters — locals just say "Krung Thep", City of Angels.

Thousands of islands of volcanoes, reefs, rice terraces and surf.

Best time: May–September (dry season)

Indonesia has more active volcanoes than any other country (about 130) — and Borobudur is the largest Buddhist monument in the world.

Slow rivers, misty mountains and the most laid-back pace in the region.

Best time: November–February (cool and dry)

Laos is the most bombed country per capita in history — yet its calm, and the morning alms ritual of Luang Prabang, remain among Asia’s most moving experiences.

7,000 islands of reefs, lagoons and some of the friendliest people anywhere.

Best time: December–May (dry season)

The Banaue rice terraces were carved into the Cordillera 2,000 years ago — and karaoke is a legally serious national pastime: many towns have "videoke" noise ordinances.