Brinley Hineman
I just got back from sailing the Emerald Luna, and as a recent solo cruiser, I have some thoughts.
Namely, that a river cruise is a great avenue for travelers wanting to experience a destination and are going it alone. The lines see this potential, too.
Riviera Travel, for example, has tapped into the solo traveler market and is catering to the category with 30 dedicated solo departures this year. The brand's most popular solo cruises are the "Blue Danube" and the "Seine, Paris and Normandy" itineraries.
"We actually started that quite a while ago, about five years ago," Riviera's executive vice president of business development Marilyn Conroy told me, adding that the company felt the market was underserved.
My experience as a solo traveler on the Emerald Luna (a post-conference offering that was part of the ASTA River Cruise Expo) exceeded my expectations. While I value my alone time, I find that traveling with others enhances my experience. Even when I'm not traveling, I prefer to spend an afternoon bopping around and running errands with a friend rather than doing it with only my Spotify playlists or favorite podcast to keep me company.
But I was ecstatic to discover just how enjoyable a solo river cruise could be, which I credit to the ship's size. The Luna accommodates 180 passengers, but some ships hold even fewer, giving solo passengers an opportunity to meet people over breakfast and run into them again later in the day on an excursion.
The intimate size of river ships lends itself to fostering connections among guests, leading to unexpected acquaintances and a friendly face to enjoy a tour with.
When I wasn't spending a meal or tour with a newly formed acquaintance, I welcomed the alone time. Spending an afternoon dipping in and out of shops in Passau, Germany, and strolling through the near-empty Durnstein, Austria, by myself were unexpected highlights of my trip. (Sans music, since I didn't realize until I was halfway to JFK that I had left my AirPods on the charger back at home.)
For those who value their alone time and want to lean into the solo aspect of solo traveling or need to recharge their social battery, the lounge on the Luna offered a great escape to enjoy a meal or coffee. I visited the area a few times to work or dive into "Mozart's Starling," the book I brought with me to discover more about the famed composer, Vienna, and well, starlings.
It turns out I'm not the only one loving this travel style. Uniworld Boutique River Cruises has observed a 31% increase in solo travelers from 2019 to 2023 and a 61% increase in that time frame of solo women. (As an aside, solo travel for women specifically has become a rising trend: searches on Google have exploded in the last five years for solo female travel, according to Google Trends. And Virtuoso found that 71% of its solo travelers are women.)
To meet the interest, some lines are waiving the single supplement on certain cruises, like Riviera. So, too, is Avalon Waterways, which axed the supplement on most Europe departures and select sailings on the Mekong. Emerald and Scenic waived the fee on some cruises, while Tauck has nixed the extra cost on all Category 1 cabins for the past 15 years, a spokesperson told me.
Ten percent of current Avalon cruisers travel alone, but the company expects to see an uptick this year, a spokesperson told me. The company's 2025 Wish List survey of 10,000 past passengers noted that 12% of respondents plan to go solo on their next river cruise -- and I see why.