I Don’t Like to Travel Alone. Insight Vacations Changed My Mind.

Here’s an unpopular opinion for a travel writer: I don’t love traveling alone. I understand the appeal, and I’ve done it plenty. Solo travel is liberating, formative and, at times, necessary. I also believe that traveling with others is more fun. But both things can be true at once.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a pattern. No matter where I am, I almost always find myself wishing I had someone there to share it with. Someone to commiserate with when the train is late, to recap the highs and lows of a day over drinks, to look back on the trip years later with the same feelings of nostalgia. Ten years ago, I would’ve jumped at the chance to go anywhere alone. Now, I find myself craving that shared context. Travel has become something I want to experience with people.

And I’m hardly alone in that shift. According to a survey by Skyscanner, Millennials and Gen Z take more solo trips than any other generation. But, interestingly, Millennials are also the most likely to seek out group travel experiences, even when traveling independently.

So when I was invited to join a group tour through Nepal and India with Insight Vacations, I was intrigued and, admittedly, a little hesitant. I’d never done a guided tour on my own, not outside of work. But it felt like an opportunity to have the best of both worlds: solo travel with a built-in social safety net.

Insight Vacations specializes in curated group tours, with itineraries designed to be immersive and stress-free. Their groups typically range from 20 to 33 travelers, but mine was unusually intimate: just five of us. There was Nikki and Cheryl, a mother-daughter duo from Australia; Ron and Shirley, a retired couple from England; and me. On paper, we didn’t exactly seem like a natural fit. But in practice, we clicked almost instantly. It’s amazing how quickly people can bond when they’re discovering a new place together, especially when no one’s glued to a phone trying to capture the perfect shot for Instagram.

Insight intentionally builds their groups to foster this kind of cross-cultural connection. You won’t find busloads of travelers from the same country. Instead, they often blend English-speaking guests from the United States, UK, Canada, Australia and beyond. It adds an extra layer of richness, a sort of micro cultural exchange embedded within the trip.

I’ll admit, I had some preconceived notions. Like many, I assumed guided tours skewed older — the kind of thing my parents might do, not me. But a recent Wakefield Research study found that 42% of Millennials and 40% of Gen Zers booked a guided tour in the past year, while 81% and 80%, respectively, were the most likely to book a guided tour in the impending year, far outpacing Gen X and Boomers. And while Insight’s core demographic does currently lean older, I ended up seeing that as an unexpected perk. For one, not a single influencer-style photo op was forced upon us in 12 days. The itinerary was full but never rushed. It was immersive as anything I’ve planned myself, minus the stress. And if there’s any place where group travel makes sense, it’s India.

As of 2023, India is the most populous country on earth, with nearly 1.5 billion people. It’s a sensory overload in the best way, but also the most intense. Even seasoned travelers can find it overwhelming, and for first-timers, the learning curve is steep. The U.S. State Department maintains a Level 2 travel advisory for India because of risks like crime and terrorism. Risk exists everywhere, of course, but having a knowledgeable guide can completely change the experience.

Our travel director, Virendra Kohli, was fluent in Hindi, intimately familiar with every city on the itinerary and effortlessly fielded a million small questions a day: Should I tip here? Is this vegetarian? Is that price fair? Should I haggle? You can Google most of it, unless you’re in a rural village with no signal. In those instances, Kohli wasn’t just a guide — he was a cultural interpreter, a translator and a fixer. He even helped me haggle for a ring in Jaipur.

Then there’s the logistical piece. I like to think I’m a decent planner, but some destinations simply demand local expertise. Nepal and India are definitely among them. Insight’s “Classical India with Nepal” tour spans 12 days, five cities and two countries. That’s a lot of moving parts, and I was grateful to let someone else handle the transportation, accommodations and excursions while I focused on actually being present.

And what a presence it required. We began in Kathmandu, exploring the Golden Temple, Durbar Square and Mul Chowk. We dined at neighborhood restaurants and spent an unforgettable evening with Maya Sherpa, a local mountaineer who’s summited Everest three times. From there, we flew to Delhi, then journeyed on to Jaipur, Agra and finally Varanasi. We watched the sunrise from a boat on the Ganges. We took part in Aarti, a spiritual ceremony on the river’s edge. We wandered the Pink City and ate a borderline obscene amount of regional cuisine.

But the moments I remember most are the quiet ones: having coffee with Nikki and Cheryl in a café run entirely by acid attack survivors, watching Ron try a Long Island Iced Tea for the first time, swapping family photos over dinner. There was a kind of lightness to our conversations, a welcome break from the weight of the news cycle back home. We talked about everything and nothing. We laughed a lot. When our guide insisted on buying us a souvenir photo in front of the Taj Mahal, we posed as a group. Ron and Shirley later said they planned to hang it in their bathroom. I’ll probably never see any of them again, but that doesn’t diminish what we shared. If anything, it makes the memories feel even more worth holding on to.

In hindsight, I didn’t just sign up for a tour — I signed up for a different kind of solo travel, one where I didn’t feel tethered to anyone but never felt completely alone, either. The experience was less isolating, less overwhelming and maybe even more rewarding than any trip I’ve taken on my own.

It turns out, you don’t have to choose between solitude and connection. Group travel, done right, gives you both.