The winter holidays have arrived and for some of us, this means cuddling up in a blanket, hot chocolate and streaming Netflix until we’re sick of it, and for others it means escaping the bitter winter for the hot summer on the northern side of the globe.
The winter holidays see a number young adults travelling solo or in groups to other parts of the world for holiday destinations like Ibiza, London, Santorini or even Florida.
The growing trend of millennials opting to celebrate their school holidays outside of their own country has increased in recent years, and those who choose to travel prefer to make use of companies such as Busabout, and Contiki Travel to assist with planning their winter holiday fun.
For the solo travelers, they see the opportunity to go international to embrace their wanderlust, and explore the culture of different destinations that they have dreamed of. The solo traveler will travel for their own reasons, whether it’s to feed their hunger of their travel bug or explore different parts of a country that might not be explored with a travel group.
Travelling as a solo traveler is definitely an adventure to experience in one’s life, whether it is around your home country or to different destinations around the world.
A few things to consider when travelling independently include creating a budget, and doing extensive research on a destination – language, currency and itinerary – to ensure that you are able to travel to your destination hassle free. Being an independent traveler also means that you are your own boss, and that you travel wherever you want, at whatever pace suits you.
The traveler who enjoys travelling with a group will have a personality that is drawn to the socializing aspect of travelling – which begins the minute one enters the airport. The nice aspect about travelling with a tour group is the instant friendships (and occasional romantic relationships) that are created when a tour begins, and how many memories are created from being with a group of people from different parts of the world.
Travellers are spoiled for choice going solo or in a group. Picture: Supplied/Contiki Tours
Travel companies like Contiki Travel and Busabout are still considered new to the South African travel market, but they are steadily growing as top companies in the country for booking tours to places such as Europe, South America and Oceania.
Contiki Travel is a travelling company that offers tour packages that cater to different types of travellers. These packages are called: Discoverer, Short-trips & Festivals, the In-Depth Explorer, Camping, Independent Insider, High energy, Winter & Ski, Sailing, Cruise & beach.
Busabout tours are a hop on, hop off company that offers packages that cater more to the independent traveler. Busabout has tours that allow the traveler to access any of their buses in different destinations across Europe, giving the traveler the opportunity to travel at their own pace with a group or by themselves.
Pentravel Marketing and Product Manager Vicky Steinhardt said that the one thing that has kept travel companies like Contiki successful is their ability to adapt to change.
“The youth holiday companies like Contiki have adapted to the changing travel trends of millennials. There are also companies such as Busabout which are showing tremendous growth in the market. Busabout has a hop on-hop off flexible ticket that allows you to travel very independently”.
At the end of the day, the decision is up to the traveler themselves, but either way, the Northern hemisphere should gird its loins for the young, energetic tourists from the South.