Travelling alone is one of my favourite ways to explore the world. Today, I’m sharing with you the best solo travel destinations to visit in Europe in 2022, whether this is your first time travelling solo or you’re a seasoned pro looking to expand your European horizons.
Note: I’m also listing two cities in the United Kingdom as ‘solo travel destinations in Europe’, even though I know they officially left the European Union in 2020. Sue me.
Europe is home to many of the world’s most historically and culturally relevant cities. For people like you and me, that means it’s got plenty of solo travel destinations to discover. In other words: you could spend days — or even weeks — in every major European city without getting bored.
These are my favourite solo destinations in Europe for a quick city getaway.
Ahh, the city that started it all. I went to Dublin on my very first solo trip, and that’s an experience I’ll always cherish. The Irish capital is a city with plenty of things to keep a solo traveller entertained for a few days. If you’re worried about solo travel safety: Ireland is consistently listed among the safest countries in the world to travel by yourself.
Read more: Budget Solo Travel in Dublin: Travel Tips and Tricks
Everything Amsterdam does, Rotterdam does better. At least for solo travellers. The city has the same culture, the same people and the same food, but better and cheaper. Especially if you’re not a fan of crowded cities with many attractions aimed at tourists, you’re better off in Rotterdam.
Read more: Where To Eat In Rotterdam: The Ultimate Foodie Guide
Then again, if you do happen to be a fan of crowded cities, London is the place to be if you’re travelling solo. Other travellers tend to agree: it’s the third-most visited city in the world, and for good reason. You could easily spend a week (or more) in each of the city’s 12 boroughs. London is home to world-class restaurants and museums, not to forget its historical districts and splashes of innovation, such as the Shard, Tate Modern, and the Sky Garden.
Are you looking for a bit of everything when you travel? Luckily for you, Europe is rich in cities that offer something for everyone. Culture, nature, adventure and gastronomy go hand in hand in these solo travel destinations.
The Maltese capital is not only a sight to behold — it’s also the perfect base for solo travellers to explore the three islands of Malta. Some highlights around the country are Rabat, Mdina, the Azure Window remains on Gozo, the Blue Lagoon in Camino, the Three Cities, and Marsaxlokk. English is one of the official languages in the country, so if you can read this, you’ll have no trouble getting around.
Read more: Solo Travel in Malta: A Conclusive Guide
With its impressive cultural neighbourhoods, modern art and electronic music scene, Berlin is the city that truly made me love travelling solo. Whether you just want to visit the essentials — Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag Building, Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall, for starters — or you’re looking to go off the beaten path: Berlin has something for everybody.
Read more:
A stunning historic city centre, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland, and the Scott Monument walk into a bar… No idea what the punchline to that joke is, but the city is there to please every solo traveller. The cultural sights (you know, the ones from the joke in the first line), a breathtaking hike (Arthur’s Seat), plenty of shopping opportunities and the Royal Botanical Gardens make Edinburgh the amazing city it is today.
Read more: Edinburgh Solo Travel Guide — Things To Do In Edinburgh
Are you a seasoned solo traveller looking for a new thrill? Or just a first-timer who wants to do something just a little bit different?
Take a look at some of my favourite offbeat solo travel destinations in Europe.
The second-largest metropolitan region in Belgium and host of the 1920 Summer Olympics, Antwerp is a great, albeit slightly unusual, solo travel destination in Europe. (And, coincidentally, it’s also the city I call home at the time of writing this. Come say hi!)
Read more: Best Restaurants in Antwerp: The Ultimate Foodie Guide
If you’re a solo traveller with an interest in international politics, there’s really no competition for Strasbourg. The city is home to several European institutions and non-European international institutions. Its historic city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, although the city has been at the centre of violent disputes throughout history, it now serves as a cultural bridge between French and German culture.
Read more: 10 best day trips from Strasbourg for slow travellers
Bologna is known as the Fat, Red, and the Learn’d City — respectively due to its rich cuisine, the red Spanish tiled rooftops, and being home to the oldest university in the western world. Oh, and one of the best pasta sauces of all time — Bolognese sauce — is literally named after the city. But if that won’t convince you to travel to Bologna, I’m not sure what will.
Whether you’re looking for a day trip to Plitvice Lakes National Park or you simply want to absorb the atmosphere of the Central European lifestyle, Zagreb is where you want to be.
Read more: Zagreb (Croatia): Is It Worth a Visit or Not?
Just because you’re travelling alone, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy nature. Whether it’s snowboarding down a mountain slope, going for a hike in the mystical forest or catching waves with your surfboard that gets your adrenaline going, there are plenty of solo travel destinations in Europe for nature lovers.
The enchanting town of Braga is a budget-friendly alternative to bigger Portuguese cities, like Porto and Lisbon. The town is located in northern Portugal, between rugged mountains, mystical forests, grand valleys, and soothing plains. Additionally, Braga enjoys a warm Mediterranean climate with mild winters.
Many solo travellers avoid travelling to Switzerland because of its high cost of living. But what if I told you that you can also do it on a budget? Sivan from The Blonde Abroad gives plenty of tips on travelling to Interlaken on a budget in this blog post.
If you don’t know why Iceland is the perfect solo travel destination for nature lovers by now, I don’t know what to tell you. For example, you can bathe in the Blue Lagoon, chase the Northern Lights, explore an ice cave or discover the black sand beach with the unpronounceable name — Reynisfjara.
Looking for a big-hitter city with a lavish history where you’ll never run out of things to do? Consider the following solo travel destinations for culture lovers.
When you know that Dubrovnik was a filming location for Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Robin Hood, you’ll realise why it’s worth your precious travel time. The city on the Adriatic Sea is mostly known for its characteristic Old Town and ancient city walls, and many places of interest in Dubrovnik rely on its rich cultural heritage to attract travellers.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do, they say. The Italian capital might be one of the most romantic and charismatic cities on earth, but that doesn’t mean solo travellers will get bored in Rome. The city has been a major human settlement for almost three millennia, leading to a cultural history Romans are rightfully proud of.
Athens is the cradle of Western Civilisation and the birthplace of democracy. That’s why it’s the place to be for solo travellers looking to get all cultured up. For example: you can walk in Plato and Aristotle’s footsteps on the Acropolis, learn about the city’s culture in the Benaki Museum, and stroll through the labyrinth of streets in the oldest neighbourhood of Athens — Plaka.
As you can see, it’s not difficult to find the best places for solo travellers in Europe. It’s a continent so rich in cultural, natural and gastronomic history that you can spend years here and still not see everything there is to see.
If you’re a seasoned solo traveller, what’s your favourite solo destination in Europe and why? Be sure to leave a comment down below and inspire your fellow solo travellers.
-S
PIN IT!
Hey! In this post, I’ll be telling you the travel story of How I Took The Best Trip Ever. Don’t worry, I won’t be doing the obnoxious “capitalize the first letter of every word” thing all the way through. This story involves my dad, hours of driving in a car and meeting an online friend. Buckle up!
Disclaimer: the image quality in these pictures is pretty bad because I took them with my smartphone. Sorry about that.
First, some background information. Normally, my family and I go on holiday together every year. There’s not one specific place we return to every year, but we’re always together. 2016 was the year that changed. We decided to switch it up a bit: my dad and I went on a three-day trip to the south of England and my mom and sister went on a city trip to Barcelona. I was excited as hell, because I got to choose our destination, as long as it wasn’t too far away and we could do it in about 3 to 5 days. So, I originally chose Brighton. But then we quickly found out that there isn’t enough to do there to fill four days, so we made a road trip out of it.
On the first day, we woke up very early. It was around 5 am when my dad came into my room to wake me up. We had to wake up this early, because we were supposed to catch a boat trip and we still had a two-hour drive to go until we got to Calais, where the boat was waiting for us. Once we arrived in England, we disembarked in Dover and drove to Lewes. After driving around to find a parking spot, we walked through the town center. We found out that there was some sort of food market going on and we decided to go have a look. This was what we found.
The entrance of the food market, already looking cozy as all hell.
One of the food stalls, selling all kinds of organic and vegan foods (I think).
After having discovered this little gem, we strolled on. In the city centre, we found some large store chains and a lot of little quirky shops. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. These were on every corner and they all looked the same. I wanted to go inside every time, but my dad didn’t. Sad.
I’m only adding one picture because frankly, all the quirky shops looked like this.
We found that there wasn’t really much else to do in Lewes, so we went to a tourism bureau and asked for recommendations. The wonderful lady there pointed us in the direction of the Seven Sisters, a formation of chalk cliffs with a nature reserve attached to it. So, we headed up there and had lunch before embarking upon what would turn out to be a two-hour walk in between the cliffs, a field of goats and a golf terrain.
Our assorted lunchbox, coming from the aforementioned food stall.
Not too bad for a lunch view, if I do say so myself.
After having lunch atop this hill next to the actual cliffs, we started walking through the beautiful hills and such. After seeing the cliffs and scaring my dad by pretending to jump off them, we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. We discovered that somehow, our only option was to go all the way around a huge field where sheep were grazing peacefully in order to get back to the car. Eventually, we made it back and we drove to Brighton. For me, this was the absolute highlight of our trip.
Our view as we were driving into Brighton.
Right now, it’s about 2 pm, which means we have a whole afternoon to discover the beauty of the city I had been dreaming of for months. The first thing we did was check in to our hostel. My dad had found a beautiful little hostel right in the city centre. After everything there had been taken care of and we had dropped our luggage in our room, we headed out. The one thing I wanted to see the most was the Brighton Pier. It was just as I had imagined: playful, huge and gorgeous.
What the entrance of the Brighton Pier looks like.
We walked around the Pier for a while and went inside to the casino part after that. That was pretty magical as well. The atmosphere inside was so different from outside though. On the pier, people were sunbathing and enjoying the company of strangers, while inside, it seemed like there were only money-hungry gamblers.
This is what the inside looked like. A couple of seconds after taking this picture, my dad pointed out that we weren’t actually allowed to take pictures inside. Oops.
The next thing we did was check out the famous, peculiar shopping district, The Lanes. I really loved spending time here for some reason. Maybe it was the spirit of generosity and animosity, maybe it was all the cool shops. Maybe it was a little bit of both.
A little extract of what the Lanes look like.
For some reason, this jeweller’s shop reminded me of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.
We hung out around the Lanes for what was left of the afternoon. We then got back to the hostel and prepared ourselves to go out for dinner. When we were sitting at the dinner table and my dad was making some small talk with the people on the table next to ours, I remembered my friend Ryan lived near Brighton. I had gotten to know him online and during the past year or so, we had been joking about meeting each other.
I figured out that was finally an actual possibility, so I asked my dad if he’d be okay with me abandoning him to meet up with my friend and he said he would be. So, I sent Ryan a message asking to come to Brighton and hang out, and he did. He took a train, and I waited for him at the station (luckily, the restaurant we were eating at was right next to the train station).
Ryan and I obviously had a little chat about how great it was to finally meet in real life before heading to town. When we were about to enter a pub, I noticed I had left my wallet (which had my ID) at the hostel, because I figured I wouldn’t need it anyway (at the time we left the hostel, I had no idea I would meet up with Ryan). As I didn’t have any proper identification, none of the bars would allow us to go in. At this point in time, we decided to go back to the hostel and go get my ID. About half an hour later, I emerged from the hostel, wallet proudly in the hand. We hit a pub near the hostel, had some pints and played some pool. It was honestly a great night.
This is Ryan (left) and me (right) after hanging out at the pub, both looking like we smoked about twelve joints each. I swear we didn’t.
After this great adventure, I headed back to the hostel room, where my dad was waiting for me to tell the whole, amazing story. We fell asleep watching some football game on television.
The second day, we woke up around 8:30 am. We decided to grab one of those delicious, full English breakfasts in some kind of breakfast bar we had spotted the day before. Soon afterwards, we returned to the hostel, packed our bags again and headed out to Eastbourne. After finding a parking spot just outside the city centre, we walked around for a while. We quickly discovered that there wasn’t too much to do here, so we decided to check out the mall.
Following the trend of the rest of the city, the mall was nothing special. We had seen everything inside in about 10 minutes, if it even took us that long. It was less glamorous than I had hoped it would be.
After wasting a full morning in a town we could have gone through in about fifteen minutes, we made our way to Hastings. Yes, it’s the same Hastings where the battle took place in 1066. One adjacent town, Battle, reminds the inhabitants of Hastings of that every day. The main part of Battle was a big historical reserve dedicated to exactly that battle. One of the best things we encountered in between the ruins of some old castle was what I assumed to be an actor playing a soldier from the 11th century who was play-fighting a kid who had brought a sword with him. It was so cute.
I absolutely loved spending time in this gem of a castle (ish), but my dad wasn’t too keen on it, so we moved on. After all, he’s still my dad and the person who drove the car, so I didn’t really have a choice but to follow.
After another short car drive, we arrived at our sleeping accommodation for the second night. We were sleeping above a pub that had about 6 visitor rooms. After unpacking and refreshing a little bit, we went out and discovered the old town centre of Hastings. We discovered that the main part of Old Town Hastings was a recreation of the fisherman’s neighbourhood, which was conveniently right near the harbour. We visited a small fishing museum and found another couple of quirky shopping streets like the Lanes in Brighton. Here, I bought a cool, vintage-looking poster.
We explored the old part of Hastings all morning and afternoon, and eventually we found ourselves at night in the pub. We played chess, drank beers and listened to the live music. It was pretty great. When the music was over and people were leaving the pub, we decided to go have dinner. We ate fish and chips in a cozy little restaurant nearby. Honestly, there wasn’t much else to this night. After having dinner, we went back to the pub and went to sleep.
The next morning, right after having breakfast, we got going again, this time with Canterbury as our destination. I was very excited about this, even though the thought of going to Canterbury hadn’t even occurred to us before we left from Belgium. My family and I had gone to Canterbury once before, and I loved it then, so I figured I would love it again now. I was right.
In the morning, we walked around the city admiring the atmosphere and architecture. Canterbury is filled with houses that look like they’re still standing from centuries ago (and some of them probably are).
I somehow really liked how these buildings looked. Anyway, we soon found out that we didn’t have that much time left so we went and got lunch at some Asian place. Afterwards, we decided to go on one of those boat trips that take you through all the city’s tracts with a funny tour guide. I’m glad we did that, because our guide was hilarious and I actually learned a lot as well.
What you can see on the photo above is a low bridge our boat had to go under. The guide, who normally was supposed to stand up while paddling, was forced to go low as well. Anyway, the thread-like structures on the archway are actually spider webs. The guide told us about this, but only when we were about halfway through. This led to a lot of people panicking and screaming. It was pretty funny.
The funny part about these webs is that the city of Canterbury is not legally allowed to get rid of them. They belong to some sort of protected spider species and if they clean up their webs, their entire species would be in danger of extinction.
That was pretty much the most exciting part of our trip. After the boat tour, we had to go back to Dover in order to make it to the boat on time. Congratulations to you in case you made it through this entire post. I realise it’s quite a long story and it might be a hassle to read it all. But honestly, there wasn’t anything I could have left out.
During this trip, I had the time of my life. I’d do it all over again any day of the week. However, this is where I leave you. If you like this type of posts, let me know and I’ll make more of them.
Thanks for reading this long travel story!
-S
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