For years, American women who wanted to see the world alone faced the same set of small problems: a friend backed out, a partner wasn’t interested or the planning fell to them anyway, and the question of whether it was smart to go alone hung over the whole thing. In 2026, that hesitation breaks down at scale.
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Searches for “women solo travel” hit a 15-year high this year, according to data published by Google in April, while searches for “solo travel” reached an all-time high overall. And in a twist that helps explain what’s actually happening, people looking up “travel groups” and “tour groups” also broke records, meaning women aren’t just going alone, they’re going alone together.
The numbers behind the spike
Solo travel is now one of the fastest-growing categories in the U.S. travel industry, and women are leading it. Roughly 70% of Gen Z and 65% of millennials are booking flights for one, according to United Airlines, and women make up 71% of all solo travelers.
Operators built around solo women travelers are scaling up to match. FTLO Travel, a Los Angeles-based group travel company founded in 2016 to serve solo travelers in their late 20s and 30s, announced in May that it now runs more than 200 trips a year across six continents. Seventy-five percent of its 2026 bookings come from repeat customers or word-of-mouth.
“Before starting FTLO, nobody was building specifically for my generation, so I set out to create a brand that hyper-focused on the social desires and travel style of millennials and Gen Zers who wanted to travel solo, but not alone,” FTLO founder Tara Cappel said in the company’s announcement.
Where American women are going
Single-occupancy hotel bookings have surged in a specific cluster of U.S. cities, according to Expedia data shared with Travel + Leisure this spring. San Francisco is up 145%, Los Angeles up 60%, San Diego up 60%, Dallas up 55%, Washington, DC up 55%, with Boston, Miami Beach and New York close behind. Internationally, Cancún saw a 105% jump and Dublin 90%. The pattern across those cities is consistent: walkable cores, reliable public transit, dining cultures where eating alone is unremarkable and enough density that a solo traveler doesn’t stand out.
Expedia’s Unpack ‘26 report named its broader Destinations of the Year based on year-over-year search growth: Big Sky, Montana, led the list with a 92% jump, followed by Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Phu Quoc, Vietnam; and Savoie, France. Two U.S. destinations made the cut: Big Sky and Fort Walton Beach, Florida, alongside the Cotswolds and Hobart.
The group-tour boom fills the social gap
The most striking finding in this year’s data isn’t that women are traveling alone, but how many of them are choosing structured group trips to do it. In the 2026 Solo Female Travel Trends Survey published by Solo Female Travelers in March, 21% of respondents said they plan to take a women-only trip this year, and another 16% plan to take a mixed-gender group trip; both figures are rising for the third consecutive year. Twenty percent had taken a women-only group trip in 2025, nearly the same share says they’ll do it again in 2026.
Among women who have never traveled solo, 76% said they would be more likely to take a first solo trip if it were a women-only small-group tour, and the supply side has caught up. The Adventure Travel Trade Association has reported a 230% increase in travel companies catering specifically to women, according to National Geographic. Major operators that historically didn’t run gender-specific trips have launched them.
FTLO’s Cappel framed the appeal in terms most American women will recognize: “Our trips fast-track friendship in a unique way because of the time you spend together in a short period. The heightened experiences open people up in ways everyday life doesn’t.”
That isn’t a small detail, but part of why the group-tour category is growing alongside the solo category instead of competing with it. Group structure handles the planning load and the dining-alone discomfort, builds in safety and creates a ready-made social layer, without requiring a partner.
Safety, treated like adults
The safety conversation around women’s solo travel has matured. American women aren’t asking whether it’s safe to go alone in 2026; they’re asking how to set it up well. The same Solo Female Travelers survey found that 68% of solo female travelers name personal safety as a top concern, and an equal 68% flag higher costs due to not splitting expenses with a companion. About 16% reported feeling fear for their safety on a solo trip in the last 12 months, while 1% said they were unable to keep themselves safe.
Those numbers are honest, and they’re worth quoting. They’re also stable: experience reduces the worry. Among women with more than 10 solo trips under their belt, the share citing safety as a primary concern drops from 72% to 62%.
In practice, that looks less like avoidance and more like setup. The survey also found women using ride-share apps with GPS tracking, sharing their live location with trusted contacts, choosing accommodations in central walkable neighborhoods and traveling with insurance. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they always buy travel insurance for solo trips; 51% always buy medical insurance.
Terika L. Haynes, PhD, the founder of Dynamite Travel, told Reader’s Digest in March that for many of her clients, the appeal is simpler than the safety calculus suggests. “Between career demands, family responsibilities, caregiving roles and the emotional labor that so often falls disproportionately on women’s shoulders, the mental load is enormous. Solo travel gives women permission to put all of that down, even if just for a few days.”
Solo travel finds its footing among American women
Solo travel has never been a small decision for women, but the calculus has quietly shifted from permission to preference. The question American women are asking themselves about solo travel has changed. It used to be: Is this allowed? Is it safe? Will people think it’s strange? In 2026, increasingly, it’s just: Where do I want to go?
Jennifer Allen is a retired chef turned traveler, cookbook author and nationally syndicated journalist; she’s also a co-founder of Food Drink Life, where she shares expert travel tips, cruise insights and luxury destination guides. A recognized cruise expert with a deep passion for high-end experiences and off-the-beaten-path destinations, Jennifer explores the world with curiosity, depth and a storyteller’s perspective. Her articles are regularly featured on the Associated Press Wire, The Washington Post, Seattle Times, MSN and more.