Solo travel seems to be constantly on the rise, but making the decision to take that first trip alone isn’t an easy one.
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After you’ve decided to take the plunge, you then need to pick a destination, and some places are undoubtedly better suited to single guests.
Thinking about heading abroad by yourself this year? Then you might just want to take a look at the newly released Solo Travel Index by Radical Storage.
Created by analysing the 48 most visited cities in Europe against 11 factors, the index evaluates things like the average daily spend per person, the safety score from Numbeo as well as the number of hostels – a mainstay of solo travel.
Each factor was rated between one and 10 based on how the city compared with the others, and the 11 scores were then averaged to create an overall result.
The best cities for solo travel in Europe
After all that number crunching, Czechia’s capital Prague came out on top, with a mid-range day priced at €134.33 for accommodation, food, transport and entertainment, and with the eighth-highest safety score on the list.
Second place went to Kraków in Poland, the second-cheapest city in the ranking, while Istanbul in Türkiye came third thanks to its hostel dorm bed prices, which were the lowest of any city looked at.
Gdansk in Poland also made the cut, ranking fifth overall. Alongside Poland, both Portugal and Spain had two entries in the top 10 each, with Lisbon (fourth) and Porto (seventh) in the former and Seville (eighth) and Barcelona (ninth) in the latter.
The top 10 European cities for solo travel
- Prague, Czechia
- Kraków, Poland
- Istanbul, Türkiye
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Gdansk, Poland
- Berlin, Germany
- Porto, Portugal
- Seville, Spain
- Barcelona, Spain
- Riga, Latvia
The worst cities for solo travel in Europe
On the flip side, Zürich was named the worst city in Europe for solo travel due to its high prices, with accommodation coming in at €168.13 a day, the highest in the study, while it also has the second highest food costs and third highest transport costs.
Reykjavík in Iceland came second from last, quickly followed by Venice. Again, both cities were held back by their higher prices, which affect solo travellers who will not be splitting accommodation costs.
According to Radical Storage, a day in the bottom 10 worst-ranked cities costs an average of €252 per day, nearly €100 more than the top 10, where the average is €153.
The bottom 10 European cities for solo travellers
- Zürich, Switzerland
- Reykjavík, Iceland
- Venice, Italy
- Aarhus, Denmark
- Cologne, Germany
- Geneva, Switzerland
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Nice, France
- Marseille, France
- Dublin, Ireland