Groups or solo: the right way to travel

Getaway’s managing editor, Emma Odendaal, finds that there are as many experiences of travel as there are travellers – and that’s okay.

As I sit and write this letter, I’m looking out over Stockholm’s harbour towards the green spaces of Djurgården Island, on it an amusement park built in 1883 and beyond it Renaissance cathedrals and handsome residences fronting the black waterways.

The last time I called on Stockholm was eight years ago. I was on a budget as tight as a fiddle string and gawked at the prices of food, wine and everything else. The city’s still one of the priciest – it’s the world’s fourth most expensive destination according to TripAdvisor – yet it’s also as enthralling as I recall. The spectacle of the changing of the palace guard at 12:15 pm sharp, the beguiling maritime history at the Vasa Museum, the perfectly preserved town squares and the lawns, lakes and benches of Hagaparken are all familiar. What has changed, however, is how I’ve experienced the city as a traveller. Unlike my first visit (a week-long exploration), today I’m at the halfway point of a cruise on the Baltic Sea, having just completed a two-hour guided tour that skimmed the surface of the city’s medieval epicentre.

Knowing how much more there is to see, I returned to my poky cabin frustrated. I wanted to break from the group to explore the warrens of cobbled alleyways. Yet our little band of tourists (a merry mishmash of Germans, Italians and Irish) will spend their afternoon standing in buffet queues or lying on sunbeds, thrilled by their tincture of the ‘Venice of the North’.

They want to see as much as they can, as fast as they can. I want to take the time to get inside a city’s belly. But that’s how it is with travel. Everyone differs. Some prefer travelling in groups, others go for something more bespoke. Some want modern comforts, others choose to go off the grid.

So, in this issue you’ll find 12 remote places in South Africa where you’re assured a private piece of paradise. And if a burgeoning seaside town is more your sort of thing, find out why Hermanus is still drawing the crowds after all these years. But whatever you do, don’t be afraid to take a chance and do something different, like Alison Westwood, who swore she would never go on a group tour until she saw an offer that was too good to be true and booked her spot on a trip to China. She came back with the story of a lifetime. After all, how will you know unless you give it a try?

@Emma Odendaal

PS. If you’re in the travel industry, don’t miss the Getaway Travel and Tourism Conference in Johannesburg on 27 August.

Whatever kind of traveller you are, get excited with the August issue of Getaway magazine (on shelves on Monday). Click on the magazine cover below to see more, subscribe or buy digital issues.