Many people travel solo. Some do it for choice. On their trips they meet lots of cool people, they may travel with them for periods, and if differences arise they part company and go it alone again. They don't need convincing of the lifestyle.
Others do it by default: they plan a trip with friends or a partner, then the friends back out or the relationship changes, and they find themselves on their own. Do they go on the trip anyway? At first they are uncertain, then they take the plunge and travel alone, and find they have a great time.
Travelling alone doesn't mean you don't like people. It just means that you don't want to be tied to other people. At the very least, you probably like talking to people in the evening. And you may even like to travel together for a while. But you can part company whenever you wish.
If you choose an organised tour, you will be charged the dreaded 'singles supplement' to have a room of your own each night. If you choose independent travel and stay in hotels or Bed-and-Breakfasts, you get the same problem: you have to pay for a room, so you end up paying twice as much as anyone else. And single rooms are lonely.
If you are in this position, what a pleasant surprise to discover hostels! Hostels are particularly good for solo travellers because:
I have to share a bedroom with strangers.
What of it? They will be friends within a few hours.
I'm not a very outgoing person.
From a lonely hotel room, you have to make a real effort to go out and meet people -- and going in a pub on your own can be daunting. But that's the biggest benefit of hostels: In a good hostel, you can't avoid meeting people, many of them doing the same as you are, many of them also solo travellers, and from many different countries. Which are the good hostels? That's what this site is all about!
There are many, many websites that give lists or reviews of accommodations. To a couple or group of friends, these are often very helpful. But nearly all of them are concerned with hotels, guest houses and bed-and-breakfasts, and these are not very useful for solo travellers.
In UK Trail, we gear our advice to the benefit of the single traveller who wishes to be as economical as possible. That is why we focus on the friendliness, sociability and catering facilities of hostels, rather than on their provision of private rooms and meals. And that is why we only include accommodation that positively welcomes the single traveller.