7 Top Travel Destination for Solo Travelers in 2026 That are Under-The-Radar

The year winds down, but our maps are just getting interesting. After a warm reset in Florida, a birthday pilgrimage to Iceland, canyon time in West Texas, an Austin do-over, and a passport-stacking cruise, we took a hard look at what actually made 2025 travel feel good—and what didn’t. The frenzy cooled, flight deals quietly returned, and a new mindset emerged: go with intention, spend smarter, and skip the crush.

From that lens we reveal seven destinations we’re excited about for 2026, all chosen with solo women in mind: Albania’s affordable Riviera and rugged Alps, Taiwan’s festival-rich culture and flawless transit, Uzbekistan’s Silk Road splendor stitched together by high-speed rail, Poland’s overlooked mix of medieval squares and Baltic breezes, Slovenia’s lakes-and-Alps perfection anchored by walkable Ljubljana, South Korea’s Seoul where palaces meet neon and late-night eats, and Mongolia’s vast steppe, monasteries, and wild horses that reward guided exploration. Each pick balances safety, value, and texture, offering big experiences without elbowing through the usual lines.

We also share why revenge travel finally ran out of steam, how to spot mistake fares without chasing noise, and when shoulder seasons stretch budgets while keeping the magic. If you’re ready to trade overdone itineraries for places that still surprise, this guide is your green light. Listen to map your next move, then tell us where you’re headed. Subscribe, share with a friend who travels solo, and leave a review with the destination you want us to tackle next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Year-End Welcome And Setup
• 1:10 2025 Travel Review Begins
• 2:26 Florida Road Trip And National Parks
• 2:56 Iceland Birthday Trip And NYC Stopover
• 3:40 Austin Flooded Plans And A Redo
• 4:16 Spontaneous West Texas Canyons Escape
• 4:56 Cruise Highlights And New Countries
• 5:27 2025 Travel Climate And Trends
• 6:15 Cheap Fares, Fewer Flyers, More Spontaneity
• 7:03 Intentional Trips And Crowd Fatigue
• 8:05 How The 2026 List Was Built
• 9:05 Albania: Riviera, Alps, And Costs
• 11:15 Taiwan: Culture, Safety, And Transit
• 13:08 Uzbekistan: Silk Road By High-Speed Rail
• 15:10 Poland: Overlooked Europe With Range
• 17:09 Slovenia: Alps, Lakes, And Walkable Charm
• 19:06 South Korea: Seoul’s Tradition And Tech
• 21:00 Mongolia: Vast Landscapes And Nomadic Life
• 23:05 Final List Recap And Travel Challenge

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Solo Travel Adventures. I'm Cheryl Esh, your host, and wow, we have finally reached the end of 2025. Was it a good year for you? Do you have hopes for even more travel coming up in 2026? Well, I like to spend this episode talking about reviewing my travels and reflecting on them. I don't know if you do that, but I love to just reflect on my year in general, and that always includes travel for me. And then I look at what's trending and what's gonna be the hot spots or the safest place for female solo travelers to go in 2026. I'm excited to share the list this year because it's very different than the past few years that I've been doing this list that I do always at the end of the year for um kind of seeing where people are gravitating towards uh these new destinations. Um they're all pretty new to me and very excited to share them. But let me start with my year in review of travel. Um I did a couple uh trips this year, probably not um as many uh big trips as I had would have liked, but I did a lot of road trips actually, and my first one started out January. I always like to try to get away somewhere where it's a little bit warmer, even though I live in Texas. Uh we do still get some cold weather in January and even possibly some ice storms. So I headed out to Florida at the end of January last year, or this year I should say, in 2025, and I got to see two new national parks for me. I road tripped throughout a lot of the Florida uh area from one coast to the other, basically, and I ended up visiting a lot of family and friends while I was there, and it was the perfect trip for me starting out the year, uh, going to warmer weather, and I hadn't been to a beach in a while, so it was good there. It was good to connect with friends and family. And then the second trip I did came in April. It was a birthday trip for myself, and I went to Iceland and had a little stopover in New York City. I will have to say, so far, Iceland is still my top favorite place. I know we don't really aren't supposed to have favorites, but that has so far been. I have a couple that are up there, but Iceland is still at the top of my list. So if you haven't gone, it's a great time to go. There's still some opportunity to see some northern lights uh with all the activity going on in the sky. Um, you could see them in Iceland. Um, and then my third trip was in July. I did a road trip to Austin. Now that one didn't turn out as I had planned due to some flooding that was going on in the area or nearby. And um, so a little disappointed there. So I do have to do a redo on that trip. Uh, even talking to my sister uh just the other day. We talked about me coming back down and trying to redo that trip that uh didn't quite turn out as planned. Um, but nonetheless, it was still good to, you know, reconnect with my sister and her family and some other another friend there. And then my fourth trip was in September. I took a road trip. It was a very spontaneous road trip, didn't plan it, just kind of decided that week that I was gonna go and didn't do a whole lot of planning about what I was gonna do. I knew I needed to get out and do some hiking, and so I headed to West Texas area for some hiking in Palo Douro Canyon, Cap Rock Canyon as well. I hit Cadillac Cadillac Ranch, and a little part of uh Route 66 there was kind of cool. And then my final trip this year, uh, as you've heard, in the last uh I think it was an episode or so ago, I talked about my cruise and um just all the different countries and places I went for my cruise. So that was pretty awesome. I did hit a lot of new countries on my list, and that was a good time with my my dear friend Danielle. So, and I've been doing some travel for work as well, but I'm not really counting those. Uh so but I am looking forward to uh 2026. I I have to be honest, I haven't nailed down exactly where I'm going. So basing myself off of this wonderful list that I've created, I think I have some really good ideas, and they've really inspired me. But in general, travel in 2025, uh, you know, it it was definitely different than previous years. No more was there this uh revenge travel that was happening after COVID. Um, things have really settled in 2025, and I think there were many reasons why many people probably were pulling back a little bit on travel this past year. And just a couple little, you know, there was obviously a lot of uh political things going on, some turbulence uh in the U.S. We had our government shutdown, and you know, budget airlines going bankrupt. I mean, there was so much, you know, real IDs were finally landing, and so many headlines that sort of may have deterred many people from, you know, doing any kind of travel or at least minimizing their travel in 2025. But there was still lots of people traveling. Matter of fact, um, airlines and airfare were actually, even though they were up and down, they were historically cheap in 2025. And we saw um actually several months in 2025 where, according to TSA numbers, that fewer people flew than the year before. And so it's things have cooled off, but there were a lot of mistake fares, a lot of cheap flights, um, definitely a lot of uh last-minute uh airfares that were, you know, things were happening, and that you could get probably a really good airfare if you were willing to be spontaneous in your travels this past year. And, you know, it's not an overdrive anymore. So I think there's a new attitude too to how people are approaching their travels now. And if you go back to um episode 162, I talk about just in general some new travel trends. Um, for example, uh doing kind of more of these uh Y Cation type of things where it's more meaningful travel. Uh some sources are saying people are doing just maybe a big group trip, maybe they're doing a big family trip. Uh, so it's a little more intentional, I think, in how people are traveling. There's also a move to going again. This has still kind of been the trend, and I've seen everybody still loves, you know, and gravitates towards those big hot spots like Europe. But I do see a definite move away from that. So many people are getting sort of tired of the crowds and the tourism. So, in this list that I have compiled, using a lot of the resources, um, such as uh photo travel, travel and leisure, um, going the app for cheap flights, and a couple other resources that I have pulled from. I have found seven destinations for 2026 that I believe are away from the the hot spots. Okay, these are less known places, which is a trend that many people are looking into for their next travel, their next trip. And these places that I've chosen, as I always do, I consider the woman traveler, the solo woman traveler. And is it ideal, is it safe for them to go to this country? If they're considering going solo, is this a good country for them to go to? Um, and I I actually had 10 on my list originally, but just finished a conversation, an honest conversation with somebody who's been to one of the other countries that I ended up taking off the list uh due to their feedback on thinking that it's uh not uh it's a beautiful country, it's it's a popular country to go to. Oh, it's becoming popular, I should say that. It's not, you know, it's not in Europe, um, but it's maybe best not to go as a woman solo traveler. You can go. And I'm I know I got you hanging on the edge, like what country is it? I'm going to give you seven that I feel are well suited for women solo travelers. And this first one, I I gotta really try to see if I can make well, these first two I want to try to make happen, possibly, is because they have been on my list, at least the second one. The first one I'm gonna mention is Albania. And Albania is a beautiful Balkan country, it's nestled in the heart of the Balkans, and it's an affordable Mediterranean country with beautiful coastline. It does have an area called the Riviera, and it their Riviera is cheaper than Greece and less crowded than Croatia. We know Croatia was kind of, I think, really the hotspot a few years ago. Um, so people are still trying to get there. But Albania is less crowded. It also has several UNESCO sites, such as the historic center of Bereit. It's known as the City of a Thousand Windows, it has Ottoman-era churches, mosque, and a hilltop castle. So Albania is seeing an uptick in tourism. Um, but I will warn you, it has it's not as developed as all the other European countries. So transportation around the country can be tricky if you're wanting to get out and explore rather than just staying in maybe one city. But it does have diverse landscape, it's got beaches, and it also has adventurous hiking of the Albanian Alps. Actually, three-fourths of the country is mountainous. I am loving this idea because um I've been wanting to get to sort of that part of, you know, Europe and the Balkans. And so I love that it's also, you know, in more inexpensive, and I like cheaper countries. Uh, it's gotten pretty expensive to travel. I will say I was just uh kind of remembering that I could often travel for you know X amount of dollars for a week, and that weekly kind of budget has definitely uh increased, especially the past year or two. So put Albania on your list. Uh, if you are into more of the mountainous, you're gonna have plenty of opportunities to do stuff there, or seeing some of uh just some cultural things, uh history in Albania. Another country that has made it on my list is Taiwan. Taiwan has such a rich cultural blend of Chinese, Japanese, and Aboriginal influences, especially in their temples, their arts, and in their general traditions. And Taiwan is a very safe and welcoming environment. It's got some stunning, diverse landscapes. You got hiking trails, hot springs, and beaches, uh, black and white sand beaches. You can do some temple hopping and even island hopping. Um, it has fantastic food and it's got excellent public transportation, which we know as a traveler, it's very important that that's part of the infrastructure. They you can attend, you can go to a festival there. They have lots of festivals, and if you go during one of those times, for example, maybe you go when they release those sky lanterns. That would be really cool. They also do have cherry blossoms in the spring, just like Japan does. So if Japan is getting a little too crowded, especially during that time of year where most people think when they think cherry blossoms, they think Japan. But actually, you can see them in Taiwan as well. Um, so put Taiwan on your list. Um, I think we're all also familiar with the infamous uh Taipei, uh, modern landmark like Taipei. Most people recall that probably in a picture they've seen on the internet, and so that is Taiwan, and maybe that's why it's getting a little more popular, a little more press, is that that modern landmark uh is being kind of out there in the social media. I've seen it a lot. So putting Taiwan, I added it because of its as safe. It's safe for um solo travelers, women travelers as well. And it's got such diversity. I think it would be a great place to experience um sort of that blend of that culture I mentioned, and get to uh to Asia if you haven't been to Asia. So um that would be a great place to get to that continent. Another hidden gem of Central Asia is Uzbekistan. Now, Uzbekistan is so much easier to get to these days. There's actually a direct flight from JFK to Tashkan, or if you're going from Europe, um, Turkish Airlines has plenty of flights to get you to Uzbekistan, and it is one of the seven stand countries along the Silk Road. So it is colorful and beautiful, and the beauty of it is that it has lots of great history, ancient, um, sacred sites that you can go visit, and they're all so beautiful and colorful, and all the major cities or sites are actually connected by a modern high-speed train. So, again, transportation important, but very available here in Uzbekistan. And the best time to visit is April, May, or September, October, because it does get rather hot in Uzbekistan. Um, but there is plenty to do. You get to one of the cities and you can do a city tour. Um, highly recommended you do a cooking class. Um, if you're like me, I I would love to experience uh their cultural dishes. And by doing that, you know, learning how to cook some of their dishes while I'm there would be amazing because it's not how I eat, but I would be so interested in finding that out. So put Uzbekistan on your list. It is on mine now, and I'm trying to convince uh my son has a friend who uh does travel planning, travel agent kind of uh group tours, and I'm trying to convince him to do one to Uzbekistan or some of the other Stan countries that I have not been to yet either. Well, although we have noticed a trend of moving away from maybe those popular European countries, I don't think my list would be complete unless I did include something from that European region, particularly uh more that Central European region. And we often forget, we always think Italy or France or Spain or Portugal, those are just been so huge as far as people going and flocking to and Greece and some of those other or Croatia. We seem to always forget Poland. Now, I hadn't really thought about Poland actually until uh I hate to admit, but it the show Emily in in Paris, they talk about uh Krakow, Poland, as a kind of a joke. Um, in this I won't give the scene up, but if you haven't watched, but it got me interested and I had to look it up, and it's actually Poland in itself, the country has become rather popular uh for tourists because it offers, you know, it is that European country that is often missed, and so it's less crowded. It does still have a lot of that rich history, a lot of vibrant cities with uh culture. We have Warsaw, Krakow, um, stunning nature of mountains and lakes, it's affordable, delicious food, and it's it's really um a lot of great uh diverse experiences from medieval squares to modern culture. Now, as we know, their peak season because it's a little further north and it's colder, uh, May through September is the peak season for people to visit Poland. So if you're wanting less crowds, then maybe go right before or right after that time. But some top destinations, uh, as I mentioned, Krakow has this historic main square, it has a castle, um, and it has a there's an area called the Jewish Quarter. And so there's also Warsaw where they've reconstructed the old town, and there's museums there. Uh so there's the Baltic coast. Uh if you look at some of the other cities in in Poland that you could possibly visit, there's also Uh UNICEFCO site of Underground Chapel with these salt mines. So there's uh lots to see. There's hiking, there's skiing if you like to ski. And so I have Poland on my list. And it can be uh another European country I haven't been to yet. I've been to quite a few of the others uh around it, and so I would love to check that off my list, and it is showing itself to be um very safe and friendly locals as well. So another destination in Europe that is a little off the radar but becoming a little more popular is Slovenia, and Slovenia offers stunning Alps, charming cities like Lobliona and Glacier Lakes in Bled, and it offers hiking, swimming, boating, uh skiing in the winter if you like winter sports, and the best time to visit is May to June, September to October on those shoulder seasons for fewer crowds. Although summer is great for water sports, and winter, as I mentioned, is great for skiing, but it's just so cute. The capital city is walkable, it has this riverside charm and castles, and it's safe, safe for um women traveling alone. Now, Slovenia is often confused with Slovakia, and they're very different countries. Um, but Slovenia is actually, I would consider Europe's most surprisingly delightful and often overlooked, unless you live in the region. And the other thing is that most people, when they think mountainous countries in Europe, they think of Switzerland, Austria, and even Germany, whereas Slovenia is actually where the Alps begin their westward march as they arc across seven other European countries. So the Alps are actually, you know, have a home in Slovenia, and you know, it's great for hikers and active travelers, um, and has that sweet, you know, you get into a town and has this little sweet European kind of charm that you will see um in that country. So put Slovenia, not to be mistaken, with Slovakia, put Slovenia on your list of places to visit in 2026 before others find out about the beauty of that country. Okay, moving back over to another Asian country that I think is definitely on the rise of popularity. I see more and more people going there, is South Korea, Seoul in particular. And so when you're thinking about Asian countries and Seoul, South Korea might come to mind, especially if you're one of those folks that really prefers sort of uh the city vibe. You want to go somewhere and you want to go somewhere exciting with um lots to see, lots to do, then Seoul, South Korea is going to be the place that you're gonna want to go with this nightlife. Um, but it's a beautiful blend of ancient tradition and futuristic tech. Um, there's grand palaces. You're gonna be also possibly wandering through some traditional Hanook villages. Uh, you'll be shopping, maybe you like shopping. There's lots of districts to shop in and vibrant markets, and of course, a lot of great food, street food, incredible um Korean food there. And the place, uh South Korea is also very easily navigable by subway. And so, again, as a solo traveler, it is safe, it's a safe city, um, and the best time to go is typically March through May, and then autumn, like that's September, November, because you're gonna get more pleasant weather. And even possibly see, for example, if you go in the spring, again, they have also the same, they have some cherry blossoms there as well. Um, and the autumn, you know, you have just some vibrant foliage and milder weather. Uh, so it's a great place to uh, you know, if you again you like the the excitement of a bigger city than Seoul, South Korea is gonna be the place that you're gonna enjoy. People are starting to gravitate towards moving to those unknown or less popular places, as I keep mentioning in this list that you're getting here. And our final, our final um place, this is really off the radar, and it is also starting to become a little uh more accessible, is really why I think it's becoming a little more popular when people think about going somewhere again that is a little off the radar and maybe even off-grid, so to speak, um, and less populated as far as tourists. There's probab very, very few tourists that I know of that are going to this country. I have a desire to go to this country for a specific reason, but Mongolia is on that list as one of the destinations I feel is starting to become popular as one of those um less uh sought-out places, less touristy places, and it's becoming popular. I'd like you to get there before it becomes too popular, although I feel Mongolia uh may not ever get to that status. No offense, Mongolia, but it is very difficult to get to. But the good news is because it is um now becoming more accessible with more flights headed to Mongolia, there is more people having access to get there. So Mongolia is a vast country, and it's really so with Mongolia being such this vast country, it's a nation that's bordered by China and Russia, and it's got some rugged expanses. It's actually known for a little no more nomadic culture, and its culture, uh its capital, I should say, centers around the whole uh Genghis Khan Square, um, obviously named for that notorious founder of the 13th and 14th century Mongol Empire. In Mongolia, there's also the Gobi Desert area, and there's also a very famous uh there's these wild horses that are in Hustay National Park there, and that's why I want to go to see the wild horses. Um, and they have some great cultural spots uh besides the capital. However, uh it can be because it's so spread out, it can be very difficult to get around. It is uh my recommendation that you do a tour or connect with the tour so that you can get um around to see the highlights of that country and uh see all the highlights, the monasteries, uh the Genghis Khan square and statue complex and the national park there with the wild horses, um, and see the life uh in Mongolia, which is probably the most different than anything I've experienced, and that would be the other reason I really would love to go. And seeing such a culture that um, as it as I mentioned in the introduction of the country, that they still have this nomadic lifestyle that they uh a lot of people live as they move around almost uh very nomadically. So I I know that as a traveler, we often think, oh, the the nomadic lifestyle. Well, they've been doing this um probably for centuries, right? And it just would be interesting to see um just how they live. And so uh Mongolia, although it's hard to get to, um, I think there's more airlines that are offering more uh flights there, making it more accessible to people to visit and tour. So out of that list of very um off the radar, um seven top destinations that for I feel that are gonna be popular in 2026 and maybe even beyond because because they're so unknown to many people, they're not the popular sites. I think more people are gonna be seeking these kind of places out as we do all sort of start to seek out these um maybe quieter places, places that are a little more uh you know off the radar, as I said, and maybe a little harder to get to even. Uh, but definitely, definitely I see all of them here. I have Albania, uh, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Poland, Slovenia, uh, Seoul, South Korea, and Mongolia on that list. And they're all pretty diverse and incredible, very different countries than probably what the normal person would want to go to. Do any of these seven spark any interest in you as a place that you maybe hadn't considered going, and maybe now you will? I know several of these are on my list, and I'm not sure if I'll get to them this year. I would really love to try to get to at least one of these on the list that I mentioned to you and be able to come back and share firsthand uh whether it was all it's, you know, what what I've sort of professed it to be or claimed it to be. And so I would love to be able to report to you firsthand on at least maybe one of these at the end of next year and trying to get to one of those countries. So stay tuned, but consider these lesser known destinations next time you're looking at where you should go in 2026.