Gainesville’s Connie Combs, 78, is a retired schoolteacher and an inveterate traveler. She took frequent trips with her husband, Gerry Combs, primarily within the United States, until about 2015, when it became clear that he no longer wanted to travel.  

“He just didn’t want to get onto an airplane anymore,” Combs said. “He was tired of being cramped in the seat and maybe being in strange places. But he didn’t want me not to go.”  

So, she did. Her first solo trip was on a European river cruise with Grand Circle Cruise Line. About a year later, she signed up for a trip to the French and Spanish Pyrenees with Road Scholar. 

“That was very nice,” she said. “Three other ladies on that trip were singles, and we hit it off.” 

Combs is part of a growing trend of older, married women traveling independently. The trend is so prevalent that this month Road Scholar, a leader in educational travel for older adults, just launched a new series of trips designed exclusively for solo travelers over 50.  

Programs in the solos-only collection span from Louisiana to Lima and Italy to India. Road Scholar’s program designers have hand-selected dates of some of their most popular itineraries for their pilot. Each participant who enrolls in a solos-only program will get a private room.

“We serve tens of thousands of solo travelers every year, so we understand their unique needs,” said Maeve Hartney, Road Scholar’s chief program officer. Although all of our programs offer a welcoming and inclusive environment for solos, these new programs offer a greater comfort level and more opportunities to make new friends.” 

Road Scholar launched the pilot after a 2023 study found that 60% of its solo travelers in 2022 were women traveling without a spouse.  

“We don’t have marital data status on everyone, but at least 60% of our solo travelers are women,” said Kelsey Perri, Road Scholar’s public relations director. “I knew it would be a big number, and I would have been happy with 30%… but 60%, that’s amazing.”  

Forty-two percent of women surveyed said they travel solo because their spouse isn’t interested in traveling, and 40% said they have different travel interests. 

In fact, 27% of the married women surveyed had never taken a Road Scholar trip with their husbands. 

Other women are widowed, divorced, or single but no longer fear taking a trip without a companion. 

Perri said the study was initiated after she noticed frequent postings on a Road Scholar Facebook page that many women were complaining about spouses who didn’t want to travel and getting feedback from others urging them to embark on solo trips.  

“We’re at a place now where women can travel independently, and it’s not so taboo,” Perri said. “And I think it’s also the fact that two-thirds of our participants are baby boomers…and boomer women are so independent.” 

Another Gainesville resident, Kathleen Hayman, 74, said she became very experienced at solo travel when she worked as a communications consultant. She gave Friday seminars in different cities and stayed over on the weekend to explore.  

“I’ve been on 600+ planes and stayed in about every kind of accommodation you can imagine—from a bug-infested mattress in a hut in Belize to a solo stay in a tree house at an eco-resort on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands,” she said. “It brings back good memories.” 

She’s now been married for 21 years but still travels at times without her husband, Dan. 

“Some trips were focused on my interests. Others were destinations he wasn’t as eager to visit or revisit,” Hayman said. “I’ve scheduled some trips at a time when I knew he would have several interesting events and friends lined up at home, so we would both feel equally fulfilled and free to enjoy ourselves.”  

Paula Chlebowski, 73, of Ocala, retired from a job in information security and now also takes trips without her husband.  

“I am going to the Chautauqua Institution in New York without him in June,” she said. “He is just not interested in that kind of place and program.” 

She finds advantages and disadvantages in traveling without her spouse, Tom Graser. On the plus side, “absence makes the heart grow fonder [and it is an] opportunity to enjoy an event or place that doesn’t interest him without being concerned about him,” she said. On the negative side: “It’s wishing he was with you to enjoy a particularly great experience, view, or whatever.” 

Phyllis Saarinen, 80, has lived in the Gainesville area since the 1990s. She took a few solo trips with Road Scholar before her husband died in 2016, traveling to Death Valley in the United States, on a bike tour of Provence, France, and to the Yucatan in Mexico. 

“I did all those without my spouse and had a wonderful time,” she said. “The group is so compatible, and we are all interested in learning.”  

Saarinen has a new partner and is planning a trip to Scotland and Ireland with him.  

But Road Scholar is not alone in offering travel opportunities to solo women travelers. At Annapolis-based Women Traveling Together (WTT), the focus is solely on women traveling alone.  

Debra Asberry founded WTT in 1997 to satisfy her desire “to see more of the world” without having “to go alone or travel as a single on a tour designed for couples.” 

WTT offers a travel experience to small groups of 14 to 18 women, usually aged from mid-40s to mid-70s. Some become WTT members, others just sign up for single trips. 

Asberry describes her clientele as women without a travel partner. “You are not traveling with couples. You’re not traveling with husbands and wives. You are in an environment where everybody is in the same boat. 

“Women come to us because they found a tour they were interested in taking,” Asberry said. “They stay with us because of our relationships. They have found a home.” 

Michele Jackson, 62, an unmarried civil engineer from St. Johns, has chosen WTT as her go-to travel place and has taken seven trips with them, with another one planned for Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, in May.  

“I wanted to travel. But generally, friends may not be on the same schedule or may not have the means, and I wanted to go places,” she said. “I wasn’t that interested in going by myself.” 

Jackson also likes all that’s planned out for her.  

“Aside from getting there, I don’t have to make any arrangements,” she said, adding that she often finds someone she met on a previous trip when travel kicks off.  

Kathleen Hennigan, 67, who lives in The Villages, has traveled with WTT to visit Japan, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Machu Picchu, Easter Island, and Churchill, Manitoba, to see the polar bears. 

“It is refreshing and liberating that women can travel solo with other women of similar interests,” she said. “It is a fun and safe way to broaden your horizons, not only by visiting and immersing yourself in other cultures but also by making friends for a lifetime.” 

Back at Road Scholar, Kelsey Perri is thrilled to find so many older women eager to travel independently and has her fingers crossed that the trend continues.  

“It’s empowering as a young woman who’s married,” Perri said. “It’s just the idea that your spouse doesn’t have to hold you back in what your dreams are and in exploring the world.”

Editor’s note: This is the latest story in Mainstreet’s Aging Matters series. It was independently reported by Ronnie Lovler and underwritten by Elder Options.