Ski Solo & Make Friends

5th March 2024 | Jane Peel, Trysil, Norway

Last modified on March 9th, 2024

The group members have booked with Friendship Travel.

The company was founded in 1999 in Northern Ireland to offer package holidays for people aged 25+ who want to book solo trips.

The location for this ski trip is Trysil, Norway’s largest ski resort.

Trysil, Norway. Image © PlanetSKI

Trysil, Norway. Image © PlanetSKI

Of the three ski holidays offered by Friendship Travel this season, this is by far the most expensive at just under £3,000 for a week.

But Norway is not exactly a budget destination, none of the 8 guests has been here before and, with lift passes included and no dreaded single-occupancy supplements, it’s a price they’re all willing to pay.

Most travellers on these trips are aged between 35 and 65.

Women make up 60%, men 40%.

This group is made up of five women and three men, aged between 27 and 67 and from very different backgrounds.

So, who are they and why are they here?

KIM

Kim. Image © PlanetSKI

A veteran of solo ski trips, Kim, is a medical secretary at one of London’s teaching hospitals.

She first went skiing with members of the amateur concert band for which she plays flute and piccolo.

After a couple of years, the annual trips stopped and Kim found herself with no friends who wanted to ski.

“It took me another two years to find the courage to do one of these trips as it’s a scary thing going on your own and not knowing anyone, but it was the best thing I ever did.

“I immediately thought I didn’t know why I hadn’t done it before.”

Kim has been on at least 20 singles ski holidays, including 12 with Friendship Travel.

“It’s a good way to meet new friends and like-minded people.”

It was on one of these holidays that Kim met Steve, Yvonne and Tim, who are also on the trip to Trysil.

TIM

Tim. Image © PlanetSKI

Tim is a golf club greenkeeper from West Sussex and, for 25 years, has been going on solo ski trips with three different specialist companies.

“I had a good friend who was a ski racer and I skied with him for 5 to 10 years. Then he had kids and a family so I had no one to ski with.

“I thought these solo trips were a good idea but I was worried about who would be on the trip, what kind of people, how old they would be, but it’s great to meet others who just want to ski.

“And you see some of the same people again and again.

“For skiers thinking about it, I would say ‘go for it’. You make new friends. You all like skiing so you will have something in common.”

YVONNE

Yvonne. Image © PlanetSKI

Yvonne works in IT for a government department and lives in London.

She’s been going on solo ski trips since 2005.

“A lot of my friends don’t ski at all and others don’t want to ski every year.

“I have tried going on a regular ski trip on my own and it was fine during the day when I had lessons, but I was the only one in the group in my hotel so I was eating dinner on my own and it was not the same.

“On solo trips you get your own room, it’s great to have people to socialise with but you can also go off and be on your own when you want to.”

ELAINE

Elaine. Image © PlanetSKI

Elaine is a retired hospital consultant who lives in Leicestershire.

She’s been skiing since she was 14 but, in 30 years of marriage, she’s not persuaded her husband to do it.

From when their son was 5, she took him skiing with family specialists, Esprit.

But when he started going skiing with the school, Elaine searched online and discovered Friendship Travel.

“I can go skiing without paying a huge supplement and I have people to ski with.

“I have been lucky. There has usually been one or two people at my level but you find that, if there are some people who are more advanced, they are prepared to wait because they want to ski with other people and be sociable.  It’s a very supportive environment.

“This has been a very good group where the personalities have gelled even though it’s a group of people who would never normally meet.”

MIKE

Mike. Image © PlanetSKI

Mike was a guardsman in the Coldstream Guards and spent 26 years in the British Army, seeing active service in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He’s been on several solo ski and summer trips but this is his first time back on skis in four years.

“When I was in the military I would have leave the same time as everyone else and they would go off and see family and friends,” Mike says.

“A lot of my family and friends didn’t want to ski but my sister had been on a solo trip before and that’s how I got into it.

“I am a carefree character and tend to blend in and everyone is here because they want to ski.”

SUSAN

Susan. Image © PlanetSKI

Susan’s originally from Middlesborough but lives in Brighton.

A former nurse, she now runs a business with her husband, a successful artist who sells his painting and sculpture internationally.

“Skiing’s not for him and he’s scared he’ll fall and break his arm which will affect his work. He’s also scared of heights. He came with me once and he’ll never go again!”

This is Susan’s third holiday with Friendship Travel. Her first was a learn-to-ski trip 11 years ago.

“None of my friends wanted to go and it was really good fun. None of us even knew how to put ski boots on but I thought I would be OK because I have good balance – and I was.

“It was a lovely week and I came away thinking ‘look at me, I’m 55 and I’ve just learned to ski’.

“I did think maybe it was a ‘singles’ holiday with people looking for partners and I’m married but a lot of people who do these trips are married and have partners who don’t ski.”

Because Susan is not an advanced skier like the rest on the trip, she has booked onto 3-hr group lessons for 5 days but meets up with the rest of the group in the bar before dinner each night.

CECILIA

Cecilia. Image © PlanetSKI

Cecilia, who works in finance in the City of London, is on her first solo trip.

And her reasons for being here are quite different from the rest of the group.

She’s the youngest on the holiday and is a relative beginner.

She’s skied for only six days in total on three short breaks.

“My friends are better than me so it’s difficult to go on trips with them,” she says.

“I wanted to get better so I Googled solo ski trips and this one had availability and was a good time for me as I’d just finished a project at work.

“Everything was included and they booked lessons for me so I didn’t have to think.”

STEVE

Steve. Image © PlanetSKI

Steve describes himself as a ‘semi-retired’ builder and comes from Kingston-upon-Thames.

He went on his first solo ski trip 30 years ago.

He likes the way everything is organised for you and geared up for solo travellers.

“If you try and go with a mainstream company on your own, you can’t or there’s a big supplement.”

He met Kim and Yvonne on previous solo trips and the three of them are now regular walking buddies as well.

Skiing together on a Friendship Travel ski trip. Image © PlanetSKI

Having skied with most of this group for most of the week, I can report that it has been great fun.

It helped, of course, that the 6 who were not in lessons were competent skiers and we could all ski on the same runs, including blacks (though the blacks here are generally more ‘dark red’ than the blacks you find in the French Alps).

Trysil, Norway. Image © PlanetSKI

But everyone went at their own pace and the fastest of the group were happy to wait the very short time needed for those at the back to catch up.

Social skiing in Trysil. Image © PlanetSKI

It was a very social experience and great to chat on the lifts – and in the hotel bar and at dinner – with people from such varied walks of life.

Skiing with others also proved to be more of an encouragement to go out on bad weather days – of which, unfortunately, we had a few.

Foggy in Trysil, Norway. Image © PlanetSKI

Those days turned out to be some of the best of the week with great piste skiing and shorter lift queues.

So, if you’re a skier with no skiing friends, I’d say it’s definitely worth considering a holiday like this.

The Trysil 8. Image © PlanetSKI

This season, Friendship Travel, has arranged three 7-night ski holidays:

• Vaujany/Alpe d’Huez, France (chalet board & 5 half-day group ski lessons included) departed on 13th January, from £1,495
• Trysil, Norway (hotel half board) departed on 25th February, from £2,995.
• Les Deux Alpes, France (chalet board) will depart on 9th March, from £1,395.

Trysil, Norway. Image © PlanetSKI

Full details about Friendship Travel’s winter and summer holidays can be found on the Friendship Travel website.