No matter how much you love your friends or your family, organising a holiday with other people can be stressful. If you’ve had enough of arguing about where to get dinner every single night, it might be time to ditch the drama and book yourself a solo trip.
According to Airbnb, solo travel will be trendy in 2026 with more users than ever having already booked a night away for one next year. Lucky for us Brits, one of the most popular destinations amongst those travellers is right here in the UK.
The nation’s furthest north city, Inverness, has been named Airbnb’s top recommended solo-travel destination in the UK. It’s an ideal spot for your first trip alone; the Scottish city is about as far away from the rest of the country as you can get without actually leaving, making both it easy to access and exciting.
Inverness itself is quite a small city, but it is a perfect base for exploring the Scottish countryside. There is so much world-class scenery only minutes away from the city centre, including the iconic Loch Ness where you can do a bit of monster spotting, hop on a boat tour, or take a hike through the rugged landscapes.
Inverness is also the starting point of the Far North Railway Line. This 168-mile stretch runs all the way up to Thurso at the very top of mainland UK, so it is often referred to as the most remote line in the country. It’s also one of the most scenic, running through the UNESCO World Heritage Flow Country and loads of stunning landscapes. It’s a good option if you want to get a proper look at the scenery but don’t like the cold or the rain.
On top of that, there are dozens of historic castles dotted around Inverness to discover. Some are mostly ruins now, but others remain fairly intact, or have been converted into museums where you can learn about Highland life from days gone by.
It’s also worth leaving a day or so to get to know the actual city of Inverness itself, with its many boutique shops, little cafés, and covered Victorian market.
If you want to go further afield, Airbnb also mentioned the Portuguese Algarve, the Costa del Sol in Spain, the little French village of Isère, and Tromsø in the far-north of Norway as brilliant places for solo trippers to visit in Europe.
Find Inverness Airbnbs here.
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