‘I’ve met so many amazing people’
If you’re looking for adventure, but don’t want to go alone, join the group p
Cathy Turner, 63, is an account reconciliation manager who lives near Fleet in Hampshire. . She has two adult children with her late husband Ian.
She says: ‘My husband and I were always quite adventurous when it came to travel, because we were both scuba divers and our children qualified quite young, too.
‘After Ian died in 2016, I really didn’t want to give up travelling, but I didn’t know if I could do it on my own, because I like to go to exciting destinations.
‘Luckily someone pointed me in the direction of group travel. And there was only one way to find out if I’d like it or not, and that was to go on a group trip. So I booked to go to Vietnam and Cambodia.
‘Obviously, you don’t know who you’re travelling with, but I’m chatty and open and talk to anyone, which really helped.
‘Up until then, I’d always organised everything myself and I was concerned about letting someone else do it for me.
‘But after a couple of days you realise it works, and you don’t have to worry about the hotel, or the room not being ready or the transport. On a group tour, all the problems are dealt with for you. When buses and trains don’t arrive when they should, it’s not your problem.
‘Since getting back from Vietnam and Cambodia, I’ve been to Jordan, Thailand and Nepal with a group, and I’m hoping to do more.
‘I’ve met some amazing people and I’m in contact with people from every tour I’ve
been on – we keep in touch via social media, chatting on Messenger and by phone.
‘I’ve even been away with some of them since – seven of us who met in Jordan booked a trip to Palma in Majorca the following year because we got on so well.
‘I share rooms normally, although you can pay more for your own. You don’t know who you’re sharing with before you go but I’ve always found it great. You’ve got to be flexible and ready to take it in turns to go to the bathroom and all that sort of thing.
‘I did once share a room with a lovely woman in her 70s who was fit as a fiddle, but liked to do naked yoga in the morning. I’d go outside for a cigarette and tell her to tell me when she was done.
‘The good thing about group travel is that you have a group of people who have similar interests to you because you all love travelling, so you have something in common.’
“I’ve met some amazing people and I’m in contact with people from every tour I’ve been on