I liked that it was for solo travellers rather than singles

Alison Morris, 62

When I retired as an audit partner two years ago, I knew I wanted to keep my brain active and engage with the wider world. The prospect of having no work and nothing structured in my life was, frankly, daunting, even though I was doing some parttime work.

As a family, we had taken holidays in South Africa, Mexico and Peru, but I had an even more adventurous bucket list. At the top were places such as Bhutan and Central Asia. I knew I wasn’t brave enough to tackle them on my own, so I browsed the web for adventure holiday companies and came across Wild Frontiers Travel.

I liked the idea of joining a small active group of like-minded people. The last thing I wanted to do was to sit on a coach all day and tramp round a site with 30 others.

Another thing that attracted me was that it wasn’t a singles-holiday specialist, but one where solo travellers were welcome and the single supplements weren’t prohibitive.

My first trip was to Ecuador and the Galapagos, and I found my companions open-minded with a real interest in learning about the destination. I also liked the mix of hotels and quirky family-run places, and the opportunities to walk in the landscape and meet the locals.

Over the New Year, I went to Uzbekistan. There were just three of us on the tour and we had an excellent female guide. I learnt so much from her about life as a Muslim woman and she introduced us to all kinds of delicious local delicacies. It was just the kind of adventure I had been looking for.