Swaying as we clung to the sides of open-top Jeeps, honked at by tuk-tuks and waving at pedestrians, we created a spectacle while being chauffeured through a sparkling, dusky pink city after dark.
A motorcyclist briefly gatecrashed the party, rolling his shoulders to a beat as he pulled up alongside us in traffic. The soundtrack faded as we sped into Jaipur’s Nahargarh hills for a view of Jal Mahal (water palace) in Man Sagar Lake.
I had arrived in India alone. Without the company of this friendly convoy, I would have spent the evening in a hotel bar.
Solo travel is in demand. In research published by Abta last October, nearly one in five people had been on holiday on their own in the previous year – the most since the travel association started tracking solo trips in 2014. But you don’t have to remain solitary to try this growing trend.
Joining an escorted tour offers ready-made company and confidence in an unfamiliar destination. It also takes the hassle out of planning. Tour operator Mercury Holidays has recorded a 55 per cent rise in solo bookings between 2025 and 2026 across its mixed group and dedicated solo tours.
I joined one of the former on its Essence of North India itinerary, hitting the Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, as well as Ranthambore National Park.
Among our group of 16 were four solos, two friends travelling together and five couples. It felt like a grown-up field trip, with gentle in-jokes, singalongs and ad-hoc geography lessons as our guide, Jaswant Singh, a Jaipur local, rolled down a map of India at the front of the coach.
His mini-lectures touched on monsoon season and less-visited parts of the country, such as the north-eastern state of Assam.
Jaswant’s expertise was the most praised aspect of our trip. The Jeep tour, which was also popular, was an extra excursion that cost £20pp, as was a visit to Chand Baori in Abhaneri, Rajasthan (£10pp), en route from Agra to Ranthambore. Sun broke through clouds above this striking inverted pyramid structure of 3,500 steps. Dating to the 9th century, it is India’s largest and deepest stepwell.
While it attracted a couple of dozen other visitors as we walked around, it was all but empty compared with the tour’s most-recognisable stops – the Taj Mahal, the red sandstone, Unesco-listed Agra Fort and Jaipur’s hilltop Ambar Fort with its tiled pavilions. Jaswant kept us moving while describing each site’s significance.
We packed a lot in between, indulging at buffets, haggling our way through Jaipur’s Bapu Bazar and cheering as Jaswant pulled out a bottle of Old Monk rum and “Indian” Bombay mix towards the end of day-long drive.
Mercury’s affordable itinerary attracted a ready-for-fun crowd, with an age range, on my tour, of 49 to 72. Several had travelled with the company before, including Sally Miller, 65, from east London. Her first experience with Mercury was Sri Lanka in 2017. “It was good value, and the people were as you take them, no airs and graces.”
Sally had previously joined group tours with her husband, but since he was diagnosed with dementia and she has become his carer, she has travelled less and usually to resorts with family. She missed the cultural insight of escorted tours and also booked a Morocco itinerary with Mercury last year.
The Taj Mahal, and recreating the “Princess Di” photo from 1992 (in which she sat on bench, alone, in front of the white marble mausoleum), was the draw for many to this route, but I was looking forward to our safari drives in Ranthambore. The national park has a population of around 80–90 “royal” Bengal tigers, including cubs.
It was just after 6am and breezy as we set off on the canter – a bit like a giant Land Rover – the 14°C air warming with the rising sun. A dozen or so vehicles crowded round the park gates as men hawked tiger fridge magnets and Ranthambore-branded gilets.
Just 20 minutes into our safari, after passing the apex predator’s “fast food” – sambar deer and spotted deer – we got lucky. A tigress appeared to our left and our guide recognised her as Noori. Her fiery haunches tensed and stretched as she sauntered among trees with her tail curled high above the ground. Her rounded ears flicked to attention as she veered right and towards the road.
I recalled Jaswant’s advice: “You must carry your passport with you on the safari.”
“So they can identify your remains?” someone shouted from the back of the coach, only half joking.
Sitting a few metres from a skilled killer, my fear was neutralised by awe. The canter buzzed with hushed “wows” and pleas of “did you get a picture?”
India’s supreme court recently passed a ban on using smartphones in the park. No one was patted down on entry, but our guide asked a visitor to put her phone away.
The one Mercury guest with a digital camera was tasked with documenting the wildlife. A treeful of monkeys threw us side eyes as they waited for a group of worshippers at a temple in the park to put out snacks. Crocodiles lounged on riverbanks, a warthog rolled in a mudbath and Indian rollers, with jade and emerald feathered wings, fluttered in and out of the canter.
We recounted it all that night while sipping Kingfisher beers around the firepit at Ranthambore Regency. With its lush central courtyard, it was the most memorable of our accommodation. Here, birdsong woke me at dawn and dinner was a generous spread from which I piled up my plate with curries and garlic naan.
As tasty as the buffets were, I yearned for other culinary experiences – such as street food.
Trevor Hall, who’s in his sixties and from near Milton Keynes, is usually more adventurous while dining out on holiday. He and his wife have travelled independently around South East Asia, but decided on an escorted tour in India.
“Jaswant has been a seasoned professional,” Trevor said. “We couldn’t have seen the things we have without a tour.”
For a holiday so richly seasoned with once-in-a-lifetime sights, I was surprised by what lingered – the company.
Booking it
The writer was a guest of Mercury Holidays, which offers a 10-day Essence of North India tour, including accommodation, meals, return flights, seven excursions, in-country transport and a dedicated guide from £1,619 for a solo traveller, 08000 984288
More information
Most visitors need an e-visa or paper visa for India, indianvisaonline.gov.in