I watched "A Map for Saturday" yesterday, and I liked it for the most part. It was a goodportrayal of RTW solo trips. I was somewhat disappointed that it didn't portray any people travel in pairs, couples, or groups.

I am travelling for 12 months with my girlfriend, and wanted to see some things relevant to couples or groups as well. Obviously, a lot is the same, but there are some clear differences between doing your trip solo or with a partner or group.

I just wanted to survey people who have done a lot of travelling (I've done some), and ask, as far as the backpacker "scene" goes/hostel scene, what would you say the % is of travellers who travel solo, in a couple, or as a group? What's the ratio of solo to group travellers?

Do you find at all that couples end up as "outsiders"? I didn't usually find that when travelled, it depended on the couple.

When I travelled, I did so solo, and I met some couples that met people and others that were kind of inclusive. I'm sure we'll be a bit of both depending on our mood of the week, but I was just wondering how many people really travel solo vs. travelling with a friend or friends.

I've traveled a bit, my biggest trip being a 9 month stint in Uganda volunteering. Although I spent most of time at the orphanage, I spent a bit of time traveling around Uganda and staying at hostels. I was surprised at the number of couples I ran into. I would even go so far as to say that the majority of the people I met had some kind of travel companion.

If anything, i felt that people with a partner tended to make a group conversation start easier and made the overall environment more relaxed. I do remember one French couple that didn't really feel to comfortable in a large group, but I think it was more of a language thing than anything else.

All in all, my experiences in hostels have been rather positive in regards to couples/partners. I think the general attitude of hostel-type travelers is pretty easy going and not hard at all to get along with.

Depends where, really. In South East Asia I felt like it was really common to meet solo travelers (well outside the easy to get to Thai spots, as most of those were friends out for a week or two of vacation) whereas Europe was dominated by study abroaders when I went in spring. For people doing long-term travel though I hesitate to say if it's more couples over singles or not, so it's probably fairly even overall (but then my numbers may be skewed as I traveled alone).

I'll be traveling with one other person — a college friend that I worked with at the school newspaper. We had lost touch after graduation, but linked back up recently when we realized we were planning similar trips and decided it'd be smart to combine for some companionship. Plus, it forced us to make good on our plans for ourselves.

We both have a slightly different list, but the vast majority is the same, so we agreed to split up for some of the things that rank higher on our separate lists.

I think it's best to travel with someone you know, but are not too close with (exception: husband/wife, long-term significant others, etc.). With my travel partner, I feel we know each enough to know boundaries, but not too well that we'd be bickering over little things or completely inseparable.

I think that you will be just fine on your trip if you are interested in meeting other people. Again, like you said, it just depends on the couple traveling, not so much the other backpackers. I just got back from a RTW trip and traveled solo for a lot of it - and many times along the way I toured around for a day with an out-going couple I had just met a the hostel.

In fact, I probably joined the couples and groups almost as often as I partnered up w/ another solo traveler for the day!

I think a lot of it depends on the region, too. I've been doing a trip in Eastern Europe for the last 5 weeks and I've seen mostly couples and small groups. At least 75%. Some places closer to 90%. In fact, there's an unjustifiably loud group of 16 people from Spain here right now in Sofia that I'm seriously thinking of throwing something at... but that's for another topic. When I was traveling in Central America or in NE Asia it was disproportionately more solo travelers. Have other travelers found that as well?

I would probably second that - a lot of solo travelers in SEA and Asia but less in Eastern Europe - I encountered much of the same thing. But also, I met a whole lot of solo travelers in the UK and Ireland.

I've done most of my traveling alone and wouldn't have it any other way.

For a completely unscientific estimate based solely on trips in 2008-2009 (Argentina, Uruguay, and New Zealand), I'd say that about 40% of the travelers I've run into have been alone, 50% have been with a friend or a group of friends, and only about 10% have been couples.

I prefer to travel solo and then occasionally travel with people I meet along the way. After a year in mexico I'd say probably 80% of the travelers I've met are solo travelers. I'll be setting out on a new journey in January during which I'll be traveling with someone else. Should be interesting to see how that goes because it's hard to separate on a sail boat.