Holiday Trips for Singles

The winter holidays are, for many people, a time when they prefer to be out of town. This is especially true for people who have recently suffered the loss of someone close, or for singles who may have little or no family. All those ads depicting happy families may be things you want to avoid.
It used to be that the Soviet bloc countries, where consumer product advertising was almost non-existent, were great for Christmas avoidance. That has changed, of course, but Russia, Greece and other Orhtodox countries still celebrate Christmas later and in a more subdued fashion than Western countries do. I have also heard that India and to a lesser extent China and Japan are places where Christmas is celebrated little if at all. The same, of course, is true for the Muslim world.
A recent story on the New York Times (www.nytimes.com) newswire by Stephanie Rosenbloom offers a number of suggestions for single travel during the holidays. She suggests city escapes, especially to places like Venice, Dublin and Istanbul. I agree that cities are usually good destinations for singles, but you need to be careful at Christmas. I once planned to spend Christmas in Berlin, until I discovered that virtually everything there, including many restaurants, closes for four days.
All inclusive resorts in the Caribbean are also popular with singles, as are singles cruises. For information on the latter, check out www.CruiseMates.com.
Learning vacations, which I have written a lot about, are also popular with singles. So are volunteer vacations such as those offered by Habitat for Humanity, a group that builds homes for low-income families and offers some programs for women only.It's hard to feel left out at the holidays when you are are contributing sweat equity and learning construction trades. Check their Website, www.Habitat.org.
Unfortunately I was not able to find Rosenbloom's article on the Times Website (I read it in another newspaper,) but you may be able to view it from her Website, www.StephanieRosenbloom.com.