SOLO FEMALE TRAVELER looking for a room mate (Asia in Oct / Nov 2013)

this forum does not attract a large number of people interested in tours cherry. Most posters here are into independent travel and budget backpacking. You may do better on some other forums such as Tripadvisor or Fodor's perhaps.

One thought I do have is to ask the tour company to find you a room mate. Many tour companies realize that people do not want to pay the 'single supplement' often associated with package holidays/tours. For that reason they will try to match up people in order to increase their sales. The key is to tell them you are interested in their tour but will NOT book it unless you can find a room mate. In other words, hold your money up as an incentive.

If you have already booked, you lose that leverage.

There are also some tour companies who are specifically in the business of catering to singles. Here is a well known UK company. http://www.solosholidays.co.uk/singles-holidays

I've done a couple of tours a number of years ago with the well known Australian company, Intrepid Travel.

The price structure is based around two people sharing a room together. You are automatically paired up with a room mate of the same gender at the beginning of the tour. You therefore don't have to worry about finding a room mate. If there is an odd number of people from a given gender, then one person will get to have their own room for the whole tour.

For some tours, Intrepid offers the option of paying a single supplement (a nominated extra amount of money), which allows you to have your own room.

I checked their website and this is an example of an itinerary which is very similar to what you have posted above (18 days Vietnam and Cambodia). The price works out to be about 1600 Euro
http://www.intrepidtravel.com/vietnam/best-vietnam-cambodia-43765.

They have a maximum of 12 people in each tour and although they are at the cheaper end of the spectrum, I am sure you would be more than happy with the standard of accommodation they use.

You may like to consider Intrepid - I feel they would be a reliable and cost effective option for you.

(I am in no way associated with the company, I am just a happy past customer)

Hi Cherry_Rasberry

I'm seconding the previous person's post. I did the Best of Vietnam trip by Intrepid in November-December last year. It was the first time I travelled anywhere for a long time and I was a little worried that I would get paired with someone I couldn't tolerate! As it turned out, everyone on the tour was fantastic! I had a really nice female room-mate (Intrepid will only pair you up with someone else of the same gender) and she was absolutely lovely. Intrepid are budget-oriented, but they have three levels of travel - basic, original and comfort. The tour I went on was an 'original' tour and yet we had fantastic hotels the whole way through. We only had three budget stays - one overnight train (which was easy, being with three new friends I'd made), one home-stay (dorm accommodation, but, again, lovely people and very comfortable bed and room - we had the whole house to ourselves), and one night in a basic room in the Cuc Phuong National Park. I always felt really safe wherever we stayed, and I had an absolutely awesome time.

I am not an Intrepid salesperson. (You can, in fact, check out that my posts before I went on this trip were actually looking into travelling to Spain!) I just had a great time.

Hi Guys,
thank you for your advice's! They are extremely helpful. I will definitely check out all options.
I must admit that I went to Sri Lanka with Imaginative Traveller a few years ago and they also were giving an option to pay without any single-room supplement. I was lucky as we were 3 persons which booked this option so they did not wanted to put a couple of us into a double room and the third one into a single room. Therefore they gave each of us a single room but at no extra cost. Because however this time I have a very short time frame to go on holiday I will contact the operator I found and maybe they can help me. Luckily I haven't book the tour yet. If not, I may be more lucky on Tropadvisor or Fodor's, as suggested by one of you.

Again thanks a lot for your help.

Big smile:-)