Europe remains one of the easiest continents for solo travel: excellent trains, widely spoken English, and a traveler infrastructure built up over decades. Here are the destinations that combine that ease with genuinely striking scenery.
The Amalfi Coast, Italy
Cliffside towns, a scenic (if hair-raising) coastal bus route, and enough small pensions and B&Bs that solo travelers are never priced out the way they might be at the marquee resorts.
The Scottish Highlands
Single-track roads, dramatic glens, and a strong hostel network (including remote bothies for the more adventurous) make this one of the most rewarding solo road trip or hiking destinations in Europe, with the added ease of English throughout.
Santorini and the Cyclades, Greece
Outside peak honeymoon season, the Greek islands are excellent solo territory, particularly quieter islands like Naxos or Milos, with a ferry network that makes island-hopping alone entirely manageable.
The Faroe Islands
Dramatic, largely untouched landscapes with a very small, safe population, well suited to solo hikers comfortable with unpredictable weather and a slower pace than a typical European city trip.
The Dolomites, Italy
A well-marked via ferrata and hiking trail network, mountain rifugios (huts) that make solo overnight hikes safe and social, and scenery that rivals the Alps with noticeably fewer crowds.
Porto and the Douro Valley, Portugal
An easy, affordable, English-friendly base with a scenic river valley day trip built in, and one of Europe’s strongest solo traveler and digital nomad communities for evening company.
Making the most of it
Europe’s rail network (and the various regional rail passes) makes stringing several of these together in a single trip genuinely easy without needing to fly domestically, which keeps both the cost and the logistics of solo travel here manageable.