Cruise ships are an excellent choice for people travelling alone. On a cruise, you take your hotel - and all its facilities - with you as you go.
So you can enjoy a pleasant meal, take in a show, have a night-cap in a quiet piano bar or even dance the night away in a night-club without the worry of how to get back to base afterwards.
And because a cruise ship is to an extent an enclosed society, it will offer a sense of community and friendliness often lacking in shoreside resorts.
By day, you'll find plenty of activities to participate in, from pool parties, beauty demonstrations and fashion parades to lectures, arts and crafts classes, cookery lessons and keep-fit sessions.
So discovering new hobbies, learning new skills and making new friends really couldn't be easier.

Port adventure

When you go ashore, you have the security of knowing that the ship's crew keep tabs on who's aboard and who isn't - so people will be aware
if anything goes wrong and you don't get back to the ship. And since all ships offer an extensive programme of organised excursions ashore, single travellers can go exploring in good company.
Younger solos will also find plenty of active options on shore tours. The days when a shore excursion simply meant a coach tour around the main sights are long gone. Coach-based tours still exist for those who enjoy them - and they're often a perfect way to see the great cities and sights of the Mediterranean.
They have also been developed to include extra elements like al fresco lunches in smart restaurants, walking tours of outstanding areas and beach stops, so passengers can enjoy a really good day out.
But there are also plenty of other options for fun ashore; on a Caribbean cruise, for example, passengers can take a catamaran trip and go snorkelling, or dive beneath the waves in a submarine, while in Alaska they can try their hand at kayaking, white water rafting or mountain biking.
Trying something new ashore not only creates bonds between passengers, it also provides plenty to talk about back at the ship when they meet for dinner - and on cruise ships, single travellers never have to dine alone.

Sociable dining

Though modern ships have a fair proportion of tables for two and often a range of dining options - from intimate bistros to Chinese, Italian and Mexican restaurants - the majority of ship dining rooms still seat most guests in groups of four, six or eight.
Again, this makes them a good choice for single travellers, who can rest assured they won't be shoved away in a corner with nothing but a book for company.
On some ships, dinner tables are hosted by senior officers adept at chatting and putting others at their ease. But even without an officer to jolly things along, many cruise passengers have established firm friendships with people they first met around a ship's dining table - and lines do make an effort to match up passengers with others of a similar age and background.
But the joy of the latest generation of big, modern cruise ships is that they leave solo travellers free to be as sociable or as quiet as they wish. Though there will be a regular place at table in the ship's formal dining room for every passenger, guests are always free to take advantage of more casual dining outlets with new-found friends, or even to eat in splendid isolation in their cabin if they fancy a bit of peace and a Ônight in' with a good film on TV.

You set the pace