Originally Posted by
aquamarinesteph
I think some Americans equate doing something alone with that dreaded hangover from high school of being unpopular. If someone won't dine alone or go to a movie alone, they're not really going to go abroad for a solo adventure.
This. And I don't think it's just the USA.
There's a lot of social stigma associated with doing things alone. I've wasted so much time and lost so many potential experiences because I didn't have anyone to go with. I since learned how to be alone, and now doing things solo is perfectly natural to me. I've had many more positive experiences because of it. I've had friends really want to see movies in the cinema but never actually went in the three months it was showing because 'they had nobody to go with' and it baffles me now.
I do find there's an underlying assumption that if I'm alone in a tourist hotspot, I must be waiting for someone. I regularly had an 'Are you waiting for your friends?' inside Las Vegas shows from those people wanting to take pictures of you. No, I'm on a business trip here, and I'm seeing these shows in the evening because I can.
As a solo female traveller, South Africa was pretty bad. Every restaurant I went to usually involved the server thinking something was wrong with me that I was on my own, with many questions fired at me about whether I actually have friends. At one point I was very nearly refused a table because of it. I found women were generally worse than men. But that's cultural variation.