This e-mail was received in response to my recent blog entry on solo travel.  Its author is Maxwell Kates, and I am posting it with his permission:

I’m writing to respond to your blog entry about single travelers. I thought it was well written as it describes a number of thoughts and concerns single travelers face or may not realize.  Although my research in this area is not scientific, I am aware that there has never been a community so large, widespread, and disparate as the singles of our times.  Of the 6.6 billion people on the planet, at least two billion are considered single.  There might have been other communities to which members might not have wished to admit association in the past, but these were, generally, more cohesive, due to common practices, lifestyles, or beliefs. What seems to unite singles today is an absence from their lives.  I feel it is difficult for any business to target a product to a market such as "singles" if it is defined by what members are not, rather than what they are.  I’ve discovered this after attending events where participants have come together due to their (non)marital status, but may have nothing in common with respect to anything else.  Also, I’ve also traveled a lot in the past five years.  Apart from a trip to New York with my dad in 2005, it’s been independent of friends and family.  I’ve taken package excursions, attended conventions, joined with organizations and to volunteer, all en groupe.  Each trip has had advantages and disadvantages.  Your level of connection with co-travelers is the luck of the draw.  Then there’s the alternative: traveling completely on your own. Last month I went to Vancouver for a week.  Why Vancouver?  Part of the reason is that I know about a dozen people there.  I was unemployed at the time and wanted to be around people I knew.  Of the twelve, I arranged to meet six of them, averaging nearly one visit a day over eight days.  With one of the six, I traveled to Seattle where I saw three more people I know - two intentionally, one by accident.   Another factor for picking Vancouver was on a recommendation by another member of "the singles jungle," who deemed the city a welcoming destination for solo travelers.  When traveling alone, I try to find a hotel that has a community atmosphere.  As was the case with prior vacations to San Francisco and to London, I succeeded in Vancouver.  You never know who you’ll meet in such circumstances. These are all topics you discussed in your recent entry. Others, including self-sufficiency and personal entertainment, are concepts which did not cross my mind.  Yes, traveling (and living, for that matter) on your own can be more expensive than with friends or a significant other, but it beats the alternative of uncongenial companionship, just for the sake of it. Thanks for writing about such matters and providing readers the opportunity to think about them.

Maxwell, thank you for your feedback, sharings and suggestions!