How to avoid eating alone on a solo holiday in Spain
The real problem isn't the flight, it's the dinner
Most people who hesitate over a solo holiday aren't worried about the airport or the language. They're worried about 8pm. A table for one, a waiter's slightly too-kind smile, the second glass of wine you order because the alternative is looking at your phone again.
ABTA's Holiday Habits survey for 2025-26 found that 19% of UK holidaymakers took a solo holiday in the last year, the highest figure this decade and up two percentage points on the year before. Most of them, 76%, stayed within Europe, and just over half took a city break. So solo travel to Spain isn't unusual any more. What's still unusual is doing it without eating alone.
A hotel room doesn't fix it
Booking a nice hotel in Santander or a village on the coast solves accommodation. It does nothing for dinner. You can sit in a beautiful dining room and still be entirely on your own, because nobody there has any reason to talk to you, and you have no reason to talk to them. Group tours help a little, but many still drop you at a hotel and leave you to work out the evening yourself once the coach has parked up.
The single supplement makes this worse before you've even left home. A JourneyWoman survey of women over 50 (a self-selected panel, so more a signal than a national figure) found that 78% named the single supplement, not safety, not cost overall, as the single biggest reason they hesitate to book. It punishes you for travelling alone at the exact moment you most need the trip to feel welcoming rather than penalised.
What actually solves it: a hosted table
The honest answer is you need to book somewhere that has already decided you will eat with other people, and built the whole week around it. That's the entire model at Casa Agara, an 18th-century stone house in Fresneda de Cabuérniga, in the Saja-Besaya reserve in Cantabria, about an hour from Santander. Rob and María live on site with their dog, Chispa, and every guest, whether they arrive alone, as a couple or with a friend, eats at the same table.
Breakfast, a light lunch (a picnic if the day's a walk) and a home-cooked dinner are included every day, made with vegetables from the house's own garden. Dinner changes nightly: tapas and cava round the fire on the first evening, then roasted salmon; a curried night with chicken masala and spinach curry; grilled sardines with slow-cooked pork belly to finish. Nobody is served a lesser version because they're eating alone, and nobody is charged more for it either. There's no forced single supplement here: a solo guest twin-shares at no extra cost, matched with someone of the same sex, or pays for a room of their own if they'd rather have that instead.
The bar runs on the same logic. House wine, beer and spirits are poured all day, help yourself, at no charge (only the premium bottles carry a small one). It sounds like a detail. It isn't. A free bar means the evening doesn't end when the bill arrives, and it means nobody is doing sums in their head about a second glass while everyone else orders a third.
Worth being straight about one thing: this is not all-inclusive. Lunch out at a local restaurant, if the group fancies a change from the house, is at your own cost, and it's absolutely not half board either, since lunch is included every single day at the house or as a picnic. And if you want total solitude, this isn't that holiday. The whole point is the shared table.
During the day the same principle applies. People walk together on the Cantabrian Walking Week, paint together on the drawing and painting break, or move together on the lawn on the Thrive fitness week. Nobody has to organise their own evening because the evening is already organised, and by dinner on the second night most people have stopped being strangers.
Faq
Will I be put with a group of strangers at every meal?
Yes, and that's rather the point. Up to 24 guests share the house during a hosted week, and meals are taken together around the table. If you'd rather eat privately every night, this isn't the right holiday for you, but most solo guests say it's the reason they came back.
Is there really no single supplement?
Correct. Solo guests twin-share at no extra charge, matched with someone of the same sex, or can pay to have a room to themselves if they'd prefer privacy. If no room-mate match is found, the house covers the supplement rather than passing it to you.
Is this the same as an all-inclusive resort?
No. Breakfast, a light lunch and dinner are included every day, plus a free house bar, but it is not all-inclusive: flights, insurance, excursions and any lunch you choose to have out at a restaurant are extra.
How do I actually book a week?
Every week at Casa Agara is booked through Spice Escapes, our exclusive booking partner, who handle flights, room-matching and the paperwork. You deal with the house for everything once you're through the door.
Is Casa Agara only for solo travellers?
No. Couples and friends join the same weeks and sit at the same table. The hosted format simply means nobody, solo or not, has to organise their own social life for the week.
If the thought of another solo dinner is what's been holding you back, get in touch and ask about an upcoming week. Casa Agara's weeks are booked through Spice Escapes, and Rob and María will happily talk you through which one suits you before you commit to anything.