Solo travel is having a bit of a moment.

Maybe you’re sick of trying to corral your mates into a trip that manages to satisfy the whole group’s very specific needs. Sunny and cheap and buzzy, but not too hot or trashy or busy? Sure, easy.

Or maybe you just fancy the prospect of doing exactly what you want for a long weekend. Either way, more people are jetting off for a one-woman holiday than ever before.

However, there are definitely barriers to entry, with social anxiety sitting on top of the bill.

What if you get lonely? What if people look at you weirdly when you’re sitting down at a table for one?

Well, the short answer is that you’ll probably be having too nice a time to worry about any of that, but if you still want a bit of help clearing that mental barrier, we’ve found the very hotel brand to help you dip a toe in the waters of solo travel.

The #StayHumanProject is an initiative from Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, which encourages guests at their London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Glasgow hotels to connect with other people and the destinations they’re staying in.

Want to make some new pals during your stay? Every Kimpton hotel worldwide makes a point of running a “social hour” between 5-6pm every day, with free beer and wine on offer to coax you out of your shell and encourage you to build new connections.

Socialising successfully achieved, you can look forward to further inspiration by booking the hotel’s designated Stay Human room, a space specifically designed to connect you to both your fellow guests and locals from around the city.

Available to book at the brand’s four hotels in the UK and the Netherlands until the end of January 2020, each of these themed rooms contains Stay Human ‘Idea of the Day’ cards proposing challenges and experiences that guests can do to engage in human connections during their stay, alongside an instant camera and a guestbook for passing on experiences and messages to future guests.

And then there are some additional twists that are unique to each of the four hotels.

Staying at Kimpton Fitzroy in London? You’ll be invited to write on the walls by contributing inspiring thoughts to an in-room mural, while there’s also a typewriter in situ, so you can write a letter to someone you’d like to reconnect with.

Kimpton De Witt in Amsterdam will promote mindfulness and calm by encouraging you to water and tend to the in-room plants, leaving them thriving for the next guest, while visitors to Kimpton Charlotte Square in Edinburgh can contribute to an ongoing tapestry created on an actual loom in your room.

Then at Kimpton Blythswood Square in Glasgow, guests are being urged to carry out random acts of kindness around the city (with free drinks tokens for the bar available for guests to gift as they see fit), before marking their achievements on a large map of the city to inspire future guests to follow suit. 

If a fear of feeling isolated would potentially put you off travelling solo, connecting yourself to something bigger might be just the thing.

Plus, you can still mooch around a gallery for hours on end without worrying about what your friends want to do. Win-win.

The Stay Human Project rooms are bookable at all Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants® in Europe until January 31. Book your stay here. #stayhumanproject