The Best Cities for Solo Female Travelers

Last updated on 03/10/2023

While many people enjoy traveling with friends or family, several travelers prefer to go solo. In fact, searches for ‘solo female travel’ are up 99% compared to last year. According to researchers from Condor Ferries, 84% of solo travelers are female. They have also reported that 72% of American female travelers surveyed have taken a solo vacation. And of the solo female travelers surveyed, 59% said they would travel alone again in the next 12 months.

Our experts at InsureMyTrip wanted to determine which city is the ideal location for solo female travelers, and how our list has changed since last year. We’ve ranked 65 global cities based on data points relating to cost, safety, gender equality (based on gender gap reports from WEForum and Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security), and the quality of tourism. The result is a definitive list of the best places to travel alone as a woman.

Rank City / Country Country Ranking Change Since 2022 Overall
1 Dubai, United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates 7.00 8.12
2 Madrid, Spain Spain -1.00 7.79
3 Chiang Mai, Thailand Thailand 13.00 7.50
4 Antalya, Turkey Turkey 27.00 7.40
5 Munich, Germany Germany -3.00 7.39
6 Barcelona, Spain Spain 1.00 7.31
7 Medina, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 36.00 7.24
8 Prague, Czech Republic Czech Republic -3.00 7.22
9 Krakow, Poland Poland -3.00 7.16
10 Lisbon, Portugal Portugal -7.00 7.15

Key Findings

Overall, the best female solo travel destination is Dubai, UAE with an overall score of 8.12. This is seven places higher than it ranked in our 2022 table. Madrid, Spain, is in second with an overall score of 7.79, dropping one place since last year. Ranking 13 places higher than last year is Chiang Mai, Thailand in third place with an overall score of 7.5.

The city with the biggest increase in rankings is Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - increasing from 60th in 2022 to 24th in 2023. All data points have increased, but especially ‘gender equality’ which increased from 59 in 2022 to 64 in our 2023 table. Medina, Saudi Arabia, has also seen an increase of 35 places to rank 7th in our 2023 table.

On the other end of the scale, we have the city that dropped the most in our rankings is Paris -dropping 43 places from 15th to 57th. This is with the ‘absence of worry about attacks based on gender’ increasing from 45.06/100* in 2022 to 47.9/100 in 2023.

*The lower the score the less worry there is about attacks based on gender

The Safest Cities

According to our data, the safest city is, once again, Medina, Saudi Arabia, with an overall safety score of 9.29. Medina scored 9.3/100 in ‘absence of worry about attacks based on gender’ and 82.75 for ‘feeling safe walking alone at night’.

The second and third safest cities are also the same as last year, with Chiang Mai, Thailand scoring an overall safety score of 8.96 and Dubai scoring 8.95 overall. Dubai had the highest score on our table for ‘feeling safe walking alone at night’ with 83.

The two least safe cities are Johannesburg, South Africa (0.55) and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (3.36). Both cities ranked 65 and 64 respectively last year. The third least safe city is Paris, with an overall score of 3.62, falling two places from last year’s ranking.

The Best Cities for Tourism

The best city for tourism has overtaken New York City for the top spot. Dubai has an overall score of 9.78, which comes from a ‘quality of things to do’ rating of 4.5/5 stars and a perfect score for ‘TikTok popularity’ with more than 63 billion views.

In second is New York City, with an overall score of 9.71 - dropping from the first position from 2022. New York had a higher rating for ‘quality of things to do’ with 4.61/5 stars, but a lower ‘TikTok popularity score’ with 27 billion views.

Rounding off the top three is Barcelona with an overall tourism rating of 7.96, with 4.48/5 stars for ‘quality of things to do’ and more than 40 billion TikTok views.

The worst-rated places for tourism are Macao, China (4.42), Medina, Saudi Arabia (4.49), and Osaka, Japan (4.5).

The Best Cities for Equality

*For equality, country data was used as laws around discrimination and other gender equality metrics are often the same throughout a country.

Our table for gender quality has seen some of the biggest ranking changes of all our metrics. Ireland remains in first with a perfect score of 10 for both ‘gender equality’ and ‘absence of discrimination’. Ireland ranked 9th in the world on the WEForum Gender Gap Report 2022.

In second is Belgium, leapfrogging from 17th in last year’s rankings. This is from their gender gap score increasing from 71.4 in 2022 to 79.3 in 2023.

In third is France, increasing from 5th in last year’s rankings with an overall score of 9.92, just shy of second from a slightly lower ‘gender equality’ score of 79.3.

The three countries with the lowest equality scores are Malaysia (6.74 overall), Russia (scoring 7.31 overall), and Indonesia (7.56 overall).

The Most Affordable Cities

Our most affordable city is Jaipur, India with an average daily travel cost of $15. This is followed by Chennai, India which has a daily travel cost of $24. Rounding out our third most affordable city is Antalya, Turkey with an average daily cost of $25, increasing from 4th in 2022.

The least affordable cities are Orlando, with a daily travel cost of $255, followed by Sydney ($250), which dropped from the 46th most affordable city in 2022, and Las Vegas ($246).

Conclusion

There are many great options for your next solo travel adventure, whether that’s laying on a beach in Dubai or admiring renaissance art in the galleries of Madrid.

If safety is your main concern consider cities like Medina, Dublin, or Chiang Mai. If you’re looking for affordability cities in India such as Jaipur, Chennai, and Delhi have some of the best prices. Places like Dubai and New York have the best quality of tourist attractions.

Is It Safe to Travel Alone as a Woman?

There is always an element of risk when traveling, regardless of gender. We’ve created a list of travel safety tips that can be applied when traveling, even in some of the safest cities.

  • Make copies of important documents – this includes your passport and driving license. Be sure to save them online as well as having hard copies so the information is easy to retrieve if needed.
  • Be aware of your surroundings – try to stick to more crowded areas, especially at night. You can also ask hotel staff which areas to avoid.
  • Keep an eye on personal belongings – make sure you know where your bag is at all times. An ideal travel bag is one that is secure. Some common examples are cross-body bags or money belts.
  • Trust your instincts – if something doesn’t feel right it’s best to avoid the areas or activity and return to somewhere you feel safe.
  • Research where you’re going – information on common scams or general crime can be found on our Travel Advisory page.

Methodology

Each data point consists of the latest research available from reputable sources. The data was standardized using minmax normalisation. The minmax normalisation value is multiplied by 10 to create a score (between 1-10). A score of 10 is always the best result, while a score of 0 is the worst. Each city is then ranked on their overall average rating across all data points which includes both city-level data and one country-level data point.

InsureMyTrip segmented factors into four categories, (Safety, Equality, Tourism, and Cost) as well as providing an “overall rating” for each of the cities. The categories were organized to allow travelers to find the ideal city based on what was most important to them. For example, if travelers are worried about walking around at night, they can make an informed decision on where to go. If, instead solo female travelers want to go somewhere popular on social media with a lot of culture they can search in the ‘Tourism’ tab.

Sources

  • Absence of Worry About Attacks Based on Gender

    Index score based on a tourist sample’s feelings of concern about being attacked in the area based on skin color, gender, ethnic origin, or religion
    Numbeo

  • Feeling Safe Walking Alone at Night

    Index score based on a tourist sample’s feelings of concern about walking alone at night
    Numbeo

  • Quality of Things to Do

    Average rating of top 25 tourist attractions
    Google Reviews

  • TikTok Popularity

    Number of TikTok posts per discover city page
    TikTok

  • Gender Equality

    Global Gender Gap Report 2022
    WEForum

  • Absence of Discrimination

    Aggregate score of absence of legal discrimination against woman
    Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security

  • Cost

    Average daily cost of traveling in different cities
    BudgetYourTrip