People are generally only too happy to swan off on holidays – but what options do you have if there’s no one to go with you?

“I’m in my 40s and most of my friends are married with children, but I’m a single man,” one letter writer told Moncrieff.

“I’ve carried over lots of annual leave days, but the reality is that I have nobody to go on holidays with.

“I don’t really want to spend thousands of euros to spend a week on my own in some holiday resort.

“It’s gotten to the point that I don’t know what to do with my time off.

“I’ve taken a week to work on the house and do some life admin stuff, but I don’t exactly feel rejuvenated by it.

“I’ve also previously done a trip with my sister and her kids, but you don’t want to be intruding on someone else’s family holiday every year either.

“I also think of nothing worse than an organised trip where you bunk in hostels – I feel like those days have come and gone for me.”

Man on sightseeing bus in Cordoba,Spain. Image: Stephen Parker / Alamy. 11 August 2018

Actress Mary McEvoy said this guy seems to have “a very fixed idea of what a holiday is going to be”, and recommended he doesn’t box himself in too much.

“First of all, I think there is a bit of a midlife crisis going on here,” she said.

“I would say go away on your own; don’t make it a whole two weeks, maybe break it up and go, say, for a long weekend somewhere.

“Do a bit of research before you go and have a little idea of what you’d like to see or not see, but a little idea of what the place is like.

“I can honestly say to you that it is the best thing I have ever done is go away on my own.”

'A bit nerve wracking'

TV personality Declan Buckley said there's “nothing weird or even sad” about going on a holiday by yourself.

“Sometimes it’s a bit nerve wracking to kind of end up in a place, especially if you don’t know the place by yourself,” he said.

“It depends on what you want though, because if he’s in his 40s and he wants to explore places from a cultural or artistic or even a sports point of view, then going on your own is really easy.

“But if you’re going out at night time on your own, going to clubs and bars, that can probably feel a bit lonely because that’s the bit where you go, ‘I’m not sure that’s the right thing’.”

Mary recommended the Camino if this man was up for an active holiday, as she said he'd meet plenty of friendly faces along the way.

Main image: Man on vacation sitting alone Ryde Isle of Wight England. Image: Justin Kase zsixz / Alamy. 30 August 2016