Hi SeaBird,
I'm in the middle of a RTW trip, travelling on my own, and its fine.
I'm doing a mixture of being totally on my own, and doing organised trips, where I'm in a group with other people.
I was in Australia on my own, and had no problems. Everyone speaks english (of course!) which makes it very easy, and I met up with loads of travellers. You can choose how sociable you want to be, by staying in backpacker hostels where you'll meet lots of people, or more upmarket hotels, where I found I met fewer people (which suited me sometimes).
I'm currently in New Zealand, and am with a group called MagicBus. Its very flexible. The bus leaves a city and travels around the country. If I like a place, I can stay extra days and just catch the next bus which comes through (they go at the same time every day). I've met soo many very nice people that way. We meet up for a few days, and then maybe part, and then meet up again further along the trip.
There are other similar companies - KiwiExperience (for 18 year old partypeople) and StrayTravel.
Someone else mentioned organised groups like Intrepid Travel. I've also travelled with similar companies, when for whatever reason I had no-one else to travel with.
Similar companies are:
- Explore Worldwide
- Exodus
- The Imaginitive Traveller
- Journey Latin America
- Guerba
- GAP Adventures.
Enjoy your travels!
Shiraz.