In your school days, you may have discovered, as I have, that economics really is “grim science.” However, I learned a key fact. Supply and demand drive prices. For solo travel, the surcharge or “single supplement” varies in part according to this tried and true rule. The good news? If you go online, you can find ways to save on solo trips when demand is low. The bad news? Little or no supplement offerings are limited in number and go fast.

Here are 10 ways to save.

1. Don’t ask for a room. Request a “room for one”. In Europe, accommodation is often sold at individual prices. Make sure to see if it is a single price for a standard room or a small single room. Look at the size offered for individual occupants. Then consider the amount of time you will spend in your room. I often take 10-12 hour day trips abroad and spend almost no time in my hotel room except to get some sleep before heading out again.

2. Get there first. Book even a year in advance, as few solo spaces are reduced. This is really important if you are going in season. Summer resorts and hot spots can get returning visitors to book next year when they check out.

3. Head to the airport when everyone else is heading home. Off-season trips are the best way to get immediate 50% discounts. In the south of France, rates are falling as fast as September 9. Ski resorts, like the legendary Sun Valley Lodge, have special offers just before Christmas. In winter and spring, European discounts can also be half price.

4. Get excited about rainy weather or extreme heat and cold. You will have to think about how far you want to take this. I had an exciting short-term work trip on January 1st. in Siberia. I also went on a tour of India during the monsoons. In some cases, negative pronouncements may not affect your trip. A good example? Hurricane risk each fall is less likely to hit the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao), leading to better prices. In Africa, for example, safari fees are lower during the rainy or “green” season if you can escape, and you don’t mind the possibility of short, heavy rains.

5. Look for new travel providers. Hotels that just open or reopen after renovations have special offers to gain or regain market share. The Hotel Castille in Paris, for example, took big short-term discounts when it reopened just steps away from trendy boutiques. Thereafter, rates increased in line with other small, high-end hotels.

6. Be contrary. Don’t pay a premium for current trends. Prowling the internet looking for undervalued regions. If it’s in, prices will skyrocket. In the 1980s, I somehow found a resort in Montenegro right next to the Albanian border. Since then, Sveti Stefan, where I stayed, has been updated as reflected in its 5-star price. The moral of the story is to get there before the crowd discovers a destination.

7. If you can’t pronounce or spell it, you’ll love the prices! Substitute the road less traveled. If you have a dream of seeing the Parthenon you must go to Greece. (Unless you live in North America and would like to see a perfect replica in Nashville, Tennessee!) Regional airlines are a good way to discover great, largely undiscovered locations at low prices. An example: I dreamed of Tahiti in my early graduate days. When fares were high there, Air New Zealand suggested alternatives: Rarotonga and Aitutaki. I accepted them and had the trip of my life dining on the stories for years.

8. Search the Internet for national and regional programs offered by tourism boards. Please check in advance as they may only be available abroad. One of the best deals I found in the 1990s was with the then “Lan Chile”. From the US, I bought three reservation tickets totaling $ 200 to go anywhere in the country. At that price, I headed to Antarctica Chile, at the end of the world!

9. Use flexible dates to get deals on weekdays. Hotel and airline rates often go up and down together. Why is that? That brings us back to supply and demand. When airplanes and hotels have low load factors, prices are lower.

10. Share to save. Look for tours that do not have unique supplements when agreeing to share. The benefit of this approach? It is a way to save if your travel dates are not flexible and low supplement offers are not available for a single individual.

In any case, before you give up on solo travel in your budget, take a look at these options.