Is Princess Lala the right boat if you travel alone?

You will not eat alone, which is the first thing a person travelling by themselves wants to know. An open trip carries the guests of every cabin, a local guide, a photographer and the crew, and every meal is eaten at one long table indoors, with tea and coffee set out at its end. The open-air table at the stern, under its timber roof, is the second place to sit.

That is how strangers become a table. Nobody organises it. You pass the sambal, which comes in its stone mortar, someone asks where you flew from, and the talk goes on from there.

Between meals you can be as sociable as you like. The bow sundeck has bean bags on green turf, the shaded side deck has two canvas deck chairs, and your cabin is air-conditioned, with a sea-view window.

She suits a traveller who is glad to share meals, walks and a boat with strangers, who does not mind that a cabin is built for two or three, and who can live with Wi-Fi that works where a phone works and drops between islands. Cabin 3 is the one that makes the sum small for one person, and it asks you to share a bathroom outside the cabin.

She does not suit someone who wants a cabin to themselves at a fixed single price, because we publish no single supplement; you write to us with your date and we answer for it. Nor does she suit someone who needs a steady signal for calls, or a table to eat at alone. A private charter of the whole boat, from IDR 31,750,000 (≈ USD 1,948), is a sum for a group, not for one.

Fares, cabins, what to pack and the safety kit are set out on the travelling-solo page.