I'm not playing the dating game anymore, but I did it for ten years as a young, single mom, so I know all too well what it's like.  Is it even possible to meet someone while on vacation?  Well, it's not a lock, but it usually exposes you to far more people than you meet working that 9 to 5 job every day.  I'm just going to lay out a few tips and hope that something will work like magic for you.

1) First of all, make up your mind that you're going to stowaway those ugly mental mantras for good:  "My life is borrrring,"  "I'm so unattractive," "I'm terrible at the dating game," "I've got kids," "Everyone else is cool," and on it goes, ad nauseum.  Believe me, 99% of the people you meet are no different than you. They're thinking their life is the most boring on record. There are no real life James Bonds/Charlie's Angels.

2) Probably the easiest way to meet someone is to go on a singles' tour or cruise. Of course, age range does matter in most instances. Make sure that if you're 30, the tour isn't for seniors or for college kids.  But out of a tour group of, say, 50 people roughly in your age range, surely there should be one person who, at worst, has some similar interests and, at best, strikes the spark of romance.  Of course, it also helps if the tour is a 10-day rather than a 2-day. It takes some time to make the rounds and find out who's who.  Try to book at least a week-long tour.

3) Without sounding like a robot, try to ask questions that can quickly establish whether a person is even mildly compatible with you.  Here are some biggies:  Do you like the personality? Is the person never-married, divorced, widowed, with or without kids? Does the person share your religious views? Is the person a partier? Do you share at least a few significant interests?  Do you sense flashing red alerts like excessive emotional baggage, hang ups, suppressed anger? Is the person  enjoyable---comfortable to  be around? 

4) Be friendly, polite, and efficient.  If you're on a 6-day cruise and it takes you three days to meet three people, your odds for finding a match are significantly reduced. At the mixers, case out the room, pick out a few possibilities and engage each in a few minutes of focused conversation, then smoothly move on.  After you've conversed with five or six, decide if any stood out as individuals you might like to know better. If not, check out some more or visit the next room serving appetizers. 

5) If a singles' tour just wasn't practical or if your kids are with you, that complicates things but doesn't rule out meeting someone special.  One thing you can do is zero in on adults traveling with a child or two.  If your children start playing with other kids poolside or wherever, maybe you can get to know their single parents.  Who knows? There may just be a fun adult who really would enjoy meeting you.

6) One reason cruises are nice is that most of them have great kids' programs on board.  This could give you some free hours to socialize, go to a karaoke bar, or to a show and meet people.

7) If you're the outgoing type, don't be afraid to volunteer for one of those crazy games the show host plays when he calls for volunteers from the audience.  So you think you made a fool of yourself?  Someone in the audience may admire your pluck or think you or what you did up there was cute. Nothing like getting a little exposure in front of the whole gang.

8) If you're the extremely shy type, go on vacation with an outgoing unattached friend you can trust.  Then you can meet people together.  Just make an agreement beforehand:  if you two meet two other friends and you have no attraction to the matching person, you're allowed to split up and do our own thing rather than get trapped in a twosome that is just plain miserable for you.  Whatever you do, don't get your heart so set on finding someone that not finding him or her ruins your whole vacation.  Go to have fun, no matter what. If you happen to meet a friend in the process, that's just icing on the cake.

Go on. Get outta here and start planning the vacation of a lifetime---just maybe the vacation where you meet the love of your life.