A guide to meeting kindred spirits in places you don’t have existing networks 🥰
Making friends as an adult can be famously difficult; it feels like everyone already has a set friend group from high school, or university, or work, or all of your friends are in different life stages between moving cities or countries, changing careers, or having kids.
Doing so while travelling complicates things even further; how will you connect with people if you don’t know the local language or where anyone your age hangs out?!
But though you may have some awkward moments, the process of making friends while travelling can actually be pretty transformative. You’ve already got a love of travel in common, which makes finding things to talk about that much easier.
Travelling long term and meeting other people doing the same is a delight, as you suddenly have friends who are at a similar stage in life to you and looking for the same things – new experiences in new locations.
So where can you meet these kindred spirits in cities where you don’t have existing networks? Fortunately, I’ve been there and done that, and I’ve got you covered.
It’s a classic for a reason; the most common method of making new friends while travelling is undoubtedly at your hostel.
Even if you opt for a private room, most hostels have common spaces (some even have their own bars), as well as social events like bar crawls that will make it easy to mingle with other guests. But what if you’re no longer about that hostel life?
Group travel through tour agencies are a fantastic way to see the world with a built-in friend group; you can join a tour with your existing friends, of course, but many people choose to sign up on their own and make friends along the way.
If you’d rather travel on your own schedule, you can still meet people by signing up for single-day tours through platforms like GetYourGuide and Viator.
A particularly good option for younger people looking to meet like-minded people are pub crawl tours, which can be found in most tourist hotspots; or walking tours, which are a fantastic way to learn about the area you’re in and are often guided by an in-the-know local.
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