From Awkward Hellos to Lifelong Memories
Traveling alone sounds glamorous, but it’s easy to end up lonely in a room full of strangers. Humans are wired to look for connection, whether it’s a quick chat with someone at a street stall or a full-blown friendship that follows you home. We’re all just fumbling through new cities, carrying trekking backpacks that set us apart at a glance, hoping someone else will say hi first. Here are twenty ways to tip the odds in your favor.
1. Stay in Hostels
Yes, they’re noisy. Yes, the guy on the bottom bunk snores. But nowhere else do conversations come so easily. Someone’s always asking where you’re from, if you want to split a taxi to the ruins, or whether that tiny padlock on your locker is really enough.
Greta Schölderle Möller on Unsplash
2. Join a Walking Tour
Free walking tours are especially useful for meeting people. Everyone’s there for the same reason—to see the city without getting lost, and maybe strike up a conversation with someone just as out of place as they are. The guide points at something and you glance at the person next to you, muttering, “Did you hear what he said about the cathedral?” Instant camaraderie.
Kat van der Linden on Unsplash
3. Use Trains as Social Hours
Trains feel like suspended time. Hours roll past with mountains outside your window, and there’s always a stranger sitting two feet away. It’s not as intimate as a plane or as isolating as a bus. The conversations can drift from snacks to politics to family back home. Sometimes you don’t even learn their name, but you’ll remember the story about the cousin who raises llamas.
4. Take a Cooking Class
Food pulls people together faster than sightseeing. You’re chopping onions next to someone from Chile, burning your garlic while laughing at the same mistakes, and by the end you’re sitting together eating pasta like family.
5. Say Yes More Often
The group in the hostel kitchen asks if you want to come to a late-night food market. Your first instinct is to shake your head—you’re tired, you don’t know them. But yes is a magic word. Nine times out of ten, saying yes leads to a night you’ll talk about years later, when the memory of the actual landmarks has already faded.
6. Hang Out in Cafés
Cafés are social magnets. Sit at a table with a notebook open, and eventually someone asks what you’re writing. Baristas double as unofficial city guides if you don’t shy away from conversation. Don’t be afraid of making eye contact; it’s what opens the door to connection.
Alaksiej Čarankievič on Unsplash
7. Go to Hostel Events Even If They Sound Awful
It could be a pub crawl, a trivia night, or a costume party, and yet these contrived events often break the ice better than anything else. Singing karaoke with people you met an hour ago is absurd, but absurdity builds fast friendships.
8. Ask for Directions, Even When You Know
It may feel silly, but it works. Locals like to help, and sometimes they walk you part of the way just to make sure you don’t get turned around. More often than you think, you end up trading names, and suddenly you’ve got an impromptu walking companion for a few blocks.
9. Take Language Classes
Even a week-long crash course opens doors. Language schools gather travelers who are also looking for friends. You sit in a tiny classroom, stumbling over the same verbs, laughing when you mispronounce those pesky new vowels. These mistakes are bonding glue.
10. Share Snacks
Food is a universal currency. A pack of cookies on a bus or a bag of peanuts on a hike can do wonders to bridge connections with strangers. Offer someone some food, and the conversation follows naturally.
11. Volunteer a Day or Two
Whether it’s beach cleanup, helping on a farm, or painting a school, these shared tasks strip away the awkwardness of small talk. You’re already side by side, sweaty and tired, and by the end you’ve traded life stories with someone you might never have spoken to otherwise.
The Tampa Bay Estuary Program on Unsplash
12. Use Day Trips as Friend Factories
Group activities throw strangers together for hours. People open up faster when they’re passing sunscreen around or complaining about the heat. You clink glasses, you laugh, sometimes you even book the next adventure together.
13. Learn and Remember People’s Names
It seems trivial, but it’s not. Remembering someone’s name feels personal, like you cared enough to register the detail. People respond differently when you say their name—it’s a kind of passport to deeper conversation.
14. Share Travel Hacks
“Did you know bus line 42 is half the price of the tourist shuttle?” Offering these little hacks and tips ingratiates you immediately and builds trust. Travelers love trading secrets, and nothing bonds faster than feeling like insiders together.
15. Visit Markets Instead of Malls
Markets are alive with stories. A vendor teaches you how to eat a prickly fruit, a local shopper chimes in with her own tip, and suddenly you’re deep in conversation about recipes. Markets breathe in a way malls never can.
16. Join a Hiking Group
Lots of cities have weekend hikes open to anyone. You meet at dawn, half-asleep, and by noon you’re cheering together at the summit. Shared exhaustion turns strangers into teammates. Even the blisters feel like part of the bond.
17. Don’t Underestimate Laundry Rooms
Laundry machines are natural conversation starters. Everyone’s trapped waiting for the cycle, nobody has their phone charged, and eventually someone cracks a joke about socks disappearing. Next thing you know, you’re folding shirts side by side and planning dinner.
18. Carry a Deck of Cards
Cards are magic. Sit in a common area, shuffle, ask if anyone wants to play. Within minutes you have a circle of people leaning in, laughing over the rules, debating house variations. One simple deck can pull a room together.
19. Say Where You’re Headed Next
Don’t just shrug when people ask—give them the specifics. Someone inevitably says, “Me too,” and suddenly you’ve got a travel buddy. The best friendships often begin with shared itineraries.
20. Be a Regular, Briefly
Return to the same café or street stall for a few days in a row. Familiarity builds quickly. The barista starts to remember your order, and the familiar guy at the next table nods in greeting. By day three, you’re swapping recommendations like old friends.
