Solo traveling has become the new thing that everyone has on their bucket list. It’s a good way to build your confidence and explore the world.
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As fun as that all sounds, sometimes it can get lonely and you just need someone to talk to. You don’t have to be alone always, you can make friends with fellow travelers or inhabitants of the place you are visiting.
Here are 8 tips to make friends while traveling solo:
1. Stay in Hostels
This is best for people in their youth, as you will be sharing rooms with a number of people. It’s a great way to meet new people, as you guys share a room plus hang around the hostel when you don’t have any activities. This cheap accommodation option houses open-minded people who love to share a room with others and as such makes it easy to make friends. l
2. Join free walking tours
When there are free walking tours available, join them. Joining such tours helps you to meet people you can connect with as these tours are mainly group activities and most people on them are tourists like you. So it’s a good place to meet someone and start a conversation.
3. Don’t travel with a group of friends
Traveling with friends is great but this prevents you from making new friends. You get comfortable with the people you came with. Everything is all about the group and you don’t really get a chance to make new friends.
4. Get off your phone
If you are always on your phone it puts a shield that you are not approachable. You need to leave technology and put your phone away in order to interact with people. You gotta look beyond your phone to see and meet new people.
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5. Be spontaneous
Having a fully planned itinerary with activities back to back to the last minute is amazing but this prevents you from having time to socialize with others and meet new people as you are always on the run or exhausted from a heavy schedule. You shouldn’t give yourself a tight schedule, leave room for socializing.
6. Have confidence and have good body language
You need to position yourself in a way that makes you approachable to others. Smile with people and if you are confident enough, approach them and start a conversation with them. If you look angry or irritated, no one will approach you.
7. Be a non-judgemental person
I know sometimes we just see someone and create a negative impression about them without getting to know or talking to them first. Be open-minded while traveling and most importantly don’t judge people for how they look or speak as that might just be one of your greatest or closest friends if you just give them a chance.
8. Join online groups or meet people online
Facebook Groups are one of the best places to find people with the same interest as you. You can join groups where people are traveling to the place you are planning to go or are in that area. Before traveling there, you can make friends with them and once you arrive you already have someone you know to show you around, moving your friendship from digital to in person
These are just a few of the things you can do to get a friend while traveling but it’s important to remember to be always safe and don’t just trust everyone but be open-minded as well with meeting new people. Good luck and do remember to have fun.
