Solo travelling offers a possibility to spend your time the way you want to. And although that is great, one might feel a bit lonely every now and then. Making friends or finding your own community in the new country might feel hard, so why not start building up connections even before stepping onto a plane?
6 tips for finding local contacts even before travelling
Here are my tips for you on how to find and connect with locals before you start your solo journey.
- Search for local organisations around your hobbies and interests. Check if they have a social media presence that you could start to follow. This way you might be able to find people with similar interests to you. Search people you might wanna meet with from hobby related apps and social media groups.
- Check for local coworking spaces and events they organise. This way you’ll meet other solo travellers and remote workers.
- Search from social media and websites for local event pages. Or see if you can find interesting events from Meetup.com.
- Learn stuff together. Book yourself a place from a local course, or meet a local guide via Airbnb Experiences. And you can start this learning even before arriving at your destination. Check for example language exchange platforms like Tandem or HelloTalk
- Search for podcasts and Youtube channels that have published topics concerning the place you are travelling to. Could you find interesting people among these content creators or the people they interview on their channels?
- Participate in Local Facebook groups or online travel forums like TripAdvisor’s travel boards.
Got your own tips for making friends while traveling? Share them in the comments below!
