How To Make Friends And Meet People When Travelling Solo

Editor’s Note: This editorial draws on more than 25 years of independent travel, first-hand experience and publicly documented evidence and regulatory changes. Many of these editorials were written years before the issues became mainstream, and have been updated to reflect current developments while remaining true to their original arguments.

For many people considering their first solo trip, the prospect of being alone is one of the things that gives them pause. Will travelling solo be lonely? Will there be anyone to talk to, eat with or explore with? And perhaps most importantly, is it actually easy to meet people and make friends when travelling alone? These are understandable concerns, particularly when the image of solo travel suggests spending weeks or months entirely in your own company, but the reality is usually very different.

Travelling solo doesn’t mean travelling alone. After more than 25 years of predominantly solo travel, I’ve probably spent as much time travelling with people I’ve met along the way as I have completely by myself. That’s one of the great advantages of solo travel: you get to choose. When you want solitude, you can enjoy your own company and do exactly what you want; when you feel like being social, travelling independently creates endless opportunities to meet locals, other backpackers and fellow solo travellers. Meeting people while travelling solo isn’t difficult, and it certainly doesn’t require being naturally extroverted. Most of the time it simply comes down to putting yourself in situations where conversations happen naturally and being willing to say hello.

Saying Hello

It sounds almost too simple, but this is what meeting people while travelling often comes down to: say hello and start a conversation. Backpackers and independent travellers are generally open to meeting new people, particularly when they are travelling solo themselves, and there is an unspoken understanding that striking up a conversation with a stranger in a hostel common room, on a long train journey or while waiting for a tour to start is completely normal.

There is no need for a clever opening line or an extroverted personality either. Travel gives everyone immediate common ground. Ask where someone has been, where they are heading next, how long they have been travelling or what they thought of somewhere you are planning to visit. Ask if the food they ordered is any good, whether they know how the local transport works or if they have found anything worth seeing nearby. The conversation itself doesn’t really matter; it is simply an invitation to interact, and most travellers are more than happy to accept it.

For anyone who is naturally shy, that first hello can obviously feel more difficult, but solo travel is remarkably good at making these small interactions easier. The more often you start conversations, the less significant they begin to feel, and it doesn’t take long before chatting to someone you have never met before becomes completely ordinary. Not every conversation will turn into a friendship, nor does it need to, but some will lead to sharing a meal, exploring somewhere together or travelling alongside each other for a few days.

The important thing is not to sit back and assume everyone else will make the first move. Sometimes they will, especially when you are travelling alone, but being willing to take that tiny bit of initiative opens up far more opportunities. You don’t need to become the most sociable person in the room. You just need to look up, be approachable and say hello.

Stay Somewhere Social

Hostels have always been one of the easiest places to meet other travellers, particularly when travelling solo. That doesn’t mean staying in hostels is a prerequisite for independent travel, and it certainly doesn’t mean spending every night in a crowded dorm. I increasingly choose private rooms in hostels, guesthouses or small locally run accommodation when I want a little more comfort and privacy, but there is a lot to be said for staying somewhere designed to bring travellers together.

The real advantage of a good hostel isn’t the dorm bed, it is the social environment around it. Common rooms, kitchens, cafés, bars, terraces and communal areas naturally put people in the same space, often with nothing more pressing to do than relax after a day of exploring and talk to whoever happens to be sitting nearby. Many of those people will be travelling alone too and will be just as open to meeting someone as you are.

If you are staying in a dorm, simply introducing yourself to the people sharing the room can be enough to get a conversation started. If you have a private room, spend a little time in the communal areas instead of disappearing behind your door every evening. Sit at a shared table, make a coffee in the kitchen or ask someone what they have been doing that day. It doesn’t take much.

Guesthouses, homestays and other smaller accommodation can offer the same opportunities in a different way, particularly when there are shared spaces or sociable hosts. The point isn’t that solo travellers have to stay in hostels to make friends; it is that accommodation can be much more than somewhere to sleep. Choosing somewhere with a social atmosphere makes meeting people almost effortless, while still leaving you free to retreat to your own space whenever you have had enough company.

Join Hostel Activities And Social Events

Hostel activities are another easy way to meet people because they remove much of the awkwardness of approaching complete strangers. Walking tours, communal dinners, quiz nights, cooking sessions, organised day trips and nights out all bring together travellers who are actively looking to do something and, usually, happy to meet other people while they are doing it.

Bar crawls and organised nights out have long been part of the backpacking scene too, and if that is your thing they can be a lot of fun. They tend to attract a mix of newly arrived travellers and solo backpackers, so groups form quickly and introductions happen naturally. But drinking certainly isn’t necessary to make friends in a hostel, and anyone who isn’t interested in nightlife will usually find plenty of other opportunities to socialise.

The real advantage of organised activities is that they give everyone a reason to interact. Instead of walking into a room and wondering how to start a conversation, you are already sharing an experience. That makes them particularly useful for anyone who is shy or finds approaching strangers difficult. Good hostel staff are usually very good at creating an inclusive atmosphere too, introducing people and making sure solo travellers aren’t left standing on the edge of a group.

Once the activity is over, there is no reason the social side has to end with it. A walking tour can turn into lunch with a few people from the group, a communal dinner can become an evening out, and a day trip can lead to making plans for the following day. The organised activity simply creates the opportunity; what happens afterwards is entirely up to you.

Meet People In Transit

Long-distance buses, overnight trains, ferries and other forms of overland transport are surprisingly good places to meet other travellers. Backpackers tend to follow many of the same routes between popular destinations, and when you are sitting next to someone for several hours, sharing a sleeper carriage or waiting around for the same delayed connection, conversation tends to happen naturally.

Again, it doesn’t need to be complicated. Ask where someone is heading, where they have just come from or whether they know what happens when you arrive. Before long you can be swapping recommendations, comparing routes or hearing about somewhere you hadn’t even considered visiting. Some of the best travel advice comes from other travellers who have just been where you are going, and those conversations can be far more useful than anything you researched before the trip.

There is also something about sharing a long journey that makes people talk. When everyone is dealing with the same twelve-hour bus ride, border crossing, delayed train or confusing transport system, there is already an immediate shared experience. A conversation that starts simply as a way of passing the time can easily turn into getting something to eat when you arrive, sharing a taxi into town or deciding to visit somewhere together the following day.

Of course, not everyone wants to talk, and reading the situation is part of normal social interaction. But if someone seems open to conversation, there is no harm in saying hello. At the very least you may get a few useful destination tips and an interesting conversation to make a long journey pass more quickly. Sometimes you step off at the other end with someone you end up travelling alongside for the next few days.

Take A Day Trip

Even the most fiercely independent traveller doesn’t have to do absolutely everything independently. Day trips, guided excursions and small group tours can sometimes be the easiest or most practical way to experience a particular place, and they also happen to be excellent opportunities to meet other travellers.

I’ve done this countless times myself. In Chiang Mai, I joined a small group for a jungle trek rather than trying to arrange everything independently, and when I travelled to Machu Picchu I joined an organised tour where, apart from one couple, practically everyone else in the group was an independent backpacker travelling on their own. We may all have arrived independently, but for the duration of the experience we became a group. I’ve had the same thing happen on excursions all over the world, and it is a good reminder that travelling solo doesn’t mean having to experience everything alone.

Whether it is a walking tour through a city, a boat trip, a wildlife excursion, a mountain hike or a visit somewhere that is difficult to reach independently, you will usually be spending several hours with the same small group of people. That immediately gives you something in common and takes away much of the effort of starting a conversation. You are already sharing an experience, so talking about what you are seeing or doing tends to happen naturally.

Some of the most interesting and inspirational people I’ve met while travelling have come from situations like these. Sometimes those conversations have lasted only for the duration of the trip, but at other times we have gone for food or drinks afterwards, made plans to explore somewhere else the following day or ended up travelling together for a little while. The more specific the activity, the more likely it is that you will already share at least one interest with the other people there.

Day trips are particularly useful for solo travellers who want to meet people but aren’t interested in the hostel social scene. You don’t have to spend every evening in a common room or go out drinking to be sociable. Simply choosing an activity you genuinely want to do puts you alongside other people who wanted to do exactly the same thing, and sometimes that is all the introduction you need.

Do A Longer Trek Or Excursion

If a day trip is good for meeting people, spending several days together on a longer trek or excursion takes that to another level. Multi-day jungle treks, mountain hikes, desert expeditions, sailing trips and other small-group adventures put the same people together for long enough that conversations quickly move beyond the usual introductions and temporary groups often become surprisingly close.

These trips are usually incredibly easy to arrange too. In many backpacker destinations, hostel and guesthouse receptions will have a huge selection of treks, excursions and activities available to book, often with posters, leaflets or entire folders of options. If they don’t, there will usually be a local tour operator somewhere nearby offering everything from two-day jungle treks and mountain hikes to rafting trips, desert camps, diving excursions or whatever else that particular destination is known for. You can simply look through the options, choose something that genuinely interests you and quite often be joining a small group of other travellers within a day or two.

There is a natural bonding process that happens when everyone is sharing the same experience. You are walking the same trail, eating together, dealing with the same aching legs or terrible weather, watching the same sunset and sitting around together at the end of the day. There is plenty of time to talk, laugh and get to know each other without anyone having to make a deliberate effort to be sociable.

These types of trips also attract plenty of other independent and solo travellers. Joining an organised trek or excursion doesn’t somehow make the wider trip any less independent; sometimes it is simply the most practical, safest or only realistic way to experience a particular place. You may arrive as a collection of strangers who have all booked separately, but after spending two, three or five days together it is very common to leave as friends.

And those friendships don’t necessarily end when the trek does. If everyone is heading back to the same town afterwards, going out for a meal or a few drinks is an obvious next step, and if travel plans happen to overlap you may end up continuing together for a few days before eventually going your separate ways. That temporary companionship is a normal part of solo travel, and longer shared experiences are one of the easiest ways for it to happen naturally.

Take A Class

Travelling is a perfect opportunity to learn something new, and classes and short courses are also one of the easiest ways to meet people who already share at least one of your interests. Cooking classes, language lessons, dance classes, photography workshops, yoga sessions, craft workshops or even a martial arts lesson can all add something to the trip beyond simply seeing another attraction.

I used to teach self defence and martial arts classes while I was travelling just to help my travel budget stretch a little further at the hostel. I never advertised, never ran it as a full time business, but I was never short of takers and it was a great way to spend the week meeting new people.

Just like tours and excursions, these are generally easy to find once you arrive. Hostels and guesthouses often advertise local classes, while small schools, studios and independent operators are common in popular backpacker destinations. In many places you can simply see something that interests you, sign up and find yourself sitting around a table, standing in a training hall or trying to follow an instructor alongside a group of complete strangers a few hours later.

The activity itself takes away much of the pressure of meeting people because nobody has to manufacture a reason to start talking. You are learning the same thing, probably making the same mistakes and often laughing at yourselves in the process. A cooking class might end with everyone sitting down to eat what they have made, while a language or dance class can introduce you to people who are staying in the same place for several days or weeks.

More importantly, choose something because you genuinely want to do it rather than simply because you want to meet people. Shared interests make conversation much easier, and even if you don’t make a new friend, you still come away having learned something, experienced another part of the local culture or tried something you may never have done at home.

Try An Adventure Activity

Solo travel is also the perfect opportunity to try one of those adventure activities you have always wanted to do but never quite got around to at home. Scuba diving, white-water rafting, canyoning, climbing, abseiling, surfing, kayaking and countless other activities are available in backpacker destinations all over the world, and travelling alone is absolutely no barrier to doing any of them.

Most adventure operators take people out in small groups anyway, which means you can book independently and simply join everyone else on the day. In fact, there is a good chance that several of the other people in the group will be solo travellers doing exactly the same thing. Once everyone is getting fitted for equipment, listening to the same briefing or trying to work out what they have just volunteered themselves for, introductions tend to happen without much effort.

Shared experiences are natural icebreakers, particularly when there is a little adrenaline involved. Helping each other through a difficult section of a climb, laughing about a spectacularly unsuccessful first attempt at surfing or sharing the excitement after a dive gives everyone something immediate to talk about. By the time the activity is over, the group of strangers you met that morning can feel surprisingly familiar.

The important thing is to choose activities you genuinely want to experience rather than treating them purely as a way to meet people. Even if everyone says goodbye afterwards, you have still done something memorable. But very often the conversation continues once the equipment has been handed back, and that creates an easy opportunity to grab some food, have a drink or make plans for whatever comes next.

Keep The Conversation Going Afterwards

Meeting someone on a tour, trek, class or activity doesn’t mean the interaction has to end as soon as the organised part does. By that point you have already spent a few hours, or perhaps several days, getting to know each other, so suggesting grabbing something to eat, having a drink or exploring somewhere else afterwards is often the most natural thing in the world.

This happens constantly when travelling. A group from a day trip heads out for dinner together when they get back, two people from a walking tour decide to visit another attraction, or a few backpackers who have just finished a trek discover they are all staying in town for another couple of days and make plans to meet up again. Nobody has to make a big commitment or formally decide to travel together; you simply continue hanging out because you are enjoying each other’s company.

Sometimes that lasts for an evening. Sometimes you discover that you are heading in roughly the same direction and decide to travel together for a few days or even a few weeks. This is one of the reasons solo travel is rarely as solitary as people imagine. Independent travellers constantly meet, temporarily join up and eventually separate again as their routes and plans change.

There is no pressure for every encounter to become a lasting friendship either. Some people will simply be great company for dinner after a tour and you will never see them again. Others may become friends you stay in touch with for years. Both are part of travelling, and sometimes all it takes to turn a brief encounter into a shared experience is asking a very simple question: does anyone fancy getting something to eat?

Spend Time With Local People Too

It isn’t only other backpackers and solo travellers you will meet along the way. Some of the most memorable interactions you have while travelling can come from meeting local people, whether that is through a homestay, a family-run guesthouse, a class, a local guide or simply a conversation that starts naturally while going about your day.

This is one of the reasons I have always enjoyed staying in small, locally run guesthouses and homestays. The experience can be far more personal than staying in a large hotel, and hosts are often happy to chat, recommend somewhere to eat, explain local customs or help you understand a little more about the place you are visiting. Those conversations can give you a perspective on a destination that you simply wouldn’t get by spending all your time surrounded by other travellers.

The same is true outside your accommodation. Talk to stallholders at markets, café owners, guides, instructors and people you meet naturally along the way. Learning even a few words of the local language can make those interactions easier and shows a little respect, but fluency certainly isn’t necessary. A smile, some patience and genuine curiosity can go a long way.

Of course, normal travel safety advice still applies. Being friendly doesn’t mean abandoning your judgement, and it is sensible to remain aware of common scams or situations where someone may have an ulterior motive. But awareness shouldn’t become suspicion of everyone who starts a conversation. The overwhelming majority of everyday interactions are simply that: ordinary human interactions.

Meeting local people is also fundamentally different from meeting other backpackers. Other travellers can share the journey with you, but local people can help you understand the place itself. Those conversations, however brief, are often some of the experiences that stay with you longest after the trip is over.

Don’t Feel Like Every Encounter Has To Become A Friendship

One of the nicest things about meeting people while travelling is that there doesn’t have to be any pressure attached to it. Not every person you talk to needs to become a new best friend, and not every enjoyable conversation needs to turn into days of travelling together. Sometimes you meet someone, share a meal or explore somewhere for an afternoon, enjoy their company and then simply carry on in different directions.

That is completely normal on the road. Travel brings people together temporarily because you happen to be in the same hostel, on the same bus or following the same route at the same time. For a few hours or a few days your paths overlap, and then circumstances take you somewhere else. That doesn’t make the interaction any less genuine or worthwhile.

It also takes some of the pressure out of meeting people, particularly for anyone who is shy or worried about making friends while travelling solo. There is no need to approach every conversation wondering whether this person will become a friend. Just talk to people. Some conversations will last five minutes, others will lead to dinner that evening, and occasionally you will meet someone you end up travelling with for weeks or staying in touch with for years.

Over more than 25 years of travelling, I’ve met countless people whose company I enjoyed for a particular part of the journey and then never saw again, alongside others who became genuine long-term friends. Both have added something to my travels. Sometimes people are simply part of a particular place, experience or moment, and there is something quite special about that too.

Meeting People When Travelling Solo Is Easier Than You Think

The fear that travelling solo means spending an entire trip alone rarely survives much contact with the reality of being on the road. Opportunities to meet people are everywhere: in hostels and guesthouses, on buses and trains, during treks and tours, in classes and activities, and through the countless ordinary conversations that happen simply because travelling puts people together.

The important thing is that none of this needs to be forced. You don’t have to be naturally extroverted, spend every night socialising or desperately try to turn every stranger into a friend. Put yourself in situations where meeting people happens naturally, be open to conversation and occasionally be the person who says hello first. Most of the rest tends to take care of itself.

That is part of what makes solo travel so rewarding. You retain complete freedom over your own journey without having to sacrifice companionship. When you want time alone, you can take it. When you want company, there are usually people around to meet, and sometimes those chance encounters become an unexpected part of the journey itself.

Over the years I’ve shared meals with people I had met only hours earlier, joined other backpackers for a few days because our routes happened to overlap, explored destinations with people I met on tours and treks, and made friendships that continued long after the trip ended. I’ve also said goodbye to countless people knowing our paths would probably never cross again. All of it is part of travelling independently.

So don’t let the fear of being alone stop you from travelling solo. You may leave home by yourself and make the journey entirely your own, but that doesn’t mean you will experience it alone. In fact, the freedom to move between solitude and companionship whenever you choose is one of the best things about solo travel.