One of the most common questions that new solo female travelers have is about how to meet people while traveling. When you’re traveling solo, it can be hard to connect with other travelers and make new friends along the way. Especially in 2024, after several years of reduced travel and increased social distancing, breaking the ice with someone you’ve just met while traveling can feel awkward and unnatural.
Personally, I’ve always found it relatively easy to meet people while traveling. In fact, I find it way harder to meet people in my own hometown, since I’m spending hours and hours every day at work with the same people I’ve been working with for years!
Fortunately, after spending more than a decade as a solo female traveler, I’ve figured out how to meet people while traveling. In fact, I see potential travel friends everywhere I look! Here are some of the ways that I meet people and make friends when traveling… give them a try on your next trip!
#1 – Wait for Your Bags… Together
You can start to meet people while traveling as soon as your flight lands. What else are you going to do while you’re stuck at the baggage carousel, waiting for your bags? This is the perfect time to approach someone new and spark up some conversation. I get so chatty at the airport that the customs officers never believe I’m traveling by myself – they always tell me to bring my “travel companion” to the window with me, and then I have to admit I just met them five minutes earlier!
Suggested Conversation Starters
Think your target is a local? Ask them to recommend a secret hot spot that only locals would know about.
Got your eyes on another tourist? Ask them how they’re planning to get to the city center.
#2 – Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Sure, you could spend the entire trip staring at the TV show you downloaded onto your laptop. But Love Island will still be there when you get home (at which time you seriously need to watch it!). I always meet people while traveling on the bus, on the train and on the airplane.
For example, when I was in Belarus I noticed a guy who looked foreign on the bus from the airport to the city center. I introduced myself, and it turns out we both had reservations at the same hostel for the same number of nights. We spent the next four days exploring Minsk together!
Suggested Conversation Starters
My go-to strategy for breaking the ice in transit is to point out something interesting out the window. “Look at that monument! Have you ever seen something like that before?”
If you want to stroke their ego a bit, you can also ask, “Wow, look at that monument! Do you know what it is?” Creating the impression that you think they’re a savvy traveler is an easy way to build trust.
#3 – Stay in a Hostel
When I first wrote this guide, I omitted this from my list of ways to meet people while traveling because it just seemed so obvious to me. However, after traveling around Europe solo in 2021, 2022 and 2023, I can see how many travelers are choosing hotels or AirBnbs instead of traditional hostels. I can also see how that is affecting their ability to meet other people.
The truth is, there is no better way to meet people when traveling than to stay in a hostel. By design, hostels encourage interpersonal interactions in shared spaces like dorm rooms, communal kitchens and chill-out lounges. Today, good hostels also have a full schedule of activities where you can connect with other people, like walking tours, pub crawls, language lessons and day trips.
Personally, after my around-the-world trip in 2019 and 2020 I generally stopped staying in dorms, but I still love staying in private rooms in hostels. This guarantees me a good night’s sleep and some privacy, but also lets me meet other travelers over breakfast or through different activities.
Suggested Conversation Starters
When you arrive in your dorm: “Hi guys, I’m Carly! What’s your name? Where are you from?”
At breakfast: “Hey, can I sit here?”
On a pub crawl: “I’m going to The Louvre tomorrow if anyone wants to come!”
#4 – Sign Up for a Class
The people you meet at the airport or on the bus are going to be pretty random. If you want to connect with people who share your interests, consider signing up for a class. I’m a bit of a vegetarian foodie, so in Bangkok, I signed up for a private market tour (that’s my guide in the photo!) and cooking demonstration just a few blocks away from my hostel (the awesome The Yard Hostel – they can help you organize all sorts of cool activities).
Almost twenty other people from around the world showed up, and we spent the day together learning about Thai food, sharing culinary tips from our home countries, and then venturing out to the nearby night market for live music and beer towers!
A few years later I took a real cooking class in Ubud, Bali, where I partnered with another vegetarian solo traveler and we prepared six Indonesian dishes together!
Suggested Conversation Starters
Ask a question! If you’re taking a yoga course by the beach, ask your classmate if they’ve found any good smoothie shacks nearby. Taking a language class? Ask the top student for pronunciation tips.
#5 – Take a Free Walking Tour
Free walking tours are a fantastic way to meet people while you’re traveling, because they attract such a diverse group of people. It’s not uncommon to have more than ten nationalities represented on a tour, and there’s likely to be a huge age range as well. With so much diversity, it’s almost impossible not to find someone you click with!
The best free walking tours split larger groups into small sub-groups, so that you’re getting to know twenty people rather than barely remembering the faces of fifty strangers! (Remember to tip the guide on your free walking tour – nobody wants to make friends with a mooch!)
Suggested Conversation Starters
When I did the free walking tour in Cologne, Germany, most of the other travelers were solo but nobody was really engaging with one another. I almost wrote off the whole tour, but I was sure that there must be someone else who was interested in being social. So, at the end of the tour I said, “Hey guys, I’m going to grab lunch… and some beers… at a German restaurant nearby. Anyone want to come?”
Almost half of the group (including our guide!) wanted to join me, and we ended up lunching together for hours. After lunch some of us continued adventuring together, and we’re still in touch today (across four continents)!
#6 – Join a Pub Crawl
Recently, I joined a free pub crawl in Tbilisi, Georgia. It wasn’t the best pub crawl ever (we took a thirty minute detour so that one girl could use an ATM?) but I ended up meeting lots of really cool people as wandered from wine bar to wine bar (… to shot bar!). In fact, I ran into some people from the pub crawl a week later in the middle of the forest in Mestia, and we ended up having dinner together before driving all the way back to Tbilisi together the next day.
Suggested Conversation Starters
“This round’s on me!” Seriously, it’s that easy (and in these cheap countries it’s also that affordable!).
#7 – Use An App or Website
Recently, I’ve become more convinced than ever that technology is an essential tool for solo travelers who want to make friends while traveling. My favorite app for meeting new people while traveling used to be Couchsurfing. I was not really into hosting surfers or sleeping on other people’s couches, but I loved the event listings (visible online and on the app) and the hangout tool (app only).
Unfortunately, Couchsurfing recently unilaterally cancelled everyone’s (paid!) lifetime memberships, and now requires an additional paid subscription. My understanding is that this has decimated the user base and the site is essentially dead (I’m not going to pay to find out, however).
With Couchsurfing gone, I have recently had success using Tinder and Bumble to meet other travelers while I’m overseas. It can be a little bit flirty, but even if you don’t click romantically with someone there is a good chance you can still have fun exploring a new city together.
If dating apps aren’t your vibe, there are lots of Facebook groups where you can meet other travelers. There are huge, general groups (for example, for solo travelers in Asia or solo female travelers around the world) but I find it easiest to meet people using city-specific groups for travelers. When I was in Bali I posted in a group for travelers visiting Canggu and met two other girls who wanted to go for cocktails. We ended up meeting up every night for drinks!
Suggested Conversation Starters
[Insert emojis here.]
#8 – A Table for Two
I am always torn in restaurants, because I love savoring a meal on my own, but I also know that restaurants are a great place to meet people while traveling. As a solo diner you’re likely to be seated at a table for two, so let the restaurant staff know that you’re happy to share your table if they’re getting full. They might seat someone with you, or you can even invite another solo diner to join you.
When I was in Roatan, Honduras, I asked another solo diner if I could join him (his table was bigger!) – it turned out we were staying at the same hotel so we made a standing breakfast date for the rest of our trip.
Suggested Conversation Starters
In a busy restaurant? “Hey, they’re turning people away! Want to share a table so that more people can try this delicious food?”
Lots of free tables? “This veggie burger is so good… I can’t believe there aren’t more people here! Want to join me?”
#9 – Bold Move: The Cold Open on the Street
This trick for meeting people while traveling is only for the bravest solo travelers, so consider working your way up to this move. Basically, it involves walking up to someone on the street and saying, “Hey, are you a solo traveler?” It sounds totally crazy, but it’s a trick I’ve used successfully in the past.
In fact, last Christmas I was staying in a private hotel room in Nicaragua, and hadn’t really met anyone else. When I was eating lunch I noticed another girl walk past my restaurant alone, several times, looking a little bit confused. I saw the same girl later that afternoon, crossed the street and said, “Hey, I’m here on my own… are you?” We got talking and ended up going to a pub trivia night later that day (spoiler: we lost big time!).
More recently, I was on a pub crawl in Eastern Europe with some other travelers from my hostel. We were hanging out at a bar, when a guy walked up to us and said, “Hey, you guys are all speaking English! Can I join you?” He was in town on business and didn’t know anyone else in the city, so he joined our group for the evening and then we met up again the following night. He just had to break the ice!
Suggested Conversation Starters
Weren’t you paying attention? It’s as easy as “Hey, are you a solo traveler?”
Looking for more solo travel inspiration?
Check out my guide to saving money on your trips and the story of why I’ll never join a tour group (ever!) again.
Planning a solo trip? Pin this post for later!
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