Travel Tips

3 Easy Ways to Make Friends While Traveling Solo

Global Panorama

It’s true that travelling solo forces you to learn independence and discover yourself but as much as we relish solitary, there are often times we hope to someone savouring these new experiences in an unfamiliar territory with us. How about when we need someone to take our #ootd in front of that insta-worthy backdrop? KKday shares the three ways we’ve been making friends with locals and how we seek our travel companions when all our friends are too busy!


1. CouchSurfing

Couchsurfing

Couch-surfing typically involves travelers sleeping on whatever spare space available and moving from a house to the next, giving the tenants a cheap form of lodging while allowing them to meet new people. Couchsurfing.com, as the name suggests, is a non-profit organization that helps travelers to build a network with the locals of their destination.

Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is divided into three main functions: to meet new people, find a host for your free one night stay and organize activities for other members to participate.

To begin, you have to create a profile on Couchsurfing‘s website so other members have a primary understanding of who you are. From there, you can explore more options such as opening up your house to host a guest or choose to meet up with other travelers within the city. All you have to do is to search within Couchsurfing, send a message and then meet up!

Couchsurfing

If you’re intimidated by the thought of meeting up with strangers like that, you can search for activities near your area instead; from cycling tours to language exchange and even locals offering free navigation, there are so many ways to make new friends while traveling!

Tips:

 

1. Build an honest profile

It’s fine to be excited about meeting your host but you should allow your host to know slightly more about you through your profile before any meetups. Adding your interest and the countries you’ve been to allows your host to create conversations with you easily. Remember to add a couple of photos into your profile as well — people tend to be more wary of profile without photos.

2. Security

Yes, living in the home of a stranger is a little terrifying and the founders of Couchsurfing understand that fear as well so they came up with a solution to counter this worry. You can check up on a stranger’s profile for a list of references left by other members before confirming your stay, allowing you to read up on the good and bad reviews before deciding if this is the home you want to stay in or if you want to meet them.

>> Couchsurfing’s website

2. EatWith

EatWith

 

EatWith

How is it possible for Singaporeans to travel and not indulge in appetizing food overseas? When traveling solo, no matter how delicious the food is in the restaurant, you always leave the restaurant feeling like you haven’t had your fair share of the delectable fares because you can only order one dish instead of trying several of your friends’ dishes.

EatWith press conference (TechCrunch)

The founder of EatWith shared the same sentiments while dining on a rooftop in Barcelona, Spain. Believing that the most rewarding experience of a solo trip is when travellers around the world gather in a relaxed atmosphere to converse over delightful dishes, Guy Michlin founded EatWith — a matchmaking website that connects local chefs (or private home kitchens) with diners over the world.

Chefs can publish the time they need to prepare a meal and pricing of their dishes on the website. Diners would then be able to make their reservations on the site. As long as the matchmaking is a success, dinners can enjoy local specialities in a beautiful place and hold meaningful conversations with one another.

EatWith

Tips:

1. Profile

EatWith

Remember to check the chef biography on EatWith for the languages he knows as well as the culinary dishes that he’ll be cooking for a better dining experience. You don’t want awkward silence throughout your meals because you don’t speak the same language or lack praises for his dishes, do you?

2. You may eat with strangers!

(Tim Evanson)

If the chef prepares a meal for four and you book only one seat, you’re probably dining with a few other travellers. Even if you’re introverted, don’t freak out! Dining with other lone travellers in a stranger’s house, on a foreign land may prove to be the unique experience you’re seeking this solo travel!

>> EatWith’s website

3. Meetup

Meetup

Meetup is a straightforward site that helps you meet up with other travellers by letting you browse through a large number of profiles and groups. You can sort members according to interests such as art, culture, sports etc., allowing you to meet like-minded people and experience living like a local during your solo travels.

Meetup

>> Meetup’s website

Bonus: KKday

KKday

If haven’t found any activity or group that interests you, you can always search for unique travel activities through KKday. Be it a Thai cooking class in Bangkok or learning floral arrangements in Tokyo, the classes are good opportunities to meet new friends while gaining novel experiences for yourself.

Tips:

1. Book early

The orders require some time for KKday to process so we recommend you to browse through the activities in advance and book at least two days before your trip.

KKday

2. For convenience’s sake

With an extensive range of more than 6000 travel experiences and trusted partners in 53 countries and 174 cities, KKday is your ideal trip planning platform. Make use of KKday‘s sidebar that classifies our activities into different countries, cities and genres for easy browsing on our website.

>> KKday’s website

Difficulties encountered in the past while traveling solo are now solved thanks to technology readily available at your fingertips, providing us with convenient solutions to our troubles regarding traveling solo. Take full advantage of these technological advances during your solo trips to create wonderful memories for yourself!

Looking for more solo trip guides?

>> 5 Adventures Suitable for Single Ladies
>> 5 White Lies You Should Tell When Travelling Alone
>> 4 Reasons Iceland is Perfect For First Time Solo Travellers

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