How to Meet People When Traveling Alone (Real Tactics That Work)

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slug: how-to-meet-people-traveling-alone

title: "How to Meet People When Traveling Alone (Real Tactics That Work)"

description: "Traveling solo doesn't have to mean eating alone. Here's exactly how to meet other travelers and locals — from hostels to apps to free walking tours."

category: Guides

tags: ["solo travel", "meet people traveling", "solo travel tips", "travel friends", "backpacking"]

author_slug: faroway-team

cluster: solo-travel

reading_time: 8 min

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Solo travel is one of the most liberating experiences you can have. No compromises on destinations, no waiting for someone else's schedule, no debates about where to eat dinner. But there's one thing most solo travel guides gloss over: the moments that hit hard — sitting at a restaurant for two, watching a sunset alone at a viewpoint, doing a city tour with no one to share the "can you believe this?" look with.

The good news? Meeting people on the road is a skill. A learnable one. And once you crack it, solo travel transforms from a solo act into something that feels like a perpetual social adventure.

Here's exactly how to do it.

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1. Stay in Social Accommodations

Your accommodation choice is the single biggest variable in how many people you meet. Book a private Airbnb and you'll likely meet no one. Book a hostel common room bunk or a social guesthouse and you're already halfway there.

Hostels That Actually Deliver

Not all hostels are equal. Look for these signals:

• Common room with bar or kitchen — this is where conversations happen naturally
• Organized dinners, pub crawls, or walking tours — built-in social structure
• Mixed dorms of 4–8 beds — small enough to learn names, big enough to find your people

Top picks by city:

City	Hostel	Vibe	Dorm Price
Bangkok	Lub d Silom	Rooftop bar, party scene	$10–15/night
Lisbon	Home Lisbon Hostel	Family-style dinner every night	€18–22/night
Melbourne	Selina Melbourne	Co-working + events program	A$30–40/night
Medellín	El Faro Hostel	Rooftop, salsa nights	$12–18/night
Chiang Mai	Stamps Backpackers	Chill, community-driven	$8–12/night

Pro tip: Read reviews specifically for mentions of "met great people here" — that's your signal.

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2. Take Free Walking Tours

Free walking tours (tip-based) are the single best hack for meeting other solo travelers in any major city. You're grouped with 10–25 strangers all doing the same thing, for 2–3 hours, with natural conversation breaks built in.

After the tour, it's completely normal to say: "That was great — anyone up for lunch?" You'll almost always get takers.

Where to find them:

• freetour.com — massive global directory
• SANDEMANs New Europe — runs in 20+ European cities
• Ask your hostel — most book free tours directly

Best cities for free walking tour culture: Prague, Berlin, Budapest, Barcelona, Lisbon, Krakow, Cape Town, Buenos Aires.

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3. Use Solo Travel Apps and Communities

The solo travel community has built its own infrastructure. Use it.

Apps Worth Downloading

Meetup.com — Find local events (language exchanges, hiking groups, board game nights). Genuinely underrated for meeting real locals and expats, not just tourists.

Couchsurfing Hangouts — Even if you're not couch-surfing, the Hangouts feature shows travelers open to meeting up in your city. Particularly active in Southeast Asia and South America.

Bumble BFF mode — Swipe in "BFF" mode for platonic connections. Works surprisingly well in expat-heavy cities like Bali, Chiang Mai, and Lisbon.

Hostelworld social — The Hostelworld app now has a "Rooftop" social feature where hostel guests can connect before arrival.

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4. Take a Class or Workshop

Activities create instant bonds because you're working toward a shared goal — and you have a ready-made conversation starter while you wait for the instructor.

High-conversion activities:

• Cooking classes — 3-hour sessions, small groups, shared meal at the end. Near-guaranteed conversation.
• Surf lessons — Physical challenges create camaraderie fast. Bali, Sri Lanka, Portugal, and Nicaragua are prime spots.
• Language exchange meetups — Find them on Meetup.com or Facebook groups. Locals want to practice English; you want to practice theirs.
• Pottery, painting, or craft workshops — Increasingly popular in Bali, Lisbon, and Tokyo. Airbnb Experiences is a good source.

What to budget: Classes run $15–50 in most destinations. Cooking classes in Thailand are $15–25. Surf lessons in Bali start at $20.

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5. Sit at Bars and Communal Tables

Body language is the most underrated solo travel skill. Where you position yourself matters enormously.

Do this:

• Sit at the bar counter instead of a table for two — bartenders talk, and so do the people next to you
• Choose restaurants with long communal tables (popular in Germany, Japan, and increasingly everywhere else)
• Bring a book or laptop as a visible prop — paradoxically, it signals approachability ("I'm comfortable being here alone, no need to feel sorry for me")

Conversation starters that actually work:

• "Do you know if [dish] is good here?"
• "Are you from here, or also just passing through?"
• "I'm trying to find [experience] — any ideas?"

These are low-stakes, easy to walk back, and naturally invite follow-up.

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6. Join Group Day Trips and Tours

Multi-day tours (think G Adventures, Intrepid, Contiki) are essentially built-in friend groups. Even single-day group tours reliably produce connections — you spend 8+ hours with the same people.

Best for solo connection:

• Island-hopping day trips (Thailand, Greece, Croatia)
• Safari tours in Kenya or Tanzania
• Wine tours in South Africa or Portugal
• Boat tours — the confined space accelerates socializing

When booking, look for "small group" (under 16 people) and mention in your booking that you're solo — operators often seat solos together.

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7. Leverage Facebook Groups Before You Arrive

Every major destination has a Facebook group full of travelers and expats. Join before your trip:

• "Expats in [City]"
• "[City] Travelers and Backpackers"
• "Solo Female Travelers" (750k+ members, highly active)
• "Solo Travel" group on Facebook

Post something like: "Arriving in [city] on [date], solo traveler — anyone else around? Looking for dinner/beach/hiking partners." You'll get responses.

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8. Say Yes to Everything (For the First 48 Hours)

The first two days in a new place are when social windows open widest. Hostel common room invite? Say yes. Walking tour afterparty? Yes. Random invitation to a local's birthday? Probably yes.

You can always scale back after you've established your people. But the first 48 hours are your best shot — everyone is new, everyone is open, and the social cost of introducing yourself is at its lowest.

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Planning Your Solo Trip to Maximize Social Opportunities

The destination you choose and how you structure your itinerary dramatically affects how many people you'll meet. A rigid, private-accommodation-heavy trip through off-the-beaten-track villages will be genuinely solitary. A hostel-anchored route through Southeast Asia's backpacker trail will feel like a continuous house party.

Faroway — an AI trip planner that builds personalized itineraries — can help you structure your solo trip around the right balance: social hubs where the traveler scene is active, plus quieter detours when you want solitude. Tell it you're traveling solo and it factors in accommodation types, tour options, and pacing.

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A Realistic Week of Solo Travel (Social Edition)

Here's what a socially-engineered solo week might look like in, say, Bangkok:

Day	Activity	Social Opportunity
Day 1	Check into hostel, free walking tour	Tour group → drinks after
Day 2	Thai cooking class (Airbnb Experience)	Classmates → lunch together
Day 3	Day trip to Ayutthaya with tour group	8 hours with the same 12 people
Day 4	Rooftop bar at hostel, Meetup.com language exchange	Locals + expats
Day 5	Muay Thai class, street food tour	Classmates + guide's inside tips
Day 6	Slow day — café, book, let things happen organically	Bar conversation, communal table
Day 7	Chatuchak market with hostel crew	Established friendships deepen

Total spend on social activities: roughly $80–120 for the week.

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The Honest Reality

Not every day will produce friends. Some days you'll eat dinner alone, walk a temple alone, watch a sunset alone — and it will be fine. Actually, more than fine. Those moments of solitude are part of why people travel solo in the first place.

The goal isn't to never be alone. It's to know how to connect when you want to, and to have the tools to make it happen. With the right accommodation, a few structured activities, and a willingness to start a conversation, you'll almost never go more than 24 hours without finding your people.

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Ready to Plan Your Solo Trip?

The hardest part of solo travel isn't the loneliness — it's figuring out the logistics. Where to stay, how to structure the days, which cities have the best solo traveler scenes.

Faroway builds personalized itineraries that factor in your travel style, budget, and social preferences. Tell it you're going solo and it'll route you through the places where connections happen naturally. Try it free — no account required.