Sometimes it’s good to travel alone, and in fact, solo travel has been shown to have many advantages, including building your confidence, giving you freedom, and allowing you to get to know yourself better.
Sometimes, however, it’s good to find people to travel with, even if it’s only for a short time – perhaps just for a day or less. Being able to make new friends when you are traveling is a useful skill because it means you can choose whether you want to be with others or alone and ensure whatever you want actually happens. Read on to find out how to make friends when you travel in case you ever want or need to.
Be Approachable
You need to make sure you are completely approachable when you’re traveling, and you want to make friends. It’s crucial that you think about your body language and ensure you appear open and ready to talk if anyone approaches you. This isn’t always easy, so you might need to start paying attention to your own behavior, so you can rectify things if need be.
Ideally, you should be looking at a screen all the time (this is not only good advice for those who want to make friends but for those who want to enjoy their travels more too). If you’re looking for fun things to do in Portland, do that before you travel, as it will make things easier for you. It’s also an excellent idea to keep your head up, so you can make eye contact with people; this is often the first step in any conversation. Plus, always remember to smile.
Allow Yourself To Be Spontaneous
This is a good travel tip whether you want to meet new people or are traveling with a group. If you plan every single second of every day of your trip, you will not only be stressed out and tired the whole time, but you will also miss out on opportunities.
If you meet a fun person at your hostel or on a bus and they want to do something with you, but you already have plans for the rest of the day, you’re probably going to say no and miss out on a chance to meet new people. If, however, your plans are flexible and you allow yourself to be more spontaneous, you are more likely to say yes and potentially make a great new friend.
Learn The Language
The people you meet when you’re traveling might not be from the same country as you, and that’s great – your trip is a fantastic time to learn more about the world and other cultures, and making friends with someone from the country you’re visiting is a good way to do this first-hand.
Of course, it’s going to be hard to do this if you don’t speak at least some of each other’s languages. This is one of the reasons why it’s important to learn a few handy phrases and how to tell people about yourself in the language of the country you’re visiting. If you can do this, your chances of making friends will increase.
