How to Make Friends While Traveling: A Real Guide

"Just put yourself out there" is technically true and completely useless as actual advice. Here's what making friends while traveling actually looks like in practice, broken down into things you can do today.

Ask a Question Instead of Making a Statement

"Nice weather today" gets a one-word reply. "Do you know if that market is worth the walk?" gets a real answer and often a follow-up conversation. Questions invite people in; statements just sit there. This works with strangers at a hostel breakfast table exactly the same way it works in a community feed post.

Show Up to the Thing You'd Normally Skip

The group walking tour. The hostel's "welcome drinks" at 7pm. The activity that feels slightly awkward to attend alone. These low-key organized moments exist specifically to lower the barrier to talking to strangers — everyone in the room is there for the same reason you are, which makes the first conversation much easier than approaching someone one-on-one.

Separate Two Different Goals: Travel Friends vs. Local Connections

These take different tactics, and conflating them is a common reason people feel stuck.

• Making friends with other travelers happens fastest through shared logistics — the same hostel, the same day tour, the same multi-day trek. Proximity and shared experience do most of the work.
• Making a real local connection takes more intent, because you won't randomly run into a local the way you'll run into another backpacker. This is exactly what a platform like Roavi is for — instead of hoping to stumble into a local conversation, you can directly connect with a verified Local Friend who wants to show you their city, chat, or spend time together.

Use a Community Feed to Skip the Cold Start

Arriving somewhere with zero connections means every conversation starts from absolute zero. Posting a specific question in a community feed — "anyone in Lisbon this week want to grab a coffee" or "what's a local's favorite neighborhood to walk around" — gets you a head start before you've even met anyone in person. The Roavi Community is built around exactly this: questions, tips, and trip posts organized by city, so you're talking to people who are actually there or actually from there.

Follow Up — This Is the Step Most People Skip

Meeting someone once at a hostel bar is easy. Actually becoming friends requires one small follow-up: exchanging contact info, suggesting a specific plan ("want to get food tomorrow?"), or continuing a conversation from a community post into an actual meetup. Most missed friendships on the road aren't failed first conversations — they're first conversations that never got a second one.

Give It More Than One Attempt Per City

Not every conversation turns into a friendship, and that's fine — it's not a reflection of you or the place. Treat it like a numbers game with a low cost per attempt: ask a few questions, show up to a couple of things, message a Local Friend. One good connection usually reshapes an entire trip.

Ready to make a local connection instead of just another traveler friend? Browse Local Friends on Roavi or post a question in the Community to get started.