Ways of making local friends #ConvoStarter

Welcome to our second post of conversation starters! I say “our” because we are really doing this together, you and me, and other travelers or dormant travelers who join our conversation.

In the first “Conversation Starter” post, we talked about whether or not making friends while traveling can transform and enhance the way we experience a destination.

Many of the commenters raved about the enriching nature of these connections and even shared a few of their own travel stories. But one of the commenters, Ben, raised an issue that I often hear and wanted to highlight. He wrote:

“OK, unlike the rest of the bunch, I actually do think it’s quite difficult to meet people in foreign countries in a short period of time, even if you speak the language! The fact is that even the most adventurous and immersion-minded of us can face issues stemming from the fact that a vacation is short by definition. To make local friends in a non-contrived way often requires an “in” of some sort – and getting that first step is often what’s hard. It also probably depends on what city / country you’re in – but short of making plans ahead of time through various social networks to “meet” locals, seems hard to do in a spontaneous way.”

I’m interested to hear what you think of this comment. Have you had a similar problem? Or if you have succeeded in making local friends on a short trip, how did you do it? Also, if there was a service or company out there that could solve this problem, what would you like it to be or to do?  I know of many, I will share them with you on the next Conversation Starter post.