Pull Up a Chair

What’s the best way to meet new people while traveling?

I think the answer is remarkably simple.

Go somewhere where people are already doing something.

A dance class.

A local market.

A walking tour.

A little café where the same people seem to appear every morning.

A community event.

Anything where you have a reason to be there other than desperately trying to make friends.

Because “Hello, I’m travelling alone. Would you like to be my friend?” is perhaps not the most natural opening line.

Although, to be fair, I have never actually tried it.

Give me time.

I’ve always found that people are easier to get to know when you’re doing something together.

You don’t have to manufacture conversation.

The activity gives you something to talk about.

“Have you done this before?”

“Is this the right way?”

“Good heavens, was that supposed to happen?”

And suddenly you’re talking.

I’ve seen this in dancing.

You can walk into a room knowing absolutely nobody and, within ten minutes, you’re holding hands with someone you’ve never met, trying not to collide with three other couples.

By the end of the evening, you’ve learned their name, where they’re from, and probably whether they prefer Glenn Miller or Count Basie.

That’s community.

And travelling gives you an extraordinary opportunity to practise it.

Don’t just see the sights.

Find the tables.

Sit at the communal table instead of the empty table for two.

Join the walking group.

Take the cooking class.

Go to the little concert.

Talk to the person standing beside you.

Ask the shopkeeper where they go for coffee.

And if somebody invites you somewhere?

Say yes occasionally.

Not recklessly, obviously.

I’m suggesting curiosity, not abandoning every sensible instinct you’ve ever possessed.

But I think we sometimes travel with the idea that we’re supposed to see a place.

Take the photographs.

Visit the landmarks.

Tick the boxes.

And then we go home.

Yet the things we remember most aren’t always the buildings.

Sometimes it’s the woman we met over breakfast.

The couple who showed us their favourite little bar.

The old gentleman who spent twenty minutes explaining why his town has the best cakes in the entire country.

The strangers who weren’t strangers by the time we said goodbye.

That’s the magic of travelling.

You arrive somewhere knowing nobody.

And for a little while, you get to sit at somebody else’s table.

So if you’re travelling and wondering how to meet people, darling…

Don’t stand in the corner waiting for somebody to discover you.

Pull up a chair.

Someone might just say hello.

And if they don’t?

There’s always another table.

Stay Fabulous,
Luce 💋