Building Bonds as a budding traveler

Making friends in any environment can be an incredibly scary thing. There's so many what ifs and so much concern about what people may think of you the first time they meet you. The phrase "first impressions count" continuously haunts me, especially when travelling. Sometimes when you arrive at a destination and you’ve spent hours travelling you are absolutely drained and the people you meet when you arrive have settled into the environment but you know you have to make a glowing impression. This is incredibly hard as well as daunting. So here's my advice and how to ooze into easily making friends and making a good impression when travelling.

1) Take a step back – breathe.

Now this isn’t a meditation routine, I'm not going to tell you how to get spiritually in-tuned with yourself in order to make the best first impression. Unfortunately I'm not qualified enough to give that advice. What I mean is that before you walk into any environment take a step back, have a moment to yourself to think about the person you want to be whilst you take on your incredible travel experience. This is always important, I truly believe that what you put in to an environment is likely to be what you get out. So if you know what you want to gain and learn you’ll know what you're going to get out. Always go into these situations on the most positive note as it will make you feel better and likely make those around you feel better.

2) Just talk!

Don’t be afraid to just chat! To anyone and everyone – obviously within safety precautions. If your gut tells you not to – maybe don’t do it. If you consider it from an outside perspective, everyone is in the same boat, they’re just as scared and feel just as vulnerable. The likelihood is that the people you meet are like minded, nervous people who really just want to get the most out of their experience. So don’t be afraid to go for it and just chat peoples' ear off, it will always make everyone else feel better as well as you.

3) Be courteous.

Some times when you’re working and travelling you live in very close quarters so therefore its really important that you make a contentious effort to be the easiest person to live with. I know this can be a very difficult because its your home as well and you just want to feel comfortable and have your down time when your at home. But making sure you clean up after yourself when in communal areas and are always courteous of how much noise you're potentially making is the perfect way to get on with your new travel partners. This can be hard, on my first seasonal job we all worked varying hours and when I wanted to use my hairdryer at 5am before my breakfast shift it never went down well with those who had worked late nights and hadn’t come in until 3am. But unfortunately these are things your going to have to discuss and work out.

4) Get out!!!

If you’re in the position where you aren’t living with multiple other people and haven’t got a huge access to a group of like minded people, then this makes making new like-minded friends very difficult. So my recommendation is step back and consider the environment you're in. What’s the local on trend things? Is there a certain bar that is always heaving? Is there a local sport everyone’s good at? Is there a market that everyone's going to? If you see these public places that everyone seems to be constantly indulged in, go for it and get stuck in. You’ve already made the brave decision to move to a different country, what can be scarier now? Go out and make the most of the experience. If you try to make friends and it doesn’t work then the likelihood is that you’ll never see them again and you’ll only potentially be there for a couple more months.

5) Network

We’re in the age of social media!! Use it! Feel free to post a TikTok, join a Facebook group, add locals on Instagram. Its such and easy way of meeting new people in the same area. Constantly you see people post that they’re looking to make new friends whilst they're travelling. The best part of this is that you can be a little choosy about those you meet. You can have a nosy at the type of person they are which is always far more reassuring.

Hopefully these little tips and potentially wise words of advice will reassure you and advise you on how to go into a new environment and be the best version of yourself. But always remember that not everyone will like you and that is perfectly fine because you won't always like everyone else. So don’t worry, go into all situations and enjoy every little bit!