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How to Make Friends at Hostels is number 9 in my series, Hostel Questions, where I teach people everything they need to know about staying in hostels.
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Full Transcription of How to Make Friends at Hostels:
0:14 The question that I'm going to try and answer is: How do you Make Friends if you're travelling alone at a hostel?
Hostels aren't always as empty as the one that I'm showing you right now. It's almost two in the morning. I just got off a crazy sleeper bus last night, napped pretty much all day because I didn't get to sleep last night, so my schedule's all messed up.
But my advice for making friends (when you're not the only one awake) is...
1. Try and do something that I'm still going to try and do tomorrow, which is if there's a communal breakfast or something, BE THERE! That's a cool way to meet people at the start of the day. Something about eating together... you might just ask the person next to you, "What are you going to do today?" and they'll say "Oh, we're going down to the museum or we're going to go down to the local market, do you want to come?"
Half the time it's just that easy. Next thing you know you've got friends to hang out with for the day. You might have friends to hang out with for the whole week!
It's actually not that uncommon for people to make friends, kick it off, and end of traveling to the next city with those people. Even adjusting your travel plans to make that work. Which might sound kind of funny to people who have never done it before, but it's surprisingly easy, because as long as you have an extended period of time to travel with, you can allow that to shape your travels however you want it to. The spontaneity of meeting someone you get along with, and then continuing to travel with them, is pretty awesome.
The last city I was in, in Cambodia, me and Nari (the girl I was traveling with before) we met these two Russians and they showed us how to hitch-hike. I have hitch-hiked before, but never in a place like Cambodia and that was a fun experience to be a part of. They ended up going their separate ways in a couple of days, but we had new travel friends that I never would have imagined. They barely spoke a word of English and had a little flask of liquor that they put in their morning coffees, and let me taste. True, true Russians! They were awesome. Shout out to you, Misa and Mila.
Just put yourself in positions where you can meet people.It's simple advice, but it really is the best advice. If you don't have much to do, if you don't have much planned, just chill in a common area like this. Even if you just have your laptop, doing a bit of work, or facebooking, or whatever you have to do. People will sit down next to you, and you'll start talking.
At nighttime people are usually hanging out drinking. It's not socially awkward or weird or anything to just join them and have a drink and introduce yourself. If that seems like a lot to ask, I mean, I know everyone's different and some people can be a bit shy, and that might seem strange. You probably won't have to, someone will probably introduce themselves to you first.
I wasn't the most outgoing guy, believe it or not. Even though I'm making these videos here, I was never outgoing when I started traveling. But the experience of meeting people over and over when you're alone on the road really breaks you out of that shell pretty quickly.
And on the flip side, if you see someone else who's hanging out on their own, you'll want to go say hello to them. Not to be creepy or whatever, but just to make them feel included, because you know what it's like to be in that situation.
Something about hostels, it's like, we're all from so many different places with so many different stories, that meeting people just kind of happens naturally. It's like the first day of school, you know, the person you sit down next to, if you say hi to them. They could end up being your best friend for the next four years of school, you know?
The person you sit next to, or the person who ends up sleeping in the bed underneath of you. If you just say hi, you could be good friends.
So I hope that advice helps you guys out a little bit. Anyone who might be worried about what it's like to make friends... that's the least of your concern. Worry about bedbugs and pickpockets and stuff like that. But there's always friends to be made at a cool hostel.
My name's Dan, I'm from The New Travel Blog. If you want to know more about how I travel for cheap, you can definitely subscribe........ or not! That's really up to you.
This guy's got to go get some sleep. But I will be back, with more Hostel Questions!
