The Truth About Meeting Locals Abroad | Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

...   My point here is that meeting locals is not as easy as it is often made out to be but still not impossible to have happened. Thanks to the Internet, there are a few ways to overcome the difficulty of meeting a nice local who will invite you to Sunday dinner.

For starters, Couchsurfing is a great site for this. While often considered a place to get free accommodation, there is much more to the site. This site has meet-ups, group events, and people who might not give you their couch but will gladly meet you for coffee and show you around. In my opinion, this is the best work around for being unable to meet locals on the street. Folks on this site are already ready to invite you into their private space. I had a brief Couchsurfing meet-up in Denmark that ended up with me at a family’s weekly dinner.

Moreover, I would check out The Ghetto Gourmet. This site is a place where people have underground restaurants and group dinners. Essentially, strangers get together and eat dinner at someone’s home “restaurant.” I have not tried it yet, but I’ve heard good things about it. There are groups in most major cities.

Meetup.com is another great site for meeting people. Out of the three, this site is the most formal, and the crowd here tends to be in their early 30s, but there is a wide variety of groups on this site where you can meet people with the same interests as you but in a foreign country! Love wine? Why not go to a wine lovers meet up in France?

Lastly, check out Travel Blog Exchange. There are thousands of travel bloggers from around the world and, as a general rule, travel bloggers tend to be a very, very social bunch of people who, if time permits, are usually more than happy to show other travelers around. After all, it’s what we love!

It’s not impossible to have that chance encounter on the street. But it’s also not that common. When I left to travel the road, I had visions of interacting with locals everywhere, but that didn’t happen as much as I wanted. Luckily, the Internet lets you kick-start that process. It takes more work, but if you really love France and want to meet French people, don’t wait for it to happen.

Make it happen.

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The Truth About Meeting Locals Abroad | Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

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