Picture this: You and your bestie have just booked an adventure to witness the wild and wonderful areas of Australia. You’ll be partying until the break of dawn in Melbourne, getting up close with cute little penguins on Phillip Island, and exploring the vast natural beauty of Alice Springs. However, due to circumstances beyond their control, your bestie has to unfortunately cancel their trip.
This is a scenario you may find yourself in, but even though the thought might be daunting, you’ve still made your bookings and intend to make the trip – albeit by yourself. Nevertheless, there are a myriad of simple ways to meet other travellers and locals if you feel like some company along the way.
Have a quick browse on Trav Buddy, and you’ll instantly notice that you’re not the only one with scuppered travel plans. There are many like you who wish to share the experience of a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Simply make a profile, enter which city you’re travelling to, and you’ll be sure to find many other tourists to message – letting you discover if this person is someone you’d like to hang out with. Of course, there are some websites on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Australian dating sites like Flirtfair allow you to meet locals who are simply up for casual fun or a ONS – no matter your orientation.
Other than online methods, there are easy means to meet other tourists to go sightseeing and partying with. Although generally far quieter and cleaner, hotels aren’t always the best places to run into fun people when travelling on your own. However, what they usually lack in privacy and cleanliness, hostels more than make up for in camaraderie and entertainment. Unless you’ve chosen specifically not to, chances are you’ll be placed in a 4-bed or 8-bed dorm room. However, in most cases other travellers will see that you’re by yourself, and invite you to hang out them.
Additionally, the hostel reception, kitchen, or living room are generally fantastic meeting places for group or solo travellers alike, with bar crawls or city tours usually starting off from these points. Even if you’re the shy type, group events such as these are made to make everyone feel welcome and inclusive.
Overall, the world isn’t such a big and scary place. Though unlikely your original plan, travelling alone could well be the chance to improve your self-confidence and inner strength. Be beautiful inside and out and open your mind, then you’ll find that if you can handle Australia on your own – you can handle anything.
