Travel is hard. It breaks comfort zones and costs time and money. Not everyone feels they can afford it, and there is a certain amount of unpredictability and risk to travel. Not everyone cares or wants to travel, removing a fair chunk of the population. Those that are left are the daring few and far between. Meeting others that meet your synergistic needs, travel persona, and energy levels can also be challenging. This is why I suspect many opt to travel solo. However, I also believe most would prefer not to travel solo if they had a choice. Let’s explore together how to find other travelers as solo travelers.
It is also worth noting that not everyone wants to travel with others. There is a subset of individuals who enjoy being alone more than others. However, I know humans to be exceptionally social creatures, and we crave the companionship of others if we can find the right people.
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Our Experiences Finding Others
While my wife and I are more of a couple travelers, we have sought to solve the problem of finding others to travel with for years. We’ve met many great folks who seem like they will pan out and be great travel companions but inevitably flake out. We often travel independently, aside from a few occasions where we get friends and an excellent group of scuba diving friends to join us. The reason is that finding a good match is a lot like finding a new job or dating. Finding a good match is brutal. Let’s first explore the challenges one faces when finding a good match.
Budget & Time
The biggest hurdle in finding others to travel with is their capability, investments, and personality to find the budget and time to travel. Often, we find folk have one or the other, but rarely both. Like in the dating world, finding matches often means expanding your search. Such as using communities to help filter down to folk who, precisely, travel frequently and enjoy travel to start your search there.
Difference In Interests (Travel Persona)
Many folks travel for different reasons, ranging from the different travel personas. Therefore, folk with rigorous mindsets on what they want to do may not be compatible. Some are more flexible than others, but if one person wants to do a 3-day trek and another wants to do three days at an art exhibit, you’ll find yourself limited to meeting the group’s demands. Communities and filters once again help overcome the challenge of meeting others.
Difference In Energy & Expectations
Of course, some folk like to see things in depth while others go beyond breadth. Some like to cram many things into a day, and others like a more relaxed pace. Some want to travel cheaply over an extended time, and others want to travel in luxury. Much like dating, sometimes, to get to know a person and their behaviors, you need to spend some effort to get to know them, give some trial or “date” to understand those expectations, and see if your good travel buddy matches. It might sound corny, but it can be a make or break, just as any relationship and given travel is not easy in general, you generally don’t want relationships to fall apart on the go.
Using Travel-Wise
We built Travel-Wise, to help make travel planning more accessible and streamlined but to be a community. We want to attract a community of avid travelers who seek to help each other. Also, I want to be a part of exploring the world together and helping others do the same. Travel-Wise has several features to encourage community members to meet one another, save by traveling with group discounts, and meet new people.
Personal Account Travel Profiles
Get to know someone, at least on the surface, by their travel expertise, contributions, where they’ve been, where they are going, and aspirations based on their social pages on Travel-Wise.
Community Forums
The forum was designed to be collaborative and allow members to communicate openly on ideas, help each other, and find travel partners. If planning a trip, make it public and share it on the forum. This is an excellent way to see and meet others interested in the same trip plan. You can start getting enough folks involved even to push discounts on the travel arrangements.
Open Trip Plans
Open trip plans are a premium feature, so we can vet who can post trip plans. Please get in touch with us if you are interested. Open Trip Plans are designed so trusted sources can use Travel-Wise as a platform to post trips and have others who use Travel-Wise be able to request to join open and available trips. The owner of the trip will make the arrangements and take payments directly. These trips act like group travel but are designed to be expressed to individuals with similar experiences. They also are not as canned experiences as group travel may feel like sometimes. We genuinely hope this feature may help Travel-Wise community members meet one another and pay it forward to promote a stronger community.
Getting To Know Your Travel Buddies
A means to meet someone is just the first step. Like any dating website or job posting board, the next step is to get to dating and interviewing. It would be best if you did not dive into such things unthinkingly. Try to go on a “mini” trip first. Do a video call and get to know each other individually (not as a group). Be open and honest with each other to avoid surprises down the road. You want to ensure everyone involved feels good about whom they will be traveling with, and doing your research, taking the time, and opening up could lead to either side feeling they aren’t a match.
Conclusion
With that said, don’t take things personally. Rejection is standard in dating and interviewing. Seeking travel partners is the same. When we are as invested in our travel experiences as in other facets of life, we want to ensure we commit our time to the right people. With that said, we hope to see everyone be able to find travel partners should they be looking on Travel-Wise.
Did you know Travel-Wise is built on the ground to help streamline trip planning? Check out how it can make planning your next trip a breeze!