How To Easily Make Friends While On Vacation – 2nd Article
The second article in this series. This one written for us by Travis Casey, from Bexhill-on Sea, Sussex
People who enjoy travel are usually curious people by nature. This curiosity lends itself to making friends easily while on vacation. Those who are willing to step out of their comfortable environment are ready to take the chance on seeing new places and meeting new people.
With this in mind, people who travel are easy to approach. They already possess an interest in the world outside of their own and have a natural interest in people outside of their hometown.
I would give approachability to people on vacation nine out of ten.
Another factor is that people tend to be more relaxed on vacation. The guard is dropped a bit and we are not suffering from the stress that we normally do in everyday life. For this reason, we are more open to meeting new people. If we ourselves take the initiative to start the conversation, it is seldom met with resistance.
When in an environment foreign to your normal living surroundings, it is quite natural to try to find out more about the area or place you are in. This is easily done by striking up a conversation with someone else who is in the same environment and asking them questions about what they have done in the area or plan to do. These are non-threatening questions to either party, thus making it easier to start the conversation
Opening lines are endless. It’s not like trying to chat up a man or woman you fancy where the opening line is crucial and will decide your fate as to whether you advance with that person or not. No. Holiday opening lines are more like: Have you been here before? Where do you live? Isn’t it beautiful around here?
It’s not like the usual American ice breakers: What’s your name? What do you do for a living? What kind of car do you drive? Although these questions get to the point very quickly when assessing someone as a potential friend, it is not very subtle. On vacation, let these question be answered when the opportunity presents itself.
If you meet someone else staying in the same hotel or resort, then you already have a common thread by choosing the same accommodation. This would suggest that you already share some of the same likes and dislikes, giving the potential friendship a head start before you even speak.
Sharing experiences, not only about where you are at the time, but also where each party comes from and learning a bit about their part of the world. Vacation gives people an opportunity to talk about their favourite subject. Themselves. That’s how friendships are struck up. You talk about yourself. They talk about themselves. And then you make a judgement if these are the kind of people you wish to associate with. Sometimes I may have very little in common with the person except for travel. But travel does offer common ground for the conversation and friendship to flourish.
I would say that people who travel are generally interesting people and are also interested in other people themselves. This lays a good foundation for making new friends easily. Well travelled people are easy to talk to because they have so many experiences at their disposal to talk about and keep conversations going. It is easy to make friends when the recipients are willing participants.
