How to Make New Friends as a Digital Nomad When Traveling

Last Updated on June 1, 2023

One of the biggest problems many digital nomads experience is developing meaningful friendships and relationships.

Being a digital nomad and getting to travel to interesting and exciting places worldwide is great and you inevitably meet a lot of people.

Yet, many digital nomads I have met often talk about feeling lonely sometimes. In this post, I’m going to explain some great ways to make new friends as a digital nomad.

1. Use Co-Living Spaces

By staying in a co-living space you are in effect throwing yourself into easily meeting and having the time to properly get to know your fellow digital nomads.

A co-living space is a place for nomads to stay along with other digital nomads.

Additionally, though, many co-living locations also have their own co-working space too.

So, when you are not working, you are living with and around others like yourself and you have plenty of time to get to know people.

Many co-living places also organize a range of events and activities including things such as hiking, dinner parties, games nights, and beach trips (if you are somewhere coastal).

In terms of rooms, you will normally have a choice of your own private room or if you prefer, a shared room and prices will vary accordingly.

Typically these co-living spaces will be a massive house with many rooms (i.e., 6 or more) and a large kitchen, communal area, and coworking space.

• Read about our favourite coliving spaces.

2. Make Your Own Interests Known by Giving Some Free Lessons or Classes

One creative and very easy way to really find fellow nomads who share the same kinds of interests as you is to make your skills known. How?

What Valeria does, for example, is to always take her belly dance costume with her as Valeria loves dance and has taught belly dance in the past.

She has a Ph.D. to do with dance and she enjoys physically dancing.

So Valeria often offers some FREE classes in belly dance for other coworkers and coliving nomads who are interested to learn.

This way, anyone with an interest in dance immediately is able to connect with Valeria because Valeria’s passion for dance is immediately clear to everyone.

Some examples of things you might be able to do (both work or non-work related include):

• If you are any good at drawing or painting, why not provide a free art lesson or two?
• If you are a good photographer provide a free workshop in photography.
• A natural at sales and marketing? Why not provide a free class for fellow digital nomads in how to master online marketing (as many nomads need to find and maintain online clients and customers).
• Know the local area well – why not give a free walking tour.

3. Find Local Digital Nomad Events via Facebook

Whatever city or location you are planning to spend time in as a digital nomad, the chances are that there is already a Facebook Group for nomads in that place.

Facebook is extremely popular as a way for nomads (and also ex-pats) to network.

Just imagine, for example, that you were planning to spend 3 months in Lisbon, working online from there. In this example, these groups would be worth signing up to:

• Lisbon Digital Nomad and Expats Group
• Lisbon Digital Nomads Facebook Community

In addition to Facebook Groups aimed at specific locations, there are also some groups aimed at work nomad travels, and these include:

• Nomads Around the World Group (good for general ideas)

4. Look on Meetup.com for Local Events and Groups

In addition to Facebook, another extremely easy and useful way to find digital nomad events in the city or town you are staying in is to use Meetup.com.

Some organizers prefer meetup.com and some prefer Facebook so I recommend checking both.

Using Lisbon again as an example (given it is a very popular nomads destination), there are a couple of Lisbon Meetup groups aimed at digital nomads (you can find them also on the post we did on Lisbon for digital nomads).

There is normally a nomad group meetup every Thursday, in addition to other events that nomads organize themselves, including a:

• Weekly running group
• Community lunch group
• Hiking trips

5. Join the Local Internations Community

Another quite similar option, although this is limited to major cities, is Internations.

Internations used to be a very popular site but it seems to have struggled to grow as a business model, in the face of Facebook and Meetup.

It is still worth checking Internations though if you are planning to be a nomad in a major city.

6. Go to a Digital Nomad Summit

Digital nomad summits are a fantastic way to really get to meet like-minded people who embrace the online work and travel lifestyle.

Furthermore, many of the people who attend these summits are quite hard-core digital nomads and hence you get to meet some really interesting people.

The summits are also a brilliant way to understand how to maximize how you live this lifestyle because there tend to be dozens of workshops and presentations on the key aspects of being a digital nomad.

Typical workshops can include topics such as:

• Where to pay taxes as a digital nomad workshop
• How to market yourself as an online trainer (check out our sister site on being a trainer)
• How to find the best coworking destinations presentation

There are normally 30 or 40 different presentations and workshops over the course of a few days.

Furthermore, a range of social events is normally organized for the evenings and weekends.

There are a couple of Nomad summits including the:

• Bansko Nomad Fest – takes place in June/July each year and attracts nomads from around the world and is my favorite summit.
• Annual: Tblishi Nomad Summit

7. Meeting Others in Backpacker Accommodation

Co-living and co-working sometimes cross over into the backpacker sphere, particularly when it comes to younger digital nomads, i.e. those in their twenties, as you might be.

Some backpacker hostels also have their own co-working spaces, one such brand being Selina hostels.

Selina provides accommodation in a number of countries and they market themselves as being for travelers who also need to work along the way.

From a meeting others point of view, backpacker digs and youth hostels sometimes provide an excellent environment for easily meeting other people.

The problem though takes us full circle to the idea that we want to meet others but to create ‘meaningful and long-term friendships’ as a digital nomad.

Staying in a good hostel though for a short while, especially where they have an emphasis on providing social events also, can be an easy way to begin to network and get to know like-minded people.

You can stay in a hostel for a few days when first arriving in a city, get to know a few people, and then move into a co-living space.

8. Study a Course Locally

In addition to meeting fellow digital nomads, meeting local people can be a great way to create strong friendships.

One of the easiest ways to meet locals and in such a way that you do so through joint interests and passions is to take a course in something you are interested in, locally.

Some examples of courses you can very often find locally wherever you go include:

• A local running club
• Art, drawing, and life-drawing classes
• Massage courses (such as Swedish massage workshops)
• Fitness classes in a local gym or sports center (and always turn up 5 or 10 minutes early so that you get to talk to the others and get to gradually know them)
• Handicrafts
• Cooking workshops
• Beginner language courses (although on these rather than meeting locals you might meet ex-pats unless studying a language different from the country you are a nomad in)

By learning something that really interests you, there is a very good chance you will connect with local people with the same interests.

9. Nomad List

I personally have not joined Nomad List because it is a paid platform that costs you to join and I find that I can develop friendships through the other ideas I have already listed above.

I am including ‘Nomad List’ here though because several digital nomads whom I know do speak positively of their experience when it comes to networking through Nomad List.

I’ll leave this one for you to explore! Please feel free to leave your thoughts on Nomad List (and about the other ideas on this page and your own ideas) in the comments at the bottom of this post.

I would love to hear your recommendations too!

10. Engage with the Community

In the digital nomad community in which you find yourself, one further tip is to be open-minded with regards to trying new things, i.e new experiences.

It is very often through engaging in new activities and new experiences that you can meet people whom you might not otherwise have come across.

It is during such experiences that a new and unexpected friendship can develop!