There is a particular kind of courage required to sit down next to a stranger in a foreign city and simply say hello. Most of us talk ourselves out of it. But for solo travellers who do take that small, slightly terrifying step, the reward can be something that outlasts the trip itself — a real, lasting friendship.
A traveller's recent account of reuniting with friends she made across London, Berlin and Lisbon — people she had known for less than a year, in some cases only a few days — is the kind of story that quietly reframes what solo travel is actually for.
How these friendships were made
The connections didn't happen through an app or a curated social experience. They happened the old-fashioned way: a conversation at a restaurant on a sleepless first night in London, a shared Holocaust memorial tour in Berlin, a New Year's Eve gathering in Lisbon. The people she met — Nora, Zoe and Martha — were a mix of locals and fellow solo travellers, each from a completely different background.
When she returned to Paris and London the following year, she reached out to all three. They confirmed they'd be around. She booked her flights. That's really all it took.
What followed was less like a tourist itinerary and more like picking up a conversation that had simply been paused. In Paris, she and Zoe went to a burlesque show and danced at Le Raidd in Le Marais. With Martha, she wandered the cobblestoned streets of Montmartre and sat for hours at Café Des Deux Moulins — the café made famous by the film *Amélie* — talking about work, love and the surprising similarities in their outlooks despite growing up in entirely different cultures. Martha, a local, admitted it was refreshing to revisit tourist spots through her friend's excited eyes. In return, she pointed her towards La Cantine de la Cigale for an authentic duck confit — the kind of recommendation that only a trusted local can give.
In London, with less than 24 hours in the city, she and Nora simply retraced their old steps: the neighbourhood in Hackney, the Sainsbury's they used to pop into, the restaurant where they first met.
What these friendships actually offer
Long-distance friendships are genuinely harder to maintain. The time zones, the sporadic messaging, the long gaps between catch-ups — none of it is easy. But what they offer in return is something local friendships rarely can: a window into an entirely different daily life, and an honest, affectionate guide to a city you'd otherwise only skim the surface of.
The traveller put it simply: her international friends have helped her call multiple cities home. That's not a small thing. It means that when she lands somewhere, there is already someone who is glad she arrived.
She also noted a quieter, more personal shift — solo travel had made her more open, more resilient and less concerned with how she appears to others. The friendships were both the result of that openness and the thing that kept reinforcing it.
Why this matters for a solo travel audience in India
India has one of the fastest-growing communities of solo travellers in the world, and a significant number of them are women travelling domestically and internationally for the first time. For this audience, the idea that a solo trip can generate friendships worth flying back for is genuinely transformative — it changes the framing from 'brave but lonely' to 'brave and connected'.
The practical takeaway is straightforward: stay in social spaces (hostels, shared tours, local restaurants with communal seating), say yes to the conversation, and don't let the friendship fade when you get home. A follow-up message, a tagged photo, a 'let me know when you're in Mumbai' — these small gestures are what turn a pleasant travel encounter into something that actually lasts.
The larger point is about trust. Solo travel in India, particularly for women, is often framed around safety and logistics. Those things matter enormously. But this story is a reminder that the social dimension of solo travel — the willingness to be a little vulnerable with a stranger — is also worth preparing for and leaning into. The friendships waiting on the other side of that discomfort might just be some of the best ones you'll ever make.