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Want to travel, but your friends never seem to have the time off, the money, or the motivation? What if there's someone in Italy, Japan, or Brazil you'd get along with perfectly, but you simply haven't met yet? From exchanging postcards to joining international online communities, there are some surprisingly interesting ways to make friends around the world. I decided to try a few of them. Now I have more messages than I have time to answer, and several new countries on my future travel list.
I have a problem that will probably sound familiar to anyone who's ever tried to plan a vacation with friends. One can't get time off work, another would rather go to the beach than explore a city, a third likes to sleep until ten, and I've already found three interesting breakfast spots and a museum that closes at five.
I don't mind traveling alone. Nobody argues with me about how much time I spend in a bookstore or gives me strange looks when I photograph the same street five times. But sometimes I'd like to share the experience with someone. Better yet, I'd love to meet people who live thousands of miles away and can tell me about places I've only seen in pictures.
So I started exploring international online communities, pen pal websites, and apps for travelers. I found far more options than I expected. Some take only a few minutes to join, while others might even send you to the post office. Yes, an actual post office, complete with handwritten letters, stamps, and everything.
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Postcrossing: How Can a Postcard Connect You With People Around the World?
When was the last time you received a postcard? Not an advertisement, a letter from your bank, or another notice telling you that you owe someone money. I'm talking about a real postcard with a beautiful picture, a postage stamp, and a few handwritten lines.
I love little surprises like that, especially when they arrive from a place I barely knew anything about.
As it turns out, there's an entire international community of people who still enjoy sending postcards to one another. One of the best-known projects is Postcrossing.
Here's how it works. You sign up, request the address of a randomly selected member, and mail them a postcard. You also receive a unique postcard ID, which you write on the card. Once the recipient receives and registers it, your address becomes eligible to be assigned to another member who will send you a postcard. It won't necessarily be the person you wrote to.
That means you never know where your next postcard will come from. It could arrive from Japan, Portugal, Canada, or a small town you've never heard of. On the back, you might find a few sentences about the weather, the sender's favorite pastime, or something interesting about their hometown.
I can already picture myself opening my mailbox one day and finding a postcard from New Zealand. Not an electricity bill. New Zealand! That would definitely improve my mood.
By the way, this isn't a sponsored article, and none of the websites mentioned here paid for my little experiment. I'm interested in the idea of learning about faraway places from the people who actually live there.
Joining Postcrossing is free, but you'll need to pay for your postcards and postage. You'll also have to provide a mailing address. If you're uncomfortable sharing your home address, you can look into renting a P.O. box.
What Are Pen Pals, and Why Are Correspondence Friendships Making a Comeback?
While browsing postcard exchange websites, I came across the term pen pal again. It's someone you regularly exchange letters or messages with, often someone living in another country.
Before the internet, people exchanged letters with strangers overseas, sometimes for years. Today, you can do the same through email, dedicated websites, or apps. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from sticking with the traditional version, complete with paper, envelopes, and postage stamps.
There's an important difference between Postcrossing and having a pen pal. With postcard exchanges, you're generally not expected to continue corresponding with the recipient. Pen pals, on the other hand, write to each other regularly and gradually get to know one another.
Imagine having a friend in South Korea who tells you how her family celebrates birthdays. Or someone in Mexico who explains why his favorite local dish is nothing like what you've eaten at Mexican restaurants in Europe.
You can practice another language, learn about local traditions, and discover what everyday life looks like on the other side of the world. And when someone tells you about their favorite café or a holiday their entire family looks forward to, that destination starts to feel like a real place filled with real people, rather than another spot on a map.
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InterPals.net: I Signed Up to Make International Friends, and the Messages Started Pouring In
Now this is where things get a little more entertaining.
While looking for international communities, I came across InterPals.net. It's a website where you can meet people from different countries, practice foreign languages, and make new friends.
I decided to sign up. I added a little information about myself, the languages I speak, and my interests. I mentioned that I love traveling and enjoy meeting people from different cultures. Nothing particularly unusual.
I figured I'd browse a few profiles, send two or three messages, and get back to whatever else I was supposed to be doing.
Except that friend requests and messages started arriving almost immediately. Then more came in. And more. Before I knew it, I'd logged on to find new friends and somehow ended up having to decide who to reply to first.
The funniest part? I hadn't even had a chance to properly explore the website yet.
Of course, not every message is the beginning of a fascinating friendship. Some people write nothing more than "Hi." Others seem to send the exact same message to dozens of users, while a few clearly have expectations that don't match mine. I didn't respond to some of them at all.
But there are also people you can have a genuinely enjoyable conversation with. They ask where you're from, which languages you're learning, where you've traveled, and what you like doing in your free time. Someone recommends a movie from their country, someone else tells you about a local festival, and another person turns out to be every bit as obsessed with traveling as you are.
One feature I particularly liked was the ability to search for people by country, language, and interests. If you're learning Spanish, for example, you can find people to practice with. If you're planning a vacation in Italy, you might meet someone who lives there and can recommend places that rarely make it into travel brochures.
I can't promise that every new contact will turn into a friendship. But having the opportunity to talk with people from so many different countries is interesting in its own right.
And no, I don't have a promo code called "ADELA10" that gets you ten percent more friends. If that promotion existed, I'd probably already be worried about how I'd find time to reply to everyone.
Slowly, Meetup, and Hostelworld: Which Apps Can Help You Find Travel Buddies?
Not everyone enjoys communicating the same way. Some people love writing long letters, others want to practice foreign languages, and some are looking for people to take a walk with or explore an unfamiliar city together.
For example, Slowly is an app that recreates the experience of traditional correspondence. You write a digital letter, but it doesn't arrive instantly. Delivery time depends on the distance between you and the recipient.
Yes, an app that deliberately makes you wait. In the age of instant messaging, that strikes me as almost revolutionary. I can imagine sending a letter to Argentina and, instead of checking my phone thirty seconds later, knowing that getting a reply will require a little patience.
If you prefer meeting people in person, take a look at Meetup. The platform is used to organize group events, language exchanges, walks, and activities based on shared interests. It's a way to meet people in your own city without necessarily planning a trip abroad.
For people who are already on the road, Hostelworld is another interesting option. Its app includes social features for chatting with fellow travelers, meeting people in the same destination, and joining organized activities. Access to certain features depends on having a booking or purchasing a paid service.
I'd also explore local hiking groups, language exchange communities, and groups for solo travelers. Sometimes it's easier to find a future friend among people who share a particular hobby than in a community devoted entirely to meeting new people.
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Can an Online Friend Become Your Next Travel Buddy?
Naturally, once the initial excitement kicked in, I started imagining myself visiting a new friend in Lisbon someday or having coffee with someone I'd been messaging for months.
One of my friends would probably ask whether I was getting ahead of myself. And this time, she might have a point.
Online friendships can be a great start, but meeting in person requires a little more caution. I wouldn't send money, copies of identification documents, or sensitive personal information to someone I only know from the internet. And I certainly wouldn't book a flight to visit someone I'd been chatting with for three days, no matter how interesting their profile looked.
Before making that kind of trip, I'd want us to have spent enough time talking, including over video. For a first meeting, I'd choose a public place during the day, arrange my own accommodations, and let someone close to me know my plans.
The same caution applies when someone offers to help with bookings, transportation, or local services. A pleasant conversation isn't a reason to ignore basic safety precautions.
And let's face it, being a little cautious is much better than having to explain why you sent money for a plane ticket to a stranger whose profile picture features a yacht.
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What If My Next Vacation Starts With an Invitation From a New Friend?
When I started exploring these websites, I was mainly interested in finding someone to travel with. Now I'm curious about something else, too: how much you can learn about a place from the people who call it home.
A photograph can show me what Lisbon looks like. A guidebook can tell me about its most famous attractions. But someone who lives there can tell me where they go for breakfast on Sundays, which neighborhoods they love spending time in, and why a particular local event means so much to them.
Maybe after several months of exchanging messages, an online friendship will lead to meeting in person. Maybe my next trip will begin with a message saying, "If you ever come here, I'll show you my favorite café."
Or maybe we'll never meet in person. That doesn't make the conversations, letters, or everything we've learned about each other any less meaningful.
For now, I'm still browsing profiles, replying to messages, and discovering how different everyday life can be around the world. One day you're talking to someone about their favorite books, and the next they're telling you about a city you'd never even considered visiting.
I have only one concern. If I keep meeting this many people, I'm going to need a whole lot more vacation days.
Have you ever made friends from other countries online? Have you exchanged postcards or letters with people you've never met? Tell me about it in the comments, especially if one of those friendships has already taken you on a trip. I'd love to read your story.
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