Ahhh, home. Finally, a place that is comfortable, reliable and familiar.
There’s nothing quite like sleeping in your own bed, blissfully exhausted from the highs and lows of a long trip overseas. But once the post-travel glow wears off, there’s often a challenging readjustment period—the kind that can make you long for the open road again.
Whether you’re suffering from reverse culture shock or just want to swap stories, connecting with like-minded travellers might help. Here are eight places to find them, none of which require a boarding pass.
1. Meetup.com
While Meetup isn’t travel-specific, the free site allows strangers to connect in-person based on specific interests. Here, you can find backpacking groups, hiking groups, travel blogger groups. . .basically a group for anything you can think of. And if your “thing” isn’t on the list? You can start your own Meetup group.
It’s also a great option if you’re a social traveller who’s lacking travel buddies or resources, as many groups plan and pool resources for nearby weekend trips.
2. Travel Massive
Travel Massive is a community of travel enthusiasts and professionals, with chapters in cities all around the world. The group hosts regular events that bring together their diverse members, including new grads looking to break into the industry, amateur and professional content producers, and industry suppliers. The perks: monthly events with sweet travel contests and prizes. The community is free to join and has a great online job board to scan through, too.
3. Young Travel Professionals (YTP)
As the name suggests, YTP is a group for travel professionals, with a focus on career development for young people working in the tourism and hospitality industry. Similar to Travel Massive, YTP hosts semi-regular events with great prizes and an online job board. They also have a FAM trip section that registered travel agents can apply for.
4. Internations
The Internations community focuses on expats looking to settle into their new region through social events and online community engagement. Similar to Meetup, you can search niche groups of Internations members who want to get together to share specific hobbies and interests (for example, arts and culture, nightlife, dancing, wine, coffee, etc.)
While they have a free membership option, the best benefits come with their paid memberships, which cost between $6 and $9 monthly.
5. Go Global Expo
As the producer of the Go Global Expo, this may seem like a shameless plug, but we truly believe that our event is not only an amazing opportunity to research your next trip and hear inspiring stories from the field—it’s also the best place to connect with other travellers.
Hosted annually in Toronto (Sept 24-25) and Montreal (Oct 1), attendees have the chance to chat with over 60 organizations specializing in overseas work, study and volunteering programs, with opportunities in over 100 countries. Best, of all, it’s completely free to attend! Register now to receive a free subscription to Verge.
6. CouchSurfing.com
Maybe you Couchsurfed while you were abroad, sharing tales and talents with strangers in exchange for a crash pad? Well, now that you have a permanent address, it’s time for you to pay back all the karma you got on the road and host some travellers in your town. Plus, you can search for events in your area to connect with other Couchsurfers. (Of course, you can always opt for Airbnb if you are looking to make a bit of coin to get back on your feet.)
7. Trippy
Trippy is perfect for the globetrotter who misses sharing their tips and advice with other travellers. On Trippy, users ask questions about where they would like to go. Other users, who are experts in those places, post a reply. All readers can like anyone’s answer and the best responses move to the top of the page. Simple, fun and helpful.
8. Contact people from your past that followed a similar trajectory.
Got an acquaintance that hiked Kilimanjaro, a friend-of-a-friend who spent a year abroad, or a distant cousin who studied in Spain? Reach out to them. Even if they only held a small role in your past, it’s likely that you share similar views now. Knowing that they’re travellers, they likely won’t be shocked by a random request to hang.
Finally, if you’re desperate, you can always find the nearest hostel and check yourself in for a few nights to really remember what you’re missing out on—namely that there’s no place like home.
