Make friends before you travel

If you’re reading this and wondering why find your Trek America buddies, that’s a great question! Some people like to just “rock-up” at the meeting point hotel and meet their fellow travel buddies then. If you’d rather do that, no problem. But here are some reasons why it can be great to find your Trek America buddies before you travel:

1. Share your travel-excitement with someone who cares

Instead of constantly annoying your friends by sharing your excitement about your travel plans, you can share them with someone who really cares instead – someone you will be travelling with, who is as equally excited as you are. But sure, still keep sharing your excitement with your friends and family. They love it really and are in no way jealous of your EPIC travel plans

2. Share tips

You can share tips on what clothes and equipment you’re taking.

3. Start to break the ice

If you’re travelling solo, it can be comforting to connect with others and start to get to know each other, so you don’t feel apprehensive about meeting in person, for the first time.

4. Make pre-tour travel plans

If you are going to be arriving at the meeting point in advance of the tour starting, you might find other trekkers are also arriving early and if you choose to, you can make arrangements to explore the city together, meet for dinner etc. Even though I love exploring on my own, I’ve done this lots of times because it’s always exciting to meet your new trek buddies and start getting to know them.

5. Find a travel buddy to travel from the airport to the hotel

You might find someone is on the same flight as you are, or is at least arriving at the airport around the same time. If you’re on a tight budget or just a little nervous about making your way from the airport, this can be a great way of sharing the cost and feeling more comfortable. I’ve met a fellow trekker at Heathrow Airport before and others at LAX, in LA.

6. Share contact information

If you have any problems travelling to the meeting point hotel e.g. a flight delay, there is at least someone at the destination you can get in touch with and keep them updated about your progress. Of course Trek America (like most other tour companies), provide an emergency contact, so if you are going to be delayed, you should formally let Trek America know too. I was once half a day late for a Trek – on Christmas Eve and it was so reassuring having all these people I hadn’t met rooting for me and trying to help me and others who had travel delays. That’s a story for another blog post though.

7. Make post-tour plans together

If a few of you are going to be around at the meeting point hotel after the tour, you might decide in advance to buy tickets together for a show. This of course means that someone needs to pay for these in advance (e.g. to get seats together) and you might feel it’s a bit of a risk but anyone who doesn’t pay up is going to feel slightly uncomfortable as the rest of the group won’t appreciate their actions. Again, this is something I’ve done before, on a Christmas trek. The tour ended on New Year’s Day in Vegas and we wanted to go see a show. There was no way we were going to wait until we got to the US to get tickets for New Year. Only consider doing this if you can afford to do it and are comfortable with doing it though. Also look into options for getting a refund, if someone has a genuine reason for dropping out and can’t find another member of the group to take their ticket.