How To Meet People On Business Or Pleasure Trips Over Dinner When Alone
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger
The worst part of traveling alone is eating alone. Especially for dinner.
As other people around you are having a great ‘ol time you’re all to yourself chomping at the bit to be in a conversation. Or worse yet, you’re all alone in an empty restaurant.
But it doesn’t need to be this way, not at all. That’s why I’m giving you my five tops on how to meet people during dinner.
1.) Be In An Area With A Cluster Of Restaurants & Bars
You’ll want options so go to an area of the destination you’re visiting and find an area that has several different choices for dinner. But also keep Tip #2 in mind.
2.) Be In An Area With The Kind Of People You Want To Meet
If you want to be around business people, go to business area that has lost of restaurant//bars.. If you’re more casual, find a place with causal bars and pubs. If you’re upscale, look for lounges. If you’re beach and your destination has a beach, then go to the beach bars.
3.) Go To A Busy Restaurant/Bar
The best way to meet people when you’re a solo traveler is to go where there’s people. That’s metrics, to use an Internet current-day buzzword. Pick a place that’s lively, where you can hear the buzz of conversations the second you walk through the door.
If you’re wondering how to find these places, use the two above tips to identify potential places and walk around and check them out by site. Sure, apps like Yelp can help but nothing beats “boots on the ground.” You can see the place, you can see the people in the place and you can even ask the hostess things like “does this place get busy at Happy Hour,” and “what’s your busiest time of the night and day of the week.”
4.) Go During Happy Hour
People are more in a mingling mood at Happy Hour than at any other time, so this is the time to go and strike up conversations.
5.) Sit At The Bar, Not At A Remote Table
Even if you’ve done all of the above, you’ve blown it all by sitting at some table in a remote area of the restaurant. You want to be where the ACTION is, and that’s that’s right at the bar. Here, you not only have access to other customers, but you can always chat up the bartender. They know exactly when the crowds come in, where they go and when they go there; they are a great local resource of information.
If there’s no seat available, look to see if someone is about to leave – after all, you only need one seat – or try and get a table close to the bar where you can still be close enough to join in a conversation or start one.
Yes, she should indeed find a busy one if she wants it to be lively. PubClub does recommend for special occasions to call up in advance and reserve an area. They may also give you some deals, like an extended Happy Hour.
I like how you say that you would ant to find a restaurant that is pretty busy. it would make sense to go somewhere that is busy because it shows they are a good option. My sister is looking for a good restaurant for her anniversary, so she’ll have to find a pretty popular one to go to.