How to Make Friends in a New City: 3 Ways to Meet People

Three years ago I moved to a city where I knew no one. For the next year and a half, my social circle consisted of my boyfriend at the time and my college friend who would occasionally visit from out of town. My initial plan was to form friendships with my roommates, what I hadn't planned for was all three of my roommates moving out of state halfway through our lease.

Making friends in your twenties is hard, but it's unexplainably hard when you're living in a city you don't know. Thankfully I eventually got tired of being bored at home and pushed myself to meet people, and today I want to share with you the three best ways to make new friends in the city.

Friend of friends

Gonna be honest for a second, this is the hardest out of all of them. The reason being that you both have a mutual friend, so there's the extra pressure to get along for at least the afternoon. When asking for your friend to introduce you to people they know, make sure to be honest about the things you like to do and the characteristics you look for in a friend.

I'll use myself as an example, if being set up on a blind friend date, I'd ask to be connected with someone who didn't mind inappropriate jokes, liked having specific plans when going out, and isn't shy when they first meet someone. Don't be afraid to say what you are looking for in a friend, this way you can save yourself the time and awkwardness.

Alumni Association

Alumni associations are a great place to make new friends, and I'm not talking about people who are old enough to be your parent. If you live in a large city, chances are there is a local chapter of your university. Get online and find the contact person, or better yet, call your former university and ask about the chapters in your area. By making friends through an alumni association, you have the automatic connection of sharing a similar college experience.

Join Meetup

If meeting friends of friends is too nerve-wracking and there are no local alumni associations, there's still a way for you to meet new potential friends each week, Meetup! Meetup is a website where ordinary people form groups and host events. Groups can be about any interests, from people who wanna walk their pugs together to women who like to eat brunch.

Joining meetup is free, as well as joining most groups within meetup. Having run a meetup group for almost two years, my best advice to making real new friends through the website is to attend meet up events regularly. This means don't go out once then disappear for a month. All the friends I made on meetup I saw on a regular basis, waiting until we were close enough to swap numbers and hang out individually.

If you're shy around new people, join a group with a specific interest, like hiking or painting. This way you have something in common with everyone there. To make lasting friendships attend as many meetups that you can, talk to the organizer wile at the meetup, and don't be afraid to talk to other members. Everyone joins meetups because they want to meet new people, so there's no need to feel as if you're pushing yourself into the conversation


Before you go, whether you're a regular reader or not, I wanted to remind you that there is a free online community of women that you can join via Facebook. A few weeks ago I opened a private Facebook group for women in their twenties to come to for advice, second opinions, and a place to visit to get answers to those questions even Google cant answer. You can request to join by clicking here.