How to find a travel partner online in India

Indians have come way ahead of their time, thanks to the internet and easy approach to foreign nations that we have been able to open up our minds for things that we couldn't imagine doing a few years ago. With the increase in earning and spending capacity, almost every one of us wants to take a vacation every 3-4 months.  However, when we make a plan for a trip, we do not find suitable travel partners all the time. Either we have to make peace with traveling with people with whom we are not very comfortable, or we end up fighting with our friends for several reasons by the time our trip ends. That leaves us with little choice of people with whom we can travel and feel comfortable.

Even though finding a travel partner online may not sound safe to many of us, but the trend is catching up fast. When we can book tickets for train, bus, and cabs online, why not give a chance to find a travel buddy online. If you have heard about Bla-Bla cars, you might be aware of the apprehensions people had about it in India. We would always worry about traveling in a shared car with strangers, but the concept has appealed people who have to travel a lot from one city to another. Similarly, a lot of people love to travel for pleasure, but not many of them like to travel solo. That is where we get the idea of looking like-minded people over the net. You can try a few ideas mentioned below to make your next vacation much more fun with an individual who enjoys life on the same wavelength as you do.

Join local travel clubs

You can look for a few travel clubs online that lets people in the same city only. For instance, if you live in Delhi, you can sign up on websites like "meetup" that comprises of hundreds of groups for various purposes such as book reading, club hopping, street walks, outstation traveling, etc. Since you are made to meet people before you make a travel plan, it gives you the assurance that you are in the company of safe people. Meetup.com engages people from all over the world so that you can find people from all walks of life. Moreover, it is a reliable platform given that you can meet people from your own city before proceeding with them for a vacation.

Travbuddy.com

Travebuddy.com has a large number of members from all over the globe, roughly numbering more than 600,000, which makes it one of the largest platform to find a travel partner online. The site also lets you post your photos from the vacation, write travel blogs, and advise people with travel tips. The best part about travebuddy.com is that you can vouch for a person if you like them after meeting. The site has witnessed more than 5,000 positive vouches till now, which gives the potential members an assurance to register and proceed on a positive note.

Tips for choosing a travel partner online

Meeting someone for the first time for traveling is similar to online dating , which requires patience, judgment, and optimism to develop a connection. It is easy to look for faults in a stranger when you meet them for the first time, but you need to keep an open mind while communicating with them so that you can choose your travel buddy effectively. However, keep these tips in mind to be safe while meeting someone and proceeding for a vacation.

• Meet a person in a modestly crowded place, be it a male or a female. You can never judge what goes on in someone’s mind until you meet them several times.
• Take someone along on your first meeting.
• Tell your whereabouts to a trusted friend and keep them updated about your place of a visit, phone number of the stranger you are meeting, a photograph of the person, and your time of arrival and departure. These things help you be in the safe zone in case things turn out to be fishy.
• Let the other person know skillfully that someone is aware of the situation that you are meeting a stranger. Unfortunately, if the stranger from the online forum has something shady in mind, they will dare not think about misbehaving with you.
• Do not share the excess of personal information unless you are sure of the person.
• Ask about the background of the person and use discreet questions to dig out the information.
• Do not depend on chatting online; do make a few calls before you meet a person somewhere.
• Insist on meeting a couple of times before you continue your plan for vacation.
• Use your intuition and common sense while meeting someone and judging them. If you are not comfortable in their company, do let them know upfront that you are not meeting again.
• Prefer taking at least one friend in your unknown travel group so that you are comfortable enough in the company of complete strangers.

People from different parts of India are nowadays opting for online forums for various purposes. Even the concept of Self-Drive Cars is clubbed with the idea of meeting people online. You can take  Self-Drive Car Rental Kolkata or any other city and make a plan to leave for an outstation vacation. People meet up other compatible people online and then include them in their plans of road trips, which is an exciting idea for both parties.