An Introvert’s Guide To Making Friends On A Contiki Trip

Growing up, I was about as big an introvert as you could ever imagine. Like, I think I barely spoke a word throughout Year 9 at high school.

As I’ve become more comfortable with who I am (aka I’ve endured my 20s), I have slightly improved, but tbh, being a lifelong introvert has its benefits. For instance, I’m happy to be alone for extended periods, I’ll never say the wrong thing in a new group of people because I probably won’t speak at all, and I’m really good at texting/messaging because it requires minimal physical interaction.

However, my introversion does hold me back during some social situations, like when I joined a Contiki trip in 2022. Yep, this Big Introvert did the tour operator’s European Magic trip, which boasts nine days of meeting new friends while hitting up some of Europe’s most popular destinations from Amsterdam to Paris.

Sounds fun? Yes. Sounds low-key terrifying for someone whose stomach drops at the thought of small talk with strangers? Also yes.

Thankfully, I had nothing to worry about as I was not alone. Punkee spoke to the CEO of Contiki, Adam Armstrong, who said that many guests start their trips feeling rather shy. “We find that all over the world is that people come in quite shy to begin with. And trip managers have noticed that people are even more shy [since the pandemic] as they’ve been in the virtual world for so long. Over the first couple of days, they find their people,” he said.

“If you’re in a big group, you will find some people on your wave length, with similar interests and backgrounds. The chance of finding those people is so much better on a Contiki trip, where you’ll be with the same people throughout, rather than travelling independently, where for every hostel and city change you make, it’s new people. These trips are perfect for introverts.” 

If you need that extra push to get out of your shell, Adam said that Contiki tour managers are trained to help introverted people find connections. “Their first job is to get you from A to B, or A to B via C, but their second role – and possibly the more important role – is to get the group gelling, and ensure that people find their own people. That’s a special skill, it takes a special sort of person to do that,” he said.

“It’s one of the most rewarding things to see, when a person starts the tour really shy and introverted but then by the end of the tour, they’ve got great mates and they’ve become the life and soul of the group.”

And he’s not wrong! So to make the most of your trip, I’ve come up with some tips for making friends from one introvert to another!

An introvert’s guide to making friends on a Contiki trip:

1. Make your roommate your new bestie

If you happen to be travelling with a buddy, you’re sorted for a roommate. However, if you’re travelling alone, this can be rather daunting. But look on the bright side: you’ve just locked in a new best friend with whoever you’re rooming with. As the two of you will be spending so much time together, friendship will come naturally.

And you’ve also just found someone to go to breakfast/lunch/dinner with every single day.

2. Commit to doing the icebreakers on the first days

Icebreaker games can truly be torturous, especially as they’re typically associated with work. We usually do them when someone new starts at a job, and everyone has to play along like we haven’t all done this a hundred times.

However, icebreakers on a Contiki trip are integral to getting everyone out of their shells. At the start of a trip, when the group typically meets at a random location in the early hours of the morning, in my experience people become deeply shy. As a lifelong introvert, I was actually surprised that everyone around me appeared just as socially awkward as me.

It wasn’t until the icebreaker games that people started to mingle and got to know one another. And while the games themselves might seem a little silly, this is the time to get involved as day one can set the tone for the entire trip. “Day one is the most important day for the trip manager: the icebreakers, the introductions, the games,” Armstrong said.

Plus luckily, a lot of the games involved forced mingling like moving around the bus and meeting each other, so even introverts will be pushed to socialise. And the people you meet during these games will quickly switch from strangers to new friends.

3. Sit next to someone new every bus trip

This is my number one rule for making friends on a Contiki trip and believe me, it will make the world of difference. As I was travelling alone, and not in a pair like some of the others, this meant that I ended up sitting with a different person on every leg of the journey. While this can sound a bit exhausting, I’d find that by the end of each journey, I had spoken so much to this new person that they no longer felt like a stranger.

If you times each new person encounter by how many different bus trips you have, this equals quite a few new friends with minimal effort — you’re literally just sitting on a bus.

4. Not making friends is very difficult tbh

The thought of making friends can be daunting, as it can bring up uncomfortable memories of trying to befriend people at high school, and having to deal with the minefield that is teenage politics. Thankfully, Contiki is nothing like that typically unfriendly environment. The people on Contiki are there to make friends, so making friends is a certainty.

Even on the days where I was in the mood to keep to myself, I had new friends constantly checking in on me, or striking up conversations. Like seriously, you can’t avoid making friends!

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Please note that the European Magic tour was provided free of charge to Punkee, but under no guarantees to write a positive review. We only write about the experiences and products that work for us.