🤝 How do we connect while traveling?
Nomad Life Community Meetup - June 18, 2026 Recap
Get the Inside Scoop on Staying Connected!
💗 Thank you to our Nomad Life folks for joining the community meetup today, including Nomad Jim, Teodora, Nicola of GlobeFoxing, Bailey Adventuras, and me, Erin, Nomad Life. With a special shoutout to JJ Rose of Inside the Outside for guest co-hosting with me and suggesting the topic: “How do we connect when traveling?”
Here’s a call re-cap:
On arriving in a new place:
Nicola recommended priming yourself before arrival — curating films, novels, or music relevant to the destination, especially for shorter stays, so you hit the ground already partly connected. He does this for his travel clients too, asking about their interests and tailoring pre-trip content accordingly.
Erin said she prefers the opposite — arriving with zero prep and letting everything surprise her. Once on the ground, she reads a famous piece of local fiction to understand the culture from the inside.
Nomad Jim and Teodora both lean more organically, letting connections emerge naturally.
On meeting people:
Nomad Jim (The Slower Explorer) finds connection through shared activities — hiking, attending local churches, and simply talking to neighbors in apartment buildings. He noted that as an introvert, it doesn’t always happen, and that’s okay.
JJ (Inside the Outside) connects by walking extensively for the first few days — no destination, just observing people living their lives and trying to imaginatively inhabit their perspective.
Erin meets local women through women’s groups and stays in regular contact with women she’s met across Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Oman, and elsewhere. She also brings small gifts from previous destinations to give to people she meets, and intentionally lives in non-tourist, local neighborhoods (gyms, markets, dance studios) rather than co-working spaces.
Nicola (Globe Foxing) recommended following Chris Arnade’s “Walks the World” on Substack as an example of deep local connection — Arnade plants himself in a local McDonald’s every morning for a week and builds genuine relationships from there.
On giving back / volunteering:
Erin has an established NGO network from her years as a professional fundraiser and consultant. She consults with local nonprofit founders, sometimes staying with them.
Nicola incorporates volunteer activities into client itineraries — cooking in homeless shelters, fostering dogs — and noted these often become the most memorable parts of people’s trips.
On religious spaces as connection points:
Nomad Jim finds attending local churches (including non-Christian ones out of curiosity) a reliable way to meet people who invite you to lunch and conversation.
Erin attends Catholic churches for festivals and choir; she also visited the women’s section of mosques in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, finding people genuinely welcoming of respectful curiosity.
On staying connected with people back home:
Nomad Jim uses WhatsApp primarily (and is perennially surprised Americans don’t know what it is).
Teodora texts and sends audio messages, describes herself as the proactively chatty one in her friend group.
Erin has shifted toward spontaneous phone calls — 2-3 times a week to Substack friends and contacts — rather than scheduled Zooms, which feel too much like meetings.
📅 Save the Date for our July Calls:
July 8, 1:00 pm New York | Americas & EMEA | hosted by Stina Gustafsson of Far From Here.
July 15, 4:00 pm Bangkok | Asia-Pacific & EMEA | hosted by Marola Vaes of The Rola Coaster.
📌 AI Alert: I used Claude to summarize our Zoom call. I then edited the transcript.
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About Erin: Founder of Nomad Life, Erin was christened “Wander Woman” by National Geographic. She has traveled to 140 countries & all 7 continents. As a professional speaker and author of the Nomad Life™ series, she offers travel safety tips, ethical adventures, and travel guides, including the #1-ranked Explore the World with Nomads.
Thanks for the summary!!! Oh how I look forward to 8th of July!!!
I forgot to mention that I also join local writers' groups wherever I go. Making new contacts in my own profession locally is always worth it.