Finding dinner companions online?
 

Like you, I love traveling solo, but if I distilled the postings on this board and took the glass-half-empty perspective, I would come to these conclusions:

1. Eating dinner alone leaves something to be desired.

2. Solo guy travelers are at best ignored, and at worst treated like lepers.

So, when I take my trip to London, Paris and Rome this fall, I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to cruise sites like Craigslist for *strictly platonic*, dinner-only companions.

It seems like a pretty low-risk proposition to meet someone in a public place and swap travel stories over a steak. Anybody here ever done it? Can you recommend any good methods to make these sorts of arrangements?

It's something I've never considered doing at home, but I was pondering it with regard to solo travel, and it seems like it might be a cool idea.

I've had dinner with someone I meet on occasion, but met naturally, in person not online. Like when you get chatting around the hotel lobby.

I like to eat alone, so that's not a problem for me.

I have male friends who travel solo and they never mentioned being ignored or treated badly.

I don't like to make engagements or schedules when I travel solo, I like to keep everything open, so the idea is not appealing to me. But what the heck, give it a try if it sounds interesting to you.

I wouldn't just find some unknown person on the internet (or paper, etc.) and get together for dinner somewhere. I don't hate eating alone so much that I'd rather eat with someone who's a complete stranger.

However, if I was going to be in the same place, at the same time, as someone I've met online and with whom I have enjoyed conversing (such as Suze, JBHapgood, LoveItaly, etc.), I would have no problem getting together over dinner.

I have met and become friends with several folks I met online - because I took the time to find common interests and develop a sense of trust before meeting them.

To me, being in a strange town, randomly choosing some name off an internet site and having dinner with them is a bit too risky.

That sounds like a high-risk proposition to me. I don't like eating dinner in restaurants alone either. So what I do is eat lunch in a restaurant, and have a picnic dinner. It saves money and calories, and lets me sample nice restaurants that would be too expensive and daunting at dinner. That's my favorite bargain travel tip.

<That sounds like a high-risk proposition to me.>

Are you saying I'm a high-risk? Or just a proposition? :-d :-d :-d

I don't find eating alone uncomfortable but I do choose my places carefully. I don't go to expensive, high-end or formal restaurants. Rather more casual neighborhood or even family friendly spots. A cafe with a bar, outside patio seating, an ethnic place (greek, italian, thai, whatever, are all OK.

To me having dinner with a stranger I found on the internet sounds like a far worse punishment than eating a meal alone in the great cities of Europe!!

toedtoes, of course I'm referring to the original poster's assertion that a dinner companion obtained from a Web site is "a pretty low-risk proposition." Having never met you, I can make no statements about what sort of risk (or proposition) you might be.

Just teasing you JB! :-D

I agree that is it 'low-risk' in terms of safety, I just think it could be incredibly boring or uncomfortable, possibly.

I don't think searching Craigslist for a platonic dinner partner is a bad idea at all. I'm telling my age here, but many years ago, when I first started traveling, (before the internet!) I would post an ad in the Pennysaver. (I'm so glad no one knows who I am). Anyway, I would post (just for a platonic friend to have dinner with) a few months before I left and would correspond (by snail mail) with the person(s). Once, I left to London on short notice and just put my telephone number, my phone rang from 3-5 a.m. everymorning for two weeks. I did do this with a friend, but she actually got me to do this because she had done it on her own and really had good responses. Well, we met some really nice people overall, and I may be a really "pollyanna" here, but if someone responds to you, I have to believe that they also may like to travel, have a sense of adventure, and are willing to spend some time just hanging out for a drink or dinner with no strings.