Finding Friends while Traveling for 13 year old

Hi there,

You could search couch-surfing family groups to meet up with some local families in the places you're travelling to. No need to stay - many are happy just to meet up for excursions etc.
The family boards can also give local tips regarding workshops and events that might appeal to young people. That might work for you all.

Good luck

Contact Ubudian on the South East Asia branch. He should be able to help you out. My 12yo is currently off travelling with her dad and has met and bonded with some young women travellers they have met. She has done this on other trips. It is really nice for her (and the young women seem not to mind having her around) and hopefully inspires her to be an independent traveller like them when she gets older.

Thank you for two good ideas. How should I contact coach surfing families, through the coach surfing web sight? We are on to Japan next so ideas for connecting there would be great too.

Another option might be to see if the larger hotels have a kids club that they might be able to let her use for a fee in the same way as you can sometimes use the pool even though a non guest. These are usually carefully supervised and targeted to teenage interests and of course have a diverse group of kids. They definitely have them down in Kuta/Tuban/Legian, don't know whether the hotels in Ubud would do the same though.

We did a wood carving course at the Library/learning centre in Ubud which was very sociable and a good place to meet other people.

Hi again,

How are you going?

Yes, you can search couch surfing without joining, add 'family'
or 'many people' to your search as well as your destination, or you can join.

Best wishes

HT

Search for 'Family Welcome Group' in couch surfing groups-
there is a recent message there from a family in Hiroshima - young children,
but they might have some other contacts or ideas for you..