Recent research has confirmed what most of us intuitively feel: connection makes us happier, healthier, and more resilient. Loneliness is now a recognised threat to public health, so ‘a sense of belonging’ has become a medicine.
Two of the key factors in friendship are ‘duration of interactions over time’ and ‘the intensity of shared experience’. Modern life largely denies us of these, but group travel enables both: it creates more intense experiences than almost anything else – from hard hikes and potent festivals to exquisite dinners and beautiful sunsets – and by travelling in groups, we squeeze months of acquaintance into just a few weeks. We share these experiences with people that we would never meet in our daily lives.
And it’s not just other travellers. Local guides, artisans, and even mayors have shared their perspectives with me, and I’m still in touch with many of them. When I reflect on my travels, I rarely recall the extensively researched dinners or the galleries that I had to queue for. Instead, I remember conversations with strangers that gave me a new perspective, or their recommendations for a hidden bar or museum.
In that shared understanding and mutual interest, I saw how easily connection blooms when we lead with curiosity, rather than assumption.