How to Meet People in a New City by Working Out

A run club or a morning class gives you a group, a shared task and a reason to get coffee afterwards. No bar required.

The short answer

Join something that meets at the same time every week. A run club or parkrun is the easiest start: free, open to beginners, and followed by coffee. Drop-in classes (yoga, boxing, CrossFit-style workouts) give you a small group and a shared task. The friendships happen afterwards, so stay for the coffee and come back a second time.

Meeting people in a new city through working out has one big advantage over a bar: you arrive with something in common and leave with an easy reason to talk. It suits a trip where you’d rather start the day well than end it late.

This guide is built from 12 sources: Strava’s 2025 trend report, parkrun coverage, fitness and solo-travel writers and a climbing gym. It names no cities. The methods below work almost anywhere.

Every method, ranked by effort

Method	Effort	Cost	Best for
Run club	Lowest	Usually free	Meeting locals in your first week
parkrun	Lowest	Free	A Saturday morning, anywhere it runs
Drop-in group class (yoga, boxing, CrossFit-style)	Low	Pay per class	A small group, even on a short trip
Climbing or bouldering gym	Low to medium	Day pass	Easy chat between climbs
A social workout app or matched run	Medium	Varies	Finding a group before you arrive
Recreational sports league	Highest	Season fee	Longer stays

Run clubs: the easiest way in

Run clubs have become social clubs. Strava says new clubs on its app nearly quadrupled in 2025, to 1 million, with running clubs up 3.5 times. In its previous report, 58% of surveyed users said they’d made new friends through a run club.

They suit a newcomer for three reasons:

Beginners are welcome. Most clubs run pace groups, so you’ll be with people at your speed.
There’s no sign-up barrier. Many clubs are free, and you just turn up.
The social part is built in. Most end at a café or with brunch, and that’s where people swap numbers.

Find one on Strava’s club pages or Meetup. Pick a club that meets in the morning or early evening, near where you’re staying.

parkrun: a free 5 km, every Saturday

parkrun is a free, timed 5 km run (or walk) held every Saturday morning in parks around the world, and run by volunteers. You register once online and get a personal barcode. The same barcode works at every event, and you don’t book: you just turn up.

Visiting other events is so common it has a name, “parkrun tourism”. Sources describe locals welcoming visitors, and the coffee afterwards as the real heart of the morning. Walkers are welcome, so you don’t need to be a runner. Register before you travel and bring your barcode.

Drop-in classes: a small group and a shared task

A yoga, boxing, Muay Thai or CrossFit-style class works for the same reason a cooking class does: a small group, a shared task, and an obvious thing to talk about afterwards. Travel writers say these classes provide “a ready-made social circle”. Classes in popular destinations are often full of other visitors, too.

To make it work:

Arrive early. The chat happens before class, not during.
Choose a group class over the gym floor. A class gives you a group; a treadmill doesn’t.
Suggest a coffee or a smoothie afterwards. That’s what turns a classmate into a friend.
Go back. Seeing the same faces twice in a week does more than one class each in three studios.

If you’re staying in a hotel, ask the front desk for the nearest studio with drop-in classes.

Climbing and bouldering gyms

Climbing gyms are unusually social. In bouldering, climbers rest on a bench between attempts, swap tips on routes and encourage each other. With roped climbing you need a partner, and gyms often help you find one. If you’ve climbed before, a day pass is one of the easiest ways to spend an afternoon alone without being alone.

Apps and matched workouts

Strava lists local clubs and their group runs and rides.
Meetup lists running, hiking, cycling and fitness groups.
Timeleft, the app that matches strangers for dinner, also runs matched group runs; see our guide to how to meet people when you travel solo.

Longer stays: join a league

If you’re staying a month or more, a recreational league (five-a-side, volleyball, padel) gives you a team and a fixed weekly game. It’s the most effort, and the closest you’ll get to the friendships people make after moving to a new city.

Working out safely in a new city

Run with the group, on its route, especially early in the morning or after dark
Tell someone where you’re going, or share your live location
Carry your phone and a little cash, not your passport
Take the first days easy if the city is hot, humid or high up
Meet new people in public, and say where you’re staying only once you know them

The verdict

You don’t need a nightlife scene to meet people in a new city. Find a run club or a Saturday parkrun for your first week, add a drop-in class you’d enjoy at home, and say yes to the coffee afterwards. Go back once more, and you’ll be greeted by name. For more ways to find company, read how to meet people when you travel solo.

Sources

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