Moving to a new city alone can be stressful.
You don’t know the area, but you want to live in a good location. You don’t know anyone, but you want to make friends and do fun activities.
Learning how to move to a new city and start over is a great skill to learn, but it’s easy to waste hours doing research that won’t help you find the right place to live. And once you do move, do you know how to meet awesome people?
If not, don’t worry. I came up with an easy 5-step process to help you quickly and effectively choose the right place to live, make new best friends, and find activities you enjoy immediately after you move.
The Exact Steps to Follow When You’re Moving to a New City Alone
Here are the five steps which I’ll cover in great detail:
- Determine what’s important to you
- Do precision research (so you don’t waste time)
- Find and choose a place to live
- Explore and get to know the area
- Join groups, stay active, and make friends
If you follow the advice I’m about to give you, you’ll find the perfect spot to lay down your roots in your new city to have the best experience possible.
Step 1: Determine What’s Important to You
Writing down your needs, wants, and interests will help you quickly understand the benefits that specific areas in your new city provide. You can easily glance at your sheet and determine whether the location meets your criteria.
Pull out a sheet of paper or open a document on your computer and make a list of the following:
What Activities Do You Want to Do?
What are your favorite activities? What activities might you enjoy? Think about the geography and character of the city you’re moving to (and you can always update this list after learning more in the research phase) and use that to help you out.
Examples could include going out to nice restaurants, hiking, bar hopping, cycling, soccer, swimming, playing music with a band, working on your laptop in hipster coffee shops, etc.
If your list only contains solo activities but you want to make friends when you move, you should also find some activities that involve other people as well to help you meet new people. You want your list to include places you could meet new friends as well as the activities you might do with them.
Who Do You Want to Live Near?
Since you’re moving by yourself, you want to live near other people who are similar to you and also want to make new friends.
In most cities and for most people this will be close to the downtown area because there is a lot to do and there are a lot of people, especially people who want to do things with others. As you get outside these downtown areas, there are fewer people because they want their space for their families.
That’s why you need to think about the type of people you want to meet. Are they adventurous young adults who like to hang out with friends a lot? Are they family oriented people? Are they rich, successful people who will only live in the absolute nicest (and most expensive) neighborhoods?
Understand who you want to meet and jot it down.
Do You Know Anyone There?
Sometimes you have an old friend living in your new city. If so, can they help you learn about the area? Can you reconnect with them?
Make a list of people you know living in the area. You can also ask around or make a social media post asking your friends if they know anyone in the area they can introduce you to.
Where Will You Work?
If you are relocating to a new job and know where the office or location is, write it down. If you work from your laptop and like to sit at nice coffee shops, write that down.
If you don’t know where you will work, you’ll need to keep this in mind so that you choose a place to live that is likely near your future job. No one likes commuting, and living near work usually makes life much better (but that’s for you to decide).
What are Your Housing Needs?
Do you want to buy or rent? Renting is generally better when you’re moving to a new city by yourself because your life will likely change over the next few years, which could change your housing needs. Of course, there are exceptions.
And do you need a nice place? A big place? A backyard for your dog?
Determine the features that are absolutely necessary for you, and create a separate list of your wants – the things you’d like to have, but can live without if needed.
Any Other Details that Affect Moving to a New City Alone
Really think through your move. See if you can come up with anything else that will help you make a better decision. Here are a few examples:
Are you going to have a car? If not, you need to live near public transportation or within walking distance of work.
What is your budget? How much can you pay for rent? What can you afford to pay for a house or condo?
Do you like being able to walk to restaurants? Do you want to bike from your house to a riding trail?
Don’t worry if you forget anything on any of these lists. You can always come back and add to them.
Step 2: Do Precision Research
When you’re moving to a new city alone, research is extremely important. If done poorly, not only will you waste a lot of your time, but you can miss details that are critical for making good decisions.
You don’t want to live in a crappy area because you left out an important detail.
Follow these steps to ensure you research your area efficiently and effectively and choose the perfect place to reside (and make sure you jot down anything that’s remotely important):
1. Familiarize Yourself with the Area
During this beginning phase of your research, you just want to get a better understanding of the city. You’re just learning about the city itself – the culture, weather, geography, location, size, biggest industries, etc.
Here are some ways to go about this:
- Read the Wikipedia page. This will teach you the history and other important facts about your new city.
- Peruse Google Maps. Where are the shopping centers, downtown areas, big parks, outdoorsy areas, restaurants, bars, and suburban neighborhoods? The more you look at the map of the city, the more you’ll understand where things are, how far they are from other places and the pros and cons of each area.
- Talk to people you know or meet in the area. If you have a friend living there, call them. If you meet a friend of a friend who used to live there, ask them about it. Explain your situation and describe your needs, wants, and interests from Step 1. Their inside information may prove invaluable.
- Google your city. Search Google for whatever piques your interest. You can type “best things about [your city]” or “things to do in [your city].” Get creative and search for terms that will help you learn more about the city you’re moving to.
- Try Reddit. You can often find good information by going to reddit.com/r/cityname/ (insert your city in place of “cityname”).
- Peruse Zillow. Search for places to live that might interest you, but don’t worry about actually finding the right place. You will learn a lot about the different areas by seeing when the buildings were built, what they look like, the prices, etc.
- Visit the city’s Chamber of Commerce website. I know it sounds like a boring government site, but some cities do a great job with these and can teach you a lot about the city.
- Check local newspapers, magazines, and online publications. These are great places to find events and activities going on in the city.
Once you feel comfortable about your understanding of the city, it’s time to make your research more specific.
2. Find Specific Areas of Interest
At this point, all of your research is going to be used to help you find the best potential areas to live. It’s important that you like the neighborhood, that it’s close to the things you want to be near and has the amenities you deem necessary.
Here’s the best, most efficient way to find these areas:
A. Locate Your Work
If you know where you are going to work, pinpoint it on a map like so:
This is going to be your hub. The maximum commute you are willing to endure will determine how far from this point you can live.
If you don’t know where you will work or if you can work from wherever you want, you won’t have a focal hub like this. That’s fine and just move onto the next steps.
B. Prioritize Your Needs and Wants
This isn’t researching, but you need to do it before moving forward.
In the first step, you made a list of everything that’s important to you. Now, you need to decide which factors are most important so you choose the right location.
Which of the following must you live near, and which are less critical? Rank each item from most important to least important:
- Work. Living near work reduces your commute, which gives you more time to do what you want. If you’re close enough to walk or bike, you save money and get exercise. And avoiding freeway traffic can reduce much stress from your life.
- Potential friends. When you meet someone new, your proximity to their home will play a big factor in becoming friends. If you live in a rural area 20 miles from town, it’ll be hard to convince people to come over for drinks if they live in the heart of the city.
- Certain activities. Maybe you love mountain biking and want to be near some trails. Or maybe you want to be near the nightlife, restaurants, coffee shops, and events so you can meet new people (and possibly live near them too).
- Open land and nature. Maybe you like getting out in the middle of nowhere to camp, shoot guns, or dirtbike. Maybe you want a big property and don’t care to be near others.
- Something else. You may have other considerations that aren’t as common. Maybe you fly every week for work and need to be near an airport. Maybe you won’t have a car and being near the metro line is critical. Anything else that could impact your location belongs here.
Here are some other ways to think about this:
Is building a new social circle and spending time with new friends more important than having a big backyard?
Is being near trails, a river, the beach, or some other activity or landmark more important to you than meeting new friends?
Really think this through because your choices will have a big impact on your quality of life. Once you have ranked your priorities, move on to the next step.
C. Use Your Priorities to Find Good Areas
Now, looking at a map, find general areas that fit into your priorities. Make sure your top priority is being met, and possibly your second and third priorities.
For example, if you want to walk less than 15 minutes to work, you’ve narrowed down your search dramatically because you can only find areas within that radius.
Or if you want to have no more than a 15-minute drive and your highest priority is living near hiking trails, you’ll be researching the different trails within that area.
So, first, you need to determine your radius. Do you need to live a certain distance from work, the airport, or anything else? Only look at places that meet that criteria.
Next, search for your top priorities (within your radius). If you want to live near the good nightlife, search “[your city] nightlife” in Google. If you want to live near trails, search, “best trails in [your city].”
You can look for activities, landmarks, good school districts, good restaurants or anything else. If you’re young and single, you could even try searching, “best places for a young single person to live in [your city].”
Get creative. Your goal is to familiarize yourself with the different areas in your radius and to learn the characteristics of each.
Once you start finding areas that meet your highest priorities, see if they meet any of your next ones. Maybe you like two houses but only one is also within biking distance of some cool coffee shops, breweries, and restaurants.
Just don’t lose sight of your top priorities. Once you start looking at nicer places, it’s easy to change your mind because you imagine how awesome it’d be to live in something that looks like it could be on MTV Cribs. But if that house is 30 minutes outside of town, it’s probably not worth the upgrade.
After doing all this, you should know which areas interest you and have good potential.
3. Vet the Areas
Now that you’ve found potential areas, you need to vet them and make sure they meet your standards. Here are some helpful strategies:
- Search your neighborhood in Google. You should find websites that talk about the pros and cons of the area.
- Check Zillow for real estate in the areas. What do the houses, condos, or apartments look like? Are they old or new? Are the expensive or cheap? Do the areas look well maintained?
- Use Google maps to see what else is nearby. Are there grocery stores, shopping centers, restaurants, or anything else? Do they look like nice places or not?
- As LifeHacker points out, check Yelp, StreetAdvisor, or Foursquare to learn even more about specific neighborhoods.
- You can even check crime statistics to see if the area is safe, although you might only find them for the city as a whole, not the specific neighborhoods.
Now, you should have a good idea of the different areas that meet your needs and standards. Your research is almost done. You can always do more digging, but you should have most of what you need.
Step 3: Find and Choose a Place to Live
Now it’s time to pull the trigger. Depending on your situation, you may need to buy a house before you move, you might have corporate housing for a couple months before you need to find an apartment, or some completely different situation.
I don’t know what position you’ll find yourself in, but at some point, you’ll have to choose specific areas that you’re willing (and hopefully excited) to live in.
And once you’ve done that, it’s time to find a place to live.
You should have a budget, a list of your housing needs and wants, and an understanding of the areas you’re looking at.
I can’t help you much more here, but once you choose a place, congrats! That’s a big milestone when you’re moving to a new city alone.
Now you need to move into your new residence and get yourself set up.
Once you’ve done that, it’s time to go out and about.
Step 4: Explore and Get to Know the Area
Alright, you’re in a new city and you’re ready to go! These are exciting times no doubt.
Make sure you familiarize yourself with the surrounding area to find things that might interest you.
Here are some good ways to do this:
- Buy a map. It might seem silly but the more you look at it, the sooner you’ll understand the area.
- Drive, bike, or walk around the area. Just get out, explore, and see what you find.
- Try the nearest coffee shop or restaurants.
- Search Google for something interesting in your area, then check it out.
- Locate important places like grocery stores, shopping centers, your new workplace, medical facilities, recreational parks, your bank, and anything else that seems important.
- Find out where people like to go in the area and see what the hype is all about.
You’re just spending time outside seeing your new city and experiencing what it has to offer.
And whenever you go to a new place like a coffee shop, talk to the barista, mention that you just moved here, and ask what you should do or check out. Locals can give you some great advice.
This is a good moment to act like a tourist too. Feel free to take a bus tour of the city, go sightseeing, or visit the city’s monuments.
As long as you’re not inside your house staring at your computer, you’ll be fine.
Step 5: Join Groups, Stay Active, and Make Friends
Now that you’re all moved in and situated, make the most of your recent move. You’re in a new city and it’s time to make friends and enjoy your life to the max.
If you want to build a social circle and have a blast after moving to a new city alone, follow these three tips:
1. Join Groups
Groups are an excellent way to meet new people and get involved with activities you enjoy. It’s so easy to start a conversation with someone in your group because they’re expecting to meet you. You’ll also see them repeatedly, which makes it much easier to build a friendship.
The groups can be purely for fun, like kickball. They can be competitive, like chess or soccer. You can get exercise from some, like running or hiking groups. They can be educational, like a class or business mastermind. Or they may provide some other benefits, like getting outside, practicing certain skills, etc.
As you can see, the main reasons you want to join groups are to have fun, meet new people, and provide meaning to your life (skill building, education, exercise, etc.).
That’s why I recommend joining consistent social groups, where the same people consistently meet to do an activity that you enjoy. Some examples are adult-league sports, book clubs, volunteer organizations, masterminds, exercise groups, or multi-session classes, just to name a few.
You can search meetup.com or Google Search things like “[your activity] group in [your city].” Try different variations and you’ll likely find something.
You can also search for groups in your city without specifying the activity. You may find something you never even thought of.
2. Stay Active
There are some downfalls with groups though:
- Sometimes it’s hard to find one you like.
- You can only attend when the group is meeting.
- You may not like the people or have fun with the group.
For these reasons, you don’t want to place all your eggs in the group basket. To combat this, find activities you love doing that aren’t group based and spend time doing them. That way, when you have free time, you aren’t bored and you have something fun to do.
They don’t have to be social activities either. Mountain biking, running, going to the gym, reading in the park, working on your laptop in a coffee shop, going to the local brewery, and hitting balls at the driving range are good examples. But there are a plethora of options for you to choose from.
Don’t only do things you love though – try new activities too. You never know which ones will stick. Maybe you’ll find your new favorite hobby.
Staying active will help ensure that you enjoy your time in your new city or new state, and you might even meet people in the process.
3. Make Friends
Moving to a new area by yourself can get lonely, fast. You probably don’t want to eat alone, go to the bar by yourself, or have no one to enjoy the good times with.
That’s why it’s important to build a social circle with amazing friends. It’ll give you the fulfillment you need (which is why it’s third on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs) and provide you with many more fun activities to enjoy.
To make new friends, try some of these strategies:
- Meet your neighbors. Not only can they teach you a lot about your area, they may become your good friends. Try knocking on your closest neighbors’ doors and introduce yourself (bonus points if you bring them cookies!). Or spend more time where they will see you – like common areas, the lobby, your front yard, etc.
- Invite your group members (you joined at least one group, right?!) to hang out in a different environment. To do this, learn how to have good conversations with them, find a common interest and see if it’s something they’d want to do with you someday.
- Meet people wherever you go and let them know you’re new to the area. Don’t underestimate the power of this. Many people are willing to help you settle in if you seem like a fun person and they know you’re trying to figure things out. They may offer to hang out or introduce you to some people.
If you really want to master the entire friend-making process, use the strategies from my free 8-lesson email course, Making New Friends the Easy Way.
Because without friends, life just isn’t nearly as enjoyable.
And there you have it. The five steps to follow when you’re moving to a new city alone.
Use the tips provided to save time, make the right decisions, and have the best experience in the new city you’ll call home.