I met three best friends from Chicago on a group trip – thousands of miles from home
It’s funny to think that I was debating whether to even go on Flash Pack’s trip to Argentina, back in January 2023. I’ve been a solo traveler all my adult life but – having just moved to Chicago from Minnesota – I felt like I needed time to get settled in the city.
At the last minute, I booked it. Lo and behold, I ended up meeting three girls I really clicked with – all of whom happen to live in Chicago. To this day, I’m struck by the impossible coincidence of it all.
There’s this immediate sense of communal connection and joy
“The Chicago Girls”, as we were lovingly dubbed by others on our Argentina trip, all have wildly different jobs. I work in advertising tech, Sam’s an attorney, Jamie’s a customer success manager and Andrea’s a structural engineer. If you think about the way that people typically connect as adults, there’s no way we would have met outside Flash Pack. We have zero career overlap.
Plus, once you get past the glory days of college, where you just can spend all your time with friends, it’s harder to meet people. Whether it’s because you’re going out less, or have more demanding jobs, there’s a ton of different reasons why – beyond 30 – those organic moments where you become good pals start to fizzle out.
But there’s something unique about travel because, regardless of where you’re from, you’re typically very receptive to those around you. Solo travelers, in particular, make very easy and good friends because most want to meet people; they see that as part of the adventure and experience.
I felt this was clearly the case with my Flash Pack group, as nearly everyone arrived solo. Plus, the groups are small, with such lovely Pack Leaders (Cintia, our Argentina guide, was a ray of sunshine), which makes it easier to form relationships from the outset.
Solo travelers make very easy and good friends
From our first night making cocktails together in Buenos Aires, our group had this baseline repartee; everyone was easy to get along with. Sam, one of the girls from Chicago, was one of the first people I started to bond with. We had a great chit-chat about how we both love French culture. It later turned out that she was in the process of buying a house – the paperwork was literally going through while she was on the trip – in the Chicago neighborhood of Bucktown. That’s my neighborhood, too; it’s a 12-minute walk from where I live.
Then the two other Chicago Girls, Jamie and Andrea, ended up as roommates on our Argentina trip. And it so happens that they both live about a 15-minute drive from my home. In a city as large as Chicago, it felt unreal.
It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly we became friends, but we just felt more and more connected throughout the trip. I think that’s pretty common with Flash Pack; you go from only just meeting one another to becoming really close-knit, because you’re all spending so much time together. There’s this immediate sense of communal connection and joy. It wasn’t just about us Chicago Girls, either. Our Argentina group as a whole spent most of our time together. We chose to eat out as a group, or do extra activities, even when we had the option not to.
The itinerary helped, too. Part of the reason why we got so close in Argentina is that – in-between the very active trips highlights like glacier-hiking or kayaking – we had downtime to relax and reboot. That gave us space for proper, deep conversations about the experiences we’d just shared; or even life in general.
After the trip, we joked that we had Flash Pack withdrawal
There was lots of joking and banter, too. In Patagonia, we all did a cold water plunge together in an Arctic river outside our lodge. It resulted in some hilarious videos, as you can imagine. Then it happened that one of the Chicago Girls, Andrea, was studying to be a sommelier in her spare time. So – in a country with a world-famous wine reputation – Andrea curated a menu for an impromptu tasting session. We sat together in our lodge robes, just sipping wine in this moment of random fun.
We joked afterwards that we were all suffering from Flash Pack withdrawal. We were so used to being around one another. And I think that’s why Sam, Andrea, Jamie and I met up fairly soon after we returned home to Chicago. Early on, we all had a picnic together on the floor of Sam’s new house, with takeout food and a bottle of Champagne I’d been saving for a special occasion.
Since then, we’ve met up either in pairs or as a group pretty regularly; at least once a month. Andrea, for example, has taken it on herself to introduce me to Chicago’s massive food scene, with regular wine nights and summer festivals. I tend to bump into Sam when I’m out jogging, which is highly improbable even when we live nearby. And I look after her dog when she’s away. Then Jamie has taken all of us, at some point, to a baseball game in the city. I’m not actually a Cubs fan, but Jamie still sits with me, even when I wear my Cincinnati Reds memorabilia – a sign of true friendship!
We’ve been curling and kayaking together, and we’ve planned to travel again, too. Sam and Andrea have already done Flash Pack’s trip to South Africa. And Jamie and I are talking about heading to La Tomatina 2025, a huge food fight festival near the Spanish city of Valencia.
To this day, the Chicago Girls remain my best friends in the city
To this day, I would say that the Chicago Girls remain my best friends in the city. Everything feels very organic and comfortable between us; it’s like kismet that our schedules just align. And when we’re introduced to one another’s social circles, people always love the story of how we met.
In my lifetime of solo travel, I’ve hardly met other Americans – let alone people from my home city. I can’t even think of the statistical probability of something like this happening. It has to be astronomical; probably up there with getting hit by lightning or winning the lottery. Whatever it is, it feels like true serendipity.
Meet the other Chicago Girls
Sam says:
“I moved to Chicago in the middle of the pandemic, which was not great for making new friends. So even though I’ve been here for a while, it was amazing to meet these gals in Argentina. When you’re on a trip like Flash Pack, and with each other 24/7, it’s easier to forge friendships. It just seems to happen more quickly. It was so awesome that I got to bond with the Chicago Girls, and have the chance to keep that dynamic going when we returned.”
Andrea says:
“When we all went on the Argentina trip and it turned out we’re all from Chicago, we just got along. It was very easy to say, ‘we’re going to hang out when we come back’. Since then, we’ve done everything from birthday dinners to kayaking and concerts like Beyoncé and Fall Out Boy together. It feels like the perfect set-up because we all click really well.”
Jamie says:
“I feel very fortunate that we found each other on this trip. I rarely come across other Chicagoans in my travels and was quite excited to learn there would be four of us. Chicago is a big place and I expect in everyday life, we wouldn’t have crossed paths. Meeting people as we did drives more closeness, and having a shared passion for exploration and travel offers an immediate bond. We had the opportunity to have a lot of fun, have an adventure, and have good conversation in our first days together.
“It was easy to see we had a lot in common and we have all made each other a priority, celebrating wins, offering support through losses, and having more fun along the way. Our first gathering in Chicago was the same day I arrived home as we were eager to see each other again and already missed the group (I stayed a little longer than the others). I’m so grateful that we had the occasion to meet as we did, and whether we continue to travel abroad together or simply find local adventures, I know I’ve made new lifelong friends.”
Sarah, Sam, Andrea and Jamie all live in Chicago, and struck up a lifetime friendship while traveling together with Flash Pack in Argentina.
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Images: Courtesy of The Chicago Girls
