How To Build Friendships in the South West: Tips & Advice

Seaside towns, rural villages and lively cities: the South West offers plenty of space but fewer chance encounters. Here are the ways women build friendships across the region.

Four women stretched out on a rug with a backgammon game and green glasses, shown in our South West friendship guide

5.9M+

People across the South West (ONS, mid-2025)

Almost 1 in 4

Residents aged 65+, the highest share of any English region (ONS)

Councils covering the region, from Cornwall to Gloucestershire

Finding Your People in the South West

Almost a quarter of the South West’s 5.9 million residents are 65 or older, the highest share of any English region. That is worth knowing whatever your age, because plenty of walking groups, volunteering teams and classes meet in the daytime as well as the evening, which suits shift workers and parents too. University cities such as Plymouth, Exeter and Bath add a younger crowd and a faster pace. The real challenge here is distance. Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset are largely rural, and the nearest like-minded person may live in the next town rather than the next street, so it pays to look a little further afield and agree a regular time to meet. The pages below cover places across the region, from Cheltenham and Gloucester to Truro and Torquay, with ideas for meeting people where you live.

Friendship Reading, Straight From Our Blog

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Written by Our Friendship Editors

This South West guide was written by Claudia Gard and Ulrika Lilja, Gofrendly’s editors, whose work focuses on how women make and keep friends as their lives change. Here they look at what that means in a region of coastal towns, cities and long distances between them.