Community guide
How to Make Friends in Asunción: The Honest Guide for Newcomers
Making friends in a new city is hard. Making friends in Asunción - where the social plan lives in Spanish-language Facebook groups, moves to WhatsApp, and often ends at a bar you found through someone's Instagram story - can feel impossible if you've just landed and don't know anyone yet.
This guide is for you if you're a newcomer, expat, digital nomad, or visitor who wants real company, not another "top 10 bars" list. Below you'll find the actual recurring groups worth showing up to, the local customs (tereré, asado) that shape how friendships form here, how much Spanish you really need, and a concrete first-week plan. Everything named here is a real, verifiable group or event - no invented venues, no hype.
Want the shortcut? Open Asu is an English-first WhatsApp community in Asunción running low-pressure meetups - food, music, games, tereré circles, workshops - plus a weekly events calendar and a growing library of city guides. Solo arrivals are the norm, not the exception.
👉 Join the Open Asu WhatsApp community
Make friends in Asunción: what actually works in your first month
The honest formula in Asunción is repetition plus one anchor event. Pick one recurring thing - the Thursday expat social, the Sunday run club, a dance class - and show up every week. Acquaintances happen fast if you do that. Deeper local friendships take longer and usually require some Spanish.
What doesn't work: waiting for an app to match you, expecting a big organized expat scene to find you, or assuming English will carry you outside hotels and the international circuit. Asunción's foreigner-friendly scene is real but fragmented - a Thursday bar meetup here, a monthly language exchange there, a Sunday sports club, Facebook groups you need to be invited onward from. Your job in month one is to plug into two or three of these and keep coming back.
Who this is hard for (and who it is not)
It's genuinely easier if you have some Spanish, you're comfortable walking into a bar alone, and you can go out on weekday evenings. The default expat social format in Asunción is a bar night.
It's harder - but very doable - if you're over 50, don't drink, don't like nightlife, or speak no Spanish yet. Instagram comments on the big Thursday meetup already include people asking for a 60+ option, and Reddit threads ask for reading clubs and ceramics, not Carmelitas. If that's you, skip to the "If you don't want a bar night" section - the options exist, they're just less advertised.
Locals searching in Spanish have their own paths; this guide is for English speakers arriving without a network.
The Thursday meetup, Spanglish Social, and the other groups worth knowing
Digital Nomads & Expats in Asunción - the biggest recurring foreigner social. A free Thursday social from 19:30 at a rotating bar (recent editions at venues like Coloso); meetup #118 was listed for 1 October 2026. Walk in, pay your own drinks. The Asunción Times calls it Paraguay's biggest nomad/expat community. Don't be put off by tiny Meetup RSVP counts - August–September 2026 RSVPs were only 3–9, but the public RSVP undercounts the actual room. The same founder also founded The Asunción Times, and the group runs Tuesday coworking and a Tuesday night meetup too.
Afterwork English Networking - listed by The Asunción Times for 18:00–21:00 "every second Tuesday," aimed at English-speaking neighbours. Dates sometimes skip, so check before you go.
Spanglish Social (@spanglishsocialpy) - a paid language exchange, roughly US$5–10 (about Gs. 50,000), built specifically to mix locals and foreigners. It runs 1–2 events a month, including joint evenings with Paraguay Pulse. Good if you want Paraguayan friends, not just expat ones.
Paraguay Pulse - a younger crowd, paid events, known for asados, mixing foreigners and locals. Gringo Night - nightlife events from the Paraguay Pathways team, no fixed schedule.
Expats in Paraguay (Facebook) - the large country-wide group; members have run a monthly Saturday meetup in Asunción.
None of these is a complete answer on its own - they're bar nights, paid exchanges, or loose Facebook threads. Think of them as raw material; the sections below show how to combine them.
Show up alone: run club, Gaelic, dance classes, board games
Activity groups are the lowest-pressure way in, because the activity carries the conversation.
- Asunción Run Club - Sundays 10:00 at Parque de la Salud. Free, walkers welcome, followed by games and brunch. Founded by Maarten Kamerling and Rob Bone. Just show up - no signup.
- Las Arpas (Paraguay GAA) - Gaelic football, Sundays 10:30–12:30 at Santa Clara Rugby and Hockey Club. Free to try, all levels, started as a casual kickabout in late 2024.
- Liga de Aventureros - Asunción's board-game community. A November 2025 session ran at Musa Café (Juan de Salazar y Espinoza 399) for Gs. 25,000–30,000, and ABC TV covered them. Find current sessions via their socials.
- Dance classes - Latin Company Asunción (salsa/bachata at Mariscal López esq. Brasil, no partner required), Ma Ochun (Cuban salsa, Villa Morra), and Salsa Soul Studio (Caleña, centre). Oye Chico Bar in Fernando de la Mora advertises free salsa/bachata on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:00 - confirm before going.
How Paraguayans actually make plans (tereré, asado, WhatsApp)
Two local formats matter more than any meetup:
Tereré is the daytime social glue - cold yerba mate shared from a single guampa, passed around a circle in parks, plazas, and offices. Practical etiquette: drink your serving, then hand the guampa back to the person serving rather than passing it on. Being invited into a tereré circle is a genuine social door.
Asado is the long meal - often Sunday, family and friends, hours of shared food off one board. Here's the catch: an asado invite is normal once you have local friends, and rare before that. One resident described the pattern - once you connect with one Paraguayan, you're often folded into their friends, family, and church circle.
Mechanically, plans in Asunción work like this: you discover things on Facebook and Instagram, the actual plan moves to WhatsApp, and nightlife contacts stay on Instagram. Some community groups are join-by-introduction. Once you're inside, WhatsApp groups are more active than Facebook. If you're not on WhatsApp yet, install it before you land.
How much Spanish you need, and how long it takes
English is thin outside hotels, international schools, and the expat circuit. Spanish is what opens local friendships - and what people actually speak day-to-day is Jopará, a Spanish–Guaraní mix. Even a few Guaraní phrases ("Mba'éichapa?" - how are you?) get a disproportionately warm reaction; foreigners have been signing up for Guaraní classes at the Ateneo.
An honest timeline: acquaintances in a week if you show up to the Thursday social and one activity group consistently. Real local friendships take months, and they track your Spanish and your repetition - same meetup, same class, same Sunday run. No reliable source gives an exact number of weeks, so be suspicious of anyone who does. If your Spanish is weak right now, that's fine for the expat-format events - start there and let Spanish catch up. (See our guide to learning Spanish in Asunción for schools and free practice.)
Norms that surprise foreigners
- Punctuality is relaxed. Social start times are approximate.
- Greetings: a handshake when meeting; a cheek kiss among friends.
- Family circles are closed until someone brings you in - then they're very open.
- Don't expect a big-city language-exchange every night, reliable English in the street, or a major InterNations scene (its published member numbers don't hold up). Asunción's scene is smaller, warmer, and more personal.
If you don't want a bar night
You're not alone - this is one of the most common requests in Asunción's expat channels. Non-bar options that actually exist: the Sunday run club and Gaelic football (daytime, free), the Saturday morning park walk, board-game sessions, dance classes (class format, not clubbing), volunteering with TECHO Paraguay or Habitat for Humanity Paraguay (Sargento Tomás Lombardo 352, Loma Pytã), and reading clubs like Asu Lee and Reader's Club Paraguay, which run via Instagram into WhatsApp groups (community-reported; verify before going). Daytime coworking at spaces like La Cofi (Herrera 463 c/ México) puts you around other remote workers, though it's a workplace, not a social club.
This is also exactly the gap an English-first activity community fills - see below.
Where an English-first WhatsApp community fits
Everything above works, but it's fragmented: a Thursday bar takeover here, a monthly paid language night there, sports on Sunday, Facebook groups you need inviting onward from. Nothing ties it together for someone who arrived last Tuesday.
Open Asu is the organized layer on top: an English-first WhatsApp community running low-pressure meetups - food, music, games, tereré circles, workshops - plus a weekly events calendar and a growing library of city guides to help you actually navigate the city. It's solo-friendly by design: showing up alone is the default. It doesn't replace the run club or Spanglish Social - it's the place where you find people to go to them with.
A first-week plan
- Day 1–2: Join the Open Asu WhatsApp group and the Expats in Paraguay Facebook group. Check The Asunción Times events calendar for the week.
- Thursday, 19:30: Go to the Digital Nomads & Expats social. Walk in alone - that's what everyone did the first time.
- Saturday: a board-game session if one's on, or revisit a spot from the week's calendar with someone from Thursday's social.
- Sunday, 10:00: Asunción Run Club at Parque de la Salud - walk if you don't run, stay for brunch.
- Week 2: Add one skill-based thing - a salsa/bachata class, or Spanglish Social if a session lands. Keep the Thursday and Sunday anchors.
- Ongoing: Say yes to the first tereré circle you're invited into. That's where acquaintances start becoming friends.
New to the city itself? Our getting-around guide covers how to reach every venue above, and where to live covers the barrios you'll keep hearing about.
FAQ
Do I need Spanish to make friends in Asunción?
Not to start - the Thursday expat social, run club, and Open Asu are English-friendly. But Spanish is what unlocks local friendships, and daily speech is Jopará, a Spanish–Guaraní mix. Start learning alongside socializing rather than waiting until you're "ready."
Can I just show up to these meetups alone?
Yes. The Thursday social is walk-in with no signup needed, the run club explicitly says just show up, and most people at these events arrived alone at some point. Low-pressure and solo-friendly is the norm in Asunción's foreigner scene.
Are there apps for making friends in Asunción?
Friend-matching apps exist but aren't how plans actually get made here. Discovery happens on Facebook and Instagram, and plans move to WhatsApp. A community WhatsApp group beats a matching app in this city.
Is there a big InterNations or expat-club scene?
Not really. InterNations has an Asunción page, but its published member numbers are inconsistent and shouldn't be relied on. The real scene is the informal cluster: Thursday socials, Spanglish Social, sports clubs, and WhatsApp groups.
I'm over 50 / don't drink - what are my options?
Daytime and activity-based groups: the Sunday run club (walkers welcome), Saturday park walks, board games, dance classes, reading clubs, and volunteering. Communities like Open Asu run food, games, tereré, and workshop meetups specifically as low-pressure alternatives to bar nights.
How do I get invited to an asado?
Make one local friend first - asado invites follow existing friendships, rarely precede them. Spanish classes, Spanglish Social, and repeated attendance at the same groups are the realistic routes.
What about coworking for meeting people?
Spaces like La Cofi offer day passes and put you around other remote workers, but a coworking desk is a workplace, not a social club. Use it for routine; use meetups and activity groups for friends.
What is tereré and why does everyone keep mentioning it?
It's cold yerba mate shared from a single cup (guampa), passed around a circle - Asunción's everyday social ritual, especially in parks. Drink your serving and hand the guampa back to the server. Joining a circle is one of the easiest ways into local company.
The fastest way into Asunción's social life is a group that expects newcomers. Join the Open Asu WhatsApp community at our WhatsApp group and come to the next meetup: showing up alone is the default, not the exception.
Questions about a specific group or event? Ask in our community or check the meetups calendar.