There's lots of good advice here on meeting people. But in my experience the hard part has been moving from acquaintance or casual friend to good friend. It was

There's lots of good advice here on meeting people. But in my experience the hard part has been moving from acquaintance or casual friend to good friend. It was always easy to meet people through hobbies, but those relationships tended to end up focused exclusively on the shared activity -- I'm not very outgoing so I wouldn't really talk about anything else with those people, or spend time with them outside that activity. But a couple years ago I joined a very close-knit martial arts group and have finally made some good friends that way. I think the big difference is that this group does public demos and attends competitions together. That often means spending most of a weekend together, including some less-structured time that encourages more casual conversation. Competitions can also be very intense experiences, and supporting each other through that helps to form stronger bonds. As it turns out, the last time I made a lot of close friends it was through my college fencing club, which had a lot of the same characteristics. I guess that doesn't help much unless you're interested in martial arts or other competitive activities. But it worked for me.