Solo travel
Five apps, what each is best at, how they check who you're meeting, and what they cost. We make Tavvi, so we've stuck to facts from each app's own listing and said where another app is the better pick.
Best if you stay in hostels
Hostel, city and interest chats, a list of who's staying at your hostel, and Linkups: pub crawls, walking tours and group dinners posted by hostels and travellers.
Source: hostelworld.com · hostelworld.com
Best for verified one-to-one meet-ups, with an AI guide built in
Travel Buddies shows travellers near you for a drink, a walk or dinner tonight: no swiping, eight hellos a day, and meet-ups you can post or join for the evening. Tavvi is also an AI travel companion that plans the trip, narrates the city as you walk and finds where locals eat.
Source: tavvi.co.uk · tavvi.co.uk · How Travel Buddies works
Best for making friends where you live
Bumble's standalone friendship app (formerly Bumble BFF): profiles, matching, chat and group chats with people nearby. It isn't built for travel, so you'll mostly meet locals.
Source: apps.apple.com · support.bumble.com
Best for booking group activities
A social travel app that combines tour and activity booking (with cashback) with a traveller community: travellers near you, group chats and travel posts.
Source: apps.apple.com
Best for finding people heading to the same place on the same dates
Enter a city and dates to see other travellers going there at the same time, with Nearby and Worldwide tabs and a Common Room for questions and meet-ups.
Source: apps.apple.com
It depends where you stay. If you're in hostels, Hostelworld's chats and Linkups are hard to beat. If you stay anywhere else and want everyone verified, Tavvi's Travel Buddies shows face-verified travellers nearby and keeps your location approximate. Backpackr is good for finding people with the same dates, and Travello for group activities.
Of the apps here, Tavvi requires a live face check for everyone who uses Travel Buddies, and Bumble For Friends offers photo verification. Hostelworld, Travello and Backpackr don't advertise identity verification.
It can be, with sensible habits: meet in busy public places, tell someone at home where you're going, keep chats in the app until you're comfortable, and leave if anything feels off. Look for apps that verify people, hide your exact location and let you block and report.
Something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it. More: Tavvi compared with other travel apps.
Tavvi's Travel Buddies is free, opt-in and face-verified.
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