6 Apps to Help You Meet New People While Traveling

Hello beautiful people, and welcome back on the route! 🙂

Today we are going to talk about something that you don’t often find in the glossy travel reels: the truth that solo travel, sometimes, can get lonely!

Personally, I love solo-traveling and to explore new places on my own... to stay few days alone with my thoughts, my mind, and to become a spectator on other people’s daily lives.

Sometimes it is refreshing to reset, and regenerate.

After some days though, the need for socialization usually kicks in (we are social animals after all!), and so I start looking for people to connect with!

Here is the good news though: as I always say, we have the luck to be living in the future, and technology doesn’t only kill our relationships (over-using it does!), but it can also help us create them!

The same phone that keeps you scrolling alone on a night bus, a couple of taps later, can connect you with people who share your exact interests, or even put you face to face with a local before your plane has taken off!

The thing is, all these apps tend to get lumped together as “social apps”, but they are not the same thing at all!

One is great for finding a group to hang out with, another for staying with a local for free, another simply for hearing a real human voice from the place you are about to visit..

So today I will walk you through the 6 apps I think are actually worth your time, what each one is good for, and where each one has its limits (because none of them is absolutely perfect, and I like to be honest with you! 🙂 ).

Let’s dive right in! 🙂

1. Meetup:

Walk Into a Room Already

Full of Your People

Meetup is an app that has been around since 2002, which in app-years makes it almost a fossil, and it still works because the idea is beautifully simple: people who share an interest agree to meet in real life, on a set day, in a real place.

Board game nights, language exchanges, sunrise running groups, photography walks, hiking, you name it!

You search your city, find a group, and show up 🙂

The big advantage, from my perspective, is that the awkward part is already solved for you.

Everyone in that room came for the same reason you did, so you skip the whole “do I even belong here” worry, and you already have a topic to talk about 🙂

The honest limit: Meetup is strongest in big cities.

Land in a small town and the nearest event might be far away or barely active, so always check how alive a group really is before counting on it 🙂

Quick Tip: Filter by your actual hobby, not just “social”. A group built around something you genuinely do (climbing, photography, a language) gives you an instant conversation and a reason to come back next week. 🙂

2. Couchsurfing:

Stay With a Local, Leave With a Friend

busy local market, the kind of place a Couchsurfing host would take you

Couchsurfing is the original hospitality network, born in 2004, and the whole point is staying with locals for free instead of in hotels.

You browse hosts, read their references, send a request, and if it clicks you get a place to sleep plus a local who will often show you the spots no guidebook mentions.

One honest update, because I never want to waste your time or money: unfortunately, after so many years, it is not free anymore 🙁

Since May 2020 there is a small subscription, around $14 a year depending on where you sign up.

Hosting itself stays free, and a host is never allowed to charge you for a couch.

A good chunk of the old community left when the paywall arrived, so it is a bit smaller than its golden years, but it is still very much active in 2026.

There is also a Hangouts feature for when you don’t need a bed, just company: it shows you travelers and locals nearby who are free to meet right now.

Quick Tip: Read ALL the references before you trust a host, and look for the ones with long, detailed histories. On Couchsurfing, “boring and verified” is exactly what you want! 🙂

3. CallMeChat:

Meet a Local Before Your Plane

Even Takes Off

What if, instead of reading 200 contradicting reviews to figure out whether a neighbourhood is great or sketchy, you could simply ask someone who actually lives there?

Face to face, right now, from your sofa?

That is more or less the idea exploring CallMeChat: being able to jump on a video call and talk to a real local on the other side of the world.

You get matched with a real person and you just talk.

It is a nice way to get a feel for a place weeks before arriving, and the difference between a polished tourism video and an actual resident telling you “eh, that area is overrated, go two streets over” can be huge.

If you have been reading the blog for a while, you know I am a bit obsessed with finding truly local experiences while traveling, and this fits right into that.

To get the best out of a tool like this, my advice is to be specific and be human.

Don’t open with “tell me about your city”, that goes nowhere…

Ask the real questions: where do people eat on a normal Tuesday, which area is safe at night, what is the scam every tourist falls for? People usually enjoy showing off their corner of the world when you show genuine curiosity.

The honest limit: it is random by nature, so you won’t land a great local conversation every single time. But the time cost is basically zero, so a few short chats before a useful one is a fair trade 🙂

Quick Tip: Before booking anything in a new city, have one honest conversation with a local first. Ten minutes of real talk can save you from a badly located hotel or a tourist-trap neighbourhood. 🙂

4. Backpackr:

A Social Network Built

for People on the Move

Backpackr is a social app made specifically for travelers, so think less “swipe for a date” and more “who else is wandering where I’m wandering right now”.

You can find people heading to your destination around the same dates, compare plans, and team up for the parts that are simply better (and cheaper) shared, like a road trip or a multi-day trek.

If you are still on the fence about the whole idea, I wrote a full piece on the benefits of exploring the world with a travel buddy that might convince you;)

Backpackr sits somewhere between an old-school travel forum and a friend-finder, and it is popular with backpackers and long-term nomads who move too fast for a Meetup group to keep up with:)

The honest limit, as with all these route-based apps: it lives and dies by how many users are on your exact path. On the classic trails like Southeast Asia or parts of South America you will find company. Go properly off the beaten track and it gets quiet :'(

Quick Tip: Fill in your real travel dates and route. These apps match on overlap, so a vague profile gets vague results, while a specific “Lisbon, 12-20 June” gets you actual matches.

5. Bumble BFF:

Yes, the Dating App,

but for Friends

Most people know Bumble for dating, but its friend-finding side has grown up.

As of early 2026 it is a standalone app simply called BFF, spun off from the old “Bumble For Friends”, and it is completely free, with no features locked behind a paywall.

It works the way you would expect: you swipe through profiles of people looking for friends (NOT DATES), match when you both swipe, then chat.

The newer version leans into groups and real meetups too, so one match can turn into a small crew planning a hike or a Sunday brunch.

I will be straight with you: this one works much better if you are staying somewhere for a while than if you are passing through for 48 hours. For slow travelers and expats settling into a new city, it is great.

For someone sprinting through five countries in three weeks, the matches won’t have time to become anything 😛

Quick Tip: Be clear in your bio that you are traveling and for how long. It sets expectations and you will match faster with people open to a quick coffee rather than a months-long friendship –> like this you can take care of each other’s time 🙂

6. Tandem & HelloTalk:

Make Friends While

Learning the Language

I speak seven languages, and while learning them, I made so many friends across 5 different continents than I can feasibly count!

Here I am putting these two apps together because they do basically the same lovely thing: they connect you with native speakers who want to learn your language while you learn theirs.

Tandem and HelloTalk are language-exchange apps on paper, but the friendships are the real prize.

Here is why I rate them so highly for meeting people: the connection is not built on small talk, it is built on actually helping each other: you correct their English, they correct your Spanish, and an hour later you have a real reason to keep talking!

And since you are talking to locals rather than other tourists, you get out of the polished tourist bubble fast, which (if you have read my misadventures with languages) you know I think matters a lot! 😉

The honest limit: these apps reward consistency. People who message once and disappear get nowhere, while those who show up a little every day build real connections.

Quick Tip: Learn 15 core words before you even start chatting (greetings, food, directions). It makes the first messages flow naturally and shows the other person you are actually making an effort. 🙂

Conclusions 🙂

chatting with locals at a market while practicing the language

And here we are at the end of this little guide! 🙂

In this article we have seen 6 apps that can help you meet new people while traveling, each one good for a different need.

If you want to walk into a group and skip the awkwardness, Meetup.

If you want to live like a local and save money, Couchsurfing.

If you want a raw, human first impression of a place before you even pack, CallMeChat.

If you want a buddy for the road, Backpackr.

If you are staying put and want real friendships, Bumble BFF.

And if you want to learn the language while you are at it, Tandem or HelloTalk.

Last but not least, if you want to know more useful apps while traveling, be sure to check out our article 15 Useful Apps for Smart Traveling! 😉

One last thought though: none of these apps do anything if the phone stays in your pocket! They only open the door, you still have to say hi, send the first message, and accept the invite to the thing you would normally skip. That part has not changed and probably never will. 🙂

Before going, as always, I want to ask you: