It’s easy to make acquaintances while traveling—but it’s tougher to forge lasting friendships.
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Travel is a transient art. While we often add people on Facebook or Snapchat when we cross paths during vacation, the connection is based on short-lived interactions. These vacation-acquaintances add texture to our trip and make them more memorable… even if we don’t stay in touch with our new friends.
On a longer trip, social connections are a lot more important.
Having a circle of friends helps you stay in touch with yourself, digest new experiences, learn about hidden gems, and more. That circle can also help you work through tough challenges, like visa delays, and offer a helping hand when you get sick, like dropping off medicine and soup.
If you’re on a long business trip, doing a semester abroad, living on a digital nomad visa, or are backpacking around the world with no return ticket home, you have more options to make friends than you might think.
I’ve made lasting connections using Meetup, a popular event-making and event-joining platform—but it’s far from the only option.
If you want to up your social game on your next trip, use these apps. (And though social connections are more important on longer trips, there’s no rule against making friends on a short getaway! Don’t feel shy about joining the fun even if you’re only gone for a few days.)
Looking for a date, instead? Use these international dating apps.
5 apps that let you make friends anywhere: at a glance
- Find your bestie: Bumble
- Befriend locals & learn a language: Tandem
- Make like-minded friends: Meetup
- Eat like a local… with locals: Eatwith
- Casual connections: Backpackr
First: a note on safety
All five apps listed in this article are trusted by users, come with security features, and have near-five-star ratings on the Google Play and Apple App Stores. That being said, I recommend sticking to activities that are hosted for groups.
If you’re going to meet up with someone solo, be sure to at least speak with them beforehand rather than solely on a chat—and always go to high-traffic public areas to meet up for the first time.
5 apps that let you make friends anywhere: at a glance
Find your bestie: Bumble
Bumble For Friends (BFF) lets you use the Bumble network to find friends. It’s definitely geared toward twenty-somethings, but I think the main requirement is to be young at heart.
You can set up a profile with kitschy little descriptions of yourself, whether you’re bad with plants, only eat comfort food, and more. If you enjoy heading to those hyper-trendy pop-ups and boutique shops, BFF is a great spot to find a co-adventurer.
Befriend locals & learn a language: Tandem
Tandem is a language-learning app that lets you pair with native speakers around the world. While you practice another language with them, they’ll speak English with you.
Given the app’s global network, you can find a buddy anywhere in the world. But the company also offers a face-to-face meeting option. I suggest using those live chat and message features before opting for a face-to-face meeting. From there, you can make a connection before meeting in person.
That being said, this is a fantastic way to brush up your language skills while also making friends.
Make like-minded friends: Meetup
Meetup is by far the most comprehensive and dynamic social app. The app works by letting people host meetups that are activity-centric.
My partner is a UX designer who hosts meetups with his fellow designer friends to network with other professionals and help beginner designers design their career paths.
There’s a meetup for every single interest—and if you can’t find one that suits you, you can always host your own.
Eat like a local… with locals: Eatwith
Eatwith is a food-focused tour platform—so it’s not a free-to-use social app by any stretch. That being said, Eatwith isn’t quite like the tours and cooking classes that you’d find on TripAdvisor or Booking.
That being said, Eatwith is focused on local meals and offers dinners hosted by locals. Its experiences are slightly less tourist-focused, meaning you can rub elbows with other travelers who will be in town for a while.
And what brings people together more than food?
Casual connections: Backpackr
It’s not too hard to make friends as a backpacker. Usually, hostels are hubs for making life-long friends—especially if you’re inching your way around the globe.
Backpackr is a fantastic way to meet travel buddies who are heading along the same route as you. Or if you’re not heading in the same direction, you can still use Backpackr to meet up and gain some insights from others. (In case you have never backpacked, fellow backpackers are usually generous and want to pass on their knowledge of a place to help out others.)
Plus, you don’t need to be a backpacker to join the network.
