Apps to Meet People While Traveling, and What Each Does Best
The best apps to meet people while traveling fall into a handful of types: solo travel apps built around plans in your city, hostel booking apps with a social layer, hospitality exchange networks, event platforms, friendship apps and language exchange apps. Which one helps depends on who you want to meet (other travelers or locals) and whether you want plans tonight or a conversation before you arrive.
This guide is about the tools. Every app below is described from what its own website or store page says it does as of October 2026, not from rumor. For the habits that make any of them work, see how to make friends while solo traveling.
What to look for in a travel friends app
Before downloading five apps, decide what you need. A good travel friends app usually does at least three of these well:
- It is about the city you are in, right now. A global feed of strangers is less useful than a list of what is happening near you tonight.
- It turns chat into a plan. Apps that let people post a time and a place get you off your phone faster than apps that only offer messaging.
- It keeps groups small. Meeting three people at a café is easier, and usually more comfortable, than meeting one stranger alone.
- It has real safety tools. Reporting, blocking and clear rules matter more than any feature list.
- The free version is usable. Check what you can do before paying, not after.
Solo travel apps built around plans
This is the category HelloMates belongs to, so here is plainly what it does. HelloMates is a solo travel app for finding travel friends, on iPhone and Android. It is free to download, chat is always free, and it is for people 18 and over.
- Tonight shows invitations from locals, plans from travelers and city events in your city, soonest first, plus a map and list of who is in town.
- Invitations from locals: people who live in the city post what they would love to do with a visitor, such as language practice over coffee, dinner at a local restaurant or a game, always in a public place. You tap "Ask to join", and groups are 2 to 6 people with a group chat.
- Your own plans: post a plan with a time, a place and a cap, like rooftop drinks or an airport taxi split. A free account hosts one plan at a time.
- Chats: a Welcome new members group for each city, plus city, hostel and street chats, and Moments for photos from around the city.
- Before you arrive: save your flight and read the city chat ahead of time.
- Safety: report and block anyone (reports are acted on within 24 hours), a women's lane with women-only plans and invitations, and Arm it, a free check-in that sends your chosen contacts a message with the local emergency number if you miss your check-in hour. It does not contact emergency services itself.
The free plan lets you open 3 profiles and start 3 new chats a day. Plus adds things like seeing who lands in a city this week, browsing any city's plans and people before you arrive, the full list of who is here tonight, unlimited profiles and chats, and translation in every chat. The app is available in 10 languages.
Hostel apps with a social layer
If you stay in hostels, the booking app may already be a meeting tool. Hostelworld says on its site that you can "chat to travellers staying in your hostel & city" through hostel chat, city chat and direct messages, see traveler profiles once you book, join "Linkups" to explore and hang out with other travelers, and discover local events at your hostel and nearby.
Best for: backpackers who are booking hostels anyway and want to know who else is staying there. The social features are tied to your booking, so they suit hostel stays more than hotels or apartments.
Hospitality exchange networks
Couchsurfing describes itself around staying with locals ("Stay with Locals, For Free"), and its homepage also promotes events in town, "Find Friends Before You Land", and city pages that show nearby hosts, travelers and upcoming activities.
Best for: travelers who want contact with residents, and are comfortable with the extra checks staying in someone's home calls for. Read each profile and its references carefully and keep a backup place to stay booked. Check the site for current membership terms before you rely on it.
Event and interest platforms
Meetup calls itself "the people platform", built on groups organized around shared interests. Groups post events by location, and each listing shows the host group, the date and time, whether it is free or has a price, and how many people are going.
Best for: longer stays and digital nomads. Hiking clubs, running groups, board game nights and tech meetups are a steady way to meet residents and other newcomers who share an interest. It is less useful for a two-night stop, since groups often meet weekly or monthly.
Friendship apps
Bumble For Friends: Meet IRL is a standalone friendship app. Its App Store listing says it is "made to help you create new, meaningful friendships near you" and aims at people who are new to an area or want to widen their circle. It is free to download with optional paid extras and a premium subscription. The listing does not describe travel features.
Best for: people relocating or staying somewhere for weeks or months, since friendship apps are built around people who live nearby.
Language exchange apps
Language exchange is one of the most natural ways to meet locals, because both sides get something out of it.
- Tandem calls itself "the language learning app where millions of people teach each other", built on chatting with real people who are learning your language while you learn theirs.
- HelloTalk says it helps you "find language exchange partners and practice for free by chatting with native speakers around the world", with text, voice and video chat plus voice rooms and livestreams.
Best for: learning a few phrases before a trip and, once you are there, suggesting a coffee with a partner in the same city. For more ways to connect with residents, read how to meet locals when traveling.
Best apps to meet people while solo traveling, by situation
Most travelers end up using two or three apps together. Some combinations that make sense:
- Backpacking hostel to hostel: your hostel booking app for the people under the same roof, plus HelloMates for plans and invitations across the city. See backpacking alone for the first time.
- A week in one city: HelloMates for tonight's plans, a Meetup group for one interest you share, and a language exchange partner for a coffee.
- A month or more somewhere: Meetup groups and a friendship app for people who live there, plus language exchange.
- Looking for someone to travel with for a stretch: read our guide on how to find a travel buddy, because vetting a companion for days is a different job from finding company for dinner.
How to use apps to meet people safely
The app is only the introduction. What keeps you safe is how you meet:
- Meet first in a public place, ideally a busy café, bar or a group activity.
- Prefer small groups for first meetings. It is easier to relax, and easier to leave.
- Keep the conversation on the app at first. Share your number or socials once you have met.
- Never send money to someone you have only met online. The US Federal Trade Commission's guidance on romance scams warns about people who build trust quickly and then ask for money for things like travel tickets or visas, often by gift card, wire transfer, payment app or cryptocurrency. The same pattern shows up in friendship and travel apps.
- Tell someone where you are going, and set a check-in if you will be out late.
- Report and block anyone who pressures you, asks for money or makes you uncomfortable.
Know the local emergency number before you head out; our emergency numbers by country page lists them, and for Bali see Indonesia emergency numbers and what to tell first responders. Women traveling alone will find more in our solo female travel safety tips.
Are apps to meet people while traveling free?
Most are free to download, and most have a paid tier. What differs is what the free version lets you do. With HelloMates, chat is always free, joining plans is free, and the free plan includes 3 profile opens and 3 new chats a day; Plus adds the extras listed above. Bumble For Friends lists optional in-app purchases on its store page, and Meetup event listings show whether each event is free or paid. Check the current terms in the store before you subscribe to anything.
The short version
There is no single best app to meet people while traveling. Pick by purpose: a plans-first solo travel app for tonight, your hostel app for the people under your roof, Meetup for interests on longer stays, and a language exchange app for locals. Then do the part no app can do for you, and say yes to the plan.