How to Find Travel Companions for Singles

If you’re single, finding a travel companion can be a hard thing to do. However, whether it is for added security or out of a passion for sharing new adventures, some singles prefer traveling with partners when they can.

Do you need a travel partner? How do you find and safely choose a partner for your travels? This article will show you how to find a travel companion for your next adventure in a safe and trustworthy way.

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Concerns When Finding Travel Companions

Whenever you are ready to choose a travel companion, you should always approach the task with caution, watching out for several concerns before picking a potential travel buddy. So what should you watch out for?

You should watch out for

Catfishing
Incompatibility
Revealing Solo Status
Sites that ask for too much information
Misunderstandings

We will discuss these concerns in detail below.

Catfishing

A catfish is someone you meet online who presents themselves as someone they are not.

In this case, a catfish may pretend to be a travel buddy so they can connect with you, but they may have a hidden agenda: maybe they expect to hook up, defraud you, or worse.

Without an in-person meeting, you will never know if the other person is different from who they are online.Therefore, always take caution to be safe when you meet, even when you finally get comfortable around the stranger.

Incompatibility

Before you decide who will be your travel companion, take time to scrutinize every potential partner.

As a solo traveler, you might have set your expectations for enjoying your planned travel relatively high. You should never settle for less from a partner. Therefore, find out if they share the same interests with you before meeting up for the trip, lest you risk the whole experience being tiresome and boring.

Revealing Your Solo Status

You ought to know that by participating in independent matching sites and sharing your planned trip, you’re telling the viewers that you are solo. However, neither the site nor the potential travel buddy should reveal you are solo to the rest of the world, and neither should they share the details of your trip.

Sites and Apps That Ask for Too Much Information

Even though sites want to improve security to make it easy to use them, some sites ask for too much information, including copies of the government identification information. This raises obvious safety concerns.

Misunderstandings

Once you have successfully chosen a travel partner, there still exists the potential of a severe misunderstanding. For example, all might go well until there arises a conflict of interest or you find out the companion had other goals besides just traveling.

Once you remove all the possible causes of alarm in one of your potential travel companions, you can comfortably invite the lucky one on your solo ride.

How to Find Companions for Solo Travelers

Now that you know what to look out for when choosing the best companion for your trip, how do you find a companion for your solo travels?

Read on! Below I have detailed both online and offline methods to get travel companions.

Book a Group Tour

Preplanned excursions and group tours could be the best option for solo travelers because they always give room for socialization, besides having everything planned and paid for in advance.

Use a site that groups diverse people to avoid being put in a clique of tight-knit friends or honeymooning newlyweds. In this case, stick to sites that plan tours for solo travelers who wish to be in the company of fellow solo travelers.

Get an Introduction from a Friend

Getting an introduction from a friend (or family member) is one of the surest ways to secure a travel companion safely. Since your friends are concerned about your safety, they will refer you to a friend that they fully trust. If possible, you can also meet the potential travel buddy a few times before setting out for the journey.

Use TripTogether.com

Triptogether.com allows you to create a profile based on your interests and your travel plan. It allows you to filter results by age, gender, and whichever specification you set for your ideal travel companion.

On triptogether.com, any shared interests with any potential companions are also highlighted to help you optimize your search.

Meet Someone Along the Way

For this method, you meet your travel companion as you travel instead of before you set out for the journey. It is a trial and error method because you are not guaranteed to find a companion that will suit your interests.

Still, you get to meet people in person. You can also crosscheck them and see if they’re your ideal travel companion before committing to any more traveling.

If you go with this method, you need to spend your time in public with the potential travel companion until you are sure that person is the most ideal for you to travel with.

Use GAFFL

Available in application and website mode (gogaffl.com), GAFFL enables you to share your travel plans and connect you with others whose plans match yours.

Moreover, GAFFL has a two-step verification process whereby the users are tagged as verified. It even gives further options for users to authenticate themselves with their phone numbers, Facebook account details, and so much more.

Before setting out for the journey, you can always decide who joins you and who does not. You can also leave a review for your companion after the trip for the next potential lone traveler to know their trustworthiness.

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Let Your Tour or Cruise Company Connect You

If you want to avoid traveling solo, you can always ask your cruise or tour company to pair you with a potential travel companion. After a request, most companies will give you a partner. And if they can’t, they will often provide you with your amenities at no extra cost.

Use Meetup.com

For solo travelers, meetup.com comes in handy. Meetup.com helps you find people from the same locality with similar interests. This site showcases events and shows how many people have signed up for the events, which range from all-day events to events that last a few hours.

However, this is not the ideal site to find someone to share travel experiences and expenses with.

Meetup.com is only suitable for one-off experiences such as hiking or visiting museums. If you want, you can start an event and let others from your locality join you for the adventure.

Use Social Media Platforms and Chatrooms

Social media platforms and chatrooms like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit provide the easiest way to link with various people in a single interface.

However, it is so easy to create a false profile on social media. So, when it comes to finding a potential travel companion, you need to pay attention to how honest and open the other person is about themselves.

However, if you can maneuver around these challenges, you may end up with an extensive network of friends to communicate with.

Get a Greeter

Also known as a stroll buddy, a greeter is a local volunteer who takes pride in showing their hometown to visitors. They’re more like a local friend than a tour guide. Sites like StrollBuddy.com are there to provide this service wherever you go.

What to Do When Traveling With a Stranger

Even if you follow the advice listed above, the travel companion you choose might not be the best version of whom you want, or they might turn out to be someone different. If this ends up being the case, what can you do to ensure the best possible outcome?

Here are three guidelines to keep you safe.

Be Proactive

Being proactive means making your own decisions instead of responding to the invitations of people who may have hidden agendas. If you make your own decisions, you stay in control. Never be afraid to say “no.”

Stay in Public

When you meet your potential companion for the first time, meet them in a safe, public place. Take a few days to access who they are, and make sure that you are comfortable around your new companion.

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Don’t Be Rushed or Coerced into Making a Decision

Never let your companion force you into any decisions that are not part of your plans or that are risky for you. An example of this could be a suggestion to set out much earlier than you had planned to set out.

Conclusion

If you source a companion for your traveling adventures, be vigilant to source honest and trustworthy people who are straightforward with their intentions to avoid getting surprises along the journey.

Also, take your time to get to know your possible companion and build trust in each other. The time you take to do this is worth it. After all, having a dependable travel companion is far more advantageous than having none.

How to Find Travel Companions for Singles