The Best Apps for Meeting Other Solo Travellers in 2026

There’s no shortage of apps that promise to help solo travellers meet each other. There’s a shortage of ones that actually do it well.

Most of them were built for something adjacent to travel, not for travel itself, and it shows the moment you try to use one on the road. Here’s an honest look at what’s out there, what each one is actually good for, and where the gaps still sit.

A note before you read on: app features and pricing change often, so treat the specifics below as a starting point and check each app’s current listing before you rely on it.

Dedicated travel-companion apps

Tourlina

Tourlina is built specifically around connecting solo travellers, which puts it a step ahead of general social apps for this particular problem. You build a profile, enter one destination and a date range, and it surfaces people whose trip overlaps with yours there, as well as people near your current location.

Where it can fall short is granularity: it matches on one destination and one date range, full stop. If your trip has several stops, Tourlina treats each one as its own separate search. It won’t tell you who overlaps with you in Lisbon versus who overlaps with you in Porto a week later, because as far as the app’s concerned those are two unrelated searches, not one trip.

Good for: a single-destination trip, where you want to match with people on the same dates there, not just whoever’s nearby right now.

Worth knowing: check current membership numbers for your specific region before relying on it, density varies a lot by city and season. It started as a women-only app and opened to all genders in 2024, so expect some skew toward that original base. Subscriptions run from roughly $22.49/month up to $129.99/year (US App Store pricing, October 2026, so check current pricing for your region).

Backpackr and similar dedicated travel apps

A handful of smaller apps occupy similar territory to Tourlina: solo-traveller-specific, profile-and-browse, generally location-based rather than date-based. They’re worth a look if Tourlina’s user base is thin where you’re headed, but as far as we’ve found, none of them ask for your actual itinerary and match you on it the way Tourlina does, albeit only for one destination at a time.

General social apps repurposed for travel

Bumble BFF

Bumble BFF wasn’t built for travel. It was built for making friends generally, and people have started using it while travelling because it’s already installed and the swipe mechanic is familiar.

That familiarity is also the problem. Bumble BFF’s Travel Mode (a paid Premium feature) lets you set your location to one city for up to seven days, but it has no concept of “I’m here for four days, then I’m in Seville.” For a multi-stop trip, you’re matched city by city, the same as you would be at home, which means you’re relying on both people happening to check the app, happening to be free, and happening to still be in the same city by the time a conversation gets anywhere.

Good for: casual, low-stakes browsing if you’re settled somewhere for a while (a longer stay, a digital nomad base).

Worth knowing: Travel Mode (Premium only) lets you appear in a city for up to seven days with a visible banner showing you’re visiting, but it’s one city at a time, not a multi-stop itinerary, and it isn’t available on Bumble Web.

Facebook travel groups

Big regional and route-specific Facebook groups (interrailing groups, backpacking-Europe groups, city-specific expat and traveller groups) are one of the most-used, least-discussed ways solo travellers actually connect. They’re free, they’re huge, and posting “anyone in Porto this weekend?” genuinely works often enough that people keep doing it.

The trade-off is signal-to-noise. A group with forty thousand members means your post is competing with dozens of others, dates get buried in comment threads, and there’s no structure to actually see who else has posted a route that overlaps with yours. It works by luck and volume, not by matching.

Good for: a free, no-download option, especially for a specific route or region with an active group.

Worth knowing: results depend entirely on how active the group is and how much attention your post happens to get.

The one that isn’t really an app: hostel WhatsApp groups

Most social hostels now run a WhatsApp group for current guests, and it’s often the single most effective tool for meeting people, for one simple reason: everyone in it is already there.

The catch is exactly that. It only works once you’ve arrived, which means the loneliest stretch, the bit between booking your bed and actually walking through the door, isn’t covered by it at all. It also resets every time you move to a new city, so the connections rarely survive past a change of address.

Where route-and-date matching fits

Every option above solves part of the problem. Tourlina gets closest, asking both questions for a single destination, but none of them ask both questions across a multi-stop route, where “the same places” means several stops, each with its own dates.

That’s the gap Antur is built to fill. Instead of showing you who’s nearby right now, or relying on a Facebook post getting lucky, you put in your actual route and dates and see who else’s route overlaps. It’s the same idea behind finding a travel companion for your next trip generally: match on the plan, not the coincidence of both of you happening to open an app at the same moment.

FAQ

What’s the best app for meeting solo travellers in 2026?

There isn’t a single best one — it depends on what you need. Dedicated apps like Tourlina work if you want to match with people travelling to the same single destination at overlapping times, as well as browse who’s nearby right now. Facebook groups work if you want a free, high-volume option for a specific route. Antur is built for a different moment: matching on your route and dates before you’ve even left, rather than after you’ve arrived.

Is Bumble BFF good for meeting people while travelling?

It can work if you’re staying somewhere for a while. Bumble Premium’s Travel Mode lets you signal you’re visiting a city for up to seven days, but it doesn’t handle a multi-stop itinerary.

Do hostel WhatsApp groups actually work?

Often, yes, but only once you’re already there. They don’t help with the period before you arrive, which is usually when solo travellers most want to know someone’s coming.

What makes route-and-date matching different?

It matches on the two things that actually predict a good connection: whether you’re going to the same place, and whether you’ll be there at the same time. Location-only apps only answer the first question, and only for right now. (Tourlina isn’t quite one of these, it also matches on dates, but only for a single destination.)

The one that matches on dates, not just distance

If none of the above quite solves it, that’s because most of them are solving a slightly different problem to the one solo travellers actually have. Antur matches you with other travellers on your exact route and dates across Europe, so you know before you arrive, not after.

The waitlist’s open if you’ve got a trip coming up.