The post is brought to you by Tourlina.
Is CouchSurfing old school? Tourlina is a mobile app looking to revamp how us ladies connect with each other on the road, because, sometimes it's better to have two heads working together instead of one.
BECAUSE back in the day, I remember having to post on a forum being like hey, you want to meet up? I don't feel so comfortable traveling by myself. And then you didn't know if they were going to be there the same dates or not, and coordinate all that jazz.
Tourlina does a great job of taking the guesswork out of meeting others. It's essentially a Tinder for female travelers: Users can sign up through a myriad of ways but must be individually verified by the Tourlina team. (No creepers allowed.)
Travelers will be asked to create a trip as the first step. There is a standard procedure: select the country you're traveling to, pop in those dates, apply how you like to travel—viva la party!—and what kind of activities you like to do. Then Tinder away! Here are a couple of screenshots of how it all works:
Even if there are no matches, Tourlina will keep searching for travelers that meet user preferences and who are interested in the same things you are. At the moment, it is only available on iOS. The Android version is slated for November 2016. And while Tourlina actually charges users to chat to each other in 3, 6, or 12-month increments, new users are allowed to chat to each other for the first 3 months for free.
There's something to be said for not having to go on potentially weird or creepy Tinder “dates” in a strange place. Bonus.