This App Is Hands Down The Best For Dating While Traveling — Here's How I Use It

Setting up a Tinder profile is akin to many swipe-based apps. I find the setup most similar to Bumble. To create your profile, you’ll first upload photos (up to nine) and add a bio of 500 characters or less. You will then be asked to provide a job title, company, school, location, and sexual orientation.

Not sure which photos to use on your dating app profile? Tinder has a “smart photos” feature. If selected, the app picks out which photos will perform best and displays them first.

In addition to the basic information, you can also add up to five interests, along with your preferred pronouns, height, relationship goals, languages, zodiac sign, education, and family plans. There’s an option to display whether you have the COVID vaccine, your personality type, communication style, and love language.

To tell a bit more about your lifestyle, you can fill out more details on pets, drinking habits, smoking, cannabis, workout frequency, dietary preference, how frequently you use social media, and your sleeping habits.

Lastly, you have the ability to link your Instagram or Spotify account. Linking these accounts will not show your user information. For Instagram, it will show a few frames of your most recent posts. If you link Spotify, your profile will display your top artists. You can also choose an “anthem” song from Spotify.

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Once your profile is set up, it’s time to see what’s out there. Head to the main interface to browse profiles and begin sending out likes. There are a few ways to match with other users. Swiping right will initiate a typical like, while swiping up will send a Super Like. If you’re not interested in the person, you can swipe left to move onto the next user. Once you match with someone, either one of you can choose to start the conversation (as opposed to Bumble, where the ball is in the woman’s court).

You can curate your experience even further by adjusting location, distance preference, age preference, and global status. There’s also an option to “verify” your profile. To do this, you’ll need to submit a real-time photo, which the app will use to confirm that you are who you say you are. Verified profiles will have a blue checkmark on them.

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Pros

Cons

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Anyone can use Tinder for free, but there are a few premium memberships available, too. Each premium membership can be purchased in either a one-month, six-month, 12-month subscription. See below for the cost details on each.

Tinder Plus:

One-month subscription: $8

Six-month subscription: $24

12-month subscription: $32

Tinder Gold:

One-month subscription: $24

Six-month subscription: $12.50 per month

12-month subscription: $8 per month

Tinder Platinum:

One-month subscription: $30

Six-month subscription: $15 per month

12-month subscription: $10 per month

Tinder’s premium features include unlimited likes, the ability to control whether your age and location are visible, incognito mode, an ad-free experience, and unlimited rewinds (the ability to go back to options you might have accidentally swiped left on).

As outlined below, certain premium memberships give you the ability to see who likes you, boost your profile to make it visible to more users, and swipe through users outside of your area.

A few of my favorite premium features are prioritized likes and the ability to message before matching with every Super Like you send. See below for more detail on the perks of each premium membership.

Tinder Plus includes the below perks:

Tinder Gold includes the below perks:

Tinder Platinum includes the below perks:

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Again, Tinder gets a lot of grief for being strictly a hookup app. Personally, it’s been my personal favorite app for meeting folks casually and even casually with consistency. Granted, I have met a few folks who misled me about their intentions—but this could happen on any dating app. 

The most unfortunate experiences I’ve had on Tinder have been with people who have very opposing political and social views to my own. Because of this, I’ve started to avoid users who do not list political affiliation on their profile.

I had one on-and-off relationship from Tinder, which lasted for multiple years. He was hyper-local originally, until distance became a factor. I’ve had several dates and connections since then. Aside from those few people who keep their profiles vague, I’ve discovered most users on Tinder are pretty “what you see is what you get.” Tinder users are generally more upfront about what they want.

One of my favorite aspects of Tinder has been the ability to use it while traveling. Most recently, I had some fun conversations while visiting San Francisco—although my trip was too short to coordinate a date. Previously, I swiped and went out with several folks on a different trip in the Pacific Northwest. While some people may be opposed to this form of dating, I’ve truly enjoyed my casual dating experiences on Tinder. As long as you are both upfront about your intentions and what you are looking for, dating can be a great way to experience a new city while traveling.

If you do date in one area for an extended period of time, it’s a little more difficult. You may end up seeing people you’ve swiped left on multiple times coming back into your matches because you’ve swiped on so many over time on the app. I personally find higher quality matches in other cities and locations than in my home city.

Once you’ve made that first impression with your pictures, users will move on to your bio. This is where you can really show your personality in a short, succinct way. You will have 500 characters to tell potential matches more about yourself, your interests, and what you're looking for on Tinder. 

This is where being clear about your "why" is critical. What is your motivation for joining Tinder? Are you just hoping to expand your social network and meet friends? Looking for someone to chat with to pass the time? Or, are you on the app to hook up and have casual sex? Perhaps, you are in search of a committed romantic relationship. Regardless of where you fall, your "why" should dictate what you include in your bio.

A few more tips for your Tinder bio:

While you’ll find a ton of Tinder profiles (including mine) incorporate tips such as the ones above in their profiles, you’ll also find several that unapologetically do not. Whatever you decide to do on your own profile, remember it is meant to showcase your personality and how you look. Swipe-based apps rely heavily on photos, but that doesn’t mean your bio doesn’t matter. Curate carefully and intentionally.

“Red flags related to a person's bio include not having one at all, having one that really isn't saying anything, or one that doesn't showcase your personality,” Lewis adds. She suggests making your profile “Clear and to the point, because people are not taking the same time and effort that dating used to require.”