Let me paint you a picture. You’re in Barcelona. It’s golden hour. You’re sitting on a rooftop with a glass of something cold, and your view is so absurdly beautiful it’s almost offensive. Life is genuinely perfect.
And then your dating app sends you a notification that someone named Brad, 34, “loves to laugh and work hard, play hard,” has super liked you.
Yup, you guessed it, Brad is in New Jersey. This is the reality of dating as a solo female traveller. Today’s apps were just not built for us.
Instead, they were built for people who stay in one place, who want to meet someone within a ten-mile radius, and whose idea of a spontaneous adventure is trying a new brunch spot.
For better or worse, you and I are not those people. And yet here we are, swiping in airport lounges and hostel common rooms and pretending this is a viable way to find a real human connection.
Spoiler Alert: it’s not.
The Specific Pain of Travelling and Dating Simultaneously
Here’s what nobody tells you about solo travel and the search for the ultimate relationship. The more you travel, the clearer you get on what you actually want in a partner.
You’ve navigated foreign transportation systems alone. You’ve talked your way through language barriers. You’ve figured out who you are when nobody who knows you is watching.
That level of self-knowledge makes the average dating app and the average dater profile feel like it was written by a sentient piece of cardboard.
“I like hiking, my dog, and finding hidden gems.” Great. So does literally everyone on here. Who are you, Brad?
The problem isn’t the concept of meeting people online. The problem is that the apps optimise for quantity over quality, and for proximity over compatibility.
For someone who’s been to well over 60 countries and has a very clear sense of what matters to her, that’s a fundamentally broken system, and your girl over here needs a change ASAP.
What Solo Travel Actually Teaches You About Compatibility
Here’s the thing that I’ve finally figured out after all of these years as a digital nomad. The people I connect with most deeply on the road aren’t the ones who like the same things I like.
Rather, they’re the ones who see the world the way I do. They have the same instincts about what a day is for, what’s worth slowing down for, and what they absolutely won’t compromise on.
To be more precise, we call these values. And values are the one thing that almost no dating app actually helps you find.
Which is why it’s genuinely interesting that platforms built around shared values are growing so fast.
SALT is a Christian dating app built and run by a small Christian team. Not gonna lie, the whole design of it makes more sense the more you think about it.
It’s available in 50 countries and translated into 20 languages, which means it actually operates at a traveller’s scale instead of assuming everyone lives within five miles of each other.
The app also has millions of users, mostly 25 to 35, which is literally us.
Instead of the endless photo scroll, it uses values-based filtering and profile badges so you can actually see what someone believes in and cares about before you spend three days texting just to find out that you both have absolutely nothing in common.
The way it works is that users send an intro message before matching, there’s video calling and voice notes built in, and the safety infrastructure is real.
So, stress not since there is human moderation, selfie verification, fraud detection, and more.
In fact, this app is so legit that the BBC, Vogue, and GQ have all covered it.
I also love that the success stories include couples who found each other across different continents.
Not gonna lie, that sounds more like a travel blog than a dating app. Hence, the reason why I respect this app so enormously.
For women whose faith is central to who they are, it’s a unique platform that was built with that as the starting point rather than an afterthought.
The Actual Solution
Look, I’m not telling you to delete all the dating apps on your phone and move to a monastery. That’s not the vibe I’m going for.
What I am saying is that if you’ve spent any time as a solo female traveller, you’ve already proven that you can handle the world on your own terms.
Therefore, you deserve an amazing platform that operates on your terms, too.
One that doesn’t assume you’re looking for someone in your zip code. One that puts what you actually believe front and centre.
One that was built by people who understand that real connections worth having require you to go a little deeper than a good photo and a bio about loving to laugh.
Sorry, but Brad from New Jersey is just going to have to find someone else because I think I just found someone else to swipe right on.