REVIEW OF TOURLINA - A NEW APP FOR SOLO FEMALE TRAVELERS

I love traveling solo, but to be honest: Sometimes it’s more fun to share your experiences with a travel buddy. For most of the times I'm traveling with my boyfriend, but sometimes he can't come with me (thanks to his powerless passport).  So often I find myself alone at some airport, thinking of how cool it would be to have a travel buddy for a couple days.

However, for us girls, male travel buddies can sometimes make for a complicated romance. And who needs drama, right? After all, good company can make or break your trip. This is where the new app Tourlina comes in handy.

WHAT IS TOURLINA?

Tourlina is an IOS app that will help you find a female travel buddy, who has similar interests. It’s basically like a non-romantic dating app for female travel junkies, who would rather travel with a girl than with a boy.

Tourlina will help you to find interesting female travelers within a safe travel network.  

HOW DOES TOURLINA WORK?

When you install the app on your phone, you have to sign in with your Facebook-account. After a few hours, you will get a notification, telling you that you are now a verified user. That’s when you can get started.

First, start completing your profile. Write a few lines that tell the other girls who you are and what they can expect if they would like to travel with you.

Then, start planning trips. You can specify where you want to go, when and what your travel preferences are.

Are you more of a spontaneous traveler? Do you prefer beaches? Or would you rather spend time in urban areas? These are just some of the many options you can choose from.

When you’re done, Tourlina will search travel companions. You get to swipe left to skip a candidate and right to connect with a potential travel buddy. If you do, you can start a chat and possibly plan your trip.

WHAT’S GREAT ABOUT TOURLINA

The idea of the app is great. I mean seriously! I can’t even count the times where I desperately wanted to go somewhere but couldn’t find a travel buddy, because girlfriends got pregnant, broke, married, occupied, swamped with work or have their vacations planned out for the next two years.

This is the moment when you need an app like Tourlina! In no time you can find some female travel company for a few days or... who knows? No more solo trips (well, they can be nice, too from time to time.)

Another great thing about Tourlina is that it only allows verified users. You hopefully won’t find weird unrelatable advertising or fake profiles. Girls on Tourlina are all verified, real people who, just like you, are looking for new travel buddies.

Tourlina gets an additional plus point for allowing users to choose from so many destination countries. Considering that the app is still new, it offers an unbelievable amount of travel destinations to choose from.

In your profile settings you can specify the age of the suggested travel companions. This is great. Usually, I don’t care too much about the age, but you have to admit, a 19-year-old might have a slightly different idea of travel than a 40-year old traveler.

THINGS TO IMPROVE

Keeping in mind that the app is quite new, it comes as no surprise that for three of the four trips that I specified, no travel companions could be found. The more members register on Tourlina, the wider your selection of travel buddies would get. However, now, it is quite scarce.

Another thing that I found a bit tedious is that when you have swiped through potential travel companions, they don’t disappear the next time you log on. When I tested the app, potential travel companions, which I had already “rejected” kept reappearing. If the app gets more users, this might be quite unhandy.

Right now Tourlina is only available for iPhone. This is a bummer. But I imagine, a growing community might lead to an incentive to work on an Android-version, as well. (Update: Good news - An Android version will be released in November.)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

I can imagine that a forum-function for travel related questions would be a great addition to the app that could give it even more value and help grow an active community. Maybe, this could be a feature to consider in future development?

THE BOTTOM LINE

The idea of Tourlina is brilliant, but the app is based on a growing community. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be of much use. Aside from minor usability issues, which can quickly be fixed, Tourlina works great. What the app needs right now is users. So sign up!

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Tourlina.com asked me to test their travel app. All opinions are, as always my own.

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