Bumble's Travel Feature Review [2024]: A Worthy Upgrade?

Meeting new friends or going on dates can be challenging while traveling from city to city. Hostels are great for meeting people, but sometimes hostels aren't as busy as you expected or you just don't get along with the other guests. It happens. Bumble Travel is an exciting new feature that helps people connect while traveling. Sounds great, right?

How does it compare to Tinder or Hinge? How do you turn on travel mode? Allow me to lay out everything you need to know about this new feature, and help you decide whether Bumble Travel is worth your time. 

What is Bumble?

Bumble is a dating app initially founded in 2014 with one mission, to challenge the rules of dating. On Bumble, women are in charge. After swiping and receiving matches, it is up to the women to start the conversation. Once you start the conversation, a potential match has 24 hours to respond, or the conversation disappears.

What is Bumble Travel mode?

Regular Bumble uses your current location and gives you profiles of potential matches in that city. Bumble Travel mode is still Bumble, but with an added feature that allows you to change your location based on where you are or where you are going. 

Not looking for a date, per se? Bumble has two other nifty features, BFF and Bizz, that allow you to use Bumble to find matches for friendship or professional connections. You can also use travel mode in these other areas of Bumble.

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Features of Bumble Travel

Bumble Travel doesn't change or add anything to the original app. It's simply an option that gives you potential matches based on your current location. When using the free version of Bumble, you can still swipe and chat to your heart's content.

Other paid versions of Bumble allow you to backtrack in case you missed a match, super swipe, boost your profile, set advanced filters, or go incognito.

How do you change location on Bumble?

To use Travel mode: 

1. Open the bumble app and tap the grey person icon in the bottom left-hand corner.
2. Open the settings by tapping on the grey gear in the upper left-hand corner.
3. Scroll to the Location section at the bottom and tap "Travel to…."
4. Search and select the city you'd like to go to.

To turn off Travel mode:

1. Open the bumble app and tap the grey person icon in the bottom left-hand corner.
2. Open your Bumble app settings by selecting the gear icon.
3. Select the blue Travel button.
4. Select your hometown or city.
   

How does Bumble Travel mode work?

Travel mode allows Bumble to show your profile to those who live in your chosen city. For example, suppose you are planning to visit San Francisco, California. In that case, you can change your location to San Francisco when you land or beforehand to set up some meetups with locals in the Bay area. 

Bumble Travel mode only lasts for one week, so if your trip is longer than that, you will need to reset the location again.

Is Bumble Travel mode free?

Unfortunately, Bumble Travel mode is a paid feature of their premium mode upgrade. Bumble has two upgrade levels:

• Boost
• Premium

Bumble often runs sales and promotions on their bonus features, so look out for that. They also have regular deals where you can save more on the weekly cost if you purchase more than one month of services.

Cancellation/Refund Policy for Bumble Travel

Unfortunately, if you purchased any of Bumble's premium features (Boost or Premium) and later changed your mind, you will not be refunded.

What People Are Saying About Bumble Travel

Most people find the feature useful for traveling and dating abroad. Still, some users have encountered some issues when using Bumble Travel:

• Bumble informs users that the profile they're viewing is in another city, meaning some matches will notice this and be less inclined to match and hang out with travelers.
• The app doesn't separate local matches from travel matches, so it can be confusing to keep track of both.
• The travel location is automatically set to the center of your chosen city, which can cause issues if you stay outside the downtown core.

Depending on your personality and needs, Bumble Travel might be worth checking out if you keep these issues in mind.

How does Bumble Travel mode compare?

So, how does Bumble Travel compare with other dating apps? We've included a quick rundown of some popular dating apps with travel features to help you decide.

Tinder

Tinder is another popular dating app you can use to meet people worldwide. It is free to use with some paid upgrades available, similar to Bumble. Although when it comes to travel, Tinder might be worth your while because it updates your location based on where you are. You don't have to pay for an upgrade to "travel" or change your location. 

Tinder is usually used strictly for dating and has no other options for different kinds of connections, so it might not be a good option for everyone. 

Hinge

Hinge is another competitor in the dating app scene that is free to use with some paid upgrade options. Like Tinder, it allows you to travel and update your location as you please. You can even preemptively change your location before traveling, so you can match anywhere in the world even before you step on the plane!

Is Bumble Travel worth it?

Bumble Travel is a decent option if you're looking to match with locals while traveling and you're already using Bumble at home. It's also great if you would like to match with people platonically, using their BFF or Bizz options, which are unique to Bumble.

The biggest downfall of Bumble Travel is that it's a paid feature in a world of free dating apps.

Suppose you are new to Bumble and are looking to date or meet new people abroad. In that case, it might be worth checking out other free dating apps or apps for meeting people platonically, like Meetup. 

Overall, Bumble Travel is a good way to meet new people while traveling, but there are better alternatives.

Our Rating: 3.5/5

Pros:

• Offers BFF and Bizz mode
• Can change location before leaving
• Great when traveling to bigger cities

Cons:

• Not free
• Mixes local and travel matches
• Lasts only one week
• Not for small towns/rural travelers

It's a date!

Now that you've explored different ways to meet people while traveling, start planning your trip with Pilot!