For some, Tinder is a hookup app. But for users like me, it's how you meet locals and like-minded travelers. I won't argue about healthcare, climate change, or politics β even during an election year. But if you want to bring my blood dangerously close to its boiling point, tell me Tinder is just a hookup app. I will debate it's more than that to the death. Forget Airbnb, Orbitz, Uber, or other must-have apps : The most valuable travel app on my phone is Tinder.
Technically, Tinder β founded by two year-olds in β is a lifestyle app. According to Apple , it's the second most downloaded lifestyle app, beating Google Home and Amazon Alexa. I started using Tinder in after my five-year relationship ended when I moved across the country. My first Tinder date was with Brad, an entrepreneur who surprised me with a night flight over the city. My parents never said anything about not getting into planes with strangers.
Brad and I didn't last, but it wasn't my last time using Tinder. In I wrote a Fox News article titled " 10 top tips to up your international Tinder game. But even when we started dating, exclusively, I didn't stop swiping. I was still traveling for a living. This app was my Aladdin. It could show me the world.
Guidebooks are great. But there are plenty of things a local knows better than Lonely Planet. I had this epiphany in Spain, shortly after matching with a sexy Spaniard. Carlos was a kite surfer and my key to unlocking doors I didn't even know existed. They opened onto beautiful secret beaches and into the best off-the-beaten-path tapas bars. He took me to places so authentic that if I didn't order in Spanish, I starved. But it was Toby, a hotter-than-a-Hemsworth Australian who took my oyster virginity at a fancy raw bar inBrisbane.
I grew up in Montana where seafood is synonymous with Red Lobster. Toby and I never even held hands. But our relationship, still going strong three years later, is as intimate as platonic gets.
