If you haven’t met the love of your life on the road, then said goodbye to them 48 hours later, have you even travelled?
Though that’s a big fat cliche, some travellers believe there’s some truth to it. In fact, they absolutely love these little moments of human connection, even if it does lead to some low-key heartbreak.
Then you have those that believe you aren’t truly ‘travelling’ unless you’re barefoot hiking the Pyrenees, or whipping yourself while marching the Camino de Santiago. Solo, of course. And while it’s true you do probably get more personal growth solo backpacking South America than you do splashing around in Mykonos with a long term partner, we’d argue many solo travel junkies overstate the importance of hiking (and suffering).
LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS:
— AGAR 🇭🇹 and 99 others (@travelling_afro) May 1, 2019
Stop dating while you’re healing.
Heal first, then date.
Which brings us to the following jumble of pixels and audio. In the video you’re about to watch, TikTok user @kittystarchild, also known as Catherine, takes (polite) aim at a TikTok trend which basically says you shouldn’t date while you travel.
In response to a video making said claim, Catherine says: “I strongly disagree. No hate to the creator – not everyone has impeccable compartmentalization skills like I do… But I love going on dates when I’m travelling because they’re so non-committal.”
She continues: “You literally just go, you hang out with people that you think are cool and then if you get their contact information then alright maybe you hang out again in the future.”
“But most of the time you don’t and it’s just like these small moments of human interaction that I love. I absolutely love. So do go on dates when you’re travelling. I highly recommend it.”
Twitter is also full of travellers’ thoughts on this conundrum, some of which you can read below.
pro to dating while travelling: you can literally just leave their country when u break up and then u never have to deal w them again
— vanilla spice (@kyathecreator) March 28, 2020
con: sometimes you want to have to deal with them again
Need a confidence boost?
— James Joseph Boyle (he/him) (@jamesjoeboyle) July 19, 2019
Switch on your dating apps while travelling via national train and just let people ping n msg u and then delete it afterwards.
It doesn’t need to get much more complicated than that. Plus, you’re STI free. pic.twitter.com/3vpljsovz9
Using Tinder to ask for directions and recommendations while travelling is my new favourite thing! #AznEsc2k14
— Brandon Sousa (@brandon_sousa) March 14, 2014
On other internet forums too, like Reddit and Quora, you can find plenty of people who happily explain why ‘I love going on dates while I’m travelling.’
Further tips for dating while you are travelling include smiling at people, taking day trips, going to trendy bars, taking cooking classes, asking for directions, finding expat groups on Facebook, using dating apps and going on walking tours. In other words: more or less the same things you might do to try and meet people in your home city.
A philosophy to think about.