Travel safety guide
Last reviewed 13 October 2026
How to meet a travel partner safely, what to sort out before you go, and the tools built into Find Travel Partner. Most of this is ordinary care that experienced travelers take without thinking. It is written down here so nobody has to learn it the hard way.
Call the local emergency number first. Police and medical help come before anything on this page, and before telling us.
Reporting takes a minute and our team reads every report. It is never the first step in an emergency.
Before you go
Sort these out at home, where it is easy.
- Read up on where you are going. Local laws, customs, areas to avoid, and your own government's travel advice for that country. Rules that seem minor at home can be serious elsewhere.
- Get travel insurance. Cover for medical care, theft and a disrupted trip. Check that it covers the activities you actually plan to do.
- Share your plans. Give a friend or family member your route, where you are staying and how to reach you. Tell them when you will check in.
- Copy your documents. Passport, visa, insurance and bookings, stored apart from the originals and reachable offline.
- Save the numbers you would need. The local emergency number, your nearest embassy or consulate, and your insurer.
- Check health needs. Recommended vaccinations for that country and a small first-aid kit. Some vaccines need weeks of notice, so do this early.
Your country's foreign office publishes official travel advice. Check it before you book, and again before you fly.
Meeting someone for the first time
The first meeting is where care matters most. None of this is rude, and anyone worth travelling with will expect it.
- Talk on Find Travel Partner first. Keep the conversation here until you are sure, and do a video call before you commit to anything. A video call answers in two minutes what fifty messages cannot.
- Meet somewhere public, in daylight. A cafe, a hotel lobby, a busy square. Never a hotel room, a private flat or a car for a first meeting.
- Tell a friend where you will be. Who you are meeting, where, and when you expect to be done.
- Keep your own documents and money. Your passport stays with you. Nobody holds it for you, for any reason.
- Leave if anything feels off. You owe no explanation, no apology and no second chance. Leaving early costs you one evening. Staying when your gut says go can cost a great deal more.
Travelling as a woman, or travelling alone for the first time? Meetups can be set to women only, and you can filter Explore and trip search to verified travelers. Neither costs anything.
On the trip
Day to day habits that keep small problems small.
- Stay aware. Keep valuables out of sight, and take extra care in crowded places, stations and markets.
- Carry only what you need. Use the hotel safe for the rest, and split your cash between two places.
- Use transport you trust. Official taxis or a ride app you know. Never an unmarked car, however convenient it looks.
- Stay in control at night. Never leave a drink unattended, and keep enough left to get yourself home.
- Keep your phone charged. A power bank and a working data plan are what keep you reachable. Download an offline map of the city.
- Check in with home. Or turn on the daily "I'm fine" in Settings, which is one tap and shares no location.
Plans change on the road. If your partner wants to go somewhere you are not comfortable with, splitting up for a day is normal and nobody has to make it a problem.
Your account and your money
Two things worth protecting separately.
- Use a strong password you use nowhere else. Never share your login, and turn on two-factor authentication if your email provider offers it.
- Keep personal details back. No home address, bank details, card numbers or document scans for someone you have just met. There is no good reason for a travel partner to need any of them.
- No trip money moves through Find Travel Partner. Nobody here will ever ask you to pay another member through the site, and any message claiming to be an official payment request is a scam.
- Treat any money request as a red flag. A real travel partner does not ask you for money before you have met. Not for a ticket, not for a deposit, not for an emergency.
- Split costs in person, or through a method you both trust. Agree what the split covers before you travel, and keep it small until trust is built.
If someone asks you for money and you have not met them, you do not owe them a reply. Block, report, and move on.
Signs to stop and report
Five patterns worth knowing. Any one of them is enough to stop the conversation.
- Asks for moneyFor a ticket, a deposit, an emergency. Before you have met, the answer is no, every time.
- Moves you off the app fast"Add me on another app" in the first few messages. Off the platform there is no report button and no record.
- Offers visas, jobs or investmentsTravel partners do not sell things. Report it.
- Pushes to meet somewhere privateA hotel room or a car for a first meeting. Say no and suggest somewhere public.
- Rushes youUrgency is the oldest tool there is. A real travel partner can wait a day for an answer.
What to do: Stop replying, block them, and report from their profile or any message. Our team reads every report, and a block means they cannot see you or reach you again.
Emergencies
Get safe first. Then tell us.
If you or someone else is in danger, call the local emergency number. Police and medical help come before the app, before the report and before us. Once you are safe, report the person and write to us if you need anything from our side.
- Know the local emergency number. It is not the same everywhere, and it is not always 911 or 999. Save it in your phone the day you arrive.
- Know where your embassy is and how to reach it. They help with lost passports, arrests, hospital stays and getting home.
- Keep emergency money and a spare card apart from your wallet. Different bag, different pocket, somewhere you can still reach if the wallet is gone.
- Keep your insurer's number offline, with your policy number. The moment you need it is usually the moment you have no signal.
We can suspend an account, pass information to the police when they ask for it formally, and help you with what happened on our side. We cannot send help to a location, so the emergency number always comes first.
Safety tools built in
All free, all optional, all switchable from Settings.
Verified tick
Optional and free: we compare a live selfie with the member's main photo. We keep the result, never the selfie.
Who can message you
Everyone, verified travelers only, or your matches only. Your choice in Settings, changeable any time.
Your area, never your spot
Your pin sits on your neighbourhood, and distance is always rounded.
Pause the map
Off the map for a day, then back on its own. Your chats carry on either way.
Women-only and verified-only meetups
The host chooses who can come, and hosts are asked to pick a public place.
Report and block
From any profile, chat or room message. Blocked people cannot see you or message you.
Daily "I'm fine"
One tap a day while you are away. No location is ever shared.
Calm city rooms
Slow mode, text only on day one, and messages that look like scams are held before anyone sees them.
None of these make a stranger safe. They give you more to go on and more ways out, which is what a platform can honestly offer.
Safety questions
Is it safe to travel with someone you met online?
It can be, with the same care you would take meeting any stranger. Talk on the platform first, do a video call, meet somewhere public in daylight, tell someone at home where you will be, and keep your own documents and money. Most problems are avoided at the first meeting, not during the trip.
What does the verified tick actually prove?
That a live selfie matched the main photo on that profile, so the person in the photos is the person using the account. It does not check identity documents, criminal records or character, and it is not a guarantee about anyone's behaviour.
What happens when I report someone?
Our team reads every report. Depending on what we find, an account can be warned, limited or removed, and blocking is immediate and independent of the outcome. If the police ask us for information through a formal request, we respond to it.
Can someone see where I am?
No. Your map pin sits on your neighbourhood, distance is rounded, and you can pause the map for 24 hours or turn it off entirely. The daily check-in shares no location at all.
Is it safe for women to travel with a partner from here?
The same rules apply to everyone, and some tools exist specifically here: meetups can be set to women only, you can limit who messages you to verified travelers, and women can join a city room hidden from its member list. None of it costs anything.
Someone asked me to pay them. What do I do?
Do not pay. No trip money moves through Find Travel Partner, so a request to pay another member through the site is never real, and a travel partner asking for money before you have met is the most common scam shape there is. Block them and report from any of their messages.
Travel with someone, carefully
Make a free profile, see who is going your way, and use every tool on this page from day one.