Dating foreign singles in exotic locations is a tempting idea. Often labeled as ‘vacation dating‘, the idea of building an international relationship is a concept that many will have thought about at some point. Whether you are a foreign student, working abroad or an avid traveler, you’ve probably played around with the idea of falling in love with someone away from home, even if that might mean a long-distance relationship later on.
Luckily most dating sites support the notion of temporarily changing your location, meaning you won’t need to create a new account. The system usually recommends matches that are in a closer vicinity, therefore changing the current ‘base of operations’ in the settings menu will instantly open up the door for on-the-road romances. In any case, we recommend picking a dating site with a larger audience and an international focus, like OkCupid.
Vacation dating on mobile apps
Those who decided to give dating a shot while on a trip probably think of Tinder. True, Tinder does use GPS location tracking as the main metric for finding possible matches, which automatically adjusts itself to your current position. But bear in mind that Tinder isn’t the only option when it comes to dating apps in these situations.
Most big-name dating sites, such as eHarmony or Plenty of Fish, have their own app that mirrors the features of the browser version, but with an added level of convenience that only touchscreens can provide.
Such smartphone apps offer numerous benefits that Tinder lack, including a more refined matchmaking system where users can launch searches with specific characteristics. The opportunity for a more detailed profile section with extra personal information and a photo portfolio that prompts singles to upload high quality pictures instead of porting bathroom selfies from Facebook means potential dates will have more options to find out about you before making that step forward, too.
Necessary safety net with a VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN for short) is a service that routes the data stream through the provider’s servers, effectively encrypting the information while also masking the user’s IP address. Privacy conscious travelers know the potential risk that an unprotected Wi-Fi hotspot can pose and, let’s face it, when abroad everyone latches on to whatever free internet they can find. Accessing a dating site from a coffee shop without a VPN makes you an easy target for hackers and tracking software, which could ultimately end up with your account details or, worse yet, your credit card info being ‘liberated’ and used against you.
Besides the obvious safety reasons, a VPN is also useful for appearing to have a foreign IP in your browser. Since numerous dating sites redirect visitors to certain subpages according to the IP, this is a very handy feature. For example, if you visit Match.com from the UK, you’ll be shown a page designed for the UK audience, with even the currency being changed to pounds too. Therefore if you wish to see the U.S. version of the site while outside of America, the only option is to connect via an American VPN server.
Don’t forget that the IP masking trick only works with desktop browsers since mobile dating apps use GPS signals to detect your location, which means connecting to a VPN server located in another country won’t result in this location being reflected in the dating app.
Tamás Ő.
Adam B.
