It’s Pride Month, but we reckon those who are travelling as part of the LGBTQ+ community should have a fab time when globetrotting every month of the year.
This week we’ve rounded up 5 apps that’ll help you plan a fun (and safe) trip.
TripIt
TripIt is a handy app for any type of traveller – it basically keeps all of your trip info in one place. Hotel reservation? Here. Flight details? Here. The name of that one restaurant you really want to try? Also here.
But where it comes in really handy for LGBTQ+ travellers is its Neighbourhood Safety Scores. TripIt already knows where you’re staying, thanks to your reservation details. It’ll tell you all the usual suspects like check-in and check-out times, the address, and the dates you’ll actually be staying there (don’t want to mix those up), but it’ll also tell you what they call the Neighbourhood Safety Score – up-to-the-minute data on a whole bunch of factors, from chances of physical harm, theft, political freedoms… all sorts. They’ll get a score out out 100, and will let you know whether you’re at a low, medium, or high risk for these factors in those areas.
This score now also covers women’s and LGBTQ+ safety, specifically. Like the other categories, you’ll also get a score out of 100 for any location with an address. Now you can look up a place, whether its a restaurant or a nightclub, and know how safe you’ll be before you get there.
Grindr
Bear with us for a sec – we’re not trying to help you with your love life! Yes, Grindr is a dating app for gay men. But there’s one specific feature that also makes for another handy tool, and that’s Roam.
As part of its aim to help create a virtual ‘gaybourhood’, Roam is a brand-spanking new feature of the app (so new it’s actually still in testing phase in a lot of markets) that will allow you to pick a new location in which to place your profile for up to an hour. The idea is that by doing so, you’ll be able to connect with the local LGBTQ+ community in the place you’re heading to on a trip before you go, that way you can hit the ground running when you get there.
It goes a bit further than Grindr’s current Explore feature, which only allows you to view other user profiles in different parts of the world.
Spartacus
Spartacus – Spartacus International Gay Guide, to give its full name – is great for finding out the LGBTQI+ tolerance rating for a given country, grouped by continent.
You can do a deep dive on each country, from the history of its LGBTQI+ rights to its anti-discriminatory laws and protections. There’s also a useful map that’ll show you the friendliest cities and regions for the LGBTQI+ community.
You can also use it for finding events happening in the areas you’re planning to head to, and then you can save all these potential activities in a favourites list. The app is free, but there’s some paid content available too.
Arch
If you’re main aim is just to find some cool (and safe) things to do while you’re away, then Arch is another app you’ll find pretty useful.
Like Spartacus, Arch lets you find LGBTQ+ friendly bars, restaurants, and events. The map will show all of these that are near your location, and you can even try it in augmented reality and see what’s around you in real time. It’ll provide info like their social media handles, as well as photos and reviews added by other travellers – it’ll tell you places recommended by others in the area as well.
Right now, this app is only available for iOS users.
Geosure
Like TripIt, this is another useful app for any traveller, but it still carries features that makes it extra handy for the LGBTQ+ community. The app’s built-in map shows safety level ratings for neighbourhoods and cities all over the world – TripIt actually draws its safety data from GeoSure, so if you wanna slimline your apps, we say go for this one if trip safety is a priority for you over organisation. Geosure has also added a specific LGBTQ+ category to help you narrow down the parameters.
Simply search for a given location (or use the one you’re already in) and you’ll find out its rating. But then the app will then go a step further and help contextualise that rating by comparing an area you don’t know with one you’re familiar with so you can better understand what the ratings actually mean for you. Users can also improve the data by sharing their personal experiences when they visited, whether good or bad.
One important thing to remember with Geosure is that the lower the rating actually means the safer the area. Remember, low is good! 1-20 means extremely safe, 21-40 means very safe with occasional incidents, 41-60 means less safe and requires attention, especially at night, 61-80 means dangerous and prone to incidents, and finally, 81-100 means extremely dangerous.
