The Solo Traveller
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Confidence and Safety
A new app is helping female solo travellers turn unfamiliar cities into instant communities. Photographer: Vitaly Gariev.
Solo traveller communities rewriting the rules of loneliness
RoamCircle Founder Liz Rivas in conversation with Geoffrey Williams
Briefly …
A new app is helping female solo travellers turn unfamiliar cities into instant communities. Founded by Liz Rivas after a lonely moment on the road, and designed with safety at its core, RoamCircle connects women through vetted groups, curated events, and friendship-first matching.
RoamCircle, a new community-building app for female solo travellers, was born from a lonely solo travel moment after a difficult breakup. Founder, Liz Rivas, realised she was piecing together friendship and community through dating apps, Facebook groups, Meetup, and disorganised WhatsApp threads. “I thought there must be one place to simply find other women who want to connect in the city they’ve just landed in,” Liz tells The Solo Traveller. “There wasn’t. So, I built it.”
RoamCircle works like a Bumble BFF-style connection app – a swipe-based system similar to dating apps that help users find and connect with others based on similarities such as shared interests and location. RoamCircle is not a one-off meetup app, it’s a community app, designed to make every new city feel like home, and has been designed specifically to safely connect female travellers with friendship-first matching, local meetups, vetted and inclusive communities, and curated events.
Millions of women travel solo each year, with recent data from trave-tech platform Hotelagio revealing that over 32 million single women in the US travel alone. Globally, a staggering 70% of female travellers report feeling anxious about safety, up from 64% in 2024.
While our solo traveller journeys are empowering, at times they can also be complicated to navigate socially. RoamCircle was built to remove that emotional barrier and make global cities feel more welcoming, safe, and connected. “We’re making sure no traveller ever has to land somewhere new and feel alone,” says Liz. “Friendship and belonging are part of the adventure, and not something that should be hard or unsafe.”
“We’re making sure no traveller ever has to land somewhere new and feel alone. Friendship and belonging are part of the adventure, and not something that should be hard or unsafe.”
RoamCircle aims to help solo travellers find their people in a new city. What does connection look and feel like to you?
For me, connection is that moment when you meet someone and feel instantly seen, no small talk, just ease. As a solo traveller and digital nomad, I’ve had so many moments of being in beautiful places yet wishing I had someone to share them with. Joining groups like ‘New Miami Girls’ in Miami and ‘NomadGirls Lisbon’ abroad helped me find my people, and I realised how powerful it felt to belong to a community that was safe, supportive, and genuinely uplifting.
RoamCircle was born from that feeling – the desire to make authentic connections accessible everywhere. I wanted to build something that helps women find friends and community wherever they roam, without relying on messy WhatsApp groups or random meetups. For me, connection is about being your full self and finding others who celebrate that.
Left: RoamCircle Founder Liz Rivas; and members of the Nomad Girls Club enjoying a dinner together. Images courtesy RoamCircle.
Connection also introduces questions of trust. What safety principles shape RoamCircle? And how did you approach designing RoamCircle with safety in mind from day one?
Safety has been the foundation of RoamCircle since day one. We designed the app for women who travel solo and want to connect without fear or uncertainty. Every community on RoamCircle is pre-vetted, and we currently feature established women’s groups like NomadGirls Lisbon and the Mexican and Foreign Girls Club in Mexico City. That way, women know they’re joining trusted, inclusive communities from the start. We also take a zero-tolerance stance on harassment or inappropriate behavior. The app includes a ‘block and report’ feature, and our moderation team actively monitors activity to ensure a respectful experience for everyone.
Solo travellers often carry a quiet background risk assessment into every new interaction. How does RoamCircle support users who hold those concerns?
I know that feeling all too well. After years of solo travel, I’ve learned that every new city comes with a small sense of uncertainty – who can I trust, where should I go, and what’s safe? RoamCircle was built to ease that mental load. By connecting women through vetted communities and curated events, users can step into social spaces that have already been verified for safety and inclusivity. Members can see who else is attending, chat beforehand, and filter experiences that align with their comfort level. The goal is to make every new interaction feel grounded and intentional, not risky or random.
Community platforms thrive or fail on behaviour. What systems or plans do you have to keep RoamCircle respectful, safe and human as it grows?
Respect is non-negotiable. We’ve established clear community guidelines and a real-time moderation process to review reports and patterns of misuse. Every report is taken seriously, and repeat offenders are permanently banned. Our goal is to scale safety as we scale community by combining tech-driven monitoring with a real human touch from our community managers and Circle Leaders in our anchor cities.
But beyond policies, it’s about energy. We’re building a culture of kindness and mutual respect, where everyone knows this is a place for women to be their authentic selves, not to perform, compete, or judge. The community holds itself to that standard because it’s the reason most of us are here.
Left: RoamCircle’s events screen; and RoamCircle’s chat screen. Images courtesy RoamCircle.
When strangers meet through an app, trust becomes a technical as well as a human issue. What measures are in place to help users feel comfortable taking that first step?
We prioritise transparency. Profiles are linked to verified phone numbers and social accounts, and all events and communities listed in RoamCircle are pre-screened by our team. Members can see who else is attending events and connect beforehand helping to build trust before meeting in person.
How do you ensure that the people joining RoamCircle are who they say they are? Are verification tools part of the roadmap?
Absolutely. Verification is a key part of our future roadmap. We’re introducing AI selfie-based facial recognition to confirm identity during signup, not to invade privacy, but to protect authenticity. It’s about ensuring that the women you see on the app are real travellers, not bots or fake accounts.
Every feature is designed around agency, privacy, and protection giving women control over when, how, and with whom they connect. Photographer: Crosby Hinze.
Community moderation can make or break a social platform. What systems do you have (or plan to have) to keep interactions respectful and safe?
RoamCircle uses a hybrid moderation model, which features automated flagging for suspicious behavior, plus manual reviews by our safety team. We also empower users to report and block instantly. Beyond that, each vetted community partner (like NomadGirls Lisbon) has admin access to help monitor their local circles, ensuring we maintain cultural nuance and local trust while keeping one global standard for safety.
If something does go wrong between users, what is the support process? How quickly can someone get help, and from whom?
If an issue arises, users can report it instantly in the app, and our moderation team is notified immediately. We aim to respond within hours, not days, and depending on the situation, we’ll either mediate, remove users, or escalate if necessary. Our safety team also communicates directly with community admins to ensure accountability across all levels. The process is human, empathetic, and rooted in protecting physical and emotional wellbeing.
The RoamCircle process is human, empathetic, and rooted in protecting physical and emotional wellbeing. Photographer: Jorge Dominguez.
Safety also includes emotional safety. How do you create a space where users feel not only physically secure but also socially respected and welcomed?
Emotional safety is deeply personal to me. As a neuro-spicy first-generation Dominican immigrant and a bullied kid growing up in the suburbs of New York, I often felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. I built RoamCircle so that no woman has to feel that way no matter where she is in the world. On the app, authenticity is celebrated. We encourage people to show up as themselves – imperfect, evolving, real, and to build connections that go beyond the surface. It’s a space where everyone belongs, from digital nomads to locals looking for friendship and sisterhood. We host inclusive events, partner with conscious communities, and highlight ‘Circle Leaders’ who embody empathy and empowerment. It’s more than just safety, it's emotional freedom.
“We host inclusive events, partner with conscious communities, and highlight ‘Circle Leaders’ who embody empathy and empowerment. It’s more than just safety, it's emotional freedom.”
You’ve spoken about wanting RoamCircle to help people feel less alone. How do you balance openness and accessibility with the boundaries travellers need to feel protected?
We strike that balance through intentional design and privacy-first features. RoamCircle doesn’t share users’ exact locations instead, members simply select their region or city to discover nearby communities and events. This keeps the experience localised but never invasive.
To protect users further, chatting is mutual, and both people have to match or express interest before a private chat can begin. It’s a small but powerful safeguard that prevents unwanted messages and keeps connections authentic and consent based. So, while RoamCircle feels open, friendly, and inclusive, every feature is designed around agency, privacy, and protection giving women control over when, how, and with whom they connect.
“So, while RoamCircle feels open, friendly, and inclusive, every feature is designed around agency, privacy, and protection giving women control over when, how, and with whom they connect.”
As RoamCircle grows, how do you plan to scale safety without losing the human touch that sits at the centre of your mission?
Our growth strategy is built around community first, technology second. Every new city launches with local ‘Circle Leaders’, who are women who already represent trusted, established communities. They help onboard new members, host events, and maintain the RoamCircle vibe locally. On the tech side, we’re scaling moderation and safety features, but always with empathy built into the process. Automation will help us stay efficient, but the feeling of safety comes from human connection and that will never be replaced.
RoamCircle isn’t just another social app. It’s a global movement built by women who know what it feels like to be alone and are choosing to rewrite that story, together.
Liz Rivas is the Founder of RoamCircle and Geoffrey Williams is The Solo Traveller Group’s Founder and Publishing Curator.
Source: Hotelagio