If you’re looking for Your Travel Mates Review to be a summary of all the great people you can hang out with to go on vacations, staycations and spring breaks, this isn’t it.
Oddly, although the site is called Your Travel Mates, it’s more or less just an online dating site and doesn’t particularly emphasize the travel part. Initial questions ask about work, education, number of kids, smoking and drinking habits, height, body type, eyes and hair.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with answering these questions. But even for a pen pal, if you’re looking for someone to discuss travel dreams or past travel pics and memories, you may have to get the conversation going in the messages and live chat boards.
Or, make a point of putting it in your public profile so users will know what your travel goals are. As with any site, the way you set up your profile will often control the kind of messages you want and will receive, or at least listen to. So let’s travel through the site to find out the highs and lows.
Your Travel Mates Review
Website Overview
The online chat world can be like your everyday world. Today you may be feeling serious, romantic, flirty, naughty or want a pen pal. Depending on the mood you’re in, that should be the people you decide to talk to.
Edit your profile immediately to summarize what you’re looking for, and not just gender and age search results. This is your time to discuss your travel needs and your larger goal on the site. You can choose to take the name of the company literally and talk about vacation, or you can focus on the people on the site.
The chat system encourages you to “explore the world and meet anyone through the chat,” so do just that. Except instead of just looking for the same old topics that you’d find on any other online dating site, sift through the messages to see who wants to explore the world with you.
Or, at least someone who wants to explore something more substantive than eye and hair color.
Key Features
With a paid monthly membership, users are entitled to a one-time package of 20 welcome credits, 10 free live chat sessions (limited to 3 minutes each) and the first offline introduction messages to any member are free.
In addition, to live chat, sharing photos, sending emails and messages, you can also send other users gifts. Examples of those gifts include popcorn or a car, which entitles you to immediately earn the same number of diamonds as the item costs in credits to purchase in the gift store.
Gifts or diamonds have no monetary value though and do not constitute currency or property of any type. Gifts and Diamonds cannot be sold or transferred to other members and are non-refundable.
Sign-Up Process
Choose a gender, an age (in multiples of five), and an email address, and you’re all set to join this site. The website is particularly specific about choosing a “real email address” and will make its own decision about whether the email address is legitimate or not. (Don’t choose one with the word “spam” in it.
You can get around this if you log in via Google, but expect the site to immediately recognize your first and last name.) Choose hobbies and an (optional) photo, as needed.
Communication Options
With a paid membership, you have a variety of communication options, including:
- Basic chat costs 1 сredit per minute;
- One-way video chat costs 4 credits per minute;
- Two-way video chat costs 6 credits per minute;
- Offline message sending costs 1 credit per message (160 symbol limit);
- Mobile app message sending costs 1 credit per message (160 symbol limit);
- Email costs 10 credits each;
- Sending/viewing photos or videos costs 15 credits each;
- Sending stickers costs 5 credits each;
- Sending animated emojis cost 1 credit each;
- Sending gifts in live video costs 5 to 1000 credits each;
- Sending personal messages in live video costs 1 credit each;
- Viewing video in profile costs 10 credits each;
- Let’s Mingle costs 5 credits per use.
Pricing & Membership Options
Use a major credit or your PayPal account to purchase a membership, prices ranging from $19.99 (150 credits per month), $149.99 (600 credits per month) and $299.99 (1,500 credits per month).
Right now there is a 60 percent discount on the lowest price, which is normally $49.99, for the first month. It will auto-renew at $49.99 on month two though. Members may cancel their first membership, without penalty or obligation, prior to midnight of the third business day following the day of becoming a member.
Safety & Security
The secure payment system is Norton Secured, Visa Secured, Mastercard ID Check, SSL Secure, and/or Comodo Secure. In addition to secure payment options, you can also decide who you want to hear from.
If users are a bit too chatty and you start to feel like you’re being spammed, you can simply click on that person’s profile to block future messages.
However, keep in mind before you do that users are (often) looking for companionship the way you are. If they’re sending messages instead of generic “like/pass” options, then that’s a step in the right direction.
Still, though, be careful with what you share initially. Participate in live chats and live videos as soon as you can to make sure you’re talking to the person behind the messages though. This may be someone you’ll happily travel with later on down the line.
Pros & Cons
When you first join, expect a flood of messages, even with a blank profile and no photos. Quite a few are in broken English, but you’ll pretty much get the gist of them. Expect questions within a matter of opinions like “Do you want a greatest change in your life to happend?” “What type of men attracts you the most?” “was u ever woken up by your neighbors?” “If you will allow me, I will cook my favorite recipe for you. You leave me?”
These kinds of questions will seem particularly inauthentic considering the users have nothing to work with on your page, so be ready to sift through what seems like automated questions to get to users that are actually reading words on your page.
On the upside, if you’re a web editor or someone who loves to create a good template, you’ll be highly entertained choosing covers. The average online site just has dating specifications and a photo.
On this one, you can get lost scrolling through all kinds of designs that show off your personality: flowers, fireworks, city skylines, fruit, lakes, sand and more. But considering the users will flood empty accounts with automated messages, is it really worth it to bother building up your site? The decision is yours.
Bottom Line
Because this site is filled with so many messages and what looks like stock photos, this is not one of those online dating sites (or travel dating sites) that can get an immediate thumbs up. It is highly recommended to request webcam video to make sure the person sending a message matches the person sending you the message.
Whether you two hit it off or not is completely dependent upon the two of you, but at least you’ll be sure you’re talking to the person who you think you are. Is this someone you’ll want to travel with? There’s no way to know except in person.
The belief that you never know someone until you’ve lived with him or traveled with him is true. This site may offer you the perfect travel buddy to go around the world with, or it may only lead to a few enthusiastic chats.
Either way, especially behind the screen, you have the ability to control the communication. Make your time worth it.
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