There are a ridiculous number of apps and websites that cater to the needs of travellers—resources to help you book flights, accommodations, cruises, tours, you name it. There are services that help with navigation, translation and communication. Services to let travellers share their opinions on their experiences.
Many of these mainstream travel resources do some work to be inclusive of LGBTQ2S+ travellers. Expedia, for example, provides an LGBTQ Welcoming filter, so users can screen out properties that don’t describe themselves as welcoming to our community.
The number of travel resources that focus on queers is much smaller—especially if you don’t count Facebook groups, Instagram profiles, Reddit subreddits or dating apps.
Don’t laugh when I mention dating apps. Many dating and hookup apps, though their primary purpose might be to help users find love and sex, also list events and queer spaces, and most importantly, provide a channel for visitors to contact locals, to get their advice on what to see and do.
We’ll set those resources aside for this story. We’re here to check out apps that purely or primarily exist to help LGBTQ2S+ travellers. Most of these nine queer travel apps are available in Apple’s App Store and in Android’s Google Play. Though listings apps dominate the category, there are a couple dedicated to helping people find places to bed down for the night and one to help queer cruise passengers find each other.
MeetMeOnBoard
On a mainstream cruise with, say, 3,000 passengers, a traveller could spend most of their voyage trying to sniff out fellow LGBTQ2S+ passengers. This app helps queer cruisers find their peers, allowing them to make advance plans about what to do on the cruise and to share personal information and insights before the ship even departs.
Hot take: Some cruises are popular among our people, with hundreds of people you can chat with. Others might only have a couple or no MMOB passengers. The app won’t be much use in the latter situation, but if community connection is a priority, it can steer you toward the more queer-filled ships. If you join a cruise group and haven’t bought a ticket yet for that cruise, you’ll be contacted via email by an agent trying to sell you that cruise. For LGBTQ2S+-specific cruises, sponsor VACAYA is the most easily surfaceble option. To find, say, an Atlantis cruise, you’ve got to know the actual cruise line, the ship name, the dates, etc. We had trouble with the Android version of the app on the two Android phones we tried it on. The Apple version worked smoothly.
misterb&b
So easy to explain in a sentence: Airbnb but specifically for queer people, mostly gay men. In business for more than decade, misterb&b is a reliable method to find and book gay-operated and gay-friendly accommodations, from hotel stays to rooms in private residences.
Hot take: Its range of listings is wide, though spottier than the category-killer Airbnb. On one hand, there’s no worrying about running into a homophobe; users can even search for clothing-optional listings. On the other, hosts can be flakier, and the system less slick, than on Airbnb. Bookings can require more back and forth between host and guest. Sometimes the same place is pricier here than on Airbnb. That markup might be worth it if staying somewhere that actively welcomes gay guests—and perhaps finding a host who will hang out or provide information—is a priority. Their Weeres social media side, where users can post dating-like profiles to chat with and perhaps meet other travellers, seems like a cool idea, but it seems underpopulated.
ebab
If misterb&b is like a gayer Airbnb, then ebab is like an emptier misterb&b.
Hot Take: Considering the other accommodation-booking services available, it’s hard to see why a traveller would pick ebab. Though they claim to offer accommodations in private gay-owned homes in 560 cities and 72 countries, there wasn’t a lot of choice when we looked. Two rooms for rent in Madrid? Two in the San Francisco/Bay area? There are filters for price, amenities and accommodation type, but the dearth of properties means the filters are useless. We got a couple of error messages trying to sign up.
Quouch
The thing about mainstream apps that match travellers with hosts who will provide free accommodations in their home is the skeezy factor, especially for women and queer people. Quouch, a queer woman-owned couchsurfing app, tries to solve that with a two-step signup process.
Hot take: The inclusive vibe is very clear and well-managed: Drag Queen, Vegan, Sober, BIPOC and Clean Freak are just some of the filters. And the membership seems to be a nice mix of shes, hes and theys, with shes in the majority. The hosts are not in it for the money, so there are not as many hosts as, say, misterb&b. The upside is that hosts and guests are very likely going to want to spend time with each other if the match is right, so it could be a richer experience. The two-step signup process requires users to wait for an invitation code and to submit a photo, which could be off-putting for some wannabe couchsurfers, reassuring for others. Though you can host and browse ads for free, wannabe guests need to pay a monthly subscription fee (roughly US$5.50) to be able to message hosts. Of course, it’s sliding scale, based on your self-declared financial situation.
Everywhere Is queer
This attractive map-based app provides a searchable guide to queer-owned businesses around the world. When we checked in summer 2025, they had more than 17,000 listings worldwide.
Hot take: With so many listings being services (tattoo artists, pet care, counselling, etc.), the app is probably more useful for residents or digital nomads than tourists. Its bar listings are highly selective, leaning toward the offbeat and the storied rather than the popular. When we looked for bars in Manhattan, for example, the only two listings were the famous Stonewall Inn (53 Christopher St., New York) and an event host (with no permanent venue) called Dyke Beer. That’s probably more of a feature than a bug for alt-oriented travellers. Like most of these apps, there’s a rich-country, English-speaking bias; there were no listings in Bogota, for example, and only five in Istanbul.
QList
Like Everywhere Is Queer, this is a map-based app with searchable listings of LGBTQ2S+-oriented businesses. When we checked in June 2025, they had about 5,000 listings.
Hot take: It’s hard not to compare QList to Everywhere Is Queer. QList is more focused on venues and events that would be of interest to a visitor, though they also include hair salons and card shops. Its take on nightlife is more mainstream, capturing most but not all the popular and well-established venues. Notable cities in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia have enough listings to make the app useful, but probably not as useful as a local source of information. The app is glitchier and less attractive than Everywhere Is Queer.
GayTravelr
This map-based listings app, which has been around since 2013, is more city-based than its rivals. That is, you use the interactive map to find the city, but the venues and events are provided in a sortable list form; if you need help getting to the place, the app sends you to Google Maps for route info.
Hot take: Best for the most obviously gay-friendly destinations (e.g., there are listings for Tokyo but not Osaka, Puerto Vallarta but not Guadalajara). Lists more bars, bathhouses and cruising clubs than other apps, but some of the venues closed long ago, so users need to double check with other sources before paying a visit. The function where users can share their trips and chat with other users is a cool idea, but the interface is clunky and there doesn’t seem to be many users engaging with that function.
Spartacus International Gay Guide
Probably the most venerable gay travel listings guide, with a history going back to 1970, when it was a printed book. Most of the listings are behind a paywall with an annual US$9.99 subscription giving users access to all the global listings, which are primarily aimed at gay men.
Hot take: The interface is clunky and surprisingly map-free, unlike its younger rivals. The free-access listings we checked out were dated; some of the venues had been closed for more than five years, which didn’t give us the confidence that a subscription would be worth it. The Android version of the app seems to have disappeared from the Google Play store, though it’s on the website. Their annual Spartacus Gay Travel Index, which ranks countries based on their LGBTQ+ friendliness, is still thorough and influential.
Out x Out
What sets this map-based gay-venue and events app apart is its social media aspect. Like, say, with Yelp, users can comment on listings, and so someone browsing a venue can click to see their profile and the other places they’ve been to and commented on.
Hot take: This app covers North America pretty well, the rest of the world much less so. You can’t whisk around the map to find venues; you have to do a city search, then the venues for each city become visible on the map—so there’s a learning curve for using the app. Like a good gay bathhouse or dating app, the more users the better, but Out x Out seems sparsely populated. It also has more intrusive ads than any of its competitors.
