How to Answer the "Best Travel Story" Prompt on Hinge

Answer it with one trip and one moment from that trip, in two lines. Do not list countries and do not announce that you travel. A good answer to this Hinge prompt is funny or odd on its own, and the fact that you get around is just where it happened to take place. If the prompt is already on your profile, or you are choosing from the list, that is the whole job.

The wording asks for a story, so she expects a beginning and an end. Most men hand her a summary instead: "Backpacked Southeast Asia, would go again." That is a fact with a postcard on it.

Hinge's own advice for all prompts is to get creative, because an answer with something specific gives another person a real reason to reach out. It describes prompts as a way to put your curiosities and interests into your own words, and as a push away from the usual details people share. A travel summary is exactly the usual detail.

Hinge also uses "best travel story" as its example in its own post about Voice Prompts, which tells you how the stem is meant to sound. It is something you would say across a table, not a caption under a photo.

The trip is too big. A story lives in the afternoon the bus broke down, the wrong train you boarded, the host who would not let you leave hungry.

Think of the moment that you tell at dinner when someone says they have been to the same country. That one. It has a small problem in it, a person in it, and a detail she can ask about. A detail is the whole point, because it is the thing she can reply to.

Four days in a city tells her where you were. The hour you spent arguing with a ticket machine tells her who you are.

a dating coach teaches that the best story is good by itself, and that the value in it shows up as a necessary part of the story rather than as something you announce. He describes two bad versions of the man. One brags, and looks low value because he brags. The other is so afraid of bragging that he leaves out everything, and she is unimpressed. The third man conveys it quietly.

For this prompt, that means telling a funny or interesting thing that happened abroad and letting the places come through by accident. You never say "I travel a lot." She works that out from the story, and a few stories across your page and your conversations build the picture of a man who gets around.

a dating coach went through profile answers that were facts only. One man named the period of history he would visit and gave no reason. My point was that an answer like that says nothing about you or about what dating you is like. Add the reason, or pick a different prompt.

The same test applies here. "Portugal, Japan, Peru" is a list of facts. It invites nothing except a nod.

All three are made up for this article, and none is a real man's answer. Each one builds the story a different way.

"Missed the last ferry off a Greek island and slept on the dock. A fisherman woke me at dawn and made me carry his nets for a coffee. Worst back, best coffee." It starts in trouble and ends on a joke, and she can ask about the nets.

"A taxi driver in Lima decided I needed a tour. Two hours, six stops, one of them his cousin's electronics shop, where I bought a phone charger I still use." The charger is the detail. It proves the story happened and makes it small enough to believe.

"Spent a week in Lisbon with a guidebook so old that half the restaurants had closed. The ones still open, I think about weekly." This one is quieter. It says you will follow a bad plan with good humor, which is what a trip with you would be like.

Hinge Voice Prompts let you answer with a short voice recording instead of text. The recording shows under your first picture, and you can listen to it before it goes live. Hinge says a voice shows more than a photo or text and gives people a glimpse of what a first date with you would be like.

For this stem that suits you well, because a travel story is already something you tell out loud. Keep it short. Speak the way you would to a friend, in a quiet room, and stop after the detail rather than adding a moral.

First, what would she ask about? If she could write "which ferry?" or "did you keep the charger?", the story works. If the only reply is "nice", it is still a summary, so go narrower.

Second, is the story really yours? Say it out loud once, start to finish. A story you lifted from someone else comes apart at her first follow-up question, and she will feel that on the date. Hinge lets you change a written answer whenever you like, so a weak version costs you nothing to replace.