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A big obstacle with finding time to travel is actually finding time to plan the trips you dream of taking! You could spend hours on Google trying to find the right information. You could browse through Yelp! or Trip Advisor looking for suggestions and information. But what if there was a way you could use social media to plan your next vacation?
“Come on, Kelly. Can it really be that easy?” Yes! I use social media apps like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to plan all my vacations. Today, I’m spilling my secrets so you can start planning your next trip without completely stressing out.
Are you ready to start maximizing your social media scrolls by using them to plan travel? Let’s start by opening up Instagram.
1. Planning Using Instagram Geotags
The first place I always start when using social media to plan a vacation is by searching Instagram’s Geotags for that destination. To find this, click on the magnifying glass icon on the menu bar. In the search bar, type your dream destination (or the destination you’ll be visiting next.) Then click the places tab to explore the Geotags.
As you can see on my screen, you will have plenty of results turn up here. You can explore a general tag of the city, or a more specific destination. I like to start general and get more specific as I find places that interest me.
2. Search Instagram’s Hashtags
Another really great way to find places to explore is by searching Hashtags. Start by searching for your location in a hashtag. For my example above, it would be #stlouis. You should also search variations of this like #stlouismo #stl #missouri. Digging through these curated feeds will help you find destinations to add to your itinerary. Check out the hashtags on the posts you find for even more ideas of what hashtags are used in that region.
3. Save What you Find
By now, you’ve likely found a delicious donut you’d love to try, or a beautiful cocktail you’re dying to drink. Maybe you’ve discovered a cool mural that you want to snap a photo in front of or a rooftop view that is worth going out of the way for. Awesome! So what do you do with all this information?
You could grab a notebook and write them all down and bring the piece of paper with you on your trip. I did that for years. But you can easily keep your entire itinerary right inside Instagram using their “save” feature. At the bottom right of every post, you’ll see a little banner icon. Click that to save an image.
If you just click that button, you’ll have a large, tangled mess of all the things you thought looked exciting. Or, you could click on the “Save to Collection” link. Using this link, you can create your own collection of posts and name it after where you’re visiting.
If you’re a weekend traveler like me, you likely will only need one collection that you can sift through as you go, but if you’ve got a longer or multi-destination trip planned, it would be helpful to create multiple collections for one trip.
Once you’ve got a pretty good idea of what kinds of things your destination has to offer, it’s time to jump off Instagram and dive into Pinterest!
4. Look for Travel Itineraries on Pinterest
Pinterest is an amazing collection of the most useful information. You’re probably already using this for recipes, DIY ideas, and saving images of your dream house. But Pinterest is also a great place to turn for travel planning.
Start by searching for exactly what you’re looking for: “X days in [Desitination City]” and Pinterest will likely have a result for you. For my example, try searching two days in St. Louis or weekend itinerary St. Louis. You’ll turn up tons of results for places to visit here. Click through some of the pins to the websites and find some new places to visit.
Jump back to Instagram and search for these places in Geotags or Hashtags and add them to your collection so you can reference them later.
Don’t forget to save the itineraries you find to your Pinterest boards, too. You’ll want to have those for later in case you need to remember a detail about the trip!
5. Use Facebook to Get the Details
Once you know where you’re going, you’ll have to figure out when you’re going to be there. I love to use Facebook for finding this information, especially because some smaller destinations don’t always have their own website.
Search for your must-see destinations on Facebook and you should be able to find the hours, address, and even events that this place might be hosting to help you plan accordingly.
You can save the pages from the places you want to visit to your “Saved” tab on Facebook to help you reference it later.
You’ve got the basics of your social media vacation plan. If you’re planning a casual trip with minimal time restrictions, this is all you’ll need to start your visit. Whenever you’re looking for the next place to go, open these apps and see what sounds most appealing next. If you are hoping for a more organized way to keep track of all the things you find, I’ve got a solution for you, too!
I’ve created a spreadsheet to help you keep track of what you want to see and when. You can get that at the link below.
Thanks for teaching me how to use Collections in Instagram, Kelly. I just started a bar, restaurant and Midwest travel site, too, but have much to learn.