The 29 Best Travel Blogs Of 2021

Can’t I just search for a specific topic on Google or Pinterest and move on?”

Planning a trip in 2021 means that finding travel blogs you “click” with (no pun intended) are no longer optional.

There are sooo many reasons why you should actually take the time to get to know your favorite travel bloggers, rather than just taking a “skim and pin” approach…

It’s tempting when you’re planning a trip (or even searching for destination inspiration), to search on Pinterest and take the first ten links as gospel.

But then you wouldn’t be really doing your homework.

Remember when I said reading a travel blog should feel like getting advice from a personal friend? Well, I should probably be more specific. You wouldn’t just go to any friend to ask for inspiration or advice. Could you imagine if someone asked you for places to eat, where to stay, and what to do at a destination you’ve never been to?

I didn’t think so.

You would go to a friend that knows a good deal about that topic and can help guide you based on your own specific interests and goals.

But unfortunately, not everyone has a friend like that in their IRL circle. Even a well traveled friend could potentially know ZERO about where you want to go.

When you’re investing money into travel, you should only seek the best tips and advice from the people who know best.

The internet is FULL of people who love to talk and share. But if you don’t know who a blogger is and what they’re about, it’s difficult to know whether or not their advice is, or will eventually be, helpful to you.

So how can you tell?

Every travel blogger starts their blog for a reason. These reasons can be all across the board, from simply a way to make money to fund their travels, to a creative outlet, to a platform to share with a variety of friends and family what they’re up to.

But they all have one thing in common:

People start travel blogs because they don’t believe their stories, insights, or advice (read: their content) can be found anywhere else.

There would be little point to me writing content if I didn’t think you could go elsewhere to find it. Not only do I not want to have to compete for a number one spot in Google, but I also just don’t care what anyone else is doing.

I’ve researched all corners of the internet far and wide to find you the best, most unique travel blogs that you should be following in 2021.

How to find the best travel blog to reference for your next trip

The best travel blogs shine on their own.

Nevertheless, if I’m going to tell you I’ve found the best of the best, I can’t pick and choose based on a gut feeling alone (though I definitely used that, too).

What’s the saying about teaching a man (you) to fish (find the best travel blog for your personal needs)? Sure, I can give you a list and send you on your merry way. But what will you take away beyond yet-another bookmark in your sea of 20,000 other travel blog links?

I want to teach you how to find the best travel blogs on your own. The internet changes every minute, and while publishing a “best of in 2021” list is helpful right now, who knows if or when this list will get dated and I’ll have to start from the beginning?

You shouldn’t need to wait on me, that’s for sure.

1. Minimal ads & pop ups.

Needless to say, it’s a nightmare when you click on a Pinterest link thinking it’s exactly what you’re looking for, only to be so inundated with pop-ups and ads that you can’t even find the information you actually need.

It isn’t just a bad user experience; it can get damn near impossible to wade through everything just to get what you need, especially if you’re on mobile.

So if you get more than one pop-up in the first 10 seconds of your browsing experience, go ahead and say your goodbyes to another bad blog.

2. Actual experience.

Everyone has to live somewhere (unless you’re a nomad, but just stick with me for a second). So generally, you know your favorite places to eat and drink, where to stay, and fun activities to do in between. So a travel blogger should at minimum be an expert on their own city. That’s step number one, and usually pretty easy to tell.

Where it gets tricky is when they start to travel. What kind of advice are they offering about travel itself? Are they sharing personal stories of various destinations, or just sharing “tips and reviews”?

It should go without saying, but it’s surprisingly easy to “fake” experience if you know enough about internet trends, keyphrases, etc. So you’ll want to be sure that the travel bloggers you follow have actually been to the destinations they’re writing about. They should include personal stories, photos of themselves doing the things that they’re talking about, and even names of people they met along the way.

This will not only help you get to know them to see if your personalities align, but it will also make sure that the advice they’re giving you is legit.

Every travel blogger should have a strong sense of their own identity. They can’t be everything to everyone, so knowing where to hone their travel blogging skills will not only be helpful for creating great blog content; it’s also helpful for you as the reader.

In other words, if you know what to expect from them, it’s a lot easier to feel like that travel blogger can be your “go to” on their topic of expertise.

Here are a few different “niches” in the world of travel blogs that you might be on the lookout for depending on your personality or individual trip itinerary.

Types of Travel Blog “Niche” Examples

• Adventure
• Backpacking
• Budget
• Luxury
• Nomadic
• Parents & Family-Friendly

There are also a variety of different types of travel blog topics that most people have their own expertise in. Here are a few examples:

• Adrenaline & Amusement Parks
• Art & Theater
• Destination-Specific
• Food & Cooking
• Photography
• Sports & Fitness

Once you not only realize that there are different types of travel blogs, but that you can actually pick and curate your own feeds to fit your own goals, finding your own favorite blogs to follow is relatively easy.

In case you were dying to know, Of Whiskey & Words is more than a travel blog; it’s a lifestyle blog that involves a significant amount of traveling (with a focus on adventure travel).

To take it one step further, I’ll give you an example. Let’s say your goal is to visit every baseball stadium in the USA. How do you even know where to start?

While you may want to feel like you’re planning the trip yourself, you’re also probably going to need some help (unless you’re an expert road tripper, baseball fanatic, and bucket list guru. In which case, maybe you should start your own blog instead!).

Would you rather:

1. A) Find a bucket-list blog that talks about how to visit every [insert destination here] in the country;
2. B) Find a USA road-trip niche blog and adapt certain advice for what you need; or
3. B) Find a baseball-themed blog with reviews of some specific stadiums?

The answer: All three! If you follow these three (hypothetical) travel blogs, you should be able to feasibly combine the best of all of their expertise to make your trip the best it can be.

Hack: You can also personally contact each of the blogs above and ask them to do a write-up of the best ways to hit every baseball stadium in the country. Who knows? Maybe they’ll write a whole article with your trip as the inspiration! At the very least, they can give you some pretty dope advice straight back at you, each from their own point of view.

There are two main things to look for in the quality of a travel blog: Updates & Maintenance.

Routine Updates on a Travel Blog: Too much versus not enough

When you visit a travel blog, you should expect to see an entire timeline of posts surrounding fresh topics. If you visit a travel blog in 2021, and the last post they created was dated 2019 or before, there’s not to say that there aren’t good resources somewhere inside; what that does tell me is that the person is probably not as much of a frequent contributor as I would like.

Do you know how many travel blogs have been abandoned because travelers can’t keep up with them? (Spoiler Alert: It’s in the thousands.)

So when they don’t post at a minimum of once a month, there should be a proper explanation for why. Are they revamping their platform? Going on a silent retreat for six months? You as the reader should not be expected to invest time into seeking advice from a travel blogger who isn’t very active.

Travel Blog Maintenance

Because I work for a web agency, I know how easy it is to break a website. If implemented incorrectly, a single plugin can take down the entire infrastructure of a blog!

So if someone takes their travel blog seriously, they’ll know better than to go without proper maintenance. You should not see ANY lines of code anywhere on the site; scrolling should be smooth; the reading experience should be easy; and (again) pop-ups should be minimal.

Additionally, if a travel blog doesn’t look good on mobile, you can probably guess that it won’t be very helpful for you in the long term.

1. Frequently visit the site & sign up for emails.

Many travel bloggers make their money on a combination of ad revenue and being able to leverage their “influence” to get services at a discount or for free. By visiting the site frequently, you’ll be empowering your favorite travel blogs to continue doing what they do best—serving you great content.

2. Reach out personally & ask questions. 

I personally love when people reach out to me—especially strangers who discovered my travel blog organically. Not only do I love helping people, but it also just lets me know that I’m doing a good job with publishing content and providing resources to the travel community (and aspiring travelers) if people see me as a resource myself. But more than an ego boost, it’s a chance for me to help give you more personalized advice and suggestions for your specific situation, dreams, and budget.

3. Save their links on Pinterest.

Remember when I said travel bloggers can make money on site visits? A big part of generating new users to a travel blog in 2021 is via Pinterest. So one of the best ways you can support your favorites are to save their links on Pinterest, especially for articles you actually want to bookmark and reference later!

4. Follow their other social media—and share their links on your own feed.

Pinterest may be the content king when it comes to travel blogs, but that doesn’t mean other social media isn’t important, too! Most travel blogs post reminders and updates to social media that you won’t find on their website or newsletter list. After all, the best travel bloggers diversify their content across platforms, so you can enjoy a variety of different types of content from your favorites. It’s also a really easy place to engage with them and show your appreciation by commenting on and sharing their content with your own friends and family.

5. Follow their advice—then follow up afterwards.

I remember when I first started traveling, I leaned heavily on the advice of travel bloggers to help get me started. If it weren’t for my favorites, I wouldn’t be the travel blogger I am today. So when someone gives you advice on where to go, what to do, or what to eat in a destination (or simply just how to quit your job and live abroad) trust that you can take it. But the best part? Tell them afterwards that you took their advice. Tell them where you went, what you did, and what you ate. They’ll love hearing your feedback, and if they haven’t been back to a particular destination, you may even be able to provide them important updated information about their advice that they can then share with the rest of their audience!

Ready to find your new favorite blogs? Without further adieu, here is the official Of Whiskey & Words Ranking of the Best Travel Blogs of 2021.

The Best Travel Blogs of 2021