Using Instagram to Plan travel
I am asked all the time how I plan our family travel. I don’t use a travel agent (though sometimes wish I did). I do all the research, reservations, and planning myself. Our travel usually stems from an interest in a culture or a destination our family is talking about or something the kids are curious about from school. I never feel like I am quite able to define what I’m hoping to get out of our adventure in order to convey this message to anyone else. Control freak, perhaps, but I honestly feel that no one knows how you like to travel or what your family needs like you do.
Today I’m going to show you how to use Instagram to plan travel. The visual nature of Instagram is a wonderful platform in which to inspire you and to assist you in learning about your destination. The use of hashtags will help you find countless sources of hotels, restaurants, beaches, monuments, tour guides, etc. Pretty much anything and everything.
After you search using hashtags of your choice, you can utilize the save option on each post to save these individuals images and their content. I leaned too long on the habit of taking a screenshot of people or places I wanted to remember then never being able to find them again buried in my camera roll! The save option hides them neatly away for you until you are ready to book your trip.
Where do you find all those images and posts? Go to your profile page and look for the bookmark icon. Click on that and you will see every post you’ve ever saved. From there you can start collections. These act similarly to your Pinterest boards (which is another awesome way to help you plan travel). If you haven’t saved any posts yet, simply search your favorite hashtag for your destination find one to save and click on the bookmark icon to save.
You can go about this in two ways. Click on the “all” button which will show you all your saved posts, then the add + button to start a new collection or click on “Collections” click add and start a new collection.
Once you hit “next” you will be able to select which saved posts you want to add to that collection. Click done to be taken to that collection. Clicking back will take you to all your collections. Then when you go to planning your itinerary all your ideas are already neatly together and ready for you to make your bookings. You are also easily able to reference these inspiration images on the go while you are exploring.
More about using Pinterest and other social media to plan your travel as well as tons of itineraries and inspiration in our travel section.
