Exact Travel Hashtags For Instagram That’ll Get You On The Explore Page

So, you want to grow your Instagram account and are looking for the best travel hashtags to get followers? You’ve come to the right place!

Instagram has truly changed the way I both plan for trips and grow my Instagram following on @thewhimsysoul. The right hashtags make all the difference and have helped me grow to almost 80,000 Instagram followers! Keep reading for my favorite creative travel hashtags to use on Instagram!

Exact Travel Hashtags For Instagram That’ll Get You On The Explore Page

As a consumer, I still look on Pinterest and blogs for detailed travel tips about a location, but the first place I make a beeline to is Instagram hashtags. It’s there that I can always find the most unique cafes, the hidden natural gems, the best views of the city I plan on visiting.

It’s also how I discover places I didn’t even know about. Whenever I stumble upon a really cool travel photo on Instagram, I save it to a collection so I can look back on those next time I’m itching to explore. 

And of course, the right travel hashtags are how I grow my following and make sure my content is seen. 

Now, with Instagram allowing you to follow hashtags, making sure your hashtag game is on point is vital for people to find your awesome travel photos on the platform. Below are my favorite Instagram travel hashtags guide so you can easily copy and paste them to use on your own Instagram posts. I’m also sharing my tips for using travel hashtags to GROW your Instagram account!

Using Instagram and social media to grow my travel blog has been a huge part of my success. I’ve been a full-time lifestyle travel blogger for about a year now and just hired on my husband full time to help with travel blogging at Whimsy Soul as well! It takes an army.

Whenever it’s time for me to share my travel photography to @thewhimsysoul, I have a multi-step process for determining the best popular travel hashtags to make sure my post is a top Instagram recommended posts in the feed (darn you algorithm making it a constant fighting battle for your own followers to even see your posts!)

Using hashtags works, though. I can always tell when I picked the right popular hashtags for a post shared when the insights show an extra high amount of impressions under a photo. Here’s the process I use when picking out the best hashtags for that specific post.

• 15 general / most popular hashtags for travel (like #wanderlust)
• 5 popular instagram repost account hashtags (like #GLTLOVE)
• 10 niche hashtags describing the location (like #sanfrancisco)

Now, let’s break those three steps into Instagram travel hashtags copy paste lists so you can easily use them and get more likes per photo!

General Top Travel Hashtags

Remember, you can have a max of 30 hashtags per post and you want to pick 15 from this list! These type of hashtags of hundreds of thousands if not millions of shares. It means that a lot of people probably follow these hashtags, so using them increased the chance your photo will appear in their feed vs the explore page (aka more engagement!)

#travelling

#traveler

#tourism

#travelingram

#igtravel

#traveller

#travelblog

#travelblogger

#traveltheworld

#roadtrip

#instatraveling

#instapassport

#outdoors

#mytravelgram

#traveladdict

#lonelyplanet

#unlimitedparadise

#vacationwolf

#forahappymoment

#planetdiscovery

#wearetravelgirls

#mytinyatlas

#theprettycities

#exploringtheglobe

#theglobewanderer

#flashesofdelight

#visualoflife

#roamtheplanet

#ladiesgoneglobal

#traveldeeper

#globelletravels

#sidewalkerdaily

#girlslovetravel

#travelstoke

#openmyworld

#tasteintravel

#femmetravel

#instapassport

#abmtravelbug

#letsgoeverywhere

#tlpicks

#thetravelwomen

#adventurethatislife

#pnwonderland

#discoverglobe

#collectivelycreate

#thatpnwlife

#keepitwild

#greatnorthcollective

#earthofficial

#wanderlust

#travelcouple

#travelgirl

#traveling

#visittheusa

Popular Hashtags For Repost Accounts

Once you picked out about 15 of these general travel tags, use 5 of the below hashtags that are for repost accounts to increase the change that you get reposted on popular accounts! I sometimes like to call these travel blogger hashtags because mostly just people in the industry use them to share their content. These hashtags sometimes have fewer shares, but are how repost accounts find photos to share.

#sheisnotlost

#dametraveler

#gltlove

#whimsysoul

#traveldreamseekers

#mountainchicks

#blondesandcookies

#beautifuldestinations

#wanderwomeninc

#allaboutadventures

#girlsborntotravel

#travellushes

#girlsmeetglobe

#girlsvsglobe

#sheexplores

#radgirlslife

Best Hashtags For Travel (Niche)

Lastly, use 10 travel-related hashtags to describe your location! This is important for regular users to discover your travel photo while they are researching the location, or even posting from the location. I’ve discovered so many cool travel bloggers this way!

For an example of what I mean, let’s say you are visiting my home city of San Francisco and are sharing a post of you standing in front of the Painted Ladies. You’ll want to use the local travel Instagram hashtags for the region, including tourism board tags like:

#mysf

#igersf

#sanfrancisco

#visitcalifornia

#onlyinsf

#nowrongwaysf

#bayareablogger

#sanfranciscolove

#alwayssf

#visittheusa

#travelamerica

#discoveramerica

You’ll also want to use some photo-specific hashtags, like:

#paintedladies

#fullhouse

#alamosqaure

#colorfulhouses

#abmlifeiscolorful

#livecolorfully

#myunicornlife

#acolorstory

#abmhappylife

#colorventures

#thatcolorproject

Bonus Points

If you want to really make sure your post is seen, don’t forget to add a geolocation! Get as specific as you can so other users adding their photo under that same location can easily discover your content. Since they probably have a personal tie to the location they are posting about, this increases the chance they’ll be interested enough to look at your photo and follow you!

For example, let’s say you’re visiting Haleakala in Maui like I am in the above Instagram photo. On top of using #visitmaui (the official Maui tourism board hashtag) and #lethawaiihappen (the Hawaii state hashtag), I’m tagging @Haleakalanps in the photo. I’m also tagging the tourism board account for the whole state and Maui too. 

You can also tag travel curated accounts, like @passionpassport or @gltlove to expand the chance of your photo being seen even more. I don’t usually love doing this as it’s more work and I don’t always see the ROI, but some people swear by this tactic to grow their following.

Don’t forget to always link your travel blog posts in your bio and have a strong call to action to get followers over to your blog! You don’t own your Instagram but you do own your blog so it’s important to build up a community there.

TO RECAP

To recap, about 15 hashtags should be general travel hashtags that has hundreds of thousands of shares on them. This increases your chance of a wide-spread reach. Next, use about 5 repost account hashtags and cross your fingers the gal behind Darling Escapes likes your photo enough to share on her popular account!

Lastly, use about 10 location-specific hashtags and don’t forget to use local tourism boards tags! And of course, use the geolocation feature! You can also go the extra step and use things around food (ie #mauifood, #mauibreakfast, etc) to get on the radar of people looking for dining suggestions. 

How I Find The Best Travel Hashtags 2020

I’m ALWAYS on the hunt for creative travel hashtags to use. I’m constantly switching up my arsenal of tags as the industry and landscape changes. I follow a lot of travel hashtags and when I’m bored on a random night watching Netflix, I’ll go stalk other travel influencers and travel bloggers. 

I’ll go to the explore page and see what photos pop up under Travel, and then take a peek at what hashtags popular posts have. I copy them all down and look to see if there’s a pattern. If there is, I’ll try that hashtag out on my next post!

I also find new tags to try out by the Instagram search bar. When you type in, let’s say, #whimsysoul, Instagram will suggest related hashtags. This is a fantastic way to find tags that correlate with each other and hence help boost the impressions on your post!

I hope this helps you find the top Instagram hashtags, rock your Instagram game, get more followers, become a full-time travel blogger and see the world! Please feel free to leave a comment below with your favorite hashtag(s) if it isn’t on this list!

Good Content Is King

Of course, hashtags aren’t the only element involved in growing your travel Instagram account. You need to have good, original content. I use professional level blogging camera gear to take good quality photos that help me stand out. 

I also have my own niche – we like to focus *mostly* on USA based travel. Maybe your niche is budget or luxury or only locations in the state of California. Whatever your travel-related niche is, you have to make good content. The right Instagram tags can’t help you get more followers if you aren’t making good content. 

There’s also a bunch of other strategies I use to become a fulltime influencer that you can read. 

And make sure to follow me on Instagram @thewhimsysoul (no shame, your girl wants more followers, too!)