Writer’s Block? Here are 13 Travel Blog Ideas to Get the Creative Juices Flowing Again.

Despite various other trends over the last decade or so, blogging is a form of content marketing that is still going strong. Whilst many of us are fuelling our wanderlust and planning new adventures by scrolling social media or watching videos on YouTube or TikTok, there’s still nothing quite like a good 2000+ word piece of blog content to give you the lowdown on a new destination, review a hotel or hostel or give quality guidance on what you need for a six-week backpacking adventure.

The majority of travel businesses nowadays have a blog as part of their website where they share valuable and insightful content with their customer base. This branded content is also often used to help new customers find the company by targeting topics that their audience takes an interest in, as well as helping to build a strong brand image.

But with so much travel blogging content out there already, trying to come up with ideas of what to actually write can become a serious uphill struggle. Sure, you can use SEO to find relevant keyword phrases to target, but you also want your blog to include posts that stand out from all your competitor’s offerings and add a bit of creative variation to what your customers can engage with.

If you’ve been suffering from travel writer’s block, never fear. Here are 13 inspiring travel blog post ideas to get the creative juices flowing again.

First Things First…

Before we launch into our list of prompts for your next blog post, there’s something you need to consider if you’re finding it hard to come up with ideas of what to write. The key to any good piece of content is understanding the audience that it is going to target, and blog post ideas are no different.

If you’re producing blog content as part of a wider marketing strategy then it’s likely you already have a pretty clear idea of who makes up your target audience and what it is they care about.

If you don’t...get on that. The impact will be instantaneous.

Perhaps you’ve got customer personas you’re trying to target, or perhaps there’s just a specific kind of traveller that you know your brand’s offering appeals to.

What you’re going to do is sit down and start dumping ideas onto a page. Think about who these customers are and what they care about, and make a list of every possible topic that they might be interested in.

It doesn’t matter if 95% of these are rubbish. You’ve still got 5% more ideas than when you started.

This might seem like obvious advice, but when you’re stuck in a creative rut it can be really useful to go right back to the people you’re writing for and think about what they genuinely like to read.

Once you’ve exhausted all the possibilities from that exercise, read on…

13 Travel Blog Post Ideas

When you take a look at the best travel blogs in the business, they don’t just stick to one tried and tested kind of content. They offer destination guides, holiday inspiration, visual diaries, exclusive insight and interesting facts, as well as reviews and recommendations.

Variety is the spice of life, and you want your blog about travel to cover all bases. Always keep your target audience’s interests in mind, but ensure that you’re using a range of formats so that you create a bank of content that all have individual value.

This list of tried and tested ideas for blog posts will ensure you’re offering your readers a little bit of everything, and you can revisit it at any time if you’re looking for inspiration.

1. How To

The classic ‘how to’ is an old favourite blog post idea. It’s a great starting point for generating tons of content ideas that offer guidance to your readers and can be as general or as specific as you like to target different groups of potential customers.

When it comes to this style of content, it’s worth researching the common questions or problems that your target audience have and which your brand offering solves, as this gives you a very smooth way into promoting your company at the end of the post. Blog content should never solely be about trying to sell however; your top priority should be providing genuine help and value in your ‘how to’ guide.

Some classic examples of this kind of travel post include ‘how to book this type of holiday’, ‘how to travel to destination on a budget’, ‘how to avoid this common travel mishap’ and so on.

2. List of the ‘Best’

Another classic kind of post that you’ll see on all the best travel blogs is lists of the ‘best’ locations, attractions, accommodation options or holiday activities, to name just a few. These kinds of posts often have pretty high search volume, so it’s worth doing a bit of digging to see if there are any popular queries that you can use as inspiration for content like this.

A list style post of recommendations is a great starting point for travel blog content because you can make it as general or specific as you want, depending on what your brand offering is. If you focus specifically on one destination then you can rate the best towns, cities, times of year to visit, beaches, sightseeing spots or even photo opportunities, whereas brands that cover a wider range of travel experiences can create lists with recommendations such as the best countries, cities around the world, locations for an activity or even recipes from different cultures. 

3. Guides and Tutorials

Destination guides are the backbone of plenty of travel blogs. There’s no better way to target potential customers than offering guides to the places your company offers travel experiences to, with a subtle call to action at the end. They’re also an excellent way to establish yourself as a leading travel provider for that part of the world.

But guides and tutorials don’t have to just offer insight into a destination. You can also create guides to various types of holidays, travelling on a particular mode of transport, saving money when booking a trip or what to bring when visiting different parts of the world for the first time.

4. Trends

If you’re looking to establish yourself in your sector of the travel industry then a great way to get people to notice you is to start offering insight into the latest trends. Not only is this a great way to ensure you’re producing content that people are talking about and searching for right now, but sharing personal insight and experiences of the foundations or impact of new trends will demonstrate that your brand is an important figure in your industry and potentially get you featured in other pieces of content talking about trends as well.

5. Data or Statistics

Data and statistics can be an excellent foundation for engaging and valuable blog content. Whether you’re pulling numbers from your own databases or analysing statistics from elsewhere in the industry, you can either create content commenting on certain pieces or use things like search volume to write posts based on the most-visited locations, highest-rated attractions or even most-Instagrammed places (this is a firm favourite at the moment).

Creating content based on data and statistics also allows you to create infographics for these posts that can then be shared on social media or used in email content as well. What’s not to like?

6. Lessons Learned

The best way to really engage your readers with your travel blogging content is to make what you’re writing about feel personal and appeal to their emotions with what you share. A great way to humanise the ‘voice’ of your blog posts and help your audience feel connected to what you’ve written is to share travel advice that is based on a lesson you have learned yourself.

Be humble; explain the mistake that you (and potentially many others made) when booking a trip, visiting a destination at a certain time of year or forgetting to pack a vital item before setting off on holiday. You’ll help your readers avoid making the same mistake, which makes the content incredibly valuable and will make them feel more affinity to your brand.

7. Tools or Products

Whether you’re listing apps, luggage, online tools or travel gadgets, creating blog posts that recommend products that you know your target audience will find useful is an excellent idea. There are tons of ideas to be generated when you start looking into your customer base’s interests and identify what else they’re likely to want to purchase or use, and with plenty of new gadgets always being created for the travel industry, it’s a content idea that can be reused over and over again.

8. Stories and Anecdotes

As we’ve mentioned before, tapping into your reader’s emotions is a surefire way to increase engagement and make your blog content more memorable. A very simple way to write a blog post that does just that is to tell a story or an anecdote about your own travel experiences that still has value to a potential customer, but wraps up this value in a relatable story.

Remember to focus on sensory description to really help the reader feel like they are there with you; use rich adjectives, describe all of your senses and use an informal tone so that it feels like talking to a friend.

9. Humour

Another classic way to engage your reader and elicit an emotional response is to write posts based on humour. This is particularly good for travel companies that want to establish an approachable and light-hearted brand image, as well as those who are aiming to get people talking about and sharing their content.

Ideas for humorous travel blog post ideas include relatable stories about common travelling mishaps, posts that use memes and other visual viral content, funny anecdotes from those in your industry and amusing facts or stories from a destination.

10. Controversy

Whilst this won’t be a tactic suitable for every travel brand, writing controversial blog posts is one surefire way to get people to notice you. We’re not suggesting that you trash-talk competitors or reveal secrets that really should have been kept schtum, but sharing your opinion on a sensitive topic or refusing to shy away from a serious issue can be a very effective method of establishing brand values and standing out from your competitors.

11. Time-Based

This is a blog post format that works particularly well for travel writers. Pick a set period of time and then write a guide to a destination within that time frame, choosing activities, accommodation and places to eat so that your readers have a fully formed itinerary to go off.

‘24 hours in…’ is a particularly popular format, as is ‘3 days in…’ or ‘1 week in…’. This is another example where it can be beneficial to look at common searches around the destination you’re writing about to see if there are any timeframes that a lot of people are looking for suggestions in.

12. Comparison

Another classic blog post format is comparison, which works very well when you’re presenting a choice between two popular destinations. Again, when you’re looking for ideas of where to write about, look at what locations are commonly pitched against each other to get a good idea of what your target audience is already looking for.

This can be a really good format for a regular series of blog posts featuring different locations, where you focus on comparing factors that you know your readers are most interested in. These could be cost, cultural attractions, food and drink, nightlife or even accessibility.

13. FAQs

Finally, a classic idea to fall back on that you can almost guarantee will be well received is an FAQ-style blog post. You can base this off your own records of questions customers tend to ask your company and put together guides that can be used as the first point of call for troubleshooting, splitting these up into different topics to generate more ideas.

It’s also worth reaching out to your existing customer base and asking them what kinds of questions or advice they’d like to hear from your brand and using these responses to inspire blog posts. That way, you can be doubly sure that your readers are going to engage with what you publish.

Summary

We’ve only just scratched the surface of ideas for travel blog content with this list; there are plenty more formats and topics that are the basis for engaging and informative content you can share with your audience. Always remember to start by identifying who exactly you are writing the post for and what you want them to get from it, and you’ll be sure to keep producing content that hits the mark every time.