Looking for the best travel hashtags to use on Instagram? You’re in the right place! Here’s my personalized guide to master hashtags on Instagram with the best travel hashtags for every travel niche! Enjoy!
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With the ever-changing Instagram algorithm cracking the “game of the gram” can get exhausting, especially as a travel blogger.
Luckily, hashtags remain tried and true. Not only as a way to boost your reach but connect with other travelers and even increase your Instagram following!
Through using hashtags I’ve been able to get my travel content featured on tons of other travel accounts and reach my travel niche audience — all with these hashtags!
So if you’ve ever struggled with choosing the perfect travel hashtags, look no further. I’ll also be updating this post yearly to make sure you’re getting the best and most up to date travel hashtags. Let’s get into it!
How Hashtags Work
The best way to describe Instagram hashtags is like a spiderweb…hear me out.
For every hashtag you attach to your photo, you’re essentially spreading (up to 30) tiny webs on the internet.
The more relevant your travel hashtags, the more likely you are to get interactions with your post and attract them to your page (i.e…the spider… still working on this analogy).
Which is why using hashtags on every post is vital to your Instagram growth. For travelers in particular, using hashtags can help people discover new places to add to their bucketlist as well, so there’s really no reason to not use travel hashtags!
How to Use Travel Hashtags for Instagram
I like to break Instagram hashtags into 5 categories based on tags. Tags refer to the amount of people using a certain hashtag. And they generally go as follows…
- 0-20,000 tags
- 20,000-40,000 tags
- 50,000-100,000 tags
- 100,000-300,000 tags
- 300,000 + tags
Personally, I wouldn’t go lower than 5,000-10,000 reach as you’ll be fighting for a really small piece of (hashtag) pie. I also always try to mix up my hashtags. For example, this may mean using 5 hashtags in the 10,000-20,000 category, 5 in the 20,000-40,000 category and so on and so on.
With that said, I would avoid using any travel hashtags with millions and millions of reach (i.e #travel) as you most likely won’t get found in the sea of well…millions.
Travel Hashtags Tips
1. Use all 30 Hashtags
Now, I’m constantly hearing different advice on this, but I would personally use all 30 hashtags for each post. Instagram will never penalize you for doing so, so might as well use all you got!
2. Make sure your hashtags are hyper-relevant
Of course using a few hashtags that relate to your general niche is never a bad idea (i.e #femaletravelblogger, #sologirltraveler etc.) but try and make the majority of the hashtags you use relate directly to the photos you’re posting. This increases your chances of being found and the engagement for that post.
For example, if you’re in a certain city, use their city hashtags, the hashtags for the tourism board there, and the hashtags for that specific landmark or location you’re at.
3. Make your Hashtags into a comment
Another thing to remember is never add your hashtag directly in the caption. Using 30 hashtags in your caption will definitely appear spammy.
So just as soon as I post I comment my hashtags underneath. Make sure it’s the first comment and add some dots as well to keep it clean. Like this…
4. Keep Record of your Hashtags
Whether it’s a notes section on your phone or creating an iphone shortcut for your hashtags sets, it’s important to keep track of all the hashtags you use.
If a post does well, you can easily backtrack to see what hashtags you used when you post a similar photo.
5. Don’t Forget Stories!
A little known fact about hashtags is you can use them in stories!
Using Instagram stories during your travels is a great way to interact with your audience and share a recap from your trip.
So, always use location tags and travel hashtags on your stories to increase your reach.
The best part is you can even squeeze them to disappear from the content itself (so it’s not too cluttered) while still showing up in the hashtag feed, win-win!
6. Whatever you do…don’t get Shadow Banned
You may have heard of the infamous Instagram shadow ban. This is where Instagram severely limits your reach for breaking the rules of the platform.
Strangely enough, this includes using the same hashtags over and over again! I’m guessing they consider this spammy, so like I said, always be sure to mix up your hashtags.
Best Travel Hashtags for Instagram
Onto the good stuff. Here’s the best travel hashtags for each travel niche. Remember to mix and match them for each post!
Solo Female Travel & Women Travel
Travel Blogger
Expat Travel
City Travel
Travel Inspiration
Beach Travel
Travel Videos
Black Travel
Luxury Travel
Adventure Travel
Family Travel
Get Featured Travel
How to Find Your Own Travel Hashtags
With any hashtag strategy, it’s always best to personalize it to your niche as much as possible. So, if you have some ideas for travel hashtags not on this list simply go into Instagram, type in a keyword, and see what pops up.
You’ll find tons of related keywords at the top (and their tag reach) to add to your own hashtag library.
So next time you’re traveling, don’t think twice and use these hashtags to reach travel lovers just like you!
Happy hashtagging,
If you liked this post be sure to check out “How to Choose your Travel Blog Niche”, “5 London Bloggers to Stalk ASAP” or “How to Stop Comparing Yourself on Social Media”
Hi Candace!
Loved this post – super helpful! I always struggle with hashtags, so this was much needed!
Happy new year!
xx Emily
Of course! Happy to help 🙂
Happy New Year,
Candace x