How I use Instagram as a travel guide

Gone are the days when one would head out to explore a new destination with a guidebook in hand. In today’s times, everyone seems to be hooked up to social media applications like Instagram to get their travel updates, tips and lots more. Do you want to know how I use Instagram as my travel guide?

Follow relevant hashtags:

Instagram gives its users the ability to follow hashtags just like you follow different accounts. When you follow a hashtag, related content will begin appearing in your feed and Stories bar. This is what I do when I am trying to get maximum information about a place I am about to visit.

Check out Geotags:

I am sure all of you have used Geotags for your own posts on Instagram. But you could also search all the posts of a particular destination by clicking on its Geotag.  By clicking the location tag on Instagram, you can not only see pinpointed where the hotel, restaurant, or graffitied wall is located on a map—you can see photos taken by other Instagrammers there. How cool is that!

You could also use this trick to check what people ordered when they visited a particular restaurant or what people saw when they visited a particular destination. It can actually save your time and whats more, you get to know live reviews about a thing before you decide to do it.

Also read: A morning with Orangutans in Sarawak

Save relevant Instagram posts in a collection:

This is one of my favourite ways to organise myself and my favourite posts on Instagram. Imagine how much time you can save if you want to access a particular post either for the information it has provided or anything else. All you need to do is click the bookmark icon at the bottom right of a picture. Once you do that the post will go to your saved post category, a feature that is only visible to you. You could either just bookmark it without adding it in a specific collection or make collections based on what it is you are trying to research (which is what I do majorly).

 

Let me give you an example, let’s say you are going to Iceland soon and are looking to find out the best vantage points for a picture perfect photograph. Or if you are planning to redo your home interior and are looking for references on a specific theme, you can make a collection accordingly.

Since you can make as many as you want, so divide yours up by city, upcoming trip, dream vacations, brunches you have to eat, or even just as a reminder of local Instagrammers in specific cities or regions.

Also read: The women of Kutch

Follow Travel and Tourism Pages of that particular destination:

Another excellent way you can learn about the travel tips, destination info and other info on events and festivals is following the Travel and Tourism Instagram Accounts of that destination. In today’s times, there are Instagram accounts of smaller destinations and events as well as countries. You can choose what you like and follow them.

Follow Travel bloggers:

In today’s digital era, the emerging trend is that of Travel Blogging. A large number of freelance travel bloggers have come up, who make a career just by giving you the best tips, tricks and travel inspo. I follow so many Travel bloggers that match my kind of travel and destinations, you could do the same.

Follow inspirational destination based photographers:

The last but not the least in this category is to follow famous locally based Travel Photographers that shoot a particular destination. On more instances than one, I have got excellent travel tips from them on interesting places to add on my Travel bucket list.

Have you tried any of these tips? If there is anything else you do before planning your trip please share in comments below. I would love to know how you prepare before starting off on a trip and does social media play a big role in the same?