It seems travel inspiration can be found just about everywhere. Even our TV has amazing, inspirational screen saver photos. In fact, we were so inspired by the photo of the picturesque lakeside town of Hallstatt, that we incorporated a stop there during our trip to Austria a couple of years ago. If you follow Travel + Leisure or Conde Nast Traveler, your social feeds will be inundated with destination inspiration around the globe. So how do you start planning your next trip to one of these beautiful destinations? To plan a dream vacation, harness the power of the internet and social media feeds to deliver destination specific resources directly to you.
When we planned our first trip to Austria several years ago, I found their tourism office website had amazing resources. They provided suggested driving itineraries of different lengths. These thoughtfully provided every traveler an option that matched their vacation duration. After studying their recommendations, I even corresponded with them asking specific questions about driving distances, accommodation referrals and even areas of interest along my travel route. Lastly, we created a driving route incorporating their itinerary recommendations and added our Google Map pins – including a stop to iconic Hallstatt!
Currently we are planning a return trip to Italy. In preparation, I follow Visit Italy on Facebook and associated Italy hashtags on Instagram to provide a constant feed of locations and highlights for consideration. Those ideas are transferred as destination pins on Google Maps. The pins below reflect my Florence, Italy research and highlight stops we want to visit. If you haven’t already, read my blog about travel planning with Google Maps here.
If you search “Visit [insert the country you’d like to visit]” on Facebook, you’ll find they almost all have an official visitor page. I’ve linked some popular destinations below:
Europe Destinations:
US Destinations:
Other Destinations:
So get started on your next dream vacation today by following destination specific social media pages and hashtags. If available, subscribe to their tourism newsletters. And remember to place those pins on your google map!
Bonus Tip:
While I’m actively planning the next trip, I’m also saving resources for other destinations we are interested in. Today the focus is on Italy. However, I’m also saving pins for Norway, England and Scotland for a future trip.