I think one of the nice things about travel blogging is that you don’t even need to leave your own country to do it. If you’re living in the US – you got endless opportunities to visit other states and document your experiences. But, understandably, for a lot of people – blogging about travel means visiting countries outside of the norm.
Back in the 2010s – I lived in Southeast Asia for several years. And, whenever I couldn’t find good sources of information locally – I’d turn to online blogs. There’s so much to learn from people who have already done something you’re looking to do. On top of this, in the long term, you can turn your travel blog into a lucrative business.
As an example, numerous YouTubers do travel vlogs and team up with travel agencies or hotels to do custom reviews. A sponsorship like that can net you a nice chunk of money to keep your travels going. And you can further extend it in your own unique ways.
Travel Blogging with WordPress
If you’re looking for a robust publishing platform that also lets you go wild with the customization and design choices, it’s hard to beat WordPress. Whether you want to take a more personal approach to write travel blogs, or straight-up build a “repository” of travel information – WordPress offers great flexibility for both.
So, for this collection of travel blogging themes – I’m going to try and consider all the scenarios imaginable. I think some of the more important elements of a travel blog are a good presentation of photography, easy navigation, and readability. I think by combining all three, you get a nice and fluid blogging experience that’s also satisfying for your readers.
I’m also going to weigh in on how popular a certain theme is in terms of its users. If a theme has over 1,000 users – it generally means it’s easy to work with, but also delivers on the promise of good design. And in the current times, design is one of the key components of a modern website.
Let’s begin!
1. Tripster
AxiomThemes have a solid track record for building reliable WordPress themes that are based on modern features. And the Tripster theme will go well with anyone who loves a bit of a contemporary feel to their website. In fact, you get to pick and choose from 7 pre-made layout variants. Though, they all share some similarities.
In particular, the color scheme follows a nice buttercream pattern, with plenty of added elements that will help highlight your images. I also like that the authors have thought about things like email newsletters and promotions. Many travel bloggers eventually write a book about their best tips, and with this theme, you’ll be able to promote your book effortlessly.
Tripster: Key Features
- Multiple options for blog post layouts, so you can always emphasize your best travel stories in a unique way.
- Blog post formats include traditional, photos, videos, and galleries.
- Truly responsive, including adaptive image scaling which will serve the right dimensions for desktop and mobile users. A great feature for website performance!
- Wish to promote an online course or a book about your travels? Tripster integrates with WooCommerce and provides many options to run your online business.
- A custom review widget that you can use to review hotels you’ve stayed at and much more.
While the bulk of the legwork is already done on your behalf, you do have the option to further style this theme with the Elementor website building plugin. And lastly, since you are going to be blogging a lot – the Tripster theme offers many unique ways to display your posts, including categorizing them through country-based stories.
2. Norway
If you’re going to focus primarily on sharing travel stories – a theme like Norway can be a nice minimalistic option. It features the traditional WordPress-style layout, with the addition of some modifications to highlight categories through various colors.
But, the main selling point for this theme is the blog post design. It features a fully decked-out full-page interface that supports full-width images. So, in other words, this theme is optimized for going in-depth about your travel experiences. The default font choice is great, but you do have the option to change them with added Google Fonts support.
Norway: Key Features
- Minimal design that translates into easy navigation and emphasizes readability – make your stories stand out with visuals and text alone.
- Excellent customization features through the WordPress Customizer feature. No need to tinker with writing code, simply change settings as you go.
- Utilizes the excellent Bootstrap framework to add colors and promote design familiarity.
- A substantial amount of style features for presenting images (arguably the most important thing for travel blogs) – so you can post galleries, full-width images, and create images with text overlays.
Other features include social sharing buttons, show/hide comments, and a colorful author box to let everyone know who you are and what you’re about.
3. Trawell
More than being a theme for travel bloggers, the Trawell theme is perfect for travel guides.
If your approach to traveling is to visit as many countries as possible and document everything you see and learn. Then, in such a case, the Trawell theme will make it easy for you to document your journey on a country-to-country basis. On the homepage, you can highlight all the places you’ve been to by marking them on a world map.
And, you can categorize your content by using the top destinations widget. This lets you present your stories in a way that’s most relevant to your readers. But, also makes it much easier for search engines to discover your pages for that juicy organic traffic.
Trawell: Key Features
- This theme is focused on helping you create a large online directory of all the places you’ve traveled to. In effect, this feature makes it easier for readers to navigate through your site and find the destinations they’re most interested in.
- A stylish approach to blog design – including author information (with a profile picture), social sharing buttons, and quick navigation to the next/previous article.
- Clean design, with colors helping to separate areas like sidebar and content from one another.
- Instagram widget which can be placed at the footer of your site with real-time updates.
I think you’ll quite like the blog post layouts, too. They come in a number of varieties, and have features like a floating sidebar, Instagram feeds, and more.
4. Avventure
Here we have a nice full-on theme for both travel but also lifestyle bloggers. It has all the modern features you see on top-notch websites, helping you not only present your stories but also to present yourself as an expert in all things travels.
So, first and foremost, this is a modern theme. It’s important to note that because it will take some time to set everything up. For example, the Destinations page can be organized in a way to showcase your stories not only from countries but also from individual cities.
Avventure: Key Features
- Professional design with custom icons and vector illustrations, ideal for anyone who is looking to make their travel blog into a brand name.
- Comes with the ThemeREX Addons plugin – this one lets you control aspects like social sharing, Google Fonts, and general performance settings.
- Mobile-friendly and optimized for things like smooth swiping, Retina displays, and sliders that work with mobile devices, too.
- Build your own Header and Footer styles using an in-built builder.
You can also do things like adding a video introduction of yourself. Then, list out all the places you’ve been to and add a smooth filter effect. E.g. Your readers can filter out countries without needing to leave the page. Above all, the design will help to present you as someone who has made their travel lifestyle a permanent thing.
5. Ink
If you’re only interested in sharing stories and gathering feedback through comments, I think the Ink theme will sort you out really well. The homepage uses a grid layout that displays your featured images and the blog post title. That’s all. It’s simple yet effective.
One unique feature for this specific theme is that it is optimized to be used together with the Restrict Content Pro plugin. This plugin will help you turn your WordPress website into a membership site. So, rather than placing ads on your site – you can create subscription memberships and let your readers support you that way.
Ink: Key Features
- If you’re not looking to brand yourself, the Ink theme does a fantastic job at helping emphasize stories over business-like features.
- Works great with the Gutenberg editor, so you can use external Block plugins and things like WordPress Patterns to design your blog posts.
- You can enable Widgets for separate sections of your site, then add custom Widgets to those sections. This is great for things like displaying social feeds, but also your best posts, categories, and much more.
This would probably work really well for anyone who goes out of their way to get those unique travel stories that can’t be found elsewhere. But, could also work well with sharing top-notch advice on how to make the most out of a certain travel trip.
6. MyVoyage
One of the reasons to love extensive WordPress themes is that they let you change up your design without having to get a new design entirely. In this case, the MyVoyage theme comes with several unique designs, which you can switch between whenever you like. Those designs include concepts like travel, hiking, personal, adventure and lifestyle.
As far as what I like in design, I’m quite pleased with this pick. I think if I landed on a travel blog using this theme I might confuse it for a custom design. Even with all the experience I have working with WordPress. The Travel Blog layout has some fashionable features like clean typography, custom icons you can add to categories, and also a newsletter signup form – both as a site section but also a slide-in popup.
The blog posts you share can be displayed either as full-width or you can show your sidebar, also. But you can also do it on a per-post basis. For example, if you’re doing a long-form story it’s probably better not to use a sidebar. So having this theme provide that feature is great.
7. Eaven
It’s not uncommon for travelers to team up and work on a project together. And if that project happens to be covering travel stories – this is a great theme to consider. The overall feel is designed to have a professional notion to it. As such, it will work great in scenarios where you have multiple writers producing great travel content.
Also, make sure you check out every single post display preset. There are more than a dozen ways to display your latest posts. Be it on the homepage or in categories. If you want to emphasize images over text – you have an option for it and vice-versa.
Live Preview through the Customizer feature is also available. Change up fonts or manage colors and see what it will look like in real-time. Though, with so many options to manage this theme already included in the settings – you just need to find a style that works for you.
8. Vasco
I’m a huge fan of Pixelgrade themes. If you have ever looked at the demo of more than a few WordPress themes – you’ll immediately know that Pixelgrade is different. And the Vasco theme is a superb choice for individuals who want to document their journeys. It’s a theme solely optimized for personal use by travel bloggers who wish to start an online platform.
The creamy color texture combined with fantastic site elements will help you put yourself in the spotlight of your community. You can categorize your posts on a country level, then insert a homepage widget that showcases a custom image for each category. You can add a fancy Instagram feed that also contains your other social media links.
But, more importantly, the Vasco theme also includes several modern elements. E.g. A unique blob widget was added to featured images for that stylish look. And even a custom badge that you can design yourself and then use as a means of self-branding.
It’s quite unique.
9. Vihan
If you struggle to make a decision for the perfect design, I think it’s hard to go wrong with a theme like Vihan. It has all the resemblances that you’d find in other popular travel blogs, and it makes it easy for you to brand yourself as an established traveler.
The homepage has ample layout variations as do the sidebar placements. So, if you put it all together, it’s more than 20 different layouts you can achieve. In the event that you won’t write your blog in English – the Vihan theme supports both RTL and WPML.
When all is said and done, this is a theme that’s designed to be clean and modern. You’ll love the numerous options for publishing blog posts, too. Whether it’s galleries, videos, standard posts, or status updates. All you have to do is select the post format and the theme will render a custom design for you.
10. Hobo
As a traveler, you’re probably already familiar with the term digital nomad. Which in recent years has also been amplified by the concept of remote work. So many people are now transitioning to a digital work environment. And if you happen to be in that category, the Hobo theme is an ideal choice for writing and sharing your experiences.
I’d say, fundamentally, it is a theme for writers. It maintains its unique features and design elements, but the primary focus is on content. And, interestingly, the Hobo theme does work with eCommerce (WooCommerce) as well. So if you want to make a little side-hustle happen, you won’t need to spend hours on end designing your online store. It’s already done.
11. Felly
The Felly theme has quite a feminine vibe to it. As do quite a few other travel themes in this collection. I think, more than emphasizing that women tend to blog more about travel than men, it’s also about the ability to portray a vibrant and buzzing personality.
I like that content in this theme feels “separated”. From a design perspective, it makes a good reading experience and lets your readers focus on one thing at a time. And, the Instagram feed widget in the footer section is also really nice. That one, in particular, can be further expanded on by adding links (social icons) to your other social media profiles.
12. Rodberg
I won’t assume that you know everything about WordPress, but this theme is specifically built for the Gutenberg Editor. In short, Gutenberg lets you style your blog pages and posts directly from the editor in which you will write your blogs. And that’s useful because you never need to leave your editor to achieve a particular design outcome.
As for the theme and its features, it’s a practical (standard-style) WordPress theme. It’s possible that a more modern theme can feel overwhelming. And, for those cases, going with something like Rodberg makes a lot of sense.
If you do happen to want to style things yourself, you have the option to do so. All the while, you get a default layout that is optimized for readability and easy navigation.
13. Ofelia
If full-size images with large typography are your thing, you’ll like this theme. As do many travelers who are already using it for their travel blogs. The use of image-based browsing creates a nice visual presentation and perhaps helps to trim that overly professional feel.
It’s not uncommon for travel bloggers to write their content with the intention of having it perform well in search engines. And if that is the case with you – Ofelia has both a good structure but also full-on SEO optimization. The lack of branding elements will help elevate your productivity as you focus on writing rather than promoting yourself.
14. Travelosophy
If I’m not mistaken, the Travelosophy theme is the newest (most recently published) addition to our list. So, if you’re going for a truly unique look that nobody else is using – this is the prime choice for you. And it includes all the mandatory features to justify being a true travel theme as opposed to one for storytelling or practical blogging.
Those features include the ability to divide content categories into destinations. But also to help you grow your following through numerous subscription modals and forms. If you love to visually edit the site yourself – Travelosophy works well with the Elementor plugin.
Neuron Themes – the authors for this theme – also do something called unique features, which is a collection of widgets and plugins unique to their themes. For example, you can build custom popups, add eCommerce functionality, or use dozens of widgets to expand upon an already fashionable design.
Summary
As with all things WordPress, you do have to take the time to explore each theme individually to get a proper feel for it. I’d say, one of the main reasons people (sometimes) disappoint themselves with a particular choice is because they take the demo layout for granted.
At the end of the day, you’ll be adding your own images. You’ll be removing certain elements, and adding others. And by doing so, perhaps the outcome of a design might change. So, what I am trying to say is – when you decide on one of these WordPress travel themes; make sure you’re satisfied with how much flexibility each theme gives you to adapt to your needs.
