I created an entire guide to help you find the best photo locations when traveling.
During my years as a full-time traveler I’ve learned how to find the most photogenic spots (or insta-worthy if you will) in every destination we land.
I don’t like buying souvenirs from every city or town because it’s not practical for us. That said, we love photography and believe memories are the best “souvenir” we can create. At the end of the day Ollie is a professional photographer and I’m a fashion stylist and creative director so it’s inevitable that we’d want to capture our travels in a creative way.
We just think of how we’ll look back when we’re old, using those photographs as a return tickets to our incredible adventures!
Also, since Instagram became a part of our generation’s life, we all want to have the “best content” there is in our own feed, even if we’re no influencers or public figures! Let’s democratize creativity! ✊🏽
Here’s how I do it:
I research prior traveling and the hunt goes like this.
1. Pinterest: search for the destination you have in mind and you will find lots of inspiration plus entire lists of the best spots! We (bloggers) have it all covered for you! Then create a board for every destination or have a general “travel” board for all the inspiration that you find.
Speaking of Pinterest, make sure you follow me and you won’t miss the travel and fashion inspo that I share daily.
2. On Instagram I follow travel creatives (or influencers… I just hate that term) that inspire me, usually they tag the location of the place pictured. Then, if I know I will be going to that destination I create a category on Instagram for my “saved” posts.
For example, if I know I’m going to Barcelona I save posts of places that catch my attention. If they inspire me, I add them to the list. Then if I want more ideas I search for hashtags on the search page. Let’s say #BarcelonaTopPhoto then it will show me tons of photos of places people are tagging and you will find suggested hashtags as well.
Now, if you want to be more specific, let’s say you want to find the most photogenic spots in a park like Parc Guell in Barcelona. Search for #parcguell and you will find them all!
3. Follow Instagram accounts dedicated to specific locations.
Most tourist boards will have official accounts where they highlight the most amazing things their towns/countries have to offer. How do you do that? Just type the name of the city on the search bar and the biggest accounts will come up on top.
A few example: Viennatouristboard, ViennaAustria.
Also, most of these accounts will be named Visit + ”name of the place”: VisitBarcelona, VisitBudapest, VisitEstonia, VisitTallinn, VisitLondon, VisitMexico or “name of the place” + Travel, for example: MedellinTravel, BudapestTravel, BarcelonaTravel… you get the idea. Then you will find yourself down a rabbit hole and will easily found a lot more accounts of this nature, all with the intention of inspiring people to visit certain destinations.
Many people hate on Instagram because this sounds mainstream but it’s so helpful!
I’ve been to many amazing places I wouldn’t have found on a normal travel guide that only highlights the “main tourist attractions”.
As long as you’re not just doing it for the photo, I think it’s fine. Make sure you actually give yourself to enjoy where you are!
4. Follow location photographers.
They obviously know the best locations for photos as it’s their job. Usually they also tag the locations.
In Cappadocia for example, everybody knows each other, photographers, videographers and places (hotels and tourism companies) are all connected because it’s a small place so you’ll easily find the most known photographers and videographers on Instagram.
5. Last but no least: Go out and explore the place!
And be photo ready in case you come across interesting spots! Not everything has to be planned. Sometimes a quick phone picture can do the job! What ever inspires you, photograph it!
These tips are basically what I personally use. I know it’s a more in depth guide because I travel slow so get to spend longer in every place and it’s perfect for other digital nomads BUT if you don’t have that much travel time, a simple Pinterest search should do the job for you to capture your holidays in the best way!
Now, one of the most important things for me when taking photos on my travels is to BE ORIGINAL. Sometimes social media can get boring when people take the exact the photo, wearing the exact same outfit in the exact same place doing the exact same pose while holding the same props (like wearing a beret and holding baguettes for your Eiffel tower photos or wearing a white flowy dress in Santorini 😇).
Make those captures your own! Challenge yourself to be a little different and even if you’re visiting a super popular spot, you don’t have to be a copy of some one else.
For more travel inspiration find more travel blog posts that I’ve created for you!
