How To Find The Best Travel Hashtags for Instagram

How To Find the Best Travel Hashtags for Instagram

One of my best preforming blog posts is this list of travel hashtags for Instagram! While those are all great, it’s also super important to include destination specific hashtags on your travel photos as well. But how do you find the best travel hashtags for Instagram?

I’ll walk you through exactly how I research the best travel hashtags before every trip. I suggest doing this all beforehand so you don’t have to worry about it while traveling. And the app linked below is going to help you keep all of them organized…

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Download Preview App

Preview app is a game changer for Instagram. In my opinion, it’s the best planning/grid layout app, AND the hashtag tool is the best! AND IT’S FREE. You can upgrade for more analytics and tools, and it’s still cheaper than Planoly. I canceled and switched to Preview App almost immediately.

Not only will this app help you plan out your Instagram feed, it will also help you find, save, and organize hashtags!

The hashtag planning part of the app allows you to browse different topics and suggests related hashtags. All you have to do is click the hashtag and it will add it to your saved list!

Instagram only allows 30 hashtags per post, so another great thing about this app is that it keeps count of how many hashtags you’ve added to a group so you don’t go over!

You can then save groups of hashtags in certain groups that are easily and clearly labeled… no more saving random hashtags lists in your notes app!

When you’re ready to post on Instagram, simply click into the list you want, press copy, and you’re good to go!

It also analyzes the hashtags you’ve used and shows you which are preforming best!

My Unico 20º 87º and Utah Road Trip hashtags did super well.

I will say, the hashtag suggestions on Preview App are somewhat limited. Luckily, there are other ways to find hashtags for travel photos too!

Download Preview in the App Store and Google Play.

Go to the Destination's Instagram Account

The first thing I like to do when looking for relevant travel hashtags is go to destination I am traveling to’s main tourism account.

For example, let’s say you’re going to be traveling to Austin, TX (which everyone should, but hey, I’m biased). The first thing I would do is go to the Austin tourism account, @visitaustintx. To find this, try searching for the destination’s name or “visit + your destination” or “destination + travel.”

Typically, these accounts will have their own designated hashtags listed right in the profile, like #TrueAustin. These are great to use, but usually have a lot of competition.

PS – if you want a list of Austin + Texas hashtags, I posted a full list of them on this blog post.

Browse Related Hashtags

Click the travel destination’s account hashtag and you’ll be taken to a screen where Instagram automatically shows you hashtags that are related to it. Click the triangle next to the follow button to see more.

Copy those hashtags into a note or your preview app. Then click on some of the related hashtags and see what’s then a suggested/related hashtag for it. And so on and so forth!

Check The Destination's Instagram Account's Photos for Hashtags

Next, take a look at the photos the destination’s account posts. If they’re smart, they’ll use related hashtags as well. @visitaustintx doesn’t seem to use that many, but others do, and it’s a great way to find more hashtags for your Instagram photos.

PS – it just so happens this photo is by my crazy talented photographer friend @shanewarephoto (he’s updated his IG name since I took these screenshots lol)!

Check Out the Instagram Accounts They Repost

Take a look at the photos the account is posting and look to see if they post a lot from that city/country. I know @shanewarephoto takes a lot of awesome Austin photos, so I’d then dive deeper into his posts and see what kind of hashtags he’s using.

Click on one of the most popular photos and see what hashtags they used for it:

Add ones that are relevant to your list. You can also do this for photos they’re tagged in, usually they’ll have good hashtags as well.

Look at the Destination's Suggested Accounts

Go back to the main destination’s account, and click the little arrow button next to the follow/following button to show similar “suggested” Instagram accounts.

Then do the same thing you did with the original destination’s account with all of these:

check for hashtag in profile + related hashtags
look at the account’s photos to see what hashtags they’re using
check out the accounts of the photos they repost/are tagged in and see what hashtags they’re using on their photos

Search for Bloggers / Instagrammers / Photographers in That Location

It’s part of their job to make sure their photos reach as many people as possible, so chances are, bloggers/photographers have some pretty great hashtags.

@timeofdre is an Influencer/Instagram Coach friend of mine that uses really strategic hashtags:

She also has a great IGTV on finding hashtags, check it out here.

Search The Biggest Travel Instagram Accounts

Looking at major Instagram accounts that repost travel photos is another great way to find hashtags. Check out this list of 50+ Instagram Accounts That Will Feature Your Epic Travel Photos for some ideas!

Some of my favorite generic travel hashtags to use are: #TLPicks #CNtraveler #TravelDudes #AMTB #WeAreTravelGirls #SheIsNotLost #LonelyPlanet #MyLPGuide #CultureTrip #WorldNomads #DameTraveler #TravelAndLife #BeautifulDestinations

These will likely have a TON of competition, so while they’re very popular, it’s important to use more targeted/specific ones as well.

Try Searching for Hashtags on displaypurposes.com

This tool is new to me, but displaypurposes.com can make generating generic location based hashtags a breeze! Just type in a couple hashtags and it will automatically find other ones for you.

It also has a map feature that lets you browse directly by location!

And their graph feature displays the related hashtags out.

Just make sure to check for any that are spammy and not really related to your photo. Instagram will actually penalize you for using unrelated hashtags.

How to Organize Your Instagram Hashtags

While doing this research, you will likely come up with over 30 hashtags and won’t be able to save them all in one section on Preview App. So you can either save them in notes on your phone, or in a Google Doc like I do:

I know… that doc is **extra** haha but what can I say, I’m organized! I like to keep everything together, so I typically create a google doc like this for every trip/destination. It’s typically even more detailed, this is just a screenshot of one page.

It helps a lot to have all your hashtags organized and in one place beforehand though!