Best Reddit Pages for Travelers
Reddit is a lot like Spiderman. It’s an extremely powerful tool in a simple package that has the power to start webs that can be used for good or for chaos. And with great power, comes great responsibility.
If you’ve never been on Reddit before, it’s one of the most frequently visited websites on the internet and its a place where any one can post or comment on anything and everything. You see an article that interests you - post it. Product that you think is cool - post it. Question for a specific group of people - post it. Rant, brag, vent - post it. It doesn’t matter what it is, you can post it to Reddit and more likely than not you’ll get responses/comments from the extremely helpful to the downright cruel. But where Reddit has its most value is in its smaller communities, also known as “subreddits.”
There is a Subreddit for every. single. topic. ever. Literally, if you’re into pottery, there is a community for pottery people, in fact, I just took a look, there are over 42,000 members subscribed to the reddit pottery subreddit. And that’s pretty standard. There is AT LEAST one subreddit for any topic you can think of and they get pretty granular. The more focused the subreddit, the more likely you are to have an engaging conversation, get the answers you need, or just browse through topics that interest you.
Which brings me to the Reddit Travel community, there are a ton of subreddits for travelers and I enjoy reading through them casually or posting to them when I have a question about an upcoming location. Since I’ve found these subreddits so helpful, I decided I’d provide you with a list of my top 15 travel subreddits for you to explore. I’m going to try to keep them somewhat diverse to appeal to a wider audience and to demonstrate the wide net that subreddits can cast. This by no means is the full list of every travel subreddit and if you’re not seeing a community that resonates with you then go to Reddit yourself and search for one, no matter how niche you think it is, give it a shot. One thing to note is that the subscriber number in each subreddit is only the engaged people who have added that subreddit to their custom reddit account - literally anyone can view the majority of subreddits so often time the actual eyes on that page could be a lot higher.
Anyway, without further ado, here are my top 15 subreddits for traveling:
r/Solotravel
Solotravel is an awesome community of folks who enjoy backpacking by themselves or are considering it and looking for some advice. At the time of this post there are about 964,000 subscribers to this channel and its an engaged group. The community is super supportive, while browsing a few moments ago preparing for this post I stumbled on one from a solo female traveler who was asking for advice on how to avoid a creepy man in her hostel and there were hundreds of comments with very supportive and productive advice. A second post is a 19 year old who by his own admission had been watching and reading the thread for a long time and is finally ready to take his first trip, he has a budget of $4,000 and enjoys photography. Members of his thread are recommending New Zealand, Finland, and various South American locations.
Backpacking is a wonderful subreddit to get travel inspiration and learn some tips and tricks of the trade for saving money, buying the best gear, finding the next hot location, and anything else you need to know for anyone getting ready for a backpacking trip, which I define as a low-budget, high-movement trip of any duration. As of this post there are over 1.7 million subscribers to this subreddit. One of my favorite parts of any subreddit are the weekly Q/A sessions that go on (not every subreddit does this but a lot do). If you look at the screenshot above you can see that the Backpacking subreddit does a weekly beginner Q/A session.
Getting ready to do a little road trip somewhere? Doesn’t matter if it’s at home or abroad, odds are someone did it before you. Search Road Trip for your route and discover hidden gems along the way. We are preparing to drive up the Pacific Coast Highway for the first time tomorrow morning and we’ve discovered several diamonds in the rough from this Reddit community than from any one blog post. Most blog posts are just going to give you to highlights because, generally speaking, blogs don’t really flow when you hit on every single detail - nobody reads an 8,000 word post, people want bulleted, easy to read lists. However, in a subreddit you’re getting conversational. Multiple people having a dialogue and you never know what will come up at when you get 873,000 subscribers together.
For the digital nomads out there, yes, there is a subreddit for you. Digital Nomad is a place for all your “work at home”/”work from a coffeeshop” folks in need of a community. Check out the post at the bottom of the screenshot, a digital nomad just passing along some intel at a coffeeshop he discovered in Vietnam - cheap coffee, AC, and fast internet speed. These are details you are going to have a hard time finding through a traditional Google search. This community has 766k subscribers for you to learn on with your Digital Nomad questions - if it’s a lifestyle you desire, ask someone how they did it, strike up a rapport, maybe they have an opening at their company and will refer you - bam. Life-long friend. Next thing you know this random Reddit guy is at your wedding. Dreams do come true.
Now we’re speakin’ my language. Reddit Shoestring is home-base for shoestring budget travel tips and location ideas. You want deals - this is your spot. You okay with hostels and traveling light? Oh, yeah, got you covered. Save mucho dinero by becoming an active member of this community. There are over 756k subscribers of travelers looking to save a few bucks and stretch their budget as long as possible while abroad.
Thinking outside the box here and hoping this one will get you to realize that there really is a subreddit for anything. Travel Partners is a group dedicated to finding random people on the internet that want to travel with you. Either the best decision you’ve ever made or an introduction to a serial killer. Who knows? But if you’re a risk taker and adventurer who doesn’t mind meeting new people then Travel Partners is your personal ads/craigslist post for that companion. I’ll be honest, I’ve never used this subreddit before but with over 44k subscribers there has to be some success. The top post when I wrote this post was someone asking if anyone has actually had success with the subreddit before and the responses are resounding “yes!” Seems like the vast majority of folks were in the middle of a trip and seeing if anyone will be in “Amsterdam during X date” and they’ve had success. Try it. Who knows? Hope on a Zoom call and see if they’re a wierdo or not.
Van Dwellers is for anybody LIVING IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER. Not sure if I just dated myself there, pretty sure that reference is even before my time (or at least right on the edge of it). Anyway, van life has become pretty mainstream in recent years and the custom jobs some people are doing to their vans is pretty darn gnarly. But even if you don’t have marble countertops in a Sprinter there is something for you in this subreddit. Nicole and I just wrapped up driving from DC > California > Tulsa over 7 months in a fixed up 2004 Chevy Venture. This subreddit was useful for tips and tricks on parking and storage products to purchase (since space really is at a premium when living the van life). You’ve got 695k fellow Van Dwellers to lean on for advice, now go forth and be the best darn van person you van.
No, Earth Porn is not naked people. Reddit has this weird obsession with adding “porn” to everything - just the word “porn,” not actual porn. Earth Porn is where you can get inspired. It’s where professional and amateur photographers alike post their very best of what Mother Earth has for us. There are photos that will make your jaw drop and inspire you to get off your behind and see the world. This is the subreddit that really sums up why we love traveling so much - the world is a wonderful and beautiful place and I want to see all of it with my own eyes - but I have a hard time getting started without a little direction. That’s where this subreddit comes into play.
Travel Hacks is ground zero for those gifs you see on Tik Tok or Instagram where someone turns there shoe into a car or some crazy thing where you’re like “whaaaa!” There are hacks with everything from internet tools (see above: some guy made a Chrome Extension that will take you to a random place on Earth) to packing tricks to discounted flights to you name it. A great resource but I find that it works best when you don’t really know what you’re looking for - if you knew the hack then you wouldn’t need to subscribe! So this is one that I will browse through for neat anecdotes.
Similar to Earth Porn - Hiking is a great source of inspiration for your next big hike. Folks post about famous hikes that most avid hikers know about like Angels Landing in Zion National Park to some more locally know trails like the San Luis Peak in Colorado (looking at a photo of it now). This is a subreddit for inspiration and is extremely active so it’s worth adding to your list.
I would look like a right jackass if I didn’t mention the big kahuna of travel subreddits, aptly named “travel.” There are nearly 4.5 million subscribers to this thread and its a massive resource for anything and everything travel related. It makes sense to start any queries here then branch out to smaller, more niche, subreddits to get fewer responses from potentially more knowledgeable (in that particular topic) users.
Expats unite! I Want Out is the subreddit dedicated to those who are looking to move to a new country and start a living. Posters in this subreddit are looking for advice out how to start a life in some other country. Typical posts are formatted like “I want out! 30M US > Thailand” then get into details about what you’re hoping to do in your prospective country and details about your skills and experience. Usually responses will ask you for more detail on certain things and then guide you on the right path for visas, locations, companies, etc.
This is a nifty subreddit. Award Travel is dedicated to hacking your way to your next vacation through promotional opportunities provided by credit cards, airlines, hotels, and anywhere else. Here people are able to provide advice and share experiences on which cards to use for which purchases or anything else that will help earn you those precious points. For me personally, at my last job I refused a company card, opting to make all expenses on my personal account to get points. I typically spent about 12-20k from January to May, which was all reimbursed. This allowed me to do multiple international trips per year all on points from 2015-2019. My friends would ask me all the time how I could afford to travel while paying high DC rents - I was lucky that I could hack my way to each trip!
Flights is a subreddit dedicated to anything and everything airline related. It’s a smaller community of about 13.4 subscribers but as I scrolled through there is a decent amount of engagement. Many posts refer to customer service questions when they’ve been screwed over somehow - bags, delays, cancellations, refunds, etc. And others comment on similar situations with that airline and how they were able to get it resolved, or commiserate on how they were unable to find a solution.
Ultralight is a great gear based travel subreddit. If you want to travel light and pack only necessities then this is a community for you. Put up a post, give some details on where you’re going and what you’re trying to accomplish and you’ll get packing tips and product recommendations to help you get where you need to go in the lightest way possible.