In case you haven’t noticed through my previous posts, I have a bad case of wanderlust, and after Josh and I cut cable TV out of our lives, YouTube travel vlogs became a very present part of our evening routine. Travel vlogs have given us inspiration for trips, ideas for things to do and try when we travel, and have given us a deeper appreciation for the enormity of the world that’s out there, just beyond the horizon.
Some travel vloggers spend their entire lives traveling and filming, using sponsorships, freelance work, and Patreons to fund their travels. Others save up for an entire year and then spend an epic month or two having the time of their lives in a specific destination, only to go home and start saving again immediately for the next trip. We’re inspired by each vlog we watch and would love to have the opportunity to do something similar someday (if I ever get over my fear of the camera).
Finding travel vloggers to follow was a lot of trial and error, but joining a couple of travel groups on Facebook led us to some new faces to add to our evening lineup. I’d like to share a list of my 9 Favorite Travel Vloggers with you to help make it a little bit easier to start your travel vlog binge.
Attache probably posts the least frequently of all the vloggers I will share here, but his content is arguably the best for people planning trips to the places he visits. The host, Alex, takes viewers on a holistic journey to each city he visits, starting at the airport (or train station, if that’s how he arrives). He talks about the best way to get from the airport into the city center, then talks about the best things to do and see in each city, the cost of a Big Mac (because that’s how the entire world judges the affordability of a city), and the cost of a cup of coffee.
We truly get excited each time Attache posts new content and I’ve been known to add travel destinations to our wish list just based on his vlogs.
When you Google travel vloggers, Kara and Nate are likely to pop up high in your search results. They are a couple from the Nashville area and they are on a mission to visit 100 countries by 2020. Right now, they’re in the high 70s. We really enjoy watching Kara and Nate travel around the world because they’re not just checking off countries. They’re truly exploring every place they visit, from trying new food to doing a river cruise down the Nile and exploring pyramids.
We’ve added numerous places to visit to our list after being inspired by Kara and Nate. They’re master travel planners and do a large portion of their travel by using credit card points, Airbnb credits, and from sales of their online courses to help other people follow similar dreams. I feel like, if we ran into them on the street somewhere, I would be that weirdo who approaches them like we’re best friends, even though they have absolutely no idea who I am.
Kara and Nate post much more often than Attache, so it’s easy to follow their progression throughout the world.
Nikki and Jason started out traveling via RV several years ago and Josh and I have been following their latest adventures in their own catamaran for over a year. When they bought their boat, they had no sailing experience and spent many months on the southeast coast of Florida learning the ropes (literally).
After learning what they were doing, they spent a while sailing around the Bahamas, then started to sail south. They did a full Panama Canal transit and spent some time gathering supplies and preparing the catamaran for a Pacific crossing. They departed Central America and headed for French Polynesia and after 25+ days at sea, they arrived safe and sound.
While I LOVE cruising, sailing on my own tends to be a little bit terrifying to this girl from land-locked Kansas, but sailing across the entire Pacific Ocean on a catamaran with only my husband is something I’m not sure I could ever bring myself to attempt. The ocean is a scary place and spending 5 days at sea between Hawaii and Vancouver last year was a test of my patience, so I’m not sure 25+ days would be the best idea for my sanity, especially on a tiny catamaran with no onboard activities.
Right now, in their vlog series, they’re still in the middle of the Pacific and running into some complications. Luckily, thanks to social media and the power of the internet, we know they made it safely to French Polynesia, but I get nervous for them in every single episode while they’re in transit.
If you’re a fan of sailing, exotic travel, or just cutting the cord and being self-sufficient for a while, I definitely recommend Gone with the Wynns. They’re fun to watch and you’re likely to learn something you didn’t know before each time you see them.
Flying the Nest is one of the latest travel vlogs we’ve added to our watch list. Stephen and Jess are from Australia and have shared their experiences all over the world. We haven’t been watching them very long, so I don’t know a ton about their background, but they are a lot of fun to watch and I would recommend checking them out. If you’re interested in Western Australia, that’s where they’re from and one of the first trips we watched from them was a road trip through Western Australia. It’s like no other place on earth.
Eric and Allison are from San Francisco and have been traveling full-time since 2015. Their travels tend to take them to more “off the beaten path” destinations and lately, they’ve had some focus on central Europe, which is different than many of the vloggers we’ve been following.
I always appreciate that Eric and Allison usually do one food-focused vlog for each location they visit. Learning about the cuisine of a location can tell you a lot about the culture and how people live there. We enjoy doing food tours when we travel and watching Eric and Allison talk about regional cuisine makes you feel like you’re right there with them, just without the calories!
From their outward appearance, Craig and Aimee seem a little more edgy than some of the other vloggers I’ve mentioned in this list. Craig has ear gauges and Aimee has multiple nose rings. Edgy certainly isn’t bad though. These two have just completed the Mongol Rally with some friends and seem to have run into mishap after mishap along the way. They persisted and finished and it was certainly an interesting journey.
This Welsh couple has endured several difficult situations during their relationship (cancer and a broken neck to name just two), but they have an engaging camera presence and they are visiting places that most of the other travel vloggers we watch aren’t visiting.
I recommend Kinging-It if you’re looking for something that’s a little less Pollyanna and more about embracing the challenges of travel. They’re definitely authentic!
The Budgeteers are a little different than other travel vloggers. They produce TV-style episodes of one trip per year (I believe that’s the frequency). The idea is that each of the three Budgeteers have $1,000 to spend and they do what they can in the location they visit for that amount. They just finished their 3rd season and they spent it in India, traveling all over the country.
The team is made up of Paddy, from the UK, Thijs, from Belgium, and Lina, from Columbia. They all met while traveling and have recorded seasons in Southeast Asia, and Central America, in addition to their latest India season. Because they do one large trip per year, videos don’t necessarily come out year-round. Their entire season is released over a couple of months and then you have to wait for the next season, just like any regular television show.
The Budgeteers typically stay in hostels, so if you’re interested in that kind of travel, definitely add them to your list.
Poppy is a vlogger from Denver (I think) and I randomly stumbled upon her channel a few months ago. She’s known for staying in one place for a longer period of time and really getting to know the locals. She sticks around a location long enough to rent an apartment and to take day-trips to nearby places.
Lately, Poppy has been in China and in Bali. We’ll be in China next year and Bali is on our bucket list, so we were particularly interested in her recent vlogs. She has stunning videography and photography and a love for adventure that I wish I’d embraced in myself when I was younger.
Samuel and Audrey are from Canada and have a bit of a unique style to their vlogs. Samuel grew up on Vancouver Island and Audrey has a South American heritage. I believe she’s said that her father is from Argentina and they recently visited her mother’s family in Lima, Peru.
In addition to their English channel, they also have a Spanish channel with similar (maybe the same) content, which blows my mind a bit. I can’t imagine coming up with content for one channel, let alone two!
One of the recurring features of Samuel and Audrey’s vlogs are apartment tours for places they’re staying. They enjoy taking their viewers around the apartments to show how locals live. It makes for interesting viewing when there are things that Americans may not be used to seeing.
Whatever your travel bucket list includes, you’re sure to find something that peaks your interest in this list. While most of the vlogs mentioned here focus on international travel, I’d really love to find a travel vlog that showcases locations within the United States, so if you’ve got recommendations, I’d love to hear them. If you’ve got other favorite international travel vlogs, I’d love to hear about those too!
Safe travels!
