How to Prepare for Your Trip Using Social Media

Antoine Murtha

Updated: 26 May 2026 ·
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How to Prepare for Your Trip Using Social Media

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest... social media platforms seem to be multiplying at a rapid pace. But do they each have their own utility? Here are my tips and tricks for using social media to plan your trip.

Social Media: What's It Good For?

Let's be honest: five years ago, I was totally against social media! I didn't like it; I felt there was an enormous social pressure to get involved and use it as if there were no other means to communicate with my friends and family. I missed out on a lot, but I continued to resist and watch from the sidelines. Then one day, a bit against my will, I started using it. It was when I began blogging and opened up to the world of connected travelers. First it was Facebook, then Twitter and Google+, then YouTube, and two years ago, Instagram, Snapchat last year, and just recently, Pinterest.

Has my opinion completely changed on the matter? I would say it's more nuanced now, shaped by the experiences and information I've gathered. Yes, I still think social media can be invasive, time-consuming, and take up too much space in our lives. But we shouldn't forget that a few decades ago, we feared that the internet would take over our minds, that mobile phones would be attached to our hands, or, even further back, that television would lobotomize us. As someone would say, >... while keeping a vigilant mind! Television, mobile telephony, and the internet have brought us many good things and opened many doors. Of course, it's crucial to have a certain education in these tools, and it's important to create a framework for living intelligently with the times while respecting ourselves and preserving our values.

This is a broad topic that goes beyond today's subject! But all this to say: yes, social media, even if you're not a super addict or a big consumer, have their use... even (and especially?) when it comes to traveling!

Why and how: here's a social media platform after another, their strengths, and benefits to help you prepare your trip, from inspiration to planning your journey.

Instagram for Traveling: Inspiration and Weather

Instagram serves as a dual tool, according to its dual personality. Originally, Instagram was made up of photos > taken with mobile phones, but now it's also a gallery of high-quality images taken with cameras and edited on computers. Both trends have their own usefulness!

For high-quality photos, they are ideal for inspiring us: a beautiful beach here, an impressive cliff there, a cabin that makes you want to get lost in the woods... The perfect way to give you destination ideas. And if you've already decided on a destination, by following specific hashtags, you can again find a wonderful source of visual inspiration on places to visit, restaurants to eat at, or activities to do during your next trip.

As for snapshot photos, they are perfect for... checking the weather! It might seem silly, but looking at photos shared with the hashtag or geolocation of the destination we are interested allows us to verify the local weather in real time! For instance, during our first trip to Thailand, in the middle of the rainy season, we could see for ourselves, and not just according to the weather reports, what the climate was like in the islands while we were still in Bangkok: giving us a preview of what awaited us and even allowing us to adjust our itinerary.

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  • Aurélie from Madame Oreille
  • Adeline and Tony from On met les voiles
  • Claudia and Clément from Clo et Clem
  • Nadia and Mike from Love Trotters
Follow on Instagram Here are some ideas and favorites of French-speaking accounts to follow for inspiration:

Pinterest for Traveling: Discovery and Planning

Pinterest is our latest discovery in social media (yes, we took our time!). I admit, I was quite reluctant to add another social network to my list... and now, I don't regret it: it's a great discovery!

I love to pin our articles, but also our favorite photos and readings, gathered from all over the web. I especially love collecting images of beautiful landscapes and wild nature, exciting activities, world routes, European islands, or places I dream of discovering that are on my Bucket List.

Pinterest, positioned between a social network and a classic search engine, is an inexhaustible source of inspiration and information... in all areas!

There are several ways to use Pinterest:

  • you can navigate at will, by choosing, for example, the category >
  • or by typing a keyword into the search bar, like your future destination
  • or even a specific question, such as >, >...)

You'll come across pins (>) with tantalizing images to inspire you, but also, and most importantly, you can click on the link that takes you to relevant sources of information to answer your questions, like travel blog articles.

And the great advantage of Pinterest is that you can save and organize all your searches by creating >. You can create:

Don't hesitate to create very specific boards to easily find the information you will need while traveling. For example, if you're preparing for a trip to Japan and want to collect tons of information about Kyoto, you can create boards: >, with the best addresses to try, >, with accommodation ideas, >, >, >... etc. And in these boards, you can re-pin the images you liked: creating an album with a beautiful mix of inspirations and information for your next trip!

You can pin ideas directly found on Pinterest, but also those you discover elsewhere on the web, for instance, from a tourism office, an agency, or a travel blog: you can pin photos from any website on Pinterest!

You can also follow accounts that interest you for your upcoming travels. Again, you have two options: either decide to follow the entire account or subscribe only to one or another of its boards.

Follow on Pinterest Here are some entirely subjective ideas of beautiful Pinterest accounts of French-speaking travel bloggers to discover and follow:

Facebook for Traveling: Information and Support

Facebook, of course, also has that inspirational approach, whether through your friends' vacation photos or the travel pages you subscribe to.

But Facebook also has a specific interest: its potential for information and support. Numerous groups exist, similar to forums, where people gather by interest; for example, travel in general, or a specific travel style (backpacking, van living, solo, traveling with kids...), particular passions (photography, diving...) or even destinations by continent, world regions, or countries. Just search in the Facebook browser, specifying >, and you'll see plenty of options appear.

These Facebook groups offer the opportunity to engage with a wonderful community of connected travelers, to ask questions from people who have already traveled in the region you are interested in and, consequently, gone through the same steps as you, made the same preparations. It's very practical and friendly!

And beyond the aspect of information and answering questions, these groups are also a fantastic source of inspiration and support: members often share their fears or their hardships on the road or even before they leave, and the responses are often very motivating.

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  • Accounts of travel bloggers > like Eliza and Max from Bestjobers
  • or blogs with a specific approach:
  • whether by approach, like Michael from Traverser la Frontière (traveling indefinitely), Aude from La fille Voyage (women's travel), or Emma from Planet Addict (travel and responsible consumption)...
  • or a specific destination, like Tuni from Gaijin Japan (on her page, but also on her group for traveling to Japan), Leslie from Voyage Pérou, or Céline from Je Papote (who has both a specific approach, namely gastronomy while traveling, and a favorite destination: Finnish Lapland)...
  • And as for groups, you have plenty of options: grouped by destination (country or world region, like Travel to Japan), a theme (for example, the groups > and >)... or both (like the group >)
Follow on Facebook Here are some ideas for accounts to follow, in addition to thematic groups and communities:

Twitter for Traveling: Getting Answers to Your Questions

On Twitter, everything is concise and quick: a brief message, forcing us to synthesize our thoughts to pose a very specific question. We can thus launch our question into the wind or address it directly to someone, be it a person or a company, who usually responds fairly quickly... social pressure demands it!

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  • Marie-Julie from Technomade and Taxi-brousse, a Twitter hyperactive, always interesting,
  • and as always, the possibility to follow travel bloggers > like Laurène from Carnet d'escapade or Julie and Renaud from Carnet de Traverse
  • or more specific ones, like Nicolas from Laponico (Nordic travel) or Laurent from One Chaï (off the beaten path travel).
Follow on Twitter:

Prepare Your Trip with Social Media and the Magic of the Internet!

A backpack, Social Media, travel, blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram
photo by unsacsurledos.com

Other tools beyond social media exist online to help us prepare our travels! Whether it's Google Maps, travel blogs, flight and hotel comparison sites or planners, there's still much to discuss on this topic! The internet has truly changed the game, making information more accessible and facilitating encounters, even virtually, between people sharing the same passions or seeking the same information.

In this article, I focused on the social media platforms I use the most for planning my trips, but they are not the only ones! If you have other favorite social media platforms or additional tips to share, feel free to do so in the comments!

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