Some of the most beautiful places we’ve visited in the past three years of RVing I’ve found because of Pinterest, like this awesome sight on the coast of Oregon called Thor’s Well.
Expert Advice
How to Plan Your Road Trip Using Pinterest
When it comes to planning a road trip, Pinterest isn’t the number one source that comes to mind. Aside from the fact that Pinterest is a great place to get lost in a sea of copycat recipes and makeshift tutorials, it also can be an incredible resource for planning your next road trip adventure.
Or this awesome view of the Grand Tetons:
Why Plan a Road Trip Using Pinterest
- It’s the perfect place to go for inspiration.
If you’re looking for inspiration or motivation to get out and travel more, Pinterest is a one stop shop for “travelspiration.”
There is no shortage of inspirational quotes pasted on photos of stunning landscapes.
Before we decided to go on our fifty state honeymoon tour, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest planning our wedding and getting distracted by gorgeous photos of beaches and mountains. I soon found myself daydreaming less about our wedding day and more about what we do after the wedding. Where would we honeymoon? Where would we live? Scrolling through Pinterest sparked a desire in me to see the world and everything it had to offer.
If you’re considering RVing full-time or just getting out and traveling more, there is no better place to get lost in jaw-dropping landscapes and travel inspiration.
- It’s the best place to find off the beaten path destinations.
When people hear that you’re heading west, they all recommend you go to Yellowstone. When you go east, everyone says to hit coastal towns like Savannah and Charleston.
Yes, I’ve been to Yellowstone. But even better was discovering the Grand Tetons, which I found on Pinterest while searching for things to do in Wyoming.
There are also millions of Pinterest posts that offer quirky travel destinations like “12 Stops to Make on Route 66” or “Best Ice Cream in All 50 States.”
Posts like these are gold and a great way to uncover hidden gems.
How to Plan a Road Trip Using Pinterest
- Research Places to Visit
Googling ‘where to visit in Maine’ can be overwhelming. You’ll likely end up with a bunch of tourist board websites and maybe a link to a Buzzfeed article.
The great thing about Pinterest is that instead of sifting through titles and text, you can simply look at pictures. Here’s what I got when I searched in Pinterest for places to visit in Maine, where we are planning to spend our summer:
This gives me a few great options right off the top: coastal towns, tips for visiting Acadia National Park, plus nine road trips in Maine worth taking (And one out of place ad for traveling to Norway).
I clicked on the pin offering tips for visiting Acadia and found a long list of restaurants to visit (plus what they offer on the menu), advice on trails to hike, and mentions of various tourist companies in the area, like Lulu’s Lobster Boat Ride which sounds awesome.
Heath and I are planning on visiting Acadia for two weeks in August, so this pin on “Tips for Visiting Acadia National Park” was incredibly helpful for us.
- Pick Your Favorite Pins
What I love about clicking through links on Pinterest is that it feels often like you’re asking a friend for suggestions. Most links go to personal blogs by fellow travelers or bloggers. This can be especially helpful if you are looking specifically at posts related to RVing. Fellow RVers know to include important info in their posts, like whether or not you’ll encounter low clearances or length restrictions while visiting a new place.
Pro tip: A good way to vet out what quality of content you’ll get on the other side of a pin is to look at the photo. How are the graphics? Does this look like a professional photo or a pixelated photo from a family vacation with text thrown on top?
I typically look out for obvious stock photos or photos that look too professional. I’ve found that those typically link back to sites with the least useful information and are just using photos to get re-pins.
- Save Articles for Future Reference
The other great thing about Pinterest is how easily you can re-pin and save places that you really want to visit. This is especially helpful when you’re planning an extended road trip and don’t want to forget tips you’ve found online.
You can create a travel board to save all your pins to, or create different boards for different parts of the country (Pacific Northwest, the South, the Keys) or different terrains (national parks, beaches, deserts, etc.).
When you re-pin your favorites, you can also change the description in the pin to remind yourself what information you found there.
I’ve been using Pinterest in this way for years, ever since planning our fifty-state honeymoon tour back in 2014. And even after visiting all fifty states, it continues to show me cool places that I missed during our first tour, like Shipwreck Coast in Michigan and Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Planning a road trip is one of the most exciting things to look forward to. I’m constantly dreaming about national parks along our route and our upcoming trip to the Florida Keys. Dreaming of future travel destinations is the single most inspiring thing to think about when I’m having a rough day, or our rig breaks down or I second guess why we decided to live in a home on wheels.
The way Pinterest easily displays pins on a board with beautiful pictures keeps your future road trip front of mind and inspired to Go RVing (see what I did there?).
Have you found any roadside gems using Pinterest? Let us know in the comments!
