How to Use Pinterest for Your Next Vacation or Staycation

Does the idea of getting away from it all sound good to you? Whether you’re planning a luxury vacation to an exotic location or an economical staycation, Pinterest can help.

A couple of weeks ago I participated in my first ever live chat on Pinterest called Pin-Up Live. It was based on adventure travel and since then, I’ve had an itch to travel.

That got me to thinking; can Pinterest be used to help with travel planning? Heck yeah it can! Let’s take a look.

Start with a Board

There’s a lot of planning that goes into a vacation like where to stay, what to do and my favorite part, where to eat. Pinterest can help you keep all of these details organized before you step foot out of your door and even while you’re visiting your dream destination.

Start off by creating a board or multiple boards specifically for your travel plans. If you prefer to keep your plans private, remember, you can create up to 3 secret boards. In addition to checking out to the World Wide Web for help with your travel planning, try the Pinterest search box for your destination. Travel is one of the biggest categories on Pinterest and there could be some pins from other pinners that might be helpful.

Helpful pins that were repinned from other pinners:

1. Video of local attraction
2. Price and description of accommodations
3. Pinner’s review of local restaurant

Where to Stay

When deciding on where to stay on your vacation there are lots of things to consider such as cost, amenities and location. You’ll probably end up having to choose between several places. You can create a Pinterest board to pin places that you’d like to consider and easily compare them side by side.  You can even pin the same hotel from different websites and shop around for the best price.

Many images from travel and hotel websites can be pinned to Pinterest. Use the available space in the description of each pin for notes about the features of each hotel to help you decide on the perfect one at the best price for your vacation. (To make pinning easier from these sites, take a look at the post about Pin It Button Secrets.)

What to Do and Where to Eat

One of my biggest travel pet peeves is spending time trying to figure out where to eat or what to do once we arrive. While I’m not a “we must stick to the schedule” kind of person, spending an hour of valuable vacation time making a decision about an activity or a restaurant is not time well spent.

Over the past couple of years my family has come to rely on the reviews on sites like TripAdvsior, Yelp and UrbanSpoon to guide us in the right direction. Each one of these sites has pinnable images. Now, we can look at these sites before we leave on a trip and pin the things we find interesting. In the pin descriptions, I can include addresses and helpful reminders of why we pinned it such as “the best seafood on the beach”.

Thanks to the Pinterest mobile apps, I can have easy access to all the things we’ve pinned while we travel! (As long as there’s cellphone service)

Staycations and Pinterest

It doesn’t look like my travel itch will be scratched any time soon. That doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun in our own back yard. The tips above can apply whether you’re visiting the other side of the country or the other side of town. I’m always looking for new restaurants to try and fun things to do with the kids. I’ve started a local board to pin things I find in my area.  The next time we want to take a break from the routine, I’ll be prepared.

Pinterest allows businesses to include their location in their profile. While the current search feature is somewhat limited, could it be possible that a more refined search is coming soon? Businesses should be sure to include their location in their profile to make it easier for pinners to find them.

For years, people have scoured the Internet to help them plan their vacations. I remember making multiple folders on my browser of bookmarked sites to help me remember hotels to consider or activities to try while on vacation. I even remember printing out several pages of website’s home pages to take on a family trip to help us navigate our way around, that was a mess. Where was Pinterest back then?

Do you know someone planning a trip? Be sure to share this with them,  just click one of the sharing buttons below. Thanks!