Culture Trip
With the tagline, “Created for Curious Travelers” Culture Trip is one of the BEST sites to hit up for travel inspiration and useful information. Their whole MO is to “create stories that reveal what is unique and special about a place, its people and its culture” which is exactly what you need to know when looking to travel to a place - you don’t need the obvious touristy places. No, if you are anything like us, then you want to go deeper and understand what makes a place special and learn about the people that call it home.
Here are some of our favorite articles from Culture Trip that are keeping us excited about traveling: Hidden Gems to Explore in Marrakech, The True Story Behind The Environmental Degradation Of Nauru and The 9 Best Cafés and Coffee Shops in Odessa, Ukraine (because who else is missing amazing coffee shops right now?!).
TripSavvy
This site began thanks to the need for reliable, trustworthy travel information. And because of that, everything is written by real travel experts and not by anonymous reviewers. TripSavvy has been around for 20 years, meaning they have an extensive library of articles on all manner of travel topics, from information on trip planning (car rentals, cruises and tech & gear) to inspiration for road trips, adventure and the outdoors to golf (yes even golf).
Some articles that give us all the travel feels are The 10 Most Adventurous Things to Do in the Atacama Desert, The 12 Best Virtual Vacations You Can Take Without Traveling (because #coronavirus) and New Zealand's North Island or South Island: Which Should You Visit? (because who hasn’t had this question before???).
Lonely Planet
Similar in style to the two sites above, but with the added bonus of destination specific travel books, Lonely Planet is a great spot to learn about unique destinations all in easy to understand categories (i.e. adventure, family, romance, foodie, etc.). An added bonus though is that a lot of their information is also presented in videos - meaning if you don’t feel like reading an article, you can still learn about the polar bears in Manitoba (curious? Find the video here).
Some other pieces we are loving are: Step up: eight epic hikes of the world, Best in Travel Awards for Value and As people stay home, cities around the world report better air quality.
Nomadic Matt
What started out as a site to help you travel for cheaper has grown to be a massive community of like-minded, travel hungry individuals. While there is still very much a focus on travel hacking, traveling cheaply and traveling smarter there is also tons of information on destinations and the founder, Matt’s, own experiences.
Here are some articles from Nomadic Matt that we are checking out to pass the time (and continue dreaming of the places we will go once this is all over): 7 Ways To Scratch The Travel Itch Without Traveling (very timely indeed), Why Travel Makes You Awesome and How To Become A Sustainable Traveler In 2020.
With so much time spent inside these days, it is easier than ever to sit down, read a couple articles and get excited to travel once again! Because, though things seem grim right now (and they are, there is no doubt about that) we WILL get through this! Stay safe. Stay positive.