Best Travel Forums
A Top Source of Info from Real Travelers
For centuries, word-of-mouth sources were the only reliable method of gathering information about an upcoming journey. After all, who would know more about the road ahead than the people who had actually traveled it themselves? Even today, word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family can be immensely impactful when it comes to purchasing certain consumer goods.
Today’s marketing companies have recognized the ongoing value of word-of-mouth recommendations, which is why they’ve leveraged such advice for today’s digital mediums. Specifically, online travel forums represent a rich vein of tips and suggestions for thousands of destinations around the world. These traveler forums are all driven by user-generated content, too, so you can be certain their advice is coming directly from the horse’s mouth.
Of course, trip advisor forums have been around since the internet was in its infancy. As such, there are thousands of similar forum sites online today, with their individual qualities varying greatly depending on the reliability of their user base. Expectant travelers with a lot of spare time on their hands may be able to separate the wheat from the chafe. But those who are planning to hit the road imminently simply can’t afford the time to judge each online travel website.
Fortunately, you won’t need to waste your packing time skimming through search results in hopes of finding an adequate advisor forum. Instead, you can simply check out this list of the top 10 most useful travel forums currently available online. Using this list, you’ll be able to learn which travel forums possess the largest communities while also providing prospective travelers like you with a productive user experience on their platform.
So, what are you waiting for? Check out these picks for the best overall travel advisor forum and learn why so many other digitally-savvy travelers like you have made them all a go-to source for information on their next destination. You might even consider bookmarking this page so that you can access this top 10 forum list with just a single click in the future.
What is a “Forum?”
If you don’t consider yourself “tech-savvy,” then you may have never used a “forum” before, either as a viewer or as a contributor. That’s perfectly alright, though you certainly won’t pass up these useful user-generated communities in the future. That’s because travel forums are able to provide you with in-depth information about your destination, as well as the most affordable methods of getting there and the most important gear to bring along.
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. First, let’s take a moment to discuss what “forums” are in their most basic form. Generally speaking, an internet forum (also known as a “message board”) is any website that enables users to start discussions (called “threads”) and post replies to other user’s inquiries or observations. Forums are almost always text-based and focused on a particular topic, either derived from the host website or the specific thread.
During the early years of the internet’s popularity, it was not yet capable of the robust person-to-person networking that social media allows for today. As such, text-based websites were the norm, with internet forums being a crucial method of sharing information on everything from news and politics to video games and travel. While forums for other topics have fallen out of favor recently, travel forum communities remain active based upon their mutual interest in attaining the most in-depth knowledge about their favorite hobby.
Before you step back and say, “these forums aren’t for me,” you should know that you are not obliged to join any of these popular travel forums. Instead, you can simply read through them as a spectator and learn from the past experiences of other travelers. Travel advisor forums in particular are a great place to pick up tips about when to travel to a certain location as well as pick up travel-tested packing lists – all without needing to become a member.
Should you choose to participate in one of these listed travel forums, you’ll quickly find that their members can be quite helpful when it comes to providing thoughtful travel information. In fact, new threads on most of these listed forums will receive replies from other users on the very same day. This kind of rapid responsiveness will allow you to act on community members’ recommendations and tips even if you’re about to leave for your next trip.
What I Look for in a Trip Advisor Forum
Now that you know all about what internet forums can offer a prospective traveler like you, it’s time to get down to business and talk about what I look for in a trip advisor forum. As you might expect, I didn’t simply grab the first 10 forum websites that showed up in my search results. Instead, I spent countless hours paging through many popular and lesser-known forums to create a top 10 list that is fully representative of what the internet today has to offer.
To get onto this forum list, each forum site had to meet certain criteria that are designed to gauge the quality of their information, the availability of their community, and the usability of their platform. Each of these factors alone are not enough to earn a spot in this top 10; instead, each entry needs to exhibit all three to an acceptable degree before it can be certified as a “top travel forum.”
When it came to the quality of information, each of these forum sites had something different to offer. This only made sense because each community was made up of different members who had different experiences while traveling abroad. In particular, I appreciated when a particular forum included threads for a variety of different countries and regions, not just those that are popular for tourist vacations. If those threads included curated materials such as day-by-day guides and itineraries, then they were all the better in my eyes.
Though it isn’t the “content” of these forums outright, I also took into account how available each forum community was when I attempted post inquiries about my upcoming trips. To be precise, I gauged how quickly other users responded to my posts with actionable or otherwise novel insights. After all, an inactive forum community is as useful to you as shouting your travel questions into the wind. Each of the forum communities on this list are active and intelligent, though, so you won’t have to worry about striking out with any of these options.
While a travel forum’s content is important, it really falls by the wayside if the forum platform possesses a subpar user interface. In other words, if I couldn’t find what I was looking for in an efficient and intuitive manner, then that forum website was not given strong consideration for this travel forum collection. Among other factors, I appreciated forums that used minimalistic aesthetics that emphasized clarity over the need to make money via advertisements. Also, a customizable search option was an absolute must-have when it came to these top forum sites.
Using These Trip Advisor Forums to your Advantage
In a basic sense, using a travel advisor forum is fairly easy. So long as you know what you’re looking for, you can usually find at least one person talking about the topic after some skimming through that forum’s entire archive. If your forum of choice lacks the information that you seek, though, you can always start your own thread and see what community members have to offer you.
While these two basic options are easy enough to facilitate, they can also become extremely time-consuming. Several of the work and travel forum sites in this collection are several decades old now, so there’s simply no way you can be expected to choose one of these two options without first spending hours – maybe even days – combing through the community’s backlog. Fortunately, you won’t need to do this if you know how to use a trip advisor forum to your advantage.
The most sure-fire way to become a power user on your travel forum of choice is to learn about its built-in features. For example, any travel forum user worth their salt should be able to use their platform’s search function with masterful precision. This can be done by utilizing several options provided by your forum’s search function. One of these options is the “Sort By” function, which automatically pairs down your search results based upon factors such as when the original thread was started and when the last new post was made on the same thread.
Along the same lines, being able to search for key terms within specific threads can make or break your experience on a particular travel forum. In other words, the best forum sites allow you to specify which threads you want to run your search on, rather than forcing you to page through the entire site’s catalogue of threads any time you want to find a single travel post. This feature in particular can be exceptionally useful if you are only looking for insights on one type of lodging (such as a campground or a fancy hotel) at your destination.
Should you decide to use any of these great travel forums, you should also make a point to find and use the platform’s “favorite” function whenever possible. When used properly, this feature can make it easy to save threads and responses that answer your travel-related queries for quick referencing later on. This can be especially important when planning for your trip takes several weeks from hotel booking to cheap flights tickets. Some forums even allow you to use the aforementioned search functions to scan through your “favorites,” thus saving you the time of needing to set filters each time you log on.
Finding the Trip Advisor Forum that is Right for You
Though it goes without saying, I fully endorse every one of the travel forums that appears in this top 10 collection. However, I also recognize that not every one of these forums will precisely meet the needs of every traveler. As such, I want you to take some time to try out all 10 of these forums before you settle on the option that’s right for you. More importantly, you should consider what each of these travel form websites can offer when it comes to targeted content.
For example, if you’re planning on traveling to Southeast Asia, then you’re not going to find a better source for user-generated content then TravelFish. This forum’s users have traveled all around Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam and are willing to share their experiences with you. Also, for a small annual fee, members of TravelFish are able to ask their own original questions as well as download over 200 guides for traveling in the region.
Meanwhile, folks who regularly travel by plane or have questions about affordable airfare to a certain destination will find the FlyerTalk Forums to their liking. This free-to-use community was started back in 1998 and today continues to provide avid fliers with fresh insights into the most efficient ways to take to the skies. This air travel forum also includes simple functionality that mimics social media, thus allowing you to “like” helpful posts.
Of course, this collection of top travel forums includes several general-purpose options from well-known brands. For example, thousands of travelers still swear by the TripAdvisor forum. This was one of the first travel forums I used back when I was getting into traveling abroad and I still trust its users to provide me with the best ideas about where to go and what to bring. This comes as a significant supplement to the nearly 700 million reviews of cafes, bars, landmarks, and hotels offered by TripAdvisor proper.
Make the Most of your Traveling Research Experience
All in all, I hope you are fully satisfied with this collection of the very travel advisor forums online today. Each forum community can offer you novel information regarding new and prospective destination, while every forum in this list will allow you to easily find the information you are looking for through a streamlined user interface. As you try out each of these forums, don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild and empower you to plan your next fantastic excursion abroad.
