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Last updated on December 13th, 2022

There are hundreds of WordPress travel blog themes that cater to different types of writers and styles. Choosing the best theme is crucial to ensuring your travel blog starts on the right path to success and retains readers. I recommend reading the below guidelines on choosing a WordPress theme the right way, or you can jump right to the best travel blog themes.

How to Choose the Best WordPress Theme

Go With a Reliable Design Framework

The WordPress design framework of the theme needs to be clean and optimized for performance and security. This will allow readers to load your web pages quickly and avoid any hacking threats. It will also allow developers to create better plugins for your theme or make easier customizations if needed.

Make Sure It’s Readable

You may be able to read your travel blog with ease, but it doesn’t mean someone else can. Themes with a white background and dark font color are the easiest to read for most users. Look for a theme that allows easy changes to font sizes and colors.

Get Found on Google Search

Use a WordPress travel blog theme that is SEO-friendly out of the box. Search engines will index your travel blog easier. In addition, you can focus more of your time on your content than worrying about SEO code.

Find a Theme that is Flexible

Eventually, you will want to make changes to your theme as your travel blog grows. They might be subtle changes or major overhauls. A theme or framework with a visual drag-and-drop builder will help you make changes to your travel blog without code knowledge or hiring a developer.

Show Off Your Travel Photos

Regardless of if your travel photos are for readership growth or for family pleasure, you’re going to want to show them off, especially if you enjoy photo journals. Make sure to choose a theme that displays your travel photos vividly. Parallax themes are great at displaying landscape photos and provide a cool visual effect when users scroll down the page.

Get More Social Likes and Shares

Let’s face it; social media is as important to a website as water is important to the ocean. A theme with a built-in social media tool will help you with your content outreach. Another option is to use a WordPress social media plugin.

Grow Your Email Subscriber List

One way to keep users returning to your travel blog is to shoot them an email with your new posts and photos. A theme with an email opt-in form is beneficial. Like social media, you can also get a plugin.

User a Responsive Theme

This tip is really important. Your website needs to look nice and readable on all screen sizes. A responsive website automatically adjusts the layout of your theme, including the text and media, to correctly display on a user’s screen.

Make Your Travel Blog Beautiful on Smartphones

More and more webpages are being viewed via smartphones than desktops. Use a WordPress travel blog theme that is responsive and mobile-optimized. The good news is most developers already realize this, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding a mobile-optimized theme. You’ll also want to get a general understanding of AMP (accelerated mobile pages) and install the AMP plugin.

The 7 Best Travel Blog Themes

1. Explorable

Explorable is a travel-map inspired template by Elegant Themes. It helps pin a location to your travel blog posts through Google Maps integration. It’s great if you want to give your readers a better visualization of your travels. The blog page comes with a minimalistic design allowing your followers to do one thing: read your adventures without any distractions. The remainder of the theme has a simple design avoiding the clutter that comes with many themes.

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Explorable WordPress Travel Blog Theme

2. TravelPro by MagPlus

Share your stories the way they’re meant to be heard. Travel Pro is a specific design layout from the MagPlus theme. Even if you want to change the initial design at a later date, MagPlus makes it easy because it comes with 40+ different layouts and a drag-and-drop builder to customize the theme. The magazine style will allow you to display several of your articles on the front page leading to more content exposure. This travel blog theme is Instagram-ready and fully responsive.

View Demo

travel pro wp theme

3. Travel by CheerUp

CheerUp is another theme that has a specific travel blog layout like MagPlus. The theme comes with 11 unique designs plus countless customization options. Your readers will see your best travel photo with the theme’s full-width header image on the homepage. They’ll also be able to read your travel blog posts right away with its grid-style blog layout right below the header. An integrated MailChimp signup form will help get you subscribers to read your travel blog posts at later dates. CheerUp is social media-friendly, has several custom widgets, including an about-me widget, and has multiple footer layouts.

View Demo

cheer up travel blog theme

4. Trawell

Trawell is a professionally designed WordPress travel blog theme. This theme has only one purpose: to provide travelers with the tool to share stories and show photos in a creative mood. The travel theme comes with a neat map feature that visually displays the locations of where you have been. In addition, you can add a blurb stating the number of countries visited and how many days on the road. Trawell comes with a variety of predefined sections allowing you to show off your blog posts in different formats.

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professional wordpress travel blog theme

5. Traveler

Traveler is a beautifully crafted travel theme layout using the WP Publisher template. It has a calm yet adventurous appearance with its subtle brown color overlay. The theme does well with showcasing your travel blog posts and even your Instagram photos. An about me section and newsletter signup form can be easily added to the homepage using widgets. The WP Publisher template comes with 42 layouts, so there are many design options to choose from.

View Demo

travel wordpress theme

6. Travelista

Travelista is designed for travel bloggers. It comes with 9 post formats and 8 blog layouts, giving you the ability to showcase your best adventures. Most of the theme elements come with color options allowing you to add your personal touch. Recent posts are displayed on the sidebar with their respective featured images. This will catch the eye of your followers to keep reading your blog posts. Travelista is catchy and professional, with a well-rounded design.

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travelista best wordpress travel blog theme

7. The Traveler

The Traveler is designed by Meridian Themes. It has a unique homepage layout with displaying blog post snippets right at the top in a grid-based style. It’s one of the best travel blog themes if you are photo snappy with your travels and want to show them off. You’ll be able to set up an unreal travel blog in just a few hours. The Traveler comes with countless options to change the theme elements. This gives you full control to customize The Traveler and provide your followers with Ethical Elephant Sanctuaries – Beyond Elephant Riding, Volunteering, and the Selfie Problema one-of-kind travel blog layout. The theme comes with custom Instagram and social media widgets to help increase your social media presence.

View Demo

the traveler wp theme

Notes

WordPress travel blog themes don’t need to exclusively be designed for a travel blog. In other words, you can use a magazine or fashion blog template for your travel blog.

It’s better to a get premium theme instead of a free theme. The saying you get what you pay for is so true when it comes to quality WordPress themes. Plus, premium themes are updated regularly and provide better customer support. If you’re low on budget, consider starting with a free theme and later upgrading to a premium theme (changing themes can be a hassle).

Vincent Croos
About the Author: Vincent Croos

Hola Parceros,

I’m the founder of Aperlust. I enjoy web development and SEO and am into snowboarding and linguistics. In my spare time, you can find me destroying my opponents in chess across the globe.

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