Favourite travel blogs & vlogs: 9 inspiration sources

Photo by Kyle Myburgh on Unsplash

Looking for travel inspiration? Or just want to live your travel dreams vicariously while you’re stuck at home?

One of our favourite things about the internet is the ever-growing community of travel bloggers and vloggers who travel the world and share their adventures through words, photos and videos. Not only is it fun to watch and read along just to dream and form your own bucket list, but many of them are so well done that they provide a comprehensive look at all the best travel options available and help you decide where to go, how to plan your trip, and all the things you will need to consider before you hit the road for your next adventure.

Even if you’re not planning a trip any time soon, travel blogs and camping blogs are the perfect inspiration for daydreams about adventures in foreign lands. Covering every conceivable destination and every possible way to travel, travel bloggers and vloggers are proving that no dream is too big.

Here’s a list of our favourite travel bloggers, covering New Zealand and beyond.

Travelling K

Image credit: Travelling K

Karen is a solo female traveller who’s been exploring her homeland of New Zealand with a car and caravan for two years now.

After realising she might never be able to afford to buy a house in Auckland, Karen began researching van life and tiny home options through Youtube. After weighing her options, she decided that a caravan was the vehicle for her. And she hasn’t looked back since.

Travelling K is the name of her Youtube channel and website, where she has an amazing amount of resources for beginner # vanlifers and caravan travellers, covering topics like how to test out a caravan lifestyle, where to buy your caravan, caravan accessories and insurance, and how to have your vehicle registered as being self-contained in New Zealand. Her Youtube channel also covers things like the costs of living in a caravan and how to transport your caravan for overseas travel.

Having already travelled to New Zealand and Australia, Karen is currently touring the UK with her caravan. She posts new videos every few days chronicling her travel adventures and providing information and inspiration for countrywide caravan holidays.

Nomadic Matt

Image credit: Nomadic Matt

Nomadic Matt’s travel blog is something of an online bible for people looking for the cheapest way to see as much of the world as possible. After starting his own worldwide, shoestring budget travel adventure in 2006, Matt decided he wanted to spread the secrets of affordable travel to everyone. So his blog, and his best selling book “How To Travel The World on $50 A Day” were born.

With a mix of inspirational daily life posts, stories about different destinations, and guest posts from fellow travellers, Nomadic Matt is equally as good for education and inspiration. There’s also a thorough and well-researched section on How To Travel, including finding cheap airfares and accommodation, how to save and make money on the road, buy the right gear, and deal with the inevitable problems that come with travelling frequently.

With travel guides covering New Zealand, Australia, North and South America and most of Europe, Nomadic Matt can provide you with practical, cost-effective advice to get your travel happening as soon as possible, wherever your dreams are going to take you.

Tiki Touring Kiwi

Image credit: Tiki Touring Kiwi

The Tiki Touring Kiwi blog is written by the quirky and eccentric Jub, a sports-mad, cat-loving guy with a glorious beard. Jub is a Kiwi who’s visited an impressive 47 countries but he doesn’t just write about his adventures abroad, he shares his favourite places at home too.

With a wealth of posts available about what to do and see and where to stay in New Zealand, he also covers New Zealand bucket list attractions and local spots that are well worth seeing. His posts are written with style, flair, and some good old Kiwi humour.

Two Wandering Soles

Image credit:Two Wandering Soles

Katie and Ben are an adorable American couple who travel as far and wide as they can. Being # vanlife experts, a big part of their website focuses on how to build out and live in your own campervan, and how to make that lifestyle sustainable, both for you and the environment. Two Wandering Soles also offers travel tips and guides, as well as advice for living and working abroad, and the best ways to be paid to travel.

Katie and Ben have travelled and lived in an array of countries, and can offer practical advice for all of them - New Zealand, Australia, Europe, South East Asia, North and South America are all covered in this comprehensive travel blog.

The Curious Kiwi

Image credit: The Curious Kiwi

The Curious Kiwi blog and website are run by Rachael, a native of Rotarua who is passionate about all the quirky, fun attractions New Zealand has to offer.

The Curious Kiwi website is a great place to help you plan a road trip that truly shows off the character of the places you visit. It has an Unusual Accommodation and Unusual Cafe Guide, listings of various tea rooms, food and cooking tours, and even Happy Hours at Auckland pubs and bars. There are also road trip guides available, including suggested routes and attractions on the East Cape and Forgotten World Highway.

The Curious Kiwi blog chronicles Rachael’s adventures as she sets out to discover and record the hidden gems of New Zealand’s north and south islands.

Miss Tourist

Image credit: Miss Tourist

Yulia from Miss Tourist is Russian by nationality, but prefers to think of herself as a ‘citizen of the world’. She’s been travelling for five years now and has visited 67 countries on 5 different continents. She also speaks five languages.

Miss Tourist is a colourful, practical, easy to navigate site that provides solid information for different destinations, including New Zealand, Canada, Asia, Europe and South America. From packing lists to destination advice to money-saving tips, Yulia likes to inspire people to ‘travel smart’ and make the most of their adventures, whatever their budget may be. She also likes to make travel accessible to as broad a range of people as possible. One of her mottos is “You are never too old, too busy or too poor to start travelling”.

Beanies and Bikinis

Image credit: Beanies and Bikinis

Nikki is a 25-year-old van life travel blogger from Canada who is currently living in Queenstown, New Zealand. She lives in her van full time with her gorgeous dog Frankie, having converted her 2017 Ford Transit cargo van into a beautiful living space all by herself. She’s also an avid snowboarder and yoga enthusiast.

As well as offering tips on van conversion, Nikki does blog posts and videos with information on New Zealand van life and road trips, as well as travel in Canada and the US. Nikki also loves writing and producing videos - and looking at her blog, you can definitely tell.

As well as extensive New Zealand and North American travel experience, beanies and Bikinis also has tips on travel and van life in Thailand, Mexico, Australia, India and Fiji.

Max and Lee ****

Image credit: Max and Lee

An international couple, Max (from Australia) and Lee (from Canada) have built up an impressive Youtube following, chronicling their van life adventure with their dog, Occy. Their cheerful channel has a new video every Sunday and features beautiful drone footage of wherever they happen to be this week.

Max and Lee cover van basics like purchasing a van and fitting it out, as well as more complex processes like shipping their van overseas and crossing borders with a van. They explore different destinations and take you along for the journey as they cross continents in the cheapest but most travel effective way possible.

Focusing mostly on North and South America, Max and Lee (and Occy) have travelled 60,000 kilometres in their van so far, with many more adventures to come.

The Wild Life

Image credit: The Wild Life

Vegan and animal lover, Alys, has been travelling since she was 18 and has visited 33 countries. She’s currently working and travelling her way around New Zealand in her van, having already explored Europe, Hong Kong, Russia, Mongolia and China.

An adventurous traveller, Alys lists guides to New Zealand and overseas adventures at affordable prices and reviews vegan restaurants and cafes. She also offers handy downloadable PDF guides to things like Buying A Van In New Zealand and Freedom Camping In New Zealand.

If you’re thinking about starting your own van life adventure, it’s a great idea to try out different types of vans before you buy. Book a campervan, caravan or RV through Camplify today to try out different vehicles and travel options. Then check out the bloggers we’ve mentioned above to get your trip inspiration.

So what is Camplify?

We are a caravan hire and RV sharing community, helping connect thousands of holidaymakers with RV owners.

What does that mean?

Essentially, we provide a unique sharing service where owners of caravans, camper trailers, motorhomes, and campervans list their RV for hire while not in use. As an owner, this enables you to earn over $10,000 each year instead of having your RV just sitting around while you’re not using it.

As a holidaymaker, Camplify helps you find an RV that is perfect for you so you can experience the joys of caravanning - without having to own one yourself.

Interested? Learn more about Camplify here.