How to Make a Travel TikTok

Ready to transform your travel footage into thumb-stopping TikToks? Forget generic slideshows and shaky clips - this guide dives straight into the practical steps for creating travel content that builds an audience. We’ll cover everything from pre-trip planning and simple filming techniques to pro-level editing tricks that you can do right on your phone.

Before You Go: The Essential Pre-Trip TikTok Prep

Incredible travel TikToks rarely happen by accident. A little bit of planning before you zip up your suitcase can make all the difference between a video that gets a few dozen views and one that reaches thousands. This isn't about creating a rigid, hour-by-hour script, but about setting yourself up with a clear direction so you know what kind of content to capture once you’re on the ground.

Brainstorm Your Content Ideas

Instead of trying to film everything, focus your efforts on a few key themes or “content pillars.” This helps your account develop a clear identity and attract a dedicated audience who knows what to expect from you. Ask yourself: what sub-niche of travel excites me the most?

• Budget Travel: Think “5 free things to do in Amsterdam” or “How I ate for under $20 a day in Thailand.”
• Luxury & Unique Stays: Focus on incredible hotel tours, unique Airbnbs, or high-end experiences.
• Foodie Adventures: Dedicate your content to trying street food, ranking local coffees, or finding hidden gem restaurants.
• Adventure & Outdoor Travel: Showcase hiking trails, epic viewpoints, surfing spots, or other adrenaline-pumping activities.
• Cultural Experiences: Highlight museums, local markets, music, and traditions that go beyond typical tourist spots.

Choose two or three pillars to guide your filming. This way, if you’re a budget traveler who loves food, you’ll know to prioritize capturing content about market prices and cheap eats.

Research Trends for Your Destination

Your content has a much better chance of taking off if you tap into what's already popular. A few days before your trip, open TikTok and start researching:

• Location-Specific Hashtags: Search for your destination (e.g., #italytravel, #tokyotravel, #mexicocity). Look at the top-performing videos. What are people doing? What kind of music are they using?
• Trending Audio: As you scroll, pay attention to sounds that appear repeatedly. If you hear a song or audio clip three or four times, hit the "Save" button. Having a list of pre-saved trending sounds will save you tons of time when you’re ready to edit.
• Popular Formats: Are people making "day in the life" vlogs at your destination? Are they doing "expectation vs. reality" posts about famous landmarks? Take note of these popular formats and think about how you can put your own unique spin on them.

Create a Quick "Shot List"

A shot list sounds intimidating, but it’s just a simple checklist you can keep in your phone’s notes app. This is your content safety net - a list of specific clips to capture so you don’t get home and realize you forgot the one shot you needed to complete a video. A shot list for a trip to Paris might look like this:

• Feet walking on cobblestone streets
• Close-up of a croissant flaking apart
• Pan up of the Eiffel Tower from the ground
• POV shot of swiping a metro card
• Time-lapse of the sunset over the Seine
• Quick clip stirring an espresso
• Candid shot of street performers

With these clips, you have everything you need for multiple TikToks - a foodie montage, a "Parisian moments" aesthetic video, or a "what a day in Paris looks like" vlog.

On Location: Filming Content That Stops the Scroll

You’ve planned ahead and now you’re finally at your destination. This is where the magic happens. Your goal is to capture short, dynamic clips that can be stitched together later into a captivating story. Remember that you’re creating for a vertical, mobile-first audience with a very short attention span.

The Gear You Actually Need (It’s Less Than You Think)

You don't need a professional camera rig to create viral travel content. In fact, some of the most successful travel creators use nothing more than their phone. The key is to maximize what you have:

• Your Smartphone: Learn to use its features. Clean your lens before every shot, tap the screen to focus a subject, and slide your finger down to lower the exposure and avoid blown-out, overly bright skies.
• A Portable Power Bank: Filming video drains your battery faster than anything else. A pocket-sized charger is a non-negotiable lifesaver.
• A Mini Tripod or GorillaPod: This cheap and lightweight tool is perfect for static time-lapses, steady shots of you walking into the frame, or setting your phone on a table for a food shot.

Shooting Techniques for Dynamic Video

How you move your phone while filming is what separates a boring clip from an engaging one. The goal is variety and movement. Think of each clip as a word, and you're collecting enough "words" to form a complete sentence later.

• Vary Your Shots: Always get a mix of wide shots (to establish the scene), medium shots (to show an action), and close-ups (to highlight a detail). For a food market video, this means a wide shot of the bustling market, a medium shot of a vendor making a dish, and a close-up of the steam rising from the finished plate.
• Storytelling Through Clips: Think in sequences. Before you even get to the stunning viewpoint, capture the build-up: your hiking boots on the trail, a quick pan of the forest canopy, a shot of you looking at a map. These "transition" clips make your story feel more complete.
• Film Vertically (Always!): This is a fundamental rule of TikTok. All of your content should be shot in a 9:16 vertical aspect ratio to fill the entire screen on a phone.
• Keep Clips Short and Sweet: Your final TikTok might only be 15 seconds long, but you should still capture a variety of 5-10 second clips. This gives you more than enough footage to work with in the edit, allowing you to use just the best moments from each clip.

Bringing It All Together: Editing Like a Pro

Editing is where your story comes to life. It's the step that elevates simple clips into an emotive and engaging travel video. Luckily, powerful editing tools are now available right on your phone, making the process faster and more intuitive than ever.

Choosing Your Editing App

You have two main options, and both are excellent:

• The TikTok App: Don’t underestimate TikTok’s native editor. It's designed to be fast and is perfectly integrated with the platform's trending sounds and effects library. For simple montages and quick edits, it's often the best choice.
• CapCut: This is a free app owned by the same parent company as TikTok. It offers more advanced features like smoother slow-motion, finer control over color grading, and more complex text animations. The best part? You can easily send your finished project from CapCut directly to TikTok.

The Art of the Quick Cut

Pacing is everything on TikTok. Modern viewers are conditioned to rapid-fire visuals, so snappy, fast cuts are your best friend. A good rule of thumb is that no single clip should be on screen for more than two seconds unless it is exceptionally jaw-dropping.

The most important trick is to sync your cuts to the beat of the music. Start by choosing your trending audio. As you listen, you’ll notice distinct beats or changes in the music. Align your video transitions to land exactly on those beats. This creates a rhythm that is incredibly satisfying for the viewer and makes your video look instantly more professional and polished.

Writing a Caption That Converts

The video is only half the battle. Your caption and hashtags are what help TikTok understand what your video is about and who to show it to.

• Keep it short and add value. Share a quick tip, a funny anecdote about the clip, or a surprising fact.
• Ask a question. Encourage comments by ending your caption with a question like, "Have you ever been here?" or "What city should I visit next?" More comments send positive signals to the algorithm.
• Use a mix of hashtags. Combine broad, high-volume hashtags (#travel, #tiktoktravel) with smaller, niche ones specific to your content (#budgettraveltips, #solofemaletraveler, #italyitinerary). This strategy helps you reach both a wide audience and a more targeted one. Aim for 3-5 well-chosen hashtags.

Go-To Travel TikTok Formats (and How to Make Them Your Own)

You don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Using established video formats is a great way to tap into trends and give your viewers something familiar yet fresh.

• The Quick Montage: This is the workhorse of travel TikTok. Combine 8-12 of your best quick clips from a location, sync them to a high-energy trending song, and add a simple text overlay like "A weekend in Lisbon."
• The "Hack" or "Tip": Offer genuine value. "One thing you NEED to know before visiting Japan..." is much more compelling than a generic montage. Use text overlays to list tips or use a voiceover to explain a travel hack.
• The Voiceover Story: Put a steady, scenic clip on a loop (like a waterfall or view from a cafe) and record a voiceover telling an interesting, funny, or shocking story from your trip. The visual keeps them watching while the story pulls them in.
• The Reveal (or "Transition"): This is built on suspense. Start with an ordinary shot (like you looking at your phone) and transition on a beat drop to an epic reveal of your stunning location. This can be done with a snap of your fingers, a jump, or a camera spin.

Beyond the Video: Growing Your Travel Brand

Creating great content is the first step. To truly build a following, you need to think like a creator, not just a videographer. Your long-term success depends on a few key habits:

First, pick a realistic posting schedule and stick to it. Consistency tells the algorithm that your account is active and reliable. Even posting just two to three high-quality TikToks per week is more effective than posting seven mediocre ones. Many creators batch-edit their videos after a trip, scheduling them out over the following weeks.

Second, engage with your community. When people leave comments on your videos, reply to them! Answer their questions, thank them for their kind words, and create a genuine connection. This community management turns passive viewers into loyal fans who are more likely to support your future content.

Finally, work smarter by repurposing your content. That 60-second TikTok montage can easily be posted as an Instagram Reel and a YouTube Short, tripling its reach with minimal extra effort. This maximizes the value of every single video you create.

Final Thoughts

The formula for a great travel TikTok isn't a secret. It's a combination of smart planning, dynamic filming that tells a story, and fast-paced editing that respects the viewer's time. By focusing on giving value and wrapping it in an entertaining format, you can consistently create content that captures the magic of your travels and grows a real community.

Once you’ve perfected an amazing travel TikTok, the last thing you want to do is scramble to post it while also trying to manage Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. That's why we built Postbase. Our clean visual calendar allows you to schedule all your short-form videos across every platform from one central hub. You can upload your content once, customize the caption for each platform, and get back to planning your next adventure, knowing your posts are going live exactly when they should.