10 Practical Tips for Making a Great Travel Video (2024)

What Kind of Travel Videos Do I Make?

Travel videos come in many forms, from the usual walk-and-talk vlogging style to a more street run-and-gun-shoot style. It is important for you to know which kind of travel videos you want to make before you begin shooting.

Personally, I prefer a more cinematic, fast-cut, inspirational video with little to no narration. You can see the style of my travel videos here. Find a purpose for your travel videos by asking yourself, "Who are the videos for?" and "What kind of feeling do you want your viewers to experience at the end?"

For example, my travel videos aim to inspire people to visit the country through beautiful visuals, authentic interactions, and the transfer of the energy I experienced from the country through visuals and sound. My videos are not meant to be informative; therefore, a cinematic, fast-cut style is most suitable for my videos.

What Camera Gear Do I Use?

I used to use a more compact, lightweight setup with the Sony Rx100M3 as my go-to camera. This is a good starting point for those who are not as familiar with basic camera settings like aperture, ISO, and shutter speed. The RX100 helps automate most of the process while allowing you to go manual anytime if you need to.

I have since moved on to a little more advanced, but lightweight gear and now, I am currently rocking the Sony a7C mirrorless camera with a 24-70mm F2.8 GM lens.

The camera shoots in 6K but downscales to a 4K format, giving me sharper footage than most traditional 4K formats. The lens is also good for general purposes, with a wide enough angle for landscapes and zooming far enough for close-up shots of people without them noticing.

For more details on the gear I used, here is all the camera gear I carry in my bag now.

Which Program Do I Use to Edit?

I started out using iMovie with my first few videos since it was really easy to use and already available on my Macbook. If you are just starting out, a simple program like iMovie is the way to go because it lets you learn the ropes much easier than starting directly with advanced tools.

I have since moved to Adobe Premiere Pro, though, and have been working with it, together with Adobe After Effects, for more than 3 years now and have not looked back since. You can also use Final Cut Pro if you are on a Mac.

The benefit of using Final Cut Pro is that, since it was built to run on macOS, it is more optimized and renders faster than Adobe Premiere Pro on macOS. Try it out by signing up for a trial run and see which one you want to invest in.

10 Tips on How To Make a Great Travel Video

1. Watch Tons of Travel Videos

Most skills are best learned through great examples, and travel filmmaking is no different. When I first started, I watched tons and tons of travel videos every week until I was inspired enough to create my own.

I like to observe how travel videos work: what format they use, why they put this clip before the other clip, and why and how they shot a certain frame. From that, I would experiment, film, and develop my style.

Vimeo Travel is a great place to find high-quality, inspiring travel videos from which you can learn. The community is quite active and generally provides information about the gear used and the story behind each video. Watch a few of these videos, choose your favorite, and learn from it.

I have also compiled a list of the world's most inspiring travel videos of all time if you want some examples to learn from.

2. Prepare the camera settings before your trip

One of the last things you want to do is change the profile picture of your camera while you are on the trip. That would create a lot of unnecessary headaches along the line, especially when you are in the editing booth color-correcting.

Before your trip, experiment with which settings work best for you and set them as the default for all modes. Avoid changing settings that would affect your footage, ensuring consistency across all the footage you will capture.

For my Sony a7C, I have set the 2 memory buttons to record in 4K, 25fps with picture profile 6 (Cine2, Cinema Color Mode) for general footage, and in 1080p, 120fps with the same picture profile for slow-motion shots, respectively. This allows me to switch between modes easily, depending on the footage I want to capture at that moment.

Spend some time experimenting with your camera, finding the right settings, and sticking to them for the entire trip.

3. Shoot Smarter

Shooting as much as possible is great advice because when you're back home editing, you'll wish you had more material to work with. However, there is a thin line between shooting enough and overshooting. Don't forget to enjoy the country itself and remind yourself once in a while why you're traveling in the first place.

What I often do is dedicate a block of time to shooting videos when the light is at its best, which is usually in the early morning or around sunset. That way, I get the most beautiful footage from that place, and I still have an entire day to explore and enjoy the experience.

4. Come up with a Story

This is not easy, and I have often struggled with it because traveling is spontaneous and unplanned. Telling a great story requires extensive research and careful planning.

Unless you have the budget and the time to scout a location, come up with a story, and direct actors around, you will have to settle for the chaos and spontaneity that comes with traveling. That is why it is so important to have your camera ready and shoot as much as possible.

To create a story from chaos, you need enough material to connect the dots and come up with a beginning, a middle, and an end. For example, after a trip, I would open up all my footage and review it individually while trying to find a common thread that can be woven into a story.

It doesn't have to be Spielberg quality; you just need to develop a loose story that goes well with your footage and the country. That way, your viewers will stay engaged long enough to watch your videos until the end.

A great example is my Daydreams in the Philippines video, which I shot unplanned and spontaneously, but I was able to come up with a story that engages the viewers.

The video started in Manila, a buzzing capital city of the Philippines, where the video cut to a woman sitting in a jeepney, closing her eyes. Then, it cuts to all the footage of my adventure in the country, all woven together consistently throughout the entire video. It continues until the end when the woman opens her eyes and realizes she was daydreaming, hence the name.

5. Make it More About the Country, Less about Yourself

Nowadays, too often, travel videos tend to focus a lot on the filmmakers and how great their lives seem to be, which is not what travel videos are about. Travel videos are supposed to tell a story about a location, showcasing the scenery, locals, food, etc., not serving as a platform to show off your life.

Shoot fewer videos of all the parties you had in a country and shoot more of the local people, the architecture, and the history. Weave them all together to tell a unique and engaging story that will inspire people to follow in your footsteps and do the same.

6. Diversify your Shots

As mentioned before, travel videos don't have the luxury of having a proper structure and an engaging story to keep the audience interested. So, you need to experiment and diversify how you shoot videos to keep your audience engaged until the end.

Try panning left, right, up, down, shooting time-lapse or on a moving vehicle, shooting from a worm's-eye view, slowly spinning shots, or from different angles. One of my favorite techniques, which I use a lot when I'm in a church in Europe, is to wrap my camera strap around my neck, tilt the camera up, and slowly spin my body to capture a smooth motion of all the beautiful ceilings of cathedrals and churches. You can see an example in my Russia video at around the 1:22 mark.

Taken from my RUSSIA video.

7. Create Motion

When we travel, many things we often see are static subjects, like beautiful churches in Europe, expansive landscapes while hiking, etc. These subjects may look good in photos, but when it comes to videos, you will have to be a little creative in how you capture them. Holding your camera out and taking videos of these static subjects will not inspire or excite anyone to visit the place.

You will have to create your own motion, and you can do that in several ways. Try making your own motion with a simple camera movement, like panning. Use time-lapse to bring life into an otherwise static building or landscape. Alternatively, shoot something that is already in motion, like kids playing, pigeons flying, or people dancing.

One of my favorite techniques is to do a Hyperlapse (a moving time-lapse). Most tutorials will teach you how to do it with a tripod, but nobody has time for that. So, what I did was shoot each photo handheld and move with my feet.

I then compile the photos into a video and stabilize it in Adobe Premiere Pro. If you are interested, you can learn how to do it yourself by watching this tutorial on YouTube.

Here is an example of a hyperlapse I did in Poland:

Taken from my Proudly Poland video.

8. Get close-up shots of locals

Nothing can invoke more human emotion than having a person staring intensely at your camera. We humans interact with each other every day. We love, laugh, and cry because of each other, and we can utilize that in our travel videos to bring out strong emotions from our audience.

Taken from my RUSSIA video.

For example, in my Russia video, I was shooting a local, and she noticed me and stared intensely at the camera. As the music becomes more intense, so does the audience because they start to realize that the woman is actually staring at them.

When traveling, if you can get to know a local, ask to take a video of them for your film and keep the camera rolling even when you say you've got the shot. I have found that the reaction of relief after the shoot is the most authentic.

9. Connect your shots in a meaningful way

This is probably one of the hardest and most time-consuming parts of editing a travel video. Most travel videos look like random clips stitched together with no purpose or story behind them, which is alright. However, to create a great travel video and stand out, you need to consider how the clips are connected.

Taken from the Watchtower of Turkey video by Leonardo Dalessandri.

Let's look at one of the best examples of travel videos with meaningful transitions, the Watchtower of Turkey. When you watch it, it may seem like everything is random, yet you don't seem to mind.

That is because every single clip in this video is connected either by the motion of an object, a camera movement direction, dominant colors, shapes, or luminance, all to create a single flow that dictates the entire travel video.

As mentioned, travel videos are spontaneous, making it harder to plan meaningful transitions between shots, but it is not impossible.

What I usually do is, following the third tip from this article, I will be left with plenty of material to work with at the end. I would then display all the footage in a catalog (Adobe Lightroom is great for this), and I would look through the catalog one by one a few times over before I find 2 clips with a meaningful transition, and then I work it out from there.

10. Export it properly

Finally, export your video with proper settings so that all your hard work won't be ruined by a poorly finished product. A good rule of thumb is to export it in the highest quality possible, with settings consistent with the source.

For example, if most of your footage is shot at 25fps, set your sequence to 25fps when editing and export it in a ProRes (RAW) format at 25fps. Why RAW? So that you have a high-quality version backed up, you can then convert the RAW ProRes file into a different format, which is much faster than converting directly from the source.

After months of experimenting, I have also found a way to retain the video quality when uploading to YouTube and Vimeo. The key is to export your video in ProRes 422 format (here is how to install ProRes to Adobe Premiere Pro if you do not have one listed under Quicktime in the export menu). This format retains enough quality without the gigantic file size. Then, upload the ProRes file directly and let the platform convert and compress the video for you.

Do not compress your video to MP4 yourself because YouTube and Vimeo will compress it again, causing your video to lose even more quality. This is particularly helpful if you want to retain the grain effect for your vintage cinematic travel videos.

Extra. Don't Hesitate to Use Stock Videos

If you lack certain footage to create the connection and flow you want in your travel videos, and going back to the location to shoot again is impossible, do not hesitate to use stock videos in your travel videos.

One of my most popular videos, Russia Hour, also uses a stock video for a car ride hyperlapse shot at night to create motion. So, if you realize you lack certain footage while you are editing, I highly recommend that you browse Shutterstock to create the perfect travel videos.

Shutterstock is my favorite choice when it comes to finding stock videos to enhance my travel videos. They operate on a subscription model, giving you access to their vast stock footage library with various packages that cater to any preferences. If you are looking for that missing footage to complete your travel videos, Shutterstock is the way to go.

P.S. If you want to see more of my travel videos, I have created a page compiling all the travel videos I have done so far here.

Further Reading for Filmmaking

Looking for more articles about travel videos and filmmaking? Here are a collection of articles about filmmaking that you might find useful:

• Let's lose ourselves in a short adventure documentary with this 10 Most Inspiring Short Adventure Documentaries to Watch.
• Looking for the best travel videos of all time? Check out 20 Most Creative Travel Videos Of All Time.
• Looking for drone travel videos for inspiration? Check out my list of the 8 best drone travel videos of all time.
• Looking for the best timelapse and hyperlapse travel videos? 10 Best Timelapse/Hyperlapse Travel Videos to Watch.
• To be a great traveler, you need to learn about the world and see its uniqueness in every culture. To do that, you will have to first expand your worldview. Here are 8 Must-Watch Documentaries For Travelers To Understand The World More.
• Want to learn more about travel filmmaking? Here is A Step-By-Step Guide on How to Make a Travel Video.
• Want to Know Which Camera I Used for Filmmaking? Here is Why The Sony A6500 Is The Best Travel Camera to Get.
• Looking for a fool-proof way to store your travel photos and videos? Here is How I Store My Photos And Videos.
• Looking to buy new filmmaking equipment for your next film? Here is The Ultimate Advanced Travel Filmmaking Gear Guide.
• Not so fond of carrying heavy camera equipment while traveling? Here is The Extremely Lightweight Travel Photography Gear Guide.
• Want to watch my travel videos? Check out our Travel Videos page.
• For all articles about Filmmaking, visit the Filmmaking Article page.