Last updated on January 13th, 2023
It’s increasingly difficult to find authentic, honest tips when researching your next destination. Google searches are crowded with results designed to game the algorithm and maximise ad revenue, resulting in inauthentic content or lots of pop-ups or intrusive ads. Also, top results will be seen by the vast majority of people, leaving out those undiscovered gems!
There are still come great guides to be found on Google (*cough* anxioustravelling.com *cough*). but there’s a neat trick that surfaces real, unbiased travel tips often from people living in your destination.
What is Reddit?
Reddit has been around since 2005, aeons in internet terms, and is the 5th most visited website in the world. If you’re not already familiar with it, Reddit works like a kind of forum or discussion board with subreddits for different topics and there’s a subreddit for pretty much everything. There is almost certainly a subreddit for wherever you’re thinking of going for your next trip.
Reddit itself can be a bit difficult to navigate, and despite it being one of the most popular sites on the planet, the search function is poor but using a simple trick you can use Google’s amazing search power to uncover these hidden gems on Reddit.
Google Site Modifiers
There’s a whole bunch of quick hacks you can use on Google to refine your search, but today we just need one of the simplest – the site modifier. Using this Google will only surface results from the domain you input, in this instance that’s Reddit.
So to search Reddit and your destination, in the Google search bar you would type: site:reddit.com [your destination]. It’s as easy as that!
Using Site Modifiers for Travel Tips
Here’s a few examples of the kind of searches you can carry out and their results:
site:reddit.com cocktail bars in Vienna
site:reddit.com hostels in Bangkok
site:reddit.com travelling solo in Berlin
You can see that these already look pretty useful before clicking through. You will no doubt be able to think of loads of queries relevant to your trip. You’re also going to discover relevant subreddits for your destination or general travelling ones that you can join to discover even more information.
And that’s it. With just a simple Google hack you can really quickly find useful info by real people to plan your next trip.
Do drop me a line and let me know whether you’ve found this useful and what travelling gems you uncover!