It’s never been easier to monetize your vacations!
Whether you’ve visited every country or just dream about traveling the world, in this post, I’ve gathered all the best travel related side hustles you can start right now and earn extra money (or maybe even replace your full-time income).
And the best part is that you don’t need to be an influencer or have any sort of social media following to get started!
A lot of these ideas can also be completely passive income.
This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click through and make a purchase I may make a small commission. I only share information about things I know, love and trust!
Best Travel Related Side Hustles
Start a Travel Blog
Starting a travel blog is one of the most lucrative ways to make passive income related to travel.
In a recent study by Brandon Gaille, over 800 blogs were analyzed to determine the most profitable blog niches.
Travel blogs were the forth most profitable niche, with a median income of $5000.
I can attest, here is a recent screenshot of my Mediavine (display ads) earning from my travel blog where I made over $7,000 USD in one month.
And that was just from display ads! I made another few thousand dollars through affiliate marketing in that same month.
Blogging is a lot of work up front, but once you’ve created enough content, it can be completely passive.
Using a tool like RankIQ is the best way to grow your new blog fast.
If you’ve ever considered starting a travel blog, with RankIQ you get access to over 75,000 low-competition keywords that you can rank for (translation: start making money immediately)!
Here are some of my resources to get you started:
- 7 reasons to start a travel blog in 2024
- 6 creative ways to start a travel blog (without traveling)
- 100s of travel blog post ideas you can steal
- Complete SEO guide for travel bloggers to get early traffic
Start a Travel YouTube Channel
Along these same lines, you can start a travel YouTube channel as a side hustle.
Once you have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, you can apply for the YouTube partner program and start making money from the ads on your videos.
You don’t have to go out and create vacation travel vlogs (although that is an option), you can create different types of travel content on YouTube.
You can film yourself at home and talk about your previous vacations, adding in images or videos that you have.
Or you can create a faceless YouTube channel, use stock footage and add your voiceover.
You could create travel video essays or videos about your best travel tips.
Once you have a few thousand subscribers, you can easily make at least $2000 per month with this travel side hustle.
Just take a look at my screenshot above – I make an average of $3000 – $4000 every month with my travel YouTube channel.
Create & Sell Travel Guides or Itineraries
If you have expertise and experience about a particular destination or travel style, create travel guides or itineraries and sell them!
It’s a little bit of work in the beginning, but you only need to create the product once and then you can sell it thousands of times.
Create travel guides for as many destinations as you’re knowledgeable in.
Include things like information on accommodations, restaurants and types of foods to try, activities, safety tips and local insights.
My favorite way to sell guides is through Thatch (where you don’t need your own website or e-commerce store) – check out my shop for inspiration!
Promote your travel guides through your blog, social media, or travel-related forums.
You can also create customized travel itineraries for a higher fee. These require a lot more work, but you can charge big money for these.
Create & Sell e-Books
If you have extensive knowledge about a certain type of travel experience, you can write and sell and e-book about it.
If you can think of a pain point related to your travel experiences, selling an about offering solutions can yield lots of sales.
For example, are you a credit card point hacker? This is something that a lot of people find confusing.
If you’ve figured out how to rack up credit card points to get free flights or hotel stays, write an ebook that outlines everything you do.
Or maybe you’re really great at traveling solo and making friends everywhere you go.
Spill your secrets in your ebook to sell to other solo travelers.
Have you been on a 3-month trip and packed only a carry-on bag? Share your tips and tricks about how to pack and travel light.
You only need to write the book once, and then sell it over and over again for profit.
Sell Your Travel Consultation Services
If you have expertise in a particular field of tourism, you could sell one-on-one consultation calls.
For example, you could provide itinerary feedback or walk someone through the process of moving to a different country, etc.
Become a Freelance Travel Writer
If you enjoy writing, picking up freelance travel writing assignments are a great side gig.
There are many jobs that will pay you by the article or on an ongoing basis.
Here’s where you can find freelance travel writing jobs:
- Join blogging Facebooks groups for bloggers looking to hire writers
- Visit ProBlogger for a freelance writer job board
- FlexJobs
Start a Travel Podcast
If you love to share your travel stories, starting a travel podcast is a great way to make extra income on the side.
You could talk about your past vacations and holidays and what you learned from them or you could choose a specific travel niche, such as solo travel, budget travel, packing tips, etc.
You can monetize your podcast through sponsorships, affiliate marketing, selling your own products or through ads if you upload your podcasts to YouTube.
Become an Airbnb Experience Host
Airbnb Experiences is a platform that connects travelers with authentic, immersive activities led by local experts.
If you live in an area that sees tourism, you can easily create your own Airbnb experience.
Popular types of experiences include:
- Walking tours
- Walking food tours
- Cooking classes
- Photography tours/lessons/photoshoots
- Brewery tours
- Guided hikes
- Yoga classes
As an example, we recently went to Cabo San Lucas and took part in a sandboarding Airbnb experience.
Our guide was a local who has lived in the area for several years and frequently went sandboarding with his friends in his spare time.
He realized that it would be the perfect tour activity for tourists and that nothing like this was offered in the area.
Be a Social Media Manager for a Travel Page
If you’re savvy in social media, becoming a social media manager is a huge opportunity for travel lovers.
Duties include things such as:
- Creating short form videos (TikToks, Reels, etc)
- Coming up with Instagram captions
- Responding to comments and messages
- Managing a Facebook page or group
- Sponsorship outreach
Be a Virtual Assistant (VA) for a Travel Blogger
Virtual Assistants (VAs) are great side hustles for travelers, because these tasks can be done completely remote.
Travel bloggers are hiring VAs all the time to complete tasks such as:
- Email management
- Formatting blog posts
- Adding in affiliate links
- Help with revising old blog posts
- Social media management
- Pinterest management
- Keyword research
- Sponsorship outreach
- Draft emails for email list
You can find VA jobs that require just a few hours per week, to something that’s more full-time.
Create Travel UGC
Creating travel UGC (user generated content) is a side hustle area that’s exploding in popularity.
This is when you create content (usually short form videos for use on social media) for a brand that they use on their own platforms and social media channels.
To get started, create a TikTok profile specifically for your UGC content.
Start creating TikToks of hotels or Airbnbs you’ve stayed at in the past.
Once you have some examples, this will be your portfolio.
Then, start reaching out to potential hotels and Airbnb properties.
Pitch them the idea that you will create marketing content for them to use, in exchange for a free stay at the property.
Once you get a few of these under your belt, you can start charging a fee, or just keep it as a for-trade arrangement.
Teach English Online as a Second Language
If you’re a native English speaker, teaching English online is one of the most flexible side hustles.
Plus, you get to meet people from all over the world.
Cambly
This is one of the easiest travel related side hustles you can do from home. You don’t need a teaching certificate, bachelor’s degree or prior teaching experience to get started.
Magic Ears
SkimaTalk
Preply
Sell Your Travel Photos
Sell your travel photos to stock photo websites or as prints. You can also sell them to travel bloggers for their blog posts.
Become a Travel Advisor
You can sign up with Fora Travel to become a travel advisor and earn commission on every booking you make.
You don’t need any prior experience, just an interest in travel planning!
After attending the 25-hour training they provide, you’re all set to start promoting and booking travel services for your clients.
And, you can work as much or as little as you want – there’s no minimum bookings required.
Language Tutor
Teach a language you’re fluent in to other travelers.
Create & Sell a Course
If you’ve become an expert in a certain area of travel, build a course and sell it!
Teaching a skill is very valuable, which means people will pay a lot of money.
You can create courses in travel photography, travel cinematography, how to travel solely on points, how to receive free hotel stays, etc.
Again, it’s a lot of work upfront, but once you’ve created the course, you can sell it for years to come.
Vacation Coordinator
If you love every aspect of travel planning, you can find all kinds of remote work online doing task such as:
- Provide expert advice on travel destinations and attractions
- Determining & identifying client vacation needs
- Research, plan, and organize itineraries
- Book flights, hotels and tours
You don’t have to be a certified travel agent for these types of positions – you can help out existing travel agencies or just do it on the side via word of mouth.
Airbnb Host
If you live in an area or region that sees tourism, you could rent out a spare room or your whole home on Airbnb.
Here are some catchy titles you can use for your listing to attract mega bookings.
House Sitting
While it doesn’t technically make you money, house sitting and pet sitting is a great option that allows you to save money on your travels.
Accommodations are often the most expensive part of traveling, so if you’re searching for ways to fund your travel passion, give housesitting a try and keep more money in your pocket.
But you could also combine housesitting and affiliate marketing to earn money.
Trusted Housesitters is the largest community of housesitters and owners – and they also have an affiliate program.
So if you have experience as a housesitter, you could easily make content to promote membership sales, of which you would get a commission.
Virtual Travel Assistant
Provide administrative services to travel agencies or independent travelers.
Travel Videographer
Create travel videos for YouTube or other platforms.
Sell Your Travel Videos at Stock Footage
If you have video clips from your travels that would be considered great “b-roll” content, such as drone footage, you can sell your videos to stock footage websites.
You’ll earn money every time someone licenses your work or from royalties.
Here are some websites where you can get started selling you stock footage:
- Pond5
- Shutterstock
- Artgrid
- Adobe Stock