Twitter chats are a way for people to share ideas and opinions on a theme in real time. Participating is simple. Just log in to your Twitter account and search for the Twitter hashtag (# followed by the chat name). Chats have one to several moderators/hosts who present questions on a predetermined theme.
Twitter Chat Etiquette
At the very beginning of a chat, people often introduce themselves and say hello. Questions are then tweeted approximately every 6 to 10 minutes. To check and see whether a question has been given, you can search for the hashtag plus Q1 and so on (ie “#rtwchat Q1”). To follow the whole stream, keep your search on the hashtag alone, or, alternatively, you can filter just the answers to the current question by searching the hashtag plus A1 or A2 or A3, etc. To join in, just tweet your answer using A1, A2, etc. and don’t forget to include the chat’s hashtag on all of your Answers, RTs and Replies. It’s also nice to give an indication of the question in your answer if you have space. For example, if the question during #divechat is, “Q1. What’s your favorite dive destination?” You might answer, “A1 Favorite dive spot is Indonesia. #divechat”
We like to open another browser tab in order to keep refreshing interactions with our own Twitter handle. To do this, open another Twitter tab, and click on “Connect” in the upper left-hand corner of the Twitter page. By doing this you can interact with those responding directly to you more expediently and also keep track of new Followers. After the chat is over, some hosts post a round-up of highlights on their blog or website. Antitouristtraveler.com’s summary of #travelpics is a great example of this.
Below is a round-up of our favorite travel-related chats on Twitter. All times are EST (UTC -5 hours) unless otherwise noted. If you know of any we missed, please let us know about them in the Comments section!
Travel Chats on Twitter
Monday
#eTrav – 1 pm; General travel chat on a theme; Founded by @theexplorateur.
#Foodiechats – 8 pm; Online & live social foodie community; Founded by @steveGOgreen.
#FNIchat – (Foodies Night In); 4:00 pm; All about food! Founded by @CookingwCaitlin.
#GirlsTravel – 1 pm; Founded by @TravelGoGirl.
#travelindia – 12 pm, All things India. Founded by @poonamparihar.
#Travelpics – (@travelpicsCHAT) 3 pm; Share travel photos according to a weekly theme; Founded by @AntiTourist.
Tuesday
#CruiseChat – 2 pm; Dedicated to cruise travel. Hosted by @SimonTravels and @CruiseLineFans.
#NUTS – (Not so Usual Therapy Session), 3:30 pm; Founded by @MidlifeRoadTrip.
#TRLT – (The Road Less Traveled chat); 1pm ( 6pm UK). Hosted by @Sihpromatum @PointChaser and @TheTravelCamel.
#TL_chat (Travel+Leisure chat) ; 2pm. Travel trends, technology and destinations. Sponsored by Travel + Leisure Magazine (@TravlandLeisure).
#RTWChat – ‘Round the World Chat; Extended, round the world travel chat. 3:30 pm; Sponsored by BootsnAll (@BootsnAll).
#TTOT – (Travel Talk on Twitter) – 4:30 am and 4:30 pm (9:30 am and 9:30 pm GMT). One of the early travel hashtags. Used both for the chat and generally. Founded by @TravelDudes with many co-hosts.
#GoLikeAPro – 12 pm, Hosted by @NationalPro
Wednesday
#ATQA – (@ATQandA) Adventure Travel Q & A; 5 pm; A chat for “independent, adventurous travelers.” Hosted by @AmericanSahara.
#Expediachat – 1:30 pm; Sponsored by @Expedia
#RATW – Reality Abroad Talk Wednesday; 12 pm; Sharing “perspectives of those who know a community best – its residents and insiders.” Hosted by @RealityAbroad.
#TRAVEX – 5 pm; Discussion of travel related ideas, with educational touchpoints as well. Founded by @TravelSquire.
#FoodTravelChat– 8 pm; Chatting and sharing photos about food and travel. Hosted by @FoodTravelist.
Thursday
#JSETT (JetSet Extra Travel Talk) 1:30 pm; Different, travel-related theme weekly. @JETSETextra.
#PureWander 9 pm; Focuses on family travel. Hosted by Pure Wander Magazine (@Pure_Wander).
#TNI – (Traveler’s Night In); 3:30 pm. One of the trailblazers of Twitter travel chats. Hosted by @official_tni and co-hosts.
#WATC – 12 noon; Women’s Adventure Twitter Chat. Hosted and co-founded by @RunawayJuno.
#CultureTrav – 2:30pm; Joining travelers to talk about how we experience culture while traveling. Founded and hosted by @Nicolette_O and co-hosted by @JLipowski.
Friday
#FriFotos – All day. Travelers share photos based on a FriFoto theme. Founder/Host: @EpsteinTravels.
#hikerchat – (@hikerchat) noon; All things hiking, camping, exploring. Co-hosted by @BackCountryTees and @TETONSports.
#JAchat – (Jetting Around Chat); 4 pm; Founded by @jettingaround.
#TravelSkills – noon; Hosted by @cjmcginnis & @johnnyjet.
Saturday – Seems to be a day off for traveling Tweeters!
Sunday
#SBTC – (Sunday Brunch Travel Chat), noon; Hosted by @mappingmegan.
#SundaySocial – Hosted by @ABritSoutherner at 9pm.
#quirkychat – Hosted by @AnomalousLondon at 3pm.
Monthly/Bimonthly Chats
#SeeTheWorld – (@seetheworldchat) 3 pm first Wednesday of the month; Travel, food, lifestyle and culture of a new destination every week; Founder/host: @TheCultureur, Co-host:@RovingAltruist.
#BeachChat – Created “to bring together beach lovers and people who want to daydream about beaches” last Thursday of the month at 2:30 pm. Hosted by @IsabellesTravel.
#MexChat – (@MexChat_MX) Second Monday of the month at 1 pm.
#ParadiseChat – Third Tuesday of the month at 2 pm. Sponsored by @MarriottResorts.
#Scotlandhour – Scottish tourism chat last Wed monthly 4 pm.
#TripItchat – Third Thursday of the month at 5pm. Hosted by @LandLopers and others. Sponored by @TripIt
#tourismchat – (@tourismchat) A bimonthly twitter chat focusing on social media in the tourism industry. 3pm.
#TWChats – (@ChatsTW ) Travel Weekly’s chat with members of the global travel industry. 3 pm.
Travel-Related Twitter Hashtags
The following Twitter hashtags can be used to share travel-related Tweets. These hashtags are geared toward different sub-groups of the travel world. For travel bloggers, many can be useful in drawing attention from a wider community. Note that #country and #city are also popular, as are tags for activities: #scuba #hiking #fishing.
Wonderful post, thanks for compiling this exhaustive list of twitter travel chats….
Thank you! We needed the list initially to keep track of things for ourselves. I’d been keeping it on a spreadsheet, but figured it would be a handy tool for others as well!
This is an excellent list, now I know where to refer people when they request a list of travel twitter chats. Also, thank you so much for including #TRLT!
Thanks, Shane. We kept referring to a terribly unorganized list we were keeping for ourselves, and finally decided to make it more user-friendly. Hopefully now we, and others, will miss fewer chats just because we can’t keep track! 😉
This is an exhaustive reference, thanks much!
You’re very welcome!
Thank you. Have been looking for a list. Well done
Very helpful…I’ve seen the ttot hashtag and had no idea what I meant…now I do!
Haha…I know what you mean. The research for this collection was very educational! –Tamara
Such a helpful list!
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you’re able to put the list to good use.
Thanks so much for this, it is just what I needed as a newbie! Much appreciated 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Christine! We are glad this will be helpful. Tweet at us when you join in a chat, they can be quite fun and certainly informative.
This list is awesome. Just so you know, #RTWChat is now on tuesdays instead of wednesdays (same time though).
Im bookmarking this list. I love twitter chats!
Thanks for the update. We will make that change right away.
This is brilliant and really useful! I’ve actually bookmarked it next to my Twitter tab on my Chrome. It’s the best hashtag list I could find online. Nice work guys – and thanks!
Thanks for stopping in Stefan. I’m glad you’ve found this resource useful. Feel free to suggest other chats, we’d love to have more. Safe travels.
Great list. I was googling for an answer to my question about Twitter chats on travel topics and you saved me the trouble of searching through all the pages.
Thanks, Mark. Glad the list is helpful. We keep using it ourselves as reference!