Do you travel a lot? Often WordPress is used by travel bloggers to showcase their photos and share their journey with others. Now wouldn’t it be cool if you can add an interactive travel map that shows all the places you have visited and link them to your blog posts? In this article, we will show you how to add interactive travel maps in WordPress.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Nomad World Map plugin. Upon activation, the plugin adds a new ‘Nomad Map’ menu item in your WordPress admin. When you click on it, you will be taken to the route editor to add a location.
Next you need to add a location you have visited or planning to visit. After that you can choose the content to display with that location. You can show a post, custom content, or just travel dates. If you are adding a post excerpt, and the post you are linking to has a featued image, then the plugin will use it as thumbnail. You can override this by adding your own custom thumbnail.
You can also adjust the position of the location and enter travel dates. Once you are satisfied with the location details, click on the save button to add it to the map.
When you add a few other locations to the map, you will notice that the plugin will show a line on the map from the first location to the next location you entered.
You can adjust the route display by re-arranging the location order below the map. Simply drag a location and drop it to rearrange the route on the map.
Creating Multiple Travel Maps
Most travelers visit multiple places. This plugin allows you to create multiple maps which allows you to show multiple journeys with different maps on different pages of your website.
To add a new map, you need to visit Nomad Map » Manage Maps.
Click on the Add new map button on the screen which will bring up a popup where you need to enter a name for the map.
Next, you need to add locations to your new map by going to Nomad Map » Route Editor. You can select the map you just created from the dropdown menu labeled current map.
Displaying Your Travel Map
Now that you have created your map, it’s time to display it on your site. To display the default travel map, you need to add this shortcode to a post or page.
[nwm_map]
Now if you want to display a particular map, then you will need to enter map’s ID in the shortcode. You can get the map’s ID by visiting Nomad Map » Manage Maps page. You can find the ID listed before each map name. Note the ID of the map you want to enter and use it in the shortcode like this:
[nwm_map id="4"]
That’s all for now, we hope this article helped you add an interactive travel map to your WordPress blog. You may also want to take a look at our guide on how to easily create responsive image galleries in WordPress.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Google+.
Hi! Am I able to instal the Nomad World Map if I am using the Free WordPress plan?
Hi Susan,
If by free plan you mean WordPress.com, then yes you cannot install plugins on your free WordPress.com blog. Please see our article on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
Hi I just created a map and I now what to put it into one of my posts. It says to add the shortcode with the id number, where do I insert the shortcode?
Hi Colleen,
You will find the ID number of the map by visiting Nomad Map » Manage Maps page. Then you need to paste the shortcode in a WordPress post or page.
Hi! I might be missing something here but wordpress tells me I’m not allowed to upload my own plug in. Is there another way around it?
your website is of great help. Thx for sharing!
Hi all,
I installed this plugin today, but after adding the shortcode to one of my pages it will show a JavaScript error instead of the map.
“This page didn’t load Google Maps correctly. See the JavaScript console for technical details.”
Note: it said that the plugin wasn’t tested for my (up to date) version of WordPress.
Anyone else having the same issue? If so, is there a way to solve this?
Kind regards,
Ben
Very helpful, thank you. It works exactly as described. Easy setup thanks your description. I really like WPbeginners. When I have a question, or look for something particular, I go on your website, and I would say that you cover 90% of my issues. Thanks again!
(PS: is there a plugin like Facebook comments doing it both way. I mean, leaving a comment of Facebook that would appear into the blog?)
Hello!
I am using the nomad map to showcase my travels, but I would love to be able customize it more. Is there any way to change the displayed routes? Ideally I could set exactly where we went or at least differentiate between plane, bus, and boat travel…
Or is there another map that allows for more complete customization?
Thank you.
Veronica
Please try to reach out to plugin author for feature suggestions.
Hi,
I’ve installed and activated this plugin, but it’s not adding a ‘Nomad Map’ menu item. The shortcode will add a map fine, but there’s no editor for me to do anything with it! Is there any reason this might be the case?
Try deactivating all your WordPress plugins and then activate only nomad world map plugin.