Best Affiliate Programs for Travel Bloggers (Beginner Guide)

I get this question every single week: “Which affiliate programs should I join?” Short answer: the best affiliate programs for travel bloggers starting out are the ones that will actually let you in. That means a tours program like Viator (no traffic minimum), one accommodation program, one travel insurer, Amazon Associates for gear, and maybe a car rental or eSIM program if your posts call for it. Four or five, not twenty. Below: how it all works in plain English, which programs accept a brand-new blog, what each one pays (only numbers I could confirm on the official pages in October 2026), and how to add the links in WordPress properly.

Quick honesty note. I’m a WordPress developer, not a full-time travel blogger. I’ve built 200+ blogs since 2004, so you’re getting the setup side and the patterns I see across client sites, not a “how I made six figures from hotel links” story. And none of the program links in this post are affiliate links. They go to the official pages so you can check the terms yourself.

If you want the big picture of every income stream first (ads, sponsors, products, the lot), read how travel blogs make money, nine ways ranked by realism. This post picks up where that one’s affiliate section stops.

How do affiliate links actually work? (The plain-English version)

You sign up to a company’s affiliate program. They give you a special version of their normal links with your ID baked in. You put that link in a blog post. A reader clicks it, books a tour or buys a backpack, and the company pays you a cut. The reader pays the same price either way. That’s the whole business model.

Cookie windows: how long your click “counts”

When a reader clicks your link, the company drops a small tracking cookie in their browser. If they buy before that cookie expires, the sale is yours. The length of that window is wildly different from program to program. Amazon’s is a single session that ends after 24 hours. Viator’s is 30 days. Discover Cars states a 365-day cookie on its affiliate page.

Why does this matter so much for travel? Because nobody books a week in Lisbon in one sitting. They read your post on a Tuesday, talk to their partner on Thursday, and book the following weekend. A 30-day cookie catches that. A 24-hour one doesn’t.

Affiliate networks vs in-house programs

A company runs its program one of two ways.

• In-house (direct): you sign up on the company’s own site and get your own dashboard there. Amazon Associates, Viator and SafetyWing work like this.
• Through a network: a middleman platform handles the tracking and payments for lots of brands. You create one network account, then apply to each brand inside it. CJ, Impact, Awin and Partnerize are the big general networks. Travelpayouts is a travel-only one, and its site lists 90+ travel brands including Booking.com, Viator and GetYourGuide.

Neither is better. Networks mean fewer logins and one combined payout. You’ll end up with a mix, and that’s fine.

When you actually get paid

Here’s the bit that catches people out. In travel, the commission usually isn’t confirmed when the reader books. It’s confirmed after they’ve traveled. Viator, for example, pays on completed bookings. So a tour booked in March for a trip in August earns you nothing until August, and nothing at all if they cancel. Your first real deposit can easily land months after your first sale. That’s normal, not a sign something’s broken.

Which travel affiliate programs can a brand-new blog actually join?

This is the part most “best travel affiliate programs for beginners” lists skip. Some programs will take a blog with ten posts and no visitors. Others publish a traffic minimum. Most sit in a grey middle: no stated minimum, but somebody looks at your site and decides.

Bucket	Programs	What the program itself says
Open to beginners	Viator, Amazon Associates, Discover Cars, SafetyWing, Travelpayouts	Viator: “no traffic or follower minimums”. Amazon: start right away, but you need three qualifying sales in the first 180 days. The others describe sign-up as free and quick, with no published minimum.
Reviewed case by case	Booking.com, Expedia Group Travel Creator Program, GetYourGuide, Airalo, Holafly, Bluehost	Free to apply, no published minimum, but your site gets looked at. Bluehost says it may decline sites without enough traffic.
Wants traffic first	Skyscanner	Its affiliate page asks for more than 5,000 unique visitors per month.

What a reviewer wants to see before approving you

For the “case by case” programs, nobody publishes the checklist. Amazon gives a useful hint about its own bar though: original content, publicly available, at least 10 posts as a rule of thumb. Beyond that, here’s what I make sure a client site has first:

• Your own domain on self-hosted WordPress, with HTTPS working. A free subdomain looks like a hobby.
• Ten or more real posts in one clear niche. Not ten “hello world” drafts.
• An About page with a real person on it, a contact page, a privacy policy and an affiliate disclosure page.

Got rejected? Publish for another couple of months and apply again, or try the same brand through a network. One warning though: Amazon says it can’t reassess an application once it’s been rejected, so don’t open your Associates account until you have posts that can realistically produce those three sales.

The best affiliate programs for travel bloggers, by category

Right, the actual programs, grouped by what your reader is buying. Where I state a number, I read it on the program’s official page this month. Where I couldn’t confirm one, I say so and you check it after you join. I’d rather be vague than wrong.

Accommodation: Booking.com, Expedia Group, Hostelworld, Agoda

“Where to stay in X” posts are bread and butter for travel blogs, so you need one hotel program. Just one to start. Expect a small percentage of each booking, and expect cancellations.

• Booking.com Affiliate Partner Program. The one your readers already use, which is most of the battle. The public page doesn’t state a rate or cookie length. It says registration is free and currently sends you to complete it through CJ. Check inside the account how long after a click a booking still counts.
• Expedia Group Travel Creator Program. One account covers Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo, and the page states “up to 4%” on eligible bookings. Vrbo is handy if you write about family or group trips.
• Hostelworld. The obvious pick for backpacking and budget niches. I couldn’t confirm the current rate on a public page, so check when you apply.
• Agoda Partners. Worth a look if you write mostly about Asia. Same story: confirm the terms inside the program.

Tours and activities: Viator, GetYourGuide, Klook

If I could only pick one category for a new blog, it’d be this one. Tours slot into nearly any destination post and the terms are beginner-friendly.

• Viator. The clearest terms of any program I checked: 8% commission on every completed booking, a 30-day cookie window, and sign-up with no traffic or follower minimums. Payouts are weekly by PayPal with no minimum, or monthly by bank transfer with a $50 minimum. For a blog earning its first few dollars, “no minimum” is brilliant.
• GetYourGuide. Viator’s main rival. Its public partner page didn’t show the rate when I checked. Directories commonly list around 8%, but treat that as hearsay until you see it in your dashboard.
• Klook. Has an affiliate program too, worth considering for Asia-heavy blogs. Confirm the terms on signup.

Flights: Skyscanner (and why I’d skip flights at first)

Everyone thinks of flights first. I’d put them last. Readers compare prices in six tabs, and the best-known program has a traffic gate. Skyscanner’s affiliate program runs through Impact, pays when someone you sent goes on to book with one of its partners, keeps referral data for 30 days, and asks for more than 5,000 unique visitors a month before you apply. Not there yet? Put your energy into tours and stays first.

Travel insurance: SafetyWing and World Nomads

Insurance is the unglamorous one, and it fits almost any post: “before you go” sections, packing lists, long-term travel guides.

• SafetyWing Ambassador program. Aimed at nomads and long-term travelers. The page describes a flat affiliate fee “currently benchmarked at approximately 10%” of the total premium, and says registration takes under five minutes. The cookie length isn’t on the public page and third-party sites disagree, so check your dashboard.
• World Nomads. Long the default for adventure and backpacking blogs. Its own partner pages describe moving the program onto CJ and to a flat rate paid per quote, instead of a commission per policy. So read the current terms and ignore numbers from old roundups.

Gear: is Amazon Associates worth it for a travel blog?

Yes, with eyes open. The rates are low and the cookie is short, but everybody already has an Amazon account. Here’s what Amazon’s own help pages said when I checked (US program):

• Rates: 4% for luggage, shoes, handbags and accessories. 3% for outdoors, tools and sports. 4% for “all other categories”. So a $150 suitcase earns you about $6.
• Cookie: a single session that ends after 24 hours (or sooner in some cases).
• The catch: you need at least three qualifying sales in your first 180 days, and personal orders don’t count. Miss it and the application is rejected.
• The rules: Amazon’s policies forbid cloaking or shortening links in a way that hides that you’re sending people to Amazon, and they require a specific disclosure statement. Read the Program Policies once, properly.

Where it works: packing lists, “what’s in my bag” posts and gear reviews.

Car rental: Discover Cars

If you write road trip posts or “do you need a car in X” guides, add a car rental program. Discover Cars publishes its terms clearly: 70% of its car rental profit, 30% of its Full Coverage revenue, a 365-day cookie, and monthly payment by PayPal or wire transfer. It’s free to join.

Read that first number carefully. It’s 70% of what Discover Cars makes on the booking, not 70% of what your reader pays. Still a decent deal, and that one-year cookie is the longest in this post.

eSIMs: Airalo and Holafly

Travel eSIMs are a lovely fit for beginners: a small, low-risk purchase that suits every destination guide (“how to get mobile data in Japan”). Airalo’s own write-up of its affiliate program says the standard commission rate is 10%, that rates may vary by promotional method, and that it runs on Impact. Holafly runs an affiliate program too and says it’s free to join. I couldn’t confirm Holafly’s rate or either cookie length on a public page, so check when you sign up. The purchases are small, so treat eSIMs as a useful extra, not the main earner.

Hosting and blogging tools: only if you write about blogging

Hosting programs pay a flat fee per signup instead of a percentage. Bluehost’s affiliate page, for example, states $65 per qualified sale with a 30-day cookie, run through Impact. That’s why half the internet has a “how to start a blog” post.

Full disclosure, because it’d be cheeky not to say it: this site earns that way. My hosting comparison for travel blogs has affiliate links, marked as such. It fits here because this site is about starting a blog. On a blog about hiking in Patagonia, a “start your own blog!” post is off-topic. A “resources I use” page at most, then back to the travel content.

Travel affiliate programs compared: rates, cookies and who gets in

Everything above in one table. “Check terms” means I couldn’t confirm the figure on an official public page in October 2026, not that it’s bad.

Program	Category	What you earn	Cookie / tracking	New-blog friendly?
Viator	Tours	8% of completed bookings	30 days	Yes. No traffic or follower minimums
GetYourGuide	Tours	A percentage of the booking; check terms	Check terms	Application reviewed
Booking.com	Accommodation	A share of the booking; not stated publicly	Check terms	Free to register, via CJ
Expedia Group Travel Creator Program	Hotels, vacation rentals	Up to 4% on eligible bookings	In the program terms	Free application, reviewed
Hostelworld / Agoda	Hostels / hotels	Check terms	Check terms	Application reviewed
Skyscanner	Flights	Performance-based, paid when a referral books with a partner	Referral data kept 30 days	No. 5,000+ monthly unique visitors
SafetyWing	Insurance	About 10% of the premium	Check terms	Yes. Quick registration
World Nomads	Insurance	Flat rate per quote, via CJ	Check terms	Application reviewed
Amazon Associates (US)	Gear	4% luggage, 3% outdoors and sports	24-hour session	Yes, but 3 sales needed in 180 days
Discover Cars	Car rental	70% of rental profit, 30% of Full Coverage revenue	365 days	Yes. Free to join
Airalo	eSIM	10% standard rate	Check terms	Application via Impact
Holafly	eSIM	Check terms	Check terms	Free to join, reviewed
Bluehost	Hosting	$65 per qualified sale	30 days	May decline low-traffic sites

Where should you put affiliate links? The post types that convert

Here’s the pattern I see on client sites: a handful of posts earn nearly all the affiliate income, and they’re never the pretty ones. They’re the posts someone reads with their card half out of their wallet: “where to stay”, not “why visit”.

Then match the program to the post: hotel programs in where-to-stay posts, Viator or GetYourGuide in tour reviews, Amazon in packing lists, Discover Cars in “do you need a car” guides, and an eSIM or insurance link in the practical section of nearly anything.

Inside the post, three rules do most of the work. Link the exact hotel or tour, never the homepage. Put the first link right where you explain why it’s the one to book, not in a block at the bottom. And use plain text links in your own sentences (“we booked the small-group Sintra tour”), because banners get ignored.

The post structure that carries all this is in how to write your first travel blog post. Writing about places you haven’t visited lately? Read how to run a travel blog when you’re not traveling, and be straight with readers about what you’ve done yourself and what you’ve researched.

Your email list is the other place links belong. Check each program’s rules on email first (some restrict it), and build the list with my guide to starting a travel blog email list from day one.

How to add affiliate links to a travel blog in WordPress (the proper way)

Adding the link takes thirty seconds. Adding it correctly takes forty.

Step by step in the block editor

1. In your affiliate dashboard, find the exact product, hotel or tour page and generate your link for it. Most programs have a “create link” or “deep link” tool. Copy it.
2. In WordPress, open the post, highlight the words you want to link, and click the link icon in the toolbar (or press Ctrl+K, Cmd+K on a Mac).
3. Paste the affiliate link and press Enter.
4. Click the link again, then the pencil (edit) icon, and open the advanced options. Switch on “Open in new tab”. If you use Yoast SEO, as I recommend, you’ll also see two toggles: one to mark the link as nofollow and one to mark it as a sponsored link. Switch both on. The wording shifts a little between versions, but they sit in that same panel.
5. Save, view the post, and click the link yourself to make sure it lands on the right page.

Can’t find the toggles? Click the three dots on the block, choose “Edit as HTML”, and make the link look like this:

<a href="YOUR-AFFILIATE-LINK" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">the small-group Sintra tour</a>

Why rel=”sponsored nofollow” matters

Google wants to know which links on your site exist because money is involved. Google’s documentation on qualifying outbound links says to mark advertising and paid links with sponsored, that nofollow is still acceptable, and that you can combine values. I use both together, since older tools only understand nofollow.

Skip this and you’re risking the Google traffic the whole plan depends on. More on keeping Google happy in travel blog SEO for beginners.

Disclosure: say it early, say it plainly

You have to tell readers you earn from the links. The FTC’s endorsement guidance is refreshingly blunt about how: the closer the disclosure is to your recommendation, the better, and a line buried in the footer isn’t enough. It also says the bare words “affiliate link” may not be understood by readers, so explain it in normal language. Something like:

Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you book through them, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Put that above the first affiliate link in every post that has one, and keep a full disclosure page linked in your footer too. Amazon requires its own specific sentence on top. The exact wording and a disclosure page template are in legal pages every travel blog needs. Do that page before your first link goes live.

Do you need an affiliate link plugin?

Not at the start. Link managers like Pretty Links or ThirstyAffiliates turn long tracking URLs into tidy ones like yoursite.com/go/sintra-tour and let you update a link everywhere at once. Overkill when you have six links. And leave Amazon links alone, because its policies don’t allow cloaking that hides where the link goes. For now, keep a simple spreadsheet: post, program, link, date added. My short list of what’s actually worth installing is in the only WordPress plugins a new travel blog needs.

Your first 90 days of travel blog affiliate marketing

Here’s the plan I’d hand a client with a brand-new blog. It assumes one decent post a week and a niche you’ve already chosen (if you haven’t, 60 travel blog niche ideas will sort that out). There’s no income target in it. In the first 90 days you’re building the machine, not counting the money.

Days 1–30: foundations, no applications yet

• Publish your About, contact, privacy policy and affiliate disclosure pages.
• Write four posts in one destination or topic cluster. Make at least two of them “about to book” posts: a where-to-stay and a tour or comparison post.
• Start the spreadsheet. List every place a link will go.

Days 31–60: join three programs and wire them in

• Join Viator (or your tours pick), one accommodation program and one insurer.
• Go back through every post and add the links, with rel="sponsored nofollow" and the disclosure line at the top.
• Click every link once to test it. Then check each dashboard shows the click. If it doesn’t, the link is wrong.

Days 61–90: add Amazon, then look at the data

• Publish a packing list or gear post, THEN open your Amazon Associates account, so the 180-day clock starts with a post that can earn those three sales. Still almost no visitors? Wait longer.
• At day 90, open each dashboard and note which posts got clicks. Not sales, clicks. Plan your next eight posts around those.

What will you have earned by day 90? Possibly nothing. That’s not failure, it’s the timeline. The links you add now start paying when the traffic arrives, and getting that traffic is a separate job, covered in how to grow a travel blog audience from zero.

Affiliate mistakes I see on new travel blogs

• Joining fifteen programs in week one. Fifteen logins, fifteen payout minimums you’ll never reach, no time left to write. Three to five. Go deep.
• Opening Amazon Associates too early. The 180-day clock starts on signup, not on your first visitor. A blog with no traffic burns through it and gets rejected.
• Recommending things for the commission. If you wouldn’t tell a friend to buy it, don’t tell your readers.
• Trusting old numbers. Including mine! The program’s own terms page is the only source that counts.
• Never checking links again. Tours get discontinued, hotels close, programs switch networks. Twice a year, go down your spreadsheet and click everything.
• Quitting at month three because the dashboard says $0. Nearly everyone’s does. The people who earn from this are simply the ones who were still publishing at month twelve.

That’s travel blog affiliate marketing without the hype. Pick a few programs that’ll have you, put specific links where people are ready to book, mark and disclose every one, and keep publishing while the slow bits catch up. It all sits on top of a blog you own, which is why the 7-step guide on the homepage comes first.

Stuck on which programs fit your niche, or can’t get the nofollow toggle to show up in WordPress? Ask me. Send a message through the contact page and I’ll answer, free of charge. Now stop reading, go write that “where to stay” post. You can do this.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best affiliate programs for travel bloggers who are just starting out?

Start with programs that accept new sites and match your posts: a tours program such as Viator (it states no traffic or follower minimums), one accommodation program, one travel insurer such as SafetyWing, and Amazon Associates for gear. Add car rental or eSIM programs only when you have posts that need them. Three to five programs used well beat twenty used badly.

Can I join travel affiliate programs with no traffic?

Yes, for many of them. Viator says it has no traffic or follower minimums, and Amazon Associates lets you start linking immediately, although you need at least three qualifying sales within your first 180 days. Others review each application, and a few publish a minimum: Skyscanner's affiliate program asks for more than 5,000 unique visitors a month. Requirements change, so check each program's page.

Is Amazon Associates worth it for a travel blog?

It is worth it for packing lists and gear posts, as long as you know the limits. When checked in October 2026, the US program listed 4% for luggage and 3% for outdoors and sports, with a 24-hour session window. Do not open the account until you have posts that can realistically produce three sales in 180 days, because Amazon says a rejected application cannot be reassessed.

What is a cookie window in affiliate marketing?

It is how long after a reader clicks your link a purchase still counts as yours. It varies a lot by program: Amazon's session ends after 24 hours, Viator's window is 30 days, and Discover Cars states 365 days. Travel is usually planned over days or weeks, so longer windows catch more of the bookings you influenced.

How do I add affiliate links to a travel blog in WordPress?

Create a link to the exact hotel, tour or product in your affiliate dashboard, highlight the text in the WordPress block editor, click the link icon and paste it. Then open the link's advanced settings and mark it as sponsored and nofollow (Yoast SEO adds toggles for both), or edit the HTML so the link has rel="sponsored nofollow". Add a plain-language disclosure above the first affiliate link in the post.

Do affiliate links need rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow"?

Yes. Google's documentation says to mark advertising and paid links with rel="sponsored", notes that nofollow is still an acceptable way to flag them, and allows combining values. Using rel="sponsored nofollow" on every affiliate link covers both.

Do I have to disclose affiliate links on my travel blog?

Yes. The FTC's guidance says the disclosure should be close to the recommendation, that a footer notice alone is not enough, and that the bare phrase "affiliate link" may not be understood. Write a clear sentence near the top of the post saying you earn a commission if readers book through your links, and keep a full disclosure page as well.

How long does it take to earn from travel affiliate links?

Longer than most people expect. A new blog has few visitors, and many travel programs only confirm a commission after the trip is completed, so a booking made in spring for a summer trip pays out after summer. Earning nothing in the first 90 days is normal. The links you place now start paying once search and Pinterest traffic arrives.