I stopped making travel videos 5 years ago. If you jump to my YouTube channel, you’ll see that I used to love vlogging, and would pump out the videos because they were a fun way to remember a trip. 

Much funner than photos. 

But what happened 5 years ago that made me stop?

I gave up because editing took too long and ultimately became too hard. It was overwhelming trying to learn complicated features, I was always so confused about music, and I could never get the effects and transitions working the way I wanted.

However I’m excited to say that I’m inspired to get back into it again, having discovered Filmora Video editor which is the holy grail of easy video editing!

It’s an amazing video editor for both Mac and Windows, which comes with huge libraries of music, transitions, effects, elements, titles, and very cool templates (like split screens) you can literally just drag and drop. 

Basically, what Canva is for photo design, Filmora is for video editing. It’s so easy to create amazing, epic travel videos with your footage, without a learning curve (it literally only took me 5 minutes to learn it), that beginners can look professional, and professionals can spend less time editing.

Better yet, it‘s free to initially download!

Wondershare Filmora Review: Best Video Editor Everyone Can Use

YOU Can Make Videos Like This (Click Play)

Video: Recap of the Solo Female Travelers Iceland tour we just took in October 2021

The Power of Video

You don’t have to run a YouTube channel or be an influencer to want to produce amazing, epic videos. Video is a powerful and engaging form of media, and 50% of us prefer to watch videos instead of reading text (ever watched the film, but not read the book?!)

Yes, video marketing has become an essential form of content for content creators, but why should visual storytelling not be accessible to everyone?

Why shouldn’t it be just as easy for my mum to produce an amazing video of the safari she took with my dad, simply just to share with the grandkids.

Why shouldn’t it be super simple for you to create an epic short film with your footage, just because you want an awesome way to remember your trips?

And yes, if you’re a content creator, why shouldn’t you be able to create exceptionally high quality videos, with a video editor which is exceptionally easy to use.

Video is, after-all, far more engaging than any other form of content (increases traffic by 300%!), and incredibly impactful because of its immersive storytelling; it captures people’s attention and imagination through music, sound effects, and graphics.

And whether or not you make money as a content creator from video – it’s fun to re-watch and look back on; the closest thing to re-taking a trip, without getting back on a plane.

Filmora Video Editor: The Easy Way to Make Travel Videos

While Wondershare have great video tutorials (which I recommend you watch as they’re very useful), this is a video editor which is incredibly easy, with zero learning curve.  

After downloading it (for free) from the website, it only took me 5 minutes to figure out how to use.

It’s very intuitive, and re my previous analogy, is just as easy as Canva is for photo editing – it’s all drag and drop, with plenty of amazing templates you can make your own. 

Once you open the software on your Windows or Mac computer (it works for both), everything you want is based out of the top two toolbars.

You have access to media, audio, titles, transitions, effects, elements, and split screen formatting. And within each of these are hundreds of different options to drag on top of your footage.

But in it’s very simplest version, most videos may only require simple chopping. And that’s as simple as dragging your footage onto the timeline, pausing the cursor on the frame you want to cut, and clicking on the orange scissors that you see above.

Getting Started

To get started in Filmora, open the software, click on the Media tab in the far left corner, and there’s a big prompt for you to import your media.

You can import videos, photos, and you can also do this via the ‘File’ link in the top toolbar if you’re more used to this form of navigation.

What I really loved was how intuitive Filmora is – while most video editors require you to set a frame rate and resolution for each video project before you start editing, when I dragged my first piece of footage down onto the timeline, Filmora adjusted the project settings to match my media.

Because let’s be honest, I can chop footage together to tell a powerful, engaging story, but I have no clue what 3840 x 2160 30 fps means. Or that those are the settings I need in the first place.

If you’re a professional who understands the technical language of video, you can create new projects with customized settings as much as you like. But if you’re a beginner, and like it being done for you, this is where Filmora shines.

It also offers pre-set aspect ratios (the shape of the video) you can select to suit whichever platform you’re sharing to. For instance, if you’re making a video for Instagram, simply choose that option when getting started (click File – New Project, and then there’s an option called 1:1 Instagram), and the video frame becomes square for you.

Filmora thinks for you, and I love it!

Things I Love About Wondershare Filmora

#1 Filmora Thinks For You

#2 It’s Drag and Drop Easy

Yes, we’ve been through this already, but everything is drag and drop; the music, titles, transitions, effects – all of it. It literally can’t get any easier (until perhaps there are breakthroughs in mind controlled computers!).

What Canva is for photo design, Filmora is for video editing. If you’re a beginner, you’ll produce professional looking videos without the learning curve.

#2 Audio

Filmora has a huge library of music you can use as a soundtrack, which is really important for adding emotion to a video – music can really elevate your story, and make it engaging and impactful.

Finding music used to be one of the most time consuming parts of making my videos, but with Filmora it’s quick, easy, and all available right there within the editor.

The audio library is the second button in the main navigation menu, and you’ll find hundreds of sound bites, neatly organized into categories like sound clips, environmental sounds (thunder, wind, ocean etc), rock, folk, electronic, etc.

There’s even an adio category called ‘Travel Vlog’ which has travel themed sounds, like a Brazilian percussion street party, Latin groove etc.

In the same way you drag and drop your video footage, you drag and drop your audio clips, and can also chop them, move them around on the timeline, and adjust the volume of the music throughout by dragging the volume bar.

And of course you can always import your own audio files too – your own music, sound clips, voice overs etc. But if you need to source music, they make it easy for you.

#3 Titles

There are literally thousands of stylized and animated titles you can drag and drop throughout your video, and while you can customize these as much as you like, with fonts, sizing, styles, animation etc, you can also just choose an existing template.

Titles are accessible in the same main menu, third button across, and once again they’re organized into categories to make it easy to find a style that suits; there are even seasonal designs; for example, right now it’s January so there are Valentines Day title styles.

You’ll find everything here from openers, closers, subtitles, closing credits and lower 3rd captions – they’ve thought of every possible title you’ll need. 

#4 Transitions

When creating videos, it’s easy to get excited by crazy, insane, creative transitions, and while Filmora definitely provides these, keep in mind that sometimes simplicity is best when transitioning between clips.

Personally, the simple fade is the transition I most use, but there are again, over a thousand themed transitions, including travel transitions, including flying postcards, planes flying in with the next clip, a cool Paris sketchbook transition.

And it’s incredibly fun to play around with them all even if you end up coming back to the simple fade.

Once again, it’s drag and drop of the transition between the two clips you want it to apply to.

#5 Effects

Effects are where Filmora is a gold mine for beginner video editors, because with a simple click you can apply filters and other effects to your clips which you would otherwise need detailed editing experience to achieve in other editors.

There are filters like glitch, glow, distortion, mosaic, black and white, background blur, and a hundred more options. And then there are hundreds of overlays if you want to add, for instance, an old film effect.

#6 Elements

If you use Canva, and I know I’m using this anlogy a lot!, you’ll love the Elements option in Filmora. Add any number of pre designed graphics into your videos, across various themes like travel, sports, food, love, journeys etc.

#7 Split Screen

The Split Screen feature is a great way to add multiple clips into the same frame. And we love Monica from The Travel Hack’s tip of using this option if you have lots of footage that isn’t so great.

“Maybe you have a few clips that aren’t quite in focus or they’re a bit wobbly but you still really want to use them. Split your screen into four so each clip is smaller and the wobbles and mistakes are less obvious.”

#8 Green Screen

Have you ever wondered how Hollywood movies film in surreal environments, or how the weatherman does the weather report?

Thats a green screen.

If you’ve filmed a green screen background you can edit this easily in Filmora – import your landscape and green screen footage into Filmora media library. Then, drag and drop the green screen footage to the timeline, and put the image you want behind the green screen clip in the timeline track below it.

Click on the projector screen icon in the timeline menu (above the times) to select the Green Screen option. The picture and picture window will pop up, and this is where you can preview your clip and key out certain colors.

It’s set to key out green automatically, but with the mouse you can use the picker tool to select whatever color you want. You can then drag the slider to adjust the intensity level, edge thickness, and Filmora comes with a few sample green screen options too.

#9 Speed

You can adjust the speed of your media or play it backwards with a simple click. You can choose from a pre-set selection of speeds, or set your own custom speed.

Another really cool feature is the ‘Duration’ button on the timeline menu, which allows you to set a time you want the video to be, and Filmora adjusts it automatically, whether this means speeding up your clips or slowing them down.

#10 Organization

As you’ve seen from above screenshots, the organization of each library is great; everything from your music, titles, transitions, effects, and elements are all organized by category and easy to find.

If you find yourself addicted to editing videos with Filmora (highly likely), the other feature I love is the ability to add to favorites. 

Within each feature is a favorites folder, and if there are music files, titles, transitions, effects etc that you use frequently – your constant ‘go to’s’, you can hover over the resource to add it to your favorites folder.

There are hundreds if not thousands of resources under each category, so the favorites folder comes in handy for quick access to the stuff you use.

#11 Free Trainings

Even though Filmora is easy to use and doesn’t have a learning curve, they offer a fantastic ranger of free video tutorials and trainings to both get started, and then also take your editing to the next level when you’re ready to play with advanced features.

These are available on YouTube, via Filmora Creator Academy, but they also pop up in prompts when you open the software to remind you that the support is there – pull up the links again at any time in your Message Center within the app.

Free vs Upgrading

There’s a free trial for Filmora so it’s a no brainer to download it, play around, and see if you love it too. It will however explore your footage with a watermark logo unless you pay to upgrade.

If you’re not a content creator, and you just want videos for memory sake, you may not actually care about the watermark logo, in which case, this video editor stands out above the rest because it actually lets you export your footage on the free version (many don’t).

If you’d like to upgrade though it’s well worth it, and incredible value for money: $51.99 for a year or $79.99 for an outright payment. Within the price is access to more features, and a one-month free trial of Filmstock Standard Library.

So, go forth and create amazingly easy travel videos!

Filmora has sponsored this review. I would like to thank them, not only for their incredible software, but for inspiring me to get back into creating travel videos again. It’s seriously so easy!

Megan is an Australian Journalist and award-winning travel writer who has been blogging since 2007. Her husband Mike is the American naturalist and wildlife photographer behind Waking Up Wild; an online magazine dedicated to opening your eyes to the wonders of the wild & natural world.

Having visited 100+ countries across all seven continents, Megan’s travels focus on cultural immersion, authentic discovery and incredible journeys. She has a strong passion for ecotourism, and aims to promote responsible travel experiences.