For lovers of the great outdoors, offroading and overlanding become more than hobbies. But it can be a lonely lifestyle without someone to talk to—luckily, online communities abound, and I’ve got a list of the 11 best offroading and overlanding blogs and forums.
If you love offroading and overlanding, you need to check out these sites:
Offroad Passport
As a site made for organizing meet-ups and trips, Offroad Passport has a bustling community of offroad enthusiasts in their forums. Ask about specific trails, read about other people’s adventures, and show off your rig in their dedicated subforums.
Besides the basics of comparing builds and sharing trip photos, Offroad Passport also boasts 11 subforums dedicated to related outdoor hobbies and lifestyles, including:
- Hunting and fishing
- Camping
- Geocaching
- Mining
- Trail cooking
Even if you don’t consider yourself a gearhead, Offroad Passport can still be a great place to talk about everything else you do out in the wild.
Reddit – r/overlanding
Like any other subreddit, r/overlanding boasts an active and passionate community that keeps the conversation flowing. Amateur and expert overlanders come together to share their advice and show off pictures of their travels.
However, the subreddit’s rules do not allow shop talk when it comes to your vehicle. Instead, the moderators encourage you to go elsewhere to discuss technical details and ask for product advice.
The lively community makes r/overlanding great for urgent or unusual questions, tips for beginners, and overlanding memes. They keep things casual, so don’t be afraid to jump in.
Reddit – r/Offroad
Unlike r/overlanding, r/Offroad consists mostly of the nitty-gritty of parts, manufacturers, and performance. Any question you ask will be answered quickly by one of r/Offroad’s nearly 20,000 members. Between gear posts, you’ll be treated to plenty of glossy photos and videos of builds in action.
A rule against promotional posts also makes r/Offroad special in this list. If you can’t stand to see any more manufacturer spam on your forums, this will be your oasis.
Altogether, r/Offroad’s laid-back attitude and knowledgeable members make it a good community for people who love the mechanical side of offroading.
Overland Bound
Outdoor outfitting company Overland Bound sells gear for overlanders of all kinds and creeds. Their forums offer an expansive range of topics with a large and active community of members.
The Overland Bound forums feature subforums for buying and selling rigs and equipment, organizing meet-ups, and discussing overlanding on each continent.
They also have a subforum for disabled people to ask about and discuss how to modify their vehicles to best suit their needs—the only one of its kind I’ve ever seen.
Since it has a subforum for almost anyone, Overland Bound welcomes people with all levels of experience with overlanding.
Pirate 4×4
Founded in 2000, Pirate 4×4 has more than 300,000 members, making it the oldest and largest forum on this list. While not as active on a day-by-day basis as some other forums, its massive community keeps it going.
Pirate 4×4 excels in providing extensive subforums for every offroading need. In particular, their auto manufacturer subforums make it easy to find discussions of your model without having to dig through irrelevant topics.
For discussions run by gearheads for gearheads, Pirate 4×4 remains one of the best offroading forums.
Technomadia
Technomadia covers the overland (and sea) excursions of Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard. They give advice based on their mistakes and misadventures, show off their various overlanding vehicles, and document their travels across the United States.
As the name implies, Technomadia covers overlanding tech, from GPS to solar panels to kitchen equipment. Dunphy and Ve Ard also run the Mobile Internet Resource Center, a major tech resource for overlanders, but Technomadia sticks to a more personal tone.
Though Dunphy and Ve Ard have a blast on their travels, they don’t shy away from the more stressful aspects of nomadic living. Technomadia gives you a look at the ups and downs of life on the road, which makes it useful for people considering taking the leap.
Technomadia also appears on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
OffroadTB
If you own a TrailBlazer or an Envoy, OffroadTB serves up informational articles and how-to guides for any gear-based problem you might run into when offroading.
The OffroadTB forums also make for a great resource for diagnosing your vehicle. Besides troubleshooting and discussing parts, the OffroadTB’s build thread subforum lets you document your vehicle’s transformation from mere truck to an all-terrain powerhouse.
As another nice touch, OffroadTB relegates vendors to their own subforums, so you don’t have to worry about sifting through spam.
Expedition Portal
This one’s a no-brainer: Expedition Portal has provided vehicle news, reviews, and guidance for offroaders and overlanders for more than 15 years. Their forums stand out as some of the best around for talking about your rig, building friendships, and planning excursions.
With in-depth subforums for auto manufacturers, bikes, campers, the Expedition Portal forums have most vehicle topics covered. Special mention goes to their “Family Adventure Planning” subforum and their sections on GPS hardware and software for your vehicle.
If you don’t want to talk shop, they also offer tons of adventure threads featuring pictures and stories of trips and meet-ups. The spirit of sharing and teaching each other makes Expedition Portal a warm and welcoming community to join.
Take the Truck
Take the Truck follows Patrick, Lindsey, and their daughter on their overland journeys. This blog offers instructional guides, product reviews, and trip ideas based on their hard-earned experience traveling the country.
Patrick and Lindsey only recommend products and give advice that they know holds up to the test, and it shows. When they claim to know the best hot springs in Idaho, you can see in their pictures that they went to each one themselves.
The honesty, usefulness, and sheer width of their advice makes Take the Truck a great resource for people new to overlanding.
You can also follow Take the Truck on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Facebook.
Overland Tech & Travel
The blog of Overland Journal co-founder Jonathan Hansen Overland Tech & Travel features advice, product reviews, and posts about the overlanding scene.
Hansen knows his stuff—he also co-founded Overland Expo—so you can rest assured that what he recommends works. The blog also features a video series on overlanding basics, like what tools you need in your kit and how to store them.
Overland Tech & Travel offers reliable advice for beginners with a knowing sense of humor that will appeal to more seasoned overlanders. Whether you’ve been around the block like Hansen or not, you can enjoy the way he delivers his opinions.
Dare2Go
Travelers Yasha and Juergen of Dare2Go post overland travel ideas, tips, and stories of their journeys. They’ve traveled parts of Europe, Morocco, and South America, documenting their adventures on the way.
Dare2Go avoids many travel blog pitfalls with a balance of clear, well-sized photographs and an accessible and friendly style of writing. They tend to write about smaller, less-known locations, which makes their posts interesting to read even if you don’t have a trip in mind.
If you need inspiration for your next trip, Dare2Go’s informative and beautiful posts will make you itch to get on the road.
You can also follow Dare2Go on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
