Recently I had the chance to install the new Explorable Theme by Elegant Themes.
It’s an excellent choice for travel-related sites, with a giant map on the home page. (Maps are integrated from Google Maps.)
To put pins in the map you create Listings. The listings pop up on the home page when a reader clicks a pin on the map. Or they can follow the link on the short description to go to a page with more detail about the location (the theme creates this page for you automatically).
You and your site visitors can also rate each listing.
Of course, you can create regular WordPress posts and pages as well.
If you’re putting together a site about a specific area, or involving travel, this is an excellent choice.
It has all the features you’d expect from a major theme designer like Elegant Themes.
- Mobile responsive
- Easy to use
- Select from unlimited colors
- Lots of ways to customize it easily — you don’t need to be a programmer
Here are just a few other ideas about the types of sites that can use this theme:
- Travel Blogs
- Directories for local businesses
- Travel guides
- Personal blogs
- Tourist Directories
- Destination guides
- Hotels, Inns and Bed & Breakfasts
- “Best of” listings — best beaches, best hamburger joints, best movie theaters. . .
I’m sure there are lots more that I haven’t even considered.
Want more information about the Explorable Theme? Click here.
When you buy a theme, hosting and domain name through links on this site, you’re eligible for some deep, deep discounts on WordPress setup.
Susanna, I’ve got all of my sites on Genesis framework with Studiopress child themes, but this theme looks amazing for a site of mine that deals with a lot of travel. How does Elegant Themes compare with Studiopress themes in your opinion? Is there any downside that you know of with Elegant Themes? Anything I should beware of?
Thanks so much for your help!
Hi Carole,
Thanks for stopping by!
This site is Genesis/Prose 🙂
I like Elegant Themes for when you want something that works well out of the box but still gives some easy customization options. Elegant is solidly built, and they have their code security audited by Sucuri. My only real beef with them is that their default fonts are too small and too light — built for 20-year old eyes, not for mine or most of my readers. But it’s easily changed with a tiny bit of custom CSS, so not a biggie.
Thanks, Susanna! I love the interactive map, that’s a really cool feature. Thanks for sharing this info and for answering my questions about Elegant themes. Also, I love the way you’ve designed this site! It’s very well laid out. You’ve done a very good job here. Kudos 🙂
Hi Susanna 🙂
You seem to be the only proper review on this theme out there on the whole internet! So thankyou!! You have been really helpful – wondering if you would be willing to share the link to your husbands website? While I’ve viewed the demo for this theme I really would love to see how it has been implimented on a proper webpage 🙂
I’m looking to transition my current travel blog to a proper self hosted website and am really interested in this theme 🙂
Thanks so much 🙂
Megan Claire
x
Amazing thanks Susanna for the link 🙂 I’ve just had a look and that’s perfect for giving me a basic idea of what I could work with 🙂
Have an amazing week 🙂
Megan x
Hi Susanna,
Thanks for this review! I also got very enthusiastic by this theme. I have to figure out though if theme allows to build a business around it. Do you know if it will be possible to integrate a booking/payment system? Also do you know if it’s possible to set a different homepage than the interactive map (which is awesome but I may not always want on the first page) ?
Also would love to see this theme implemented. Would you be happy to share the link to your husbands page?
Many thanks!
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne,
Thanks for the kind words.
If the booking/payment system you want integrates with WordPress, you’ll be fine. If memory serves, you don’t have to have the map on your homepage. My husband’s site is Cycling in Panama, and I’m sorry to say he’s not touched the site since I installed it for him. . . but you’re welcome to look at the little that’s there.
Hello:
Can I change the font on this theme once I have it? Would this theme work on self-hosted Word Press-based websites that end in .com?
Thanks!