How to Build a Multilingual Travel Website Using WP Travel Engine and WPML?

WP Travel Engine is now fully compatible with WPML, the most popular multilingual plugin for WordPress. This guide will walk you through how to translate your travel website step-by-step so you can reach a global audience.

Prerequisites #

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

• A WordPress website with the WP Travel Engine plugin installed and activated
• The WPML Multilingual CMS plugin (paid)
  • For most websites, the WPML Multilingual CMS plan is sufficient: 
    • Includes all WPML features
    • Free automatic translation for ~45k words
    • Costs just 99€ per year
• WPML’s required components:
  • String Translation
  • Translation Management
  • Media Translation (optional but recommended)

Install and Set Up WPML #

1. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
2. Upload and install the WPML Multilingual CMS plugin.
3. Activate the plugin.
4. Follow the setup wizard:
   • Choose the site’s default language
   • Add the languages you want to translate into
   • Set up the language switcher (menu, widget, or footer)
   • Register your WPML license

For details, refer to WPML official documentation.

Configure WPML for WP Travel Engine #

1. Navigate to WPML → Settings
2. Under Post Types Translation, ensure the following post types from WP Travel Engine are set to Translatable:
   • Trips
   • Trip Types
   • Destinations
   • Activities
   • FAQs
   • Itineraries
   • Trip Tabs (if used)
3. Do the same under Taxonomies Translation for:
   • Trip Categories
   • Trip Tags
   • Any custom taxonomy added by WP Travel Engine

Translate Trip Packages #

1. Go to Trips → All Trips
2. Next to each trip, you’ll see a plus (+) icon under each language column.
3. Click the icon to start translating.
4. WPML will open the Advanced Translation Editor (you can also use the Classic Editor if preferred).
5. Translate:
   • Trip title
   • Description
   • Itinerary
   • Highlights
   • FAQs
   • Price & duration (only if different per language)
6. Click Complete once you’re done.

✅ You can also enable Automatic Translation from WPML → Translation Management → Settings, which uses DeepL, Google, or Microsoft.

Translate Trip Attributes #

Each trip is made up of more than just the main content. Here’s how to handle additional fields:

Custom Fields (Itinerary, Pricing, FAQs, etc.) #

• WP Travel Engine stores these as custom fields.
• WPML auto-detects most of them, but if any field isn’t showing:
  1. Go to WPML → Settings
  2. Scroll down to Custom Fields Translation
  3. Find the field and set it to Translate

Image Galleries and Media #

To translate media:

1. Go to WPML → Media Translation
2. Upload alternative images (if needed)
3. Translate image titles and alt text for SEO

Translate Widgets, Menus, and Strings #

Menus: #

1. Go to Appearance → Menus
2. Select your primary menu
3. Click on “+” icons to create menu versions in other languages
4. Add translated links (e.g., translated trip pages, blog, contact)

Widgets: #

Use the WPML Widget Logic or Block Widgets to display language-specific widgets.

Strings (like “Book Now”, “Read More”, etc.): #

1. Go to WPML → String Translation
2. Search for the string
3. Add translations for each language

✅ You can also scan WP Travel Engine for additional translatable strings under WPML → Theme and Plugin Localization.

Optional: Enable Automatic Translation #

You can enable automatic translation via:

1. WPML → Translation Management
2. Choose the content types
3. Enable Translate Everything Automatically

Need Help? #

If you face any issues or need personalized support, feel free to contact our support team or refer to WPML’s official documentation.