Travel blogs are fun to look at, but after a while it feels like they’re all the same – carefully framed pictures of beautiful places that most people will never get to go to. How can you stand out from the pack and make your blog different? Well, there’s a famous saying: “It’s the journey, not the destination.”
Instead of editing out the long hours waiting for the airplane or your weird interactions with a sketchy taxi driver, write about them! People are not just reading travel blogs for yet another photo of the Leaning Tower of Pisa – they want to hear about your experience, the strange and anomalous things that happened. By approaching your blog from a different angle, you can provide a unique perspective on travel itself.
Hit The Trail
If the journey really is more important than the destination, make the journey interesting. Airports are a drag, so take the long route and get there in a memorable way.
Backpacking is a challenging way to travel, one that is full of experiences (and material to write about). You don’t need to have a destination in mind, just a trail to hike on and the determination to go all the way. A long backpacking trip can be deeply rewarding and even spiritual. Go out and experience the beauty of nature in places few people have ever been – you’re guaranteed to come back with some fascinating stories.
Blogger On The Orient Express
America is fascinated by trains, which have historically helped to connect our nation coast to coast. This is a slow way to travel, but it comes with many benefits – trains are cheaper and more comfortable than airplanes, and many have cars where you can eat or sleep.
Amtrak offers a writer’s residency to twenty-seven people each year, inviting writers to ride the rails in order to get away from distractions. Not only will you have time to think and work, but you’ll be riding through some gorgeous scenery.
Ride The Waves
Cruises are cheaper than you might expect – on a normal vacation you have to pay for travel, a hotel, and food, whereas on a cruise all these costs are bundled together. David Foster Wallace, one of the most famous and influential writers of the 21st century, wrote a fantastic article for Harper’s about his experience on a cruise ship.
Like taking a train, this gets you away from the distractions of WiFi and gives you an opportunity to really think, all while looking out over the vastness of the ocean.
You will also visit a variety of destinations, with plenty of photo ops, at the various places the cruise docks.
Share A Unique Experience
All of these methods will really put the “travel” in “travel blogging”. No matter how you get where you’re going, be sure to pause on your way there. Look around you – the delays at the airport, the bad weather when you’re trying to rent a car, the ugly hotel – all of these are just as much a part of your trip as the beautiful attractions you came to see, and odds are, one day you’ll remember them fondly.
