Who wants to be a travel writer?

As a young lass, I held a common misconception about travel-writing - it was the thing that ‘other people did’, and not for one moment did I think I ever would.

“Cor blimey,” said my 13 year old self to no one in particular (or maybe Michael Palin on telly), “Imagine getting paid to trek across the world? Wouldn’t I just love to do your job, mister?”

Did I think I'd be going to Bolivia without spending a bean to get there and write about it for The Guardian at some point? Did I balls.

Six months into my first year of freelancing I landed my first press trip (well, it was arranged on an individual basis) and it was to Blackpool. Wasn’t I chuffed to pieces? I wrote a feature for handbag.com on the illuminations called Northern Lights.

Now, I’m sure there are many writers out there thinking that of all the places in the world, Blackpool is the last they’d go to. But I loved every second of it and I only bought the odd portion of fish ‘n’ chips, even better.

Two nights in the Blackpool Hilton, a free pass for the Pleasure Beach, and eating out in the fabby ‘White Tower’ restaurant there, it was great, and a fun feature to write.

However, my first actual travel commission was my first ever commission, funnily enough. It was Amsterdam Revisited for Virgin RedHot, based on a trip I’d done with my son. A look at what there was for families to do in the city, circumnavigating the red-light district.

I’m far more seasoned now and have had a number of absolutely wonderful press and individually organised trips. There are two that really stand out.

One was a trip skiing to Zakopane in Poland, last December. It was with new company Sunshine World and I was able to take my son, and for both of us, it was our first skiing holiday (except I was working but it didn’t feel like that), so particularly memorable.

I was utterly fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time for this trip, and I met some wonderful people through it (who have since become friends, including Alan Garcia, the owner of Sunshine World) and then I wrote about it as a family-skiing piece, again, for handbag.com.

My other best trip was to Vancouver in April this year – amazing. I was there a week staying in the best hotels ever, eating the best food ever, and I got three commissions for this (The North West Enquirer, North West Business Insider, and handbag.com).

Another magazine I now do travel pieces for is healthy, and I’ve had a couple of nice trips for this title, including a weekend in Piemonte where I learnt how to do Pilates.

And then there was a party in the midnight sun in Lapland, hosted by Finlandia vodka, which people do like to hear about (though I find it difficult to remember, strangely).

In fact, there hasn’t been a bad trip (man) amongst them, really, I’ve just been very happy seeing parts of the world I hadn’t expected to, in such a short time. You can’t do this in a nine-to-five, that’s for sure.

Though I’ve by no means ‘made it’ in this area, I’m pretty content with what I’ve achieved so far. And to would-be travel writers, there is lots of advice out there to use, but as expected, it’s a case of perseverance.

Keep trying, pitch unusual angles, make contacts with travel PRs, keep your name on the radar of travel editors, and do expect much fiercer competition than in other areas of journalism – I mean, who wants to be a travel writer? Everybody.

Comments

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