Travelling is exciting, could blogging about travel be even more exciting that travelling itself, who knows? In the first travel blogging roundup of its kind by Travel Friendz, Evgeniy Garkaviy had conversations with 13 leading travel bloggers to bring you what each of them love most about their job.
Annette White
_____________________________________________________________________bucketlistjourney.net
There are so many aspects about being a travel blogger that I am smitten with: being able to relive my adventures through my writing, collecting passport stamps and racking up mileage reward points, just to name a few. But, the absolute best thing is when a reader contacts me because they too have a dream of traveling the world and I am able to inspire them to make that dream a reality in some little way. There is nothing that can quite compare to that special feeling.
Matt Stabile
______________________________________________________________________theexpeditioner.com
The best part about travel blogging is the opportunity it has given me to meet and become friends with some incredible people from around the world. The blog has allowed me to be introduced to dozens of great people, many of whom I’m lucky to now call my friends, from all sorts of background around the world, including tuk-tuk drivers, artists, restaurateurs, tour guides, concierges, musicians and journalists. If it hadn’t been for the blog, it would be very unlikely I would’ve had the chance to have ever met these people.
Johnny Ward
________________________________________________________________________onestep4ward.com
For me the best thing about travel blogging is checking my inbox each morning and hearing both words of encouragement and pleas for help from my readers. It’s great to be able to assist others to change their lifestyles too. I enjoy daily interaction with readers. I love that facebook fan pages play such an integral role in the engagement of your readership, people are so tied into social media that through a fanpage, people can instantly ask and comment on your content, lifestyle, choices. And in turn, you can answer any questions or queries people have about travel instantaneously too.
Max Hartshorne
____________________________________________________________________________gonomad.com
I would have to answer first that nobody really has a job as a travel blogger. It’s done out of love, love for travel, love for the unknown, love for that adventure that awaits when you take a flight and then hit the ground with your notebook and your camera and begin sharing it with your readers.
There is a feeling you get when you’re walking through the airport terminal, about to board a plane for a night flight over the ocean. You’ll land and everything will be new, and different, and you’ll hear different languages and see signs you cannot read and taste foods that aren’t familiar. You take it all in, you share it, you write about it, you put people who might never get a chance to experience another country and place them right there with you. I often like to think of my blog as a way to let someone become a little tiny person, who slips into your pocket, and each time you look over at an impressive monument, a startling vista, you can say ‘hey, look at that!‘ and ‘wow that’s cool, check this out!”
There are so many beautiful places to see in the world, and being able to record them, photograph them, ask the locals about them, that’s what I can share on my travel blog. And for me because we publish stories by hundreds of different authors, it’s about a much larger group of travelers. Some of our writers go to places I’d never visit, but I get to experience them and be that little guy in their pocket when I publish their stories and view their photographs.
Yeison and Samantha
________________________________________________________________________mytanfeet.com
It’s actually hard to choose just one reason why I love being a travel blogger so here are my top reasons. Being a travel blogger has opened up so many opportunities on the Internet, it’s connected us with people from all over the world and we love knowing that our articles has helped someone. There are so many great benefits to having a travel blog but we love being able to share our stories, our knowledge and tips. It’s always a really fun way to document our travels and adventures so we can look back on it in years from now and remember all the fun (and work hard) we had. Being a travel blogger has provided us with a new perspective on life and we love every minute of it!
Zoe Dawes
____________________________________________________________________thequirkytraveller.com
Being a Travel Blogger is a dream come true. I’ve always loved writing and travel but when I was young there was no way to combine both. My career path took me into training and coaching. Now I combine travel blogging with training within the tourism sector so best of both worlds. I get to see fascinating places around the world, write about it on my blog AND teach others how to do it. Perfect!
Jenna Davis
_______________________________________________________________________giveforgranted.com
After putting myself quickly into the 9-5 work world after university, it soon became apparent that I couldn’t sit around all day staring a a computer working for someone else while putting my life on the back burner. I was born to explore, adventure and learn more about our world through my own eyes and my own experiences. Today, what I love most about being a travel blogger is having the ability to do whatever I want, where ever I want while still helping others along the way. I enjoy being able to share my stories while inspiring other travelers to do the same. Most importantly, I enjoy being able to live the life I wanted to live all along.
Brendan van Son
__________________________________________________________________brendansadventures.com
For me, the best part about travel, in general, is the randomness of it all. No matter how well you plan out your trip, and no matter how strictly you stick to that itinerary, it’s completely spontaneous. On any given day in travel, something random and amazing could happen. In travel blogging, more specifically, the same sort of thing happens. And then any misadventure can turn into a great story.
Nellie Huang
_________________________________________________________________________wildjunket.com
Being able to do the two things I love most for a living: travel and writing! Travel blogging allowed me to fulfill my dream of being a full-time traveler and sharing my experiences with people. I receive lots of emails and messages from readers who tell me how much I’ve inspired them and this makes my job extremely fulfilling and rewarding. I feel like I’m being heard and that I’m making a difference.
Nellie is the author of The Adventure Traveler’s Handbook.
Christy Woodrow
______________________________________________________________________ordinarytraveler.com
My favorite part about being a professional travel blogger (besides traveling all the time) is that I’m able to fulfill my dream of getting paid to photograph the world. I use my blog as an online portfolio, so I’ve been lucky enough to be offered some pretty amazing photography jobs because of it. Working for myself (often in my PJs) is not bad either!
Mike Sowden
___________________________________________________________________feveredmutterings.com
What do I like most about being a travel blogger? Hm, well, I’m only sorta-kinda one really (I make a living from freelance writing and consultancy work rather than blogging), but…for me, it’s being in touch with other travel bloggers, who know WAY more about travel than I do. It’s access to a circle of very travel-smart people who are usually more than willing to help. That’s something I really value.
Brendan Lee
__________________________________________________________________brenontheroad.com
I’d say my favourite part of the job is when readers actually contact me and tell me I’ve made an impact on their lives. I’m always so flattered that people actually read the stuff I’m writing (I’m sure every blogger knows the feeling!) and even more so when they let me how one of my articles helped or inspired them to travel somewhere. I think every writer wants their work to inspire and create positive influences in people’s lives, and travel bloggers are no different. It really makes all the hard work worthwhile.
Nora Dunn
__________________________________________________________________theprofessionalhobo.com
Nora Dunn is The Professional Hobo; a woman who sold everything she owned (including a busy financial planning practice) in Canada in 2006 to embrace her dreams of full-time travel.
The obvious answer here is that I get to travel the world full-time and make money doing it and writing about it. Less obviously and more rewardingly, my full-time travel lifestyle (possible by virtue of my blogging career) allows me to not simply pass through destinations around the world at a whirlwind pace, but to actually live around the world. This provides a much deeper cultural insight and rewarding experience than I could ever have imagined.
Conclusion:
A thread that seem to run through most of the answers provided by participants in this roundup is the fact that most travel bloggers enjoy spending time in good company and exploring new things in each country they visit. They also put a premium on time spent interacting with visitors to their blog.
Are you a travel blogger, would you like to be included in our next roundup? Please leave a comment on this post or contact us.
About Evgeniy Garkaviy
I am relatively new to blogging about travel, however I have been passionate about travelling for as long as I can remember. As one of the principal travel blogger for Travel Friendz, I am constantly learning more and more about travelling and journeying through exciting exotic places that I am yet to visit in person, but through researching them for travel articles and posts, I have learn a lot about.
I hope you find some of my articles and blogs interesting and informative.
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