So You Want To Become A Travel Writer?

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Being a Travel Writer while still holding a full time job is no easy task. Planning holiday trips and making sure that a long leave application will be approved is a mind boggling issue.

My passions for Travel probably started when I was probably 5-6 years old looking at the Stamps that used to be stuck on letters that came to the house. Wondering what they were and how they represent the place they came from, my Dad helped me with my first Hobby of collecting stamps. I had, in fact still have a great collection of stamps from all around the world, and while looking at them admiring their uniqueness and beauty, in my mind was questions that made me wonder how would the places that they came from be.

My passion for geography when I was doing my O’Level in England also increased tremendously because of my curious mind wanting to explore the whole world. Not only did I score a distinction for that subject, but my world knowledge also amplified. I was able to name all the states in the US, weird stories about the Andaman, The things behind the Bermuda Triangle and so on but not seeing them in person was painful. So with a full mind and a great interest, I set a few goals that would take me around the world.

To date, I’ve only visited UK, France, parts of Indonesia, Thailand, Australia and lots of Malaysia. My ultimate dream would be to visit the States and explore on their lifestyle and culture.

With that, I’ll list down some keypoints that could help if you decide to be a travel writer like myself.

1) Always Go With A Open Mind

You are going to have a great experience traveling, you are also going to have some bad ones, you need to big it up and continue to explore as much as you want. It’s all in your mind.

One of my worst experience during traveling was probably when I was in England. Studying there as a foreign student was not easy. Bully rates were off the charts there, but with a strong and determined mind, I managed to conquer that fear and challenge myself to do more.

2) Take Plenty of Photos

What ever other people tell you, there is no such thing as a bad photo, and there is never too much photos. Take all you can, take every little angle that you see. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made is taking too little photos, and that is seriously frustrating. I usually take thousands of photos per trip, but only use 10-15 of them for my blogs.

Most general bloggers would also tell you that a tool for your photography is very important. Buy a DSLR, Buy a good lense, Buy flash, Buy this, Buy that and my personaly opinion is, these are all not necessary. A photograph is not created by the tool, but by the eye of the beholder. To me the photographer is much more important that the tools that he’s using. Most of my photographs are taken using an iPhone4 5 megapixel camera, and I believe with the right amount of lighting, it creates marvellous photos. I’m a light traveler too, I hate carrying tons of equipments everywhere and that’s why I’m pretty happy with my iPhone.

3) Write Down Notes

This is one major mistake that I make during my travelling trips. I refuse to take points or notes on the things that I see, things that I experience etc and hoping that I can remember all of them. We writers do not usually do our post immediately after our traveling period. We might rest a day or two and only start sketching the post a few days later. I’m sure we are not able to remember every single details on our trip so do remember to write down notes.

4) Make Prior Reservations

When I say reservetions, I mean flight tickets, room accommodation, travel tickets and so on. Based on my experience, if you purchase your flight tickets way in advance, you’ll probably save up to 70% on the travelling tickets alone.

As for accommodation, you can book way in advance to enjoy early bird rebates, sometimes if you’re lucky, you’ll get last minute offers. I usually make early bookings on room, or don’t book a room at all. I rather reach my destination and look around for cheap, low-budget accommodation. I’m a cheap traveler and most of the time need the room to camp the night. My trips to Thailand and Palembang cost extremely low because the walk in room rates were cheap.

5) Do not over pack

This is targeted more towards the lady travelers, I don’t understand why they need to pack too many things and not use all of them during the trip. I travel light, I take minimum clothes and if more are needed, I’ll just buy them where ever I’m traveling to.

If you need to carry a lot of things, do get enough space for your cargo in the flight. Last minute overweight baggage will cost a bomb.

6) Create a To Do List for all your destinations

I’ve got this habit of checking out the interesting places that I would wanna visit before making a trip to that place. Just like my list during Palembang and Thailand trip. This way I’ll know what to cover and how much they would cost.

This is extremely important of your trip had limited number of days.

This is just few of the things that you should do if you want to be a Travel Writer. I’ll be adding more travel tips on future post.