Travelling for myself, not for ‘content’
Travel was always what I wanted to write about. I began my freelance writing career writing about my personal travels and travel tips for websites and magazines, often for pittance or just the opportunity to see my name in the by-line. As time progressed, the opportunities increased and I found myself working with tourist boards, writing for my favourite websites and even working on a coffee table book. But Covid hit, and travel suddenly wasn’t a reliable field to work in. So I branched out, and wrote about other subjects that I loved, but travel was always at the back of my mind. It’s what I spend my time daydreaming about, what excites and inspires me the most, and what I love to spend my money on. I’m a home bird at heart, so I couldn’t be one of those jetsetters who is constantly away, but I like to enjoy (and subsequently write about) travelling as much as possible.
As the world opens back up, I’m looking forward to exploring new places and returning to locations that I love. I have six trips lined up over the next five months, each of which sends shivers of anticipation down my spine when I think about them. Whether I’m camping in Wales or floating in the Mediterranean Sea, I’ll be soaking up every moment of travel I experience this summer. And most of these trips will be featured heavily on my blog and Instagram as travel, after all, is the subject I most enjoy writing about and photographing. Yet something that I’ve been pondering recently is how much of my personal travels I share. Sometimes I want to travel for myself, not for ‘content’.
Pre-pandemic, I was lucky enough to experience a variety of press trips which I covered on my blog and other websites that I wrote for. As wonderful as these experiences were (and I hope that there will be more in the future), I classed this as work and spent much of my time away scribbling notes, taking photographs and posting Instagram Stories. Most of my personal travels I also spend hours taking photographs and writing articles to share on my blog. I truly love doing this, but sometimes I want to go on holiday simply to relax, eat good food, swim in the sea and make my way through a huge pile of books. This does not make for a riveting read!
There are plenty of trips I haven’t shared on here, primarily for this very reason. Not only does nobody really want to read paragraphs filled with descriptions of me reading books and sipping cocktails on a sun lounger, but I don’t want to spend time making notes and observations when I’m really and truly on holiday, enjoying a welcome break and switching off from my work. (My exception to this is that I always, always share all my trips on Instagram, as I’m always inspired to pick up my camera when travelling, even on those relaxing, not-really-doing-anything trips).
There is another reason I sometimes don’t write about specific trips: to keep secret places hidden. My trip to Croatia last September was one of my favourite ever holidays, but the location was so quiet and special that my lips are sealed to as where I visited. I can’t write a blog post (and especially not an article for another publication) without disclosing the location. Instagram, blogs and magazines are great places to find inspiration for places to visit, but so many destinations have suffered problems with over-tourism as a result of high exposure. Small places cannot cope with huge influxes of visitors and should be kept a hidden secret, shared only among friends.
Also, family holidays. If I’m away with my family, the trip isn’t exactly my own as I’m compromising on everything from where to stay, what to eat and how to spend my time. I love family holidays, but I don’t tend to share them as I don’t have the time to create content and my slow travel ethos isn’t adhered to as closely as I personally prefer.
I’m looking forward to writing about this summer’s travels in detail; sharing the places I stay and my recommendations for the areas I visit on here, and hopefully elsewhere. I’m off to West Wales next week, which will be the first trip I share very soon.
Read more about my travel writing work, browse my slow travel blog posts or contact me for a commission.
(All images below are from trips I have not featured on my blog)