What Kind of Travel Writer Are You?
A question I ask myself on the regular.
There are three kinds of travel writers: those who write about the what, those who write about the how, and those who write about the why.
The what of travel includes stories with titles like 48 Hours in Bend! and Top 5 Secret Beaches in Belize. These are both real stories. I honestly found them both helpful, if not totally accurate. There is nothing wrong with writing the what of travel — people like to preview places, both to find what fits their fancy and to avoid wasting precious travel hours. Efficient itineraries, excellent day-starter breakfast joints, museum exhibits filled with beauty, a hike that summits into a stellar view. What writers help travelers make the most of the time they’ve got. At the same time, that kind of travel writing just scratches the surface.
Taking a birds-eye look at how to travel well
How writers take a higher-level view. Less detail, more big picture. How do you travel? I think of it as the 3 Ps: Planning, packing, and purpose. How writers help fledge out the best ways to find flights and lodging — these are travelers who max out their points and are savvy users of apps like Hopper and TripIt. Got questions about packing for a ski/beach/urban vacation? Ask a how writer. And they’re not just about mundane details. The manner in which a person approaches travel, their philosophy and purpose, matters a great deal. How travel writers explore ideas like sustainability, eco-travel, and lightening the carbon footprint. Purposeful travel can mean hiring local guides, choosing family-run restaurants and lodging, and slowing down instead of simply checking highlights off your list. How writers help us travel thoughtfully, and travel well.
Diving deep into why travel matters
This brings us to the why travel writers. If the writers stay at surface level, and the how writers take a birds-eye view, then the why writers take the deep dive. These are stories that take time. They require talking to people: guides, bartenders and baristas, strangers. Finding common ground across the globe, across cultures, in surprising places. Sharing laughs over a beer, hearing a different perspective of world happenings. A why a writer might focus on the natural world: what makes this place different? What species are thriving and which are threatened in this place, and what are the forces behind those threats? Why writers like to think about geology and geography, and music, and architecture, and spice markets, and how those all combine to create a sense of place.
Which of those travel writers am I? A bit of each, to be sure. My previous story Deserts and Oceans Are Not Opposites started out as a road-trip itinerary. Then it morphed into how to spend the holidays in a camper with two rowdy dogs (hint: go to the desert!) And finally it settled on one moment, a short sweaty break from a desert canyon hike, when a surprising epiphany revealed a big why. Why exploring the desert is very much the same as scuba diving a coral reef, and why both are vitally important.
The more I explore this beautiful blue planet, the more I hope to make those why connections, and articulate them in a way that others can relate to.
Which of those travel writing styles fits you best? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
