How to Be a Travel Writer

Being a travel writer can seem like the best job in the world, and everyone wants to do it. So what hints and tips are there on how to become a travel writer?

I had two emails within half an hour of each other this morning, both asking me the same question: how can I become a travel writer? Both were from people studying tourism at university, not connected with each other, and both of them obviously felt that studying tourism was perhaps one way to a life of travel and getting paid for it: the life of the travel writer.

So what advice can I give? How on earth did I become a travel writer, that might be a start. It was quite easy, really. I went on holiday to Greece one year, to Rhodes, and I thought I'd write an article about it. I sent it to one of the main British daily newspapers, the Daily Telegraph (I was ignorant enough to try starting at the top), and to my amazement, the travel editor bought it.

Next time I went on holiday, I wrote another travel article and sent it to the same travel editor. She bought that one too. I think she must have liked my style. I did it again, after another holiday. And then I asked the $64,000 question – what about all these free holidays I hear about? The travel editor told me that if I came up with an idea she liked, she'd ask me to do it and then I'd contact a tour operator and they'd probably be glad to organise the trip for me. So I did, and I went off to Luxor in Egypt.

And that was the start of a rather unexpected career. I was writing about computer games at the time. I never planned to become a travel writer, which is the case with most of the travel writers I know. How did they become travel writers? Some were teachers, some were backpackers, one ran a restaurant, one was an accountant, two were civil servants. They all ended up being full-time travel writers, so I don't think there's any particular secret. Certainly none of them went to university and studied tourism, but that doesn't mean you can't break into it that way either.

If you have a compulsion to travel, and a compulsion to write about, you've got the basic things that you need in order to set you off on the path. One travel writer friend of mine said that he has reduced his advice to would-be travel writers to a bare minimum. He just tells them to travel a lot, to write about it, and to send the work in to editors. And that really is all there is to it.

It might increase your chances a little if you read some books about travel writing, like my own downloadable book (shameless plug, click here), or travel writer Cathy Smith's book (click here). Cathy also writes on Historic Travel for Suite101.

And you might want to take a look at the travel writing competition being run at the moment by Bradt Travel Guides and the Independent on Sunday. Get the details on that from the Bradt Travel Guides website here.

That really is it. How to become a travel writer? Travel. And write about it. And good luck.