Discovering your personal Rome
Posted: May 3, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: budget travel, budgettravel editors, budgettravel.com, insider secrets of rome, pope, Rome, travel advice, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »The new Pope naturally brings with him an upsurge of new and returning tourists to Rome and the Vatican City. New tourists look for any excuse and a perfect time to travel to Rome while returning tourists are thankful for a reason to return to the city. Accompanying the tourists are travel journalists eager to report on the new excitement of the city. Isn’t this the same already heavily touristy Rome boasting millions of tourists annually?
However, as expected of the travel journalist, BudgetTravel.com’s editors collaborated to create a sure way guide to experience Rome without the long lines, expensive meals, and as the editors put it “crowds, crowds, crowds”. In other words the editors put their market in its true context. They have followed an approach to show how Rome is still truly unique. Take a look here.
Surely other guides will pop up…
Tourism’s dark side
Posted: May 3, 2013 Contents: Chapter 6 | Tags: Heather Greenwood Davis, national geographic, national geographic traveler, travel advice, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 6 encourages the travel journalist to write about the “worst” in travel. Heather Davis of National Geographic.com describes her family’s tough experience while traveling in China. More important than her stories of locals snapping pictures of her family at random and reaching out to touch their hair, are the lessons she learned after the experience. Here’s a bit from Davis’ piece:
As a family that believes there are things to be learned from everything in life, we try to turn even the most frustrating experiences into teachable moments. — Having your every move documented gets old, and quickly. The celeb-obsessed culture prevalent in many parts of the world can desensitize us to what it’s like to be on the other end of the lens. Our experience in China showed us how photo taking can go over the line and taught us to be better at…
Sequestering travelers
Posted: March 6, 2013 Contents: Resources | Tags: fred gebhart, maria lenhart, Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, sequestering travelers, sequestration, travel advice, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel market expert, travel writer, travel writing, tsa Leave a comment »The Federal Government is facing a deadline that will affect the American economy. As individuals a citizen may not completely understand how such deadlines as the “automatic federal spending budget cuts” that went into place Friday, March 1, affect their personal life. As a traveler the federal deadline has serious implications according to facts and opinions travel experts explained to Fred Gebhart and Maria Lenhart of Travel Market Expert. Travel journalists should brace themselves as experts expect:
Threatened reductions in air traffic controllers, customs clearance officers, and TSA officials staffing airport checkpoints risk long lines, system slow-downs, and general delays.
In addition, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood warned that sequestration would have ‘serious impacts on transportation services that are critical to…
Handy travel safety tips
Posted: February 5, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: lonely planet, lonelyplanet.com, safety while abroad, tom hall, travel advice, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel research, travel safety, travel tips, travel writer, travel writing, what not to do 1 Comment »Chapter 4 briefly discusses the importance of being safe as you travel. Tom Hall of LonelyPlanet.com has compiled a list of warnings that travel journalists and travelers in general should heed. Among some of Hall’s warnings are watch out for fake police and police officers seeking bribes. Travel journalists should be able to count on local authority for not only safety but free reliable information as well.
Reverse outline
Posted: February 5, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: aaron hamburger, likewise, new york times, new york times travel, reverse outlining, travel advice, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel research, travel tips, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 gives advice to the travel journalists in regards to drafting and revising works. Likewise, Aaron Hamburgur of the NewYorkTimes.com offers his advice to writers specifically in the form of reverse outlining. Here is a tidbit from Hamburgers article,
I’ve come to prefer a more organic approach to creation, first laying out my raw material on the page, then searching for possible patterns that might emerge. But now,after I’ve completed a first draft, I compose an outline. I’ve found that this is the surest way to make sense of the work.
Price for safety? Common sense
Posted: February 5, 2013 Contents: Resources | Tags: freelance journalists, lonely planet, lonelyplanet.com, mark broadhead, travel advice, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »The Resources section of the text offers advice from 100 freelance journalists. Mark Broadhead of LonelyPlanet.com offers his advice on safety while traveling. According to Broadhead,
Scan your travel documents and email them to yourself. It was traditional to photocopy your passport and visas, travel insurance etc, and keep them in a separate part of your luggage. But that’s old school. These days, digital is best – that way your documents won’t go missing even if your bags do.
It may seem like a breeze, but be advised that teaching yourself to ride a motorbike or jet ski in a foreign country is probably unwise. In Thailand, for instance, 38 people a day die in scooter accidents. Nb some travel insurance policies won’t cover scooter-related injuries.
Interviews
Posted: February 5, 2013 Contents: Chapter 1 | Tags: interview, savvy traveler, travel advice, travel interview, travel journalism, travel writer, travel writers exchange, travel writing, trisha miller Leave a comment »Chapter 1 coaches the travel journalist on the basics of journalistic practices including methods. Trisha Miller of the TravelWritersExchange offers her own advice.
Truly savvy travel writers know that there is another tool at their disposal, one that gives them more article angles, and the opportunity to both attract new readers and potentially add a more multi-media-rich experience to their personal brand toolbox.
I’m referring of course to interviews. The kind you conduct with various people you encounter on your travels.
Start by focusing on those whom you think your readers would find interesting, and branch out from there. It’s better to have more material than you can use, than to not have enough.
Inner travel – working locally
Posted: January 22, 2013 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: backyard traveling, inner travel, local, matador network, matadornetwork.com, sarah menkedick, travel advice, travel blog, travel journalism, travel journalist, travel writer, travel writing Leave a comment »Chapter 4 discusses the importance of travel writing without the traveling. Sarah Menkedick of the Matador Network encourages the concept of “inner travel.” Menkedick describes the process of inner travel as
It is a full-on sensory experience that yanks all those dormant parts of oneself, the parts that go plodding through the day to day in familiar places without really seeing, to life. The best way to experience “inner travel,” the process of moving oneself out of a familiar mental space, is to take no detail for granted.
Travel writer as an Orwellian
Posted: November 5, 2012 Contents: Resources | Tags: aaron hamburger, freelance journalists, matador network, matadornetwork.com, orwellian, travel advice, travel journalism, travel writer, travel writing 2 Comments »Resources offers advice from 100 freelance journalists. Aaron Hamburger from the Matador Network offers this: Be an Orwellian. Here’s a tidbit from Hamburger’s article:
Orwell’s prime enemy was vagueness, dullness, and cliché. In his formulation, either you’re choosing language or language chooses you. Or as Orwell puts it: ‘Modern writing at its worst does not consist of picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images to make their meaning clearer. It consists of gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by somebody else.’
Safety first, deploy decoy wallet
Posted: October 28, 2012 Contents: Chapter 4 | Tags: christopher elliot, national geographic, safety travel tips, travel advice, travel journalism, travel safety, travel writer, travel writing 1 Comment »Chapter 4 gives the travel writer two pieces of pre-travel advice on safety while traveling. Christopher Elliott of The National Geographic adds to this advice by offering the writer tips to solve every crisis during travel. Elliot offers this bit:
Regardless of your locale, always watch your things when in a new place. Carry a throwaway wallet or decoy purse containing daily cash and old photos but nothing that would make you hesitate to hand it over in a holdup. Keep a credit card and cash in an inside pocket. 1. Hand over the fake wallet. 2. Notify the police.
Do not hesitate to hand over anything in a hold up, no material object is worth risking your life.
