Travel Bloggers: The Hustle and Go of the Travel Life
Travel means different things to different people. For me, travel means coming home a little different than I was before I left. I’m inspired by the way Anthony Bourdain engaged with and moved around the world. And, with good reason, he’s become a highly quoted figure in the travel world. A favorite Bourdain travel musing of mine is:
Bourdain knew how to process novel experiences and fold them into who he was — he was about the doing, the moving, the unapologetic living. He knew how to enjoy, to question, to be engaged with the world around him.
Inspired by Bourdain, and his fearless traveling, I embarked on a journey to find bloggers and writers who might be of the same adventurous, travel mind. One such traveler is Paula Froelich of A Broad Abroad. Paula’s blog gives carefully vetted suggestions on how to survive in the arctic, where to find the weirdest eats in Hawaii, and tips on how to best travel solo (she makes it a point to travel alone every year for her birthday), and based on her expert recommendations and distinctive storytelling her site won the Bronze Lowell Thomas Award in 2017 for Best Travel. She’s known widely for pushing boundaries and is even credited with the creation of a new class of travel, “from the known to the unknown.”
In my search, I came across another impressive blog called Driftwood Journals by Ben Holbrook, a British writer living and working in Spain. On his blog is a post he penned in 2016 about what it’s like to live the life of a travel writer/blogger in Barcelona. For Ben, as is the case for many travel writers, life is a hustle from one trip, or gig, to the next, and somewhere in between they are living some version of the dream life they’ve intentionally cultivated for themselves. I have a deep respect for this profession, yet do not envy the work it takes to build a career from it.
There are so many inspiring travel bloggers and content creators out there — Evita Robinson of Nomadness Travel Tribe and the duo behind Hand Luggage Only, Yaya and Lloyd, are certainly on the list. What all of these bloggers have in common is that they are pushing boundaries in some way or another and sharing their personal experiences and findings with the world.
With technology, politics, borders, and landscapes changing quickly, it’s hard to keep up with anything. 2020 is a year for the history books, and a year that many of us have decidedly committed to something larger than ourselves. Since beginning my work with UpJaunt last year, I’ve come to understand, at least on some level, that it takes a lot of courage to commit to something and see it through. We’re currently creating an app meant to help people discover and experience the world while very few of us are actually traveling. Nonetheless, we are staying the course, determined to build something new and meaningful that will be uniquely helpful for travelers.
For travel writers and bloggers specifically, we see the app altering the relationship between creators and their audiences. Currently, we’re working on a new feature that will repurpose blog content into actionable map itineraries. Imagine blog content automated and in the hands of keen travelers without having to do any of the heavy lifting yourself. No SEO nightmares, no junky ads obscuring the beautiful website you labored over for months, no need to be the liaison for Google Ad words. Think Substack made for travel bloggers/writers.
If you’re a travel blogger, writer, and/or content creator, sign up here for early access to our new platform. Coming soon!
Stay well,
UpJaunt
