Travel writing and travel itself feed each other. The act of writing about a place forces you to pay attention in ways that casual tourism does not. You notice the texture of a conversation, the specific shade of light on a building, the sound of a particular bus engine. Whether you publish anything or not, keeping a travel journal makes you a better traveler.
In This Article
Keeping a Journal
The trick is writing at the end of each day, not weeks later when the details have blurred. A pocket notebook (Moleskine, Field Notes, whatever fits your pocket) captures the raw material. Names, prices, dialogue fragments, sketches of room layouts. The literary polish can come later — the details cannot be recovered once forgotten.
Poems From Far Places
Poetry and travel have a long history together — from Basho’s narrow road to the deep north to Neruda’s Canto General. The compression of poetry forces you to find the essential image in a place. A haiku written in a bus station captures something a 2000-word blog post misses entirely.
Publishing
Travel writing markets have shrunk but they still exist. Literary travel magazines (Travelers Tales, Nowhere), online publications (Roads and Kingdoms, Atlas Obscura), and print anthologies accept submissions. The pay is usually modest but the discipline of writing for publication improves everything else you write.