One of the questions I always get is “Does constantly documenting your travels take away from the authentic experience?” The short answer is no. But it does make it different!
Cole and I travel so much, and writing about it on my website and social media actually makes it more fun for us! It gives us a purpose and pushes us outside of our comfort zone. I get that it’s not the way everyone would like to travel, but being we naturally have so much energy and like to stay busy, we love it!
To help give you more insight, here’s the main differences I’ve noticed from traveling as a travel writer vs. traveling before I was a travel writer.
Difference #1: Time
I need instagram worthy photos and detailed website photos for everything I do. I also need to capture notes on our experience, otherwise I forget right away! Because of this, the time we spend at each location is higher than before I started travel writing. To make this work, I always get my photos and take my notes first, then dive in to enjoy the activity to the fullest. I’m super lucky that Cole is so supportive and patient with me – he’s even started to help me capture notes while I take photos. Teamwork makes the dream work!
Pro: I now have documented details of all our adventures of the last 3 years. It’s so fun to look back!
Con: This is hard to do when I’m with other people because I feel like I’m wasting their time. Even though they’re usually understanding!
Difference #2: Solo photos
This one seems kind of silly but has honestly been the biggest difference because it’s so weird for me. When I analyze my instagram, I always get the most engagement from photos that I’m physically in versus photos of a landscape, for example. I’ve received the feedback that it’s because other people can easily picture themselves in my shoes when I’m physically in the shot. So now, I try to always get a few photos of myself doing whatever activity it is that I’m doing. But doing these mini photo shoots is HARD. It’s usually in front of random people just watching me pose. I’m getting better at this, but it’s definitely a work in progress!
Pro: I get great content for Instagram
Con: Sometimes I forget to take photos of Cole and I together (which are the photos I’ll personally use!) 🙁
Difference #3: Be an extrovert at all times
I have characteristics of both an introvert and an extrovert. I mainly fall in there extrovert camp, but one thing I don’t always enjoy is sparking up conversations with people I don’t know and then talking about what I do. However, I know in order to capture the best story, I have to get my personal take on each experience I have. This means talking to the owners, the workers, and other customers everywhere I visit. It’s the only way I can gain an insider’s view that I can share with all of you!
Pro: This can be hard, but I usually always make a new friend and learn something new.
Con: Sometimes I just don’t have the energy to talk to people and share what I do. So I don’t.
Difference #4: The amount of activities
We do more things now that I’m writing about our travels. No matter where we go, I always want to ensure I cover off on a few things that will make a complete article: food, drinks, an activity, shopping, and history. This way, there’s usually something for everyone who would read my article! Because of this, we usually have pretty packed days when we are exploring, and always ask ourselves: “what would be good to write about?” Then we go do that thing! For example, when there are a few good restaurants to try in one area, we’ll go to one for an appetizer, split dinner at the next one, and go to another for a late night snack so we can experience them all!
Pro: We get to experience a lot of different things which is good for our restless personalities!
Con: There’s not as much time for relaxing
Difference #5: Multiple pieces of equipment
I now travel with a few different things than I used to. The main thing being my camera, and sometimes my computer. I used to have a large camera that was awesome but it just took up too much space for as much as we travel. I instead invested in this camera (note: this is an affiliate link) which is much smaller but still gets great shots. I use my camera to get nice photos for my articles and for Instagram, but I still use my phone camera for Instagram stories being that’s a large way I engage with my audience and the best way for them to get real-time access into my adventures.
Pro: I have content for both my website and Instagram stories (different people engage on different platforms)
Con: Instagram stories take SO MUCH TIME!!
All in all, the pros far outweigh the cons for me. I absolutely love sharing our adventures with you and hope you enjoy following along with us!
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