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How To Write a Good Travel Essay

Home / Blog / How To Write A Good Travel Essay - Guide With Examples

Introduction

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”

-Gustav Flaubert

Packing the duffel with the bare essentials and hopping into the car, getting behind the steering wheel and driving with no perfect destination in mind – we all dream to live such a life, don't we? Travelling to unseen places and exploring what it has to offer can be an enriching experience. However beautiful can travel be as an experience, writing a travelling essay can be quite a challenge. It may seem easy to come up with the ideas that you want to include in the essay but putting them into coherent sentences can be difficult. Your words should be impactful enough to be able to sweep the readers off their feet and take them on the cliff or make them feel the saline breeze on a beach.

A perfect travel essay must reflect the journey and highlight the little-known facts about the region. It should be infused with the character and culture of the place. If you are feeling stymied while writing a travel essay, then we have some brilliant tips for you that can make the task considerably easy for you.

8 tips for an outstanding essay on travelling

Here are 8 tips that you can cash on to produce a winning travelling essay:

Be specific with the destination

Before you choose a topic for your travel essay, keep the time spent in the location in mind. If your trip is just for a couple of days, then do not make the mistake of writing about an entire city. Think it out practically – is it possible to travel through a city in just a few days? Take for instance your essay is about London. It is quite an insurmountable task to be able to cover all the distance even in a week. So stick to a particular destination so that you can include the nuances and minutest details of the place to paint a picture in the reader’s mind with your words.

Less guide, more exploring

Also, the destination need not be about an exotic locale. It can be a story about an idyllic rustic location in the suburb of the teeming city. It can be about a cottage up on the hills with just the view of snowy valleys and iced peaks. Your words should give the sense of exploring and not touring. The essay should not be like a guide. It should be a view of the location through your lens.

Know the location like the back of your hand

Before starting to write a travel essay, do your research. A travel essay isn’t a made-up story so there should not be any fake information. Readers will be looking for more than just the necessary information about the must-visit tourist attractions. So you need to go beyond the surface and include more about the history of the place. Just do not write about the restaurants – talk about the cuisine of the place and the story behind it, if any. To get into the innermost recesses of the location, you can speak to the residents of the area. To bring richness in your travel essay, you must reveal another side of the destination.

Include the nitty-gritty

The key to an impressive travel essay is to be able to break down the location into kernels and write the core details about them. As mentioned earlier, so not just write about the tourist attractions and restaurants in the destination. Write about the lesser talked streets and unknown landmarks and the history behind them. If the place is known for its delicacies, write about how the cuisine has evolved and who had started it. From quaint bookstores to ice cream parlours to run-down shabby pubs – shed light to such nuances to bring your essay to life. You can even mention the negative things that you have faced in the place – like irregular transport modes or impolite locals. These little details will help you make your essay more impactful.

Be creative with the writing style

Since a travel essay is more like an anecdote, there is no specific format to write it. Therefore, a travel essay gives you the scope of setting your foot into the unchartered areas of creativity. You have got the creative freedom to write what you want. You can study how the natives of the locale speak and learn some of the basic words and phrases they use. To put them into writing you can read the local newspaper to get the pulse of the city you are in. Using the colloquial lingo can help the reader get a closer peek into the lives of the people living in the place. It will reflect a slice of how they live their way of life. Your words should be simple and yet impactful to portray and not just merely narrate. Touch every bit of the rust in the roof to make the reader feel like they are on the same journey with you.

Make it personal

The travel essay is your story. So add some personal experience in the story and at the same time do not make it self-indulgent. Include stories that can resonate with all your readers. Your experiences should be able to bring the reader back to the travel destination and connect him with the place. It should be the perfect blend of narration of the experiences you had while on the trip along with a vivid description of the place. To achieve the balance, write your essay in first person perspective to give a real touch to the story. Include the most interesting bits that will help the reader connect with you. You can even include the quotes of natives living in the area you had visited.

Start with a captivating catch

Like every essay, the introduction is the key to make it an impressive read. The opening should be capturing enough to attract the reader’s attention. It should leave an impact and should make them want to go on reading the piece. Start with an unknown fact about the place and leave it hanging from the cliff. Use a tone of suspense to excite the readers to keep them guessing about the contents of the essay.

Make it vivid with images

For certain places, words may fall short in being able to explain the exact description of a place. You cannot describe how the sky looked with the mountains seemingly touching the clouds or the horizon fading beyond the sea. Certain things cannot be explained in words – like the color of the sky or the water! This is where pictures come in! Providing real images of the place in between can help the readers stay connected. Vivid photos can also make the readers understand the story better by bringing them closer to it. So make sure you take breathtaking pictures of the place you are writing about. The images will help your essay stay in the readers’ mind longer.

With the above tips, we are sure you will be able to write an excellent travelling essay that will impress your professor and fetch you a good grade.

And if you are still unsure about putting these to use, then below is a winning sample to show you how it is done!

Travelling essay sample

I have visited London several times, and yet it is amazing how I find something new to explore every time I visit the capital city. My visit last autumn too did not fail to surprise me. With the hustle and bustle and the rich royal history, London city has a lot to offer. Since I just had a few days to spare, I wanted to make the best out of this trip.

Although vast and sprawling, I decided to visit most of the city on foot this time. Now since in my previous visits I had seen most of the tourist-y attractions already, I wanted to take the path less travelled this time to discover the hidden gems of the city. The last time I had been to London, I had missed out on the chance to visit the chock full of literature and history that awaited me in the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. Being a student of literature, visiting the place where the Bard of Avon once enacted the plays he wrote was a spellbinding moment. And guess what? I also caught a staging of the Macbeth before I left the place. Before heading towards the Hyde Park tube station, I grabbed some of London’s famous Fish ‘n’ Chips from the oldest food market of the city, the Borough Market. From Hyde Park to Tower Hill in under fifteen minutes by Tube, I began exploring the Tower of London. It was there that I heard a guard speaking about where he hailed from. A quick conversation with Peter, I had gotten intrigued to know more about his village – Suffolk in Lavenham. I asked him how to get there and Peter, being the quintessential helping guide that Londoners are known to be, told me that I could either take a car from central London. Or I could wait for the next day and take the train from Liverpool to Sudbury and then take the bus route 753 and reach in around two hours. Having nothing to do, I spent that day in the British Museum and walking on Oxford Street.

The next morning, I started my journey to the quaint village of Suffolk. I had picked up a book about the village where I learned that the village had once housed Henry III in 1257. And a bonus for all the Harry Potter fans – the village also starred in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ as Godric’s Hollow where Hermoine and Harry are seen to be visiting Bathilda Bagshot. On reaching the village, the first thing that grabbed my attention was the picture-perfect silhouette of prosperous medieval England with all the half-timbered houses. The lime-washed and brightly coloured buildings added an idyllic element to the village with the De Vere House standing out from the rest. Adding to the rustic touch was the fifteenth-century St Peter Church with its soaring height of a 141ft tower. The autumn breeze welcomed me as I walked on the leaf-covered high streets. I saw some young guns cycling around in a park and called out to them for directions. My stay for the trip was an Air BnB home-stay where I had to put up with an elderly couple – the Havishams. I still remember how on reaching the gate of the house, I had caught a waft of crumpets and hot scones. After an exchange of banalities followed by me gorging on the scones, I had found out about the hidden gems from Mr Havisham who happened to be quite a cheerful talker. He told me what a must-visit Hadley’s was when in Suffolk. I had then set out with a local map to find the hidden gem. On reaching I had found that Hadley’s was a cutesy ice cream shop, almost run down, run by an old lady. Here Rebecca told me how the ice cream parlour was opened back in the 1850s and was still known for their hand-made sorbets.

Like the sorbet, my stay in Suffolk had been a sweet experience – a trip of revelation. The tour – with all the lonely walks – had in an inexplicable way helped me to get my perspectives right. It isn’t the exotic locales and the flight above the clouds that make travelling my drug. Rather, it is little but beautiful discoveries like Suffolk that feed my wanderlust. Thank you, London. Thank you for being a wonderful experience, once again.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Personal Experience — Narrative Essay About Travelling

Narrative Essay About Travelling

Categories: Personal Experience

About this sample

Words: 383 |

Published: Mar 13, 2024

Words: 383 | Page: 1 | 2 min read

Personal growth through travel, cultural understanding and empathy, global interconnectedness.

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Write a Good Travel Essay. Please.

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Editor’s Note: We know that many of you are looking for help writing travel experience essays for school or simply writing about a trip for your friends or family. To inspire you and help you write your next trip essay—whether it’s an essay about a trip with family or simply a way to remember your best trip ever (so far)—we enlisted the help of Professor Kathleen Boardman, whose decades of teaching have helped many college students learn the fine art of autobiography and life writing. Here’s advice on how to turn a simple “my best trip” essay into a story that will inspire others to explore the world.

Welcome home! Now that you’re back from your trip, you’d like to share it with others in a travel essay. You’re a good writer and a good editor of your work, but you’ve never tried travel writing before. As your potential reader, I have some advice and some requests for you as you write your travel experience essay.

Trip Essays: What to Avoid

Please don’t tell me everything about your trip. I don’t want to know your travel schedule or the names of all the castles or restaurants you visited. I don’t care about the plane trip that got you there (unless, of course, that trip is the story).

I have a friend who, when I return from a trip, never asks me, “How was your trip?” She knows that I would give her a long, rambling answer: “… and then … and then … and then.” So instead, she says, “Tell me about one thing that really stood out for you.” That’s what I’d like you to do in this travel essay you’re writing.

The Power of Compelling Scenes

One or two “snapshots” are enough—but make them great. Many good writers jump right into the middle of their account with a vivid written “snapshot” of an important scene. Then, having aroused their readers’ interest or curiosity, they fill in the story or background. I think this technique works great for travel writing; at least, I would rather enjoy a vivid snapshot than read through a day-to-day summary of somebody’s travel journal.

Write About a Trip Using Vivid Descriptions

Take your time. Tell a story. So what if you saw things that were “incredible,” did things that were “amazing,” observed actions that you thought “weird”? These words don’t mean anything to me unless you show me, in a story or a vivid description, the experience that made you want to use those adjectives.

I’d like to see the place, the people, or the journey through your eyes, not someone else’s. Please don’t rewrite someone else’s account of visiting the place. Please don’t try to imitate a travel guide or travelogue or someone’s blog or Facebook entry. You are not writing a real travel essay unless you are describing, as clearly and honestly as possible, yourself in the place you visited. What did you see, hear, taste, say? Don’t worry if your “take” on your experience doesn’t match what everyone else says about it. (I’ve already read what THEY have to say.)

The Importance of Self-Editing Your Trip Essay

Don’t give me your first draft to read. Instead, set it aside and then reread it. Reread it again. Where might I need more explanation? What parts of your account are likely to confuse me? (After all, I wasn’t there.) Where might you be wasting my time by repeating or rambling on about something you’ve already told me?

Make me feel, make me laugh, help me learn something. But don’t overdo it: Please don’t preach to me about broadening my horizons or understanding other cultures. Instead, let me in on your feelings, your change of heart and mind, even your fear and uncertainty, as you confronted something you’d never experienced before. If you can, surprise me with something I didn’t know or couldn’t have suspected.

You Can Do It: Turning Your Trip into a Great Travel Experience Essay

I hope you will take yourself seriously as a traveler and as a writer. Through what—and how—you write about just a small portion of your travel experience, show me that you are an interesting, thoughtful, observant person. I will come back to you, begging for more of your travel essays.

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Travel: Personal Experience

One of my passions is travelling. Travel involves visiting new places and meeting new people and having varied experiences. I come originally from Romania and have travelled to UK and US. I remember the quote by Samuel Johnson: “All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it”. I have had the luck of visiting better countries and I believe my travel experiences have taught me a lot about human life and helped me expand the way I see things.

When I first travelled within Romania, it opened my eyes to how other people live. I saw how people lived happily even though they did not have much money or luxuries. It taught me that to be happy, money is not the only thing. I must have an attitude to be happy with what I have. It also taught me to accept people from different races and colors. When I travelled abroad, I saw new cultures and different lifestyles.

It was very exciting and adventurous. I learnt to enjoy these new experiences, to become part of these varied cultures by taking their food, wearing their dresses, etc. This has created in me the awareness that people all over the world are basically the same but they are different in the cultures – have different ways of talking, singing, enjoying, dancing, writing, building, dressing and conducting business. I have acquired a more global perspective of the world we live in. My knowledge has thus expanded because of my travel.

Self-confidence is another quality that I developed as a result of travelling. Whenever I travel, I had to be responsible for my own luggage, tickets and documents. I had to be careful in taking flights and cabs. When I was in my home country, I used to be shy to talk to new people. But during my travels, I learnt to talk to strangers and ask for help whenever I needed it. This gave me the confidence that I can make new friends. Also, new places sometimes had new customs that I had to adapt to.

Travel is the time I use to read and listen to music. This also gives me the time to reflect deeply on my life’s goals and where I am right now. It is an ideal opportunity to break free from a routine lifestyle. I feel very much relaxed during my travel and enjoy seeing new scenes and landscapes. It gives me time to discover more about myself. For example, when I was in Los Angeles, I saw a rock music performance at a club where everyone danced. I had not danced earlier at clubs. But when I joined the fun, I was surprised to realize that I enjoyed the experience a lot.

Travel also gives me a sense of being free and independent. It makes my mind open to new experiences all the time. Even during a flight, I get to taste new food, hear a new language, see new ways of dressing and listen to new kinds of music. This is very exciting and I thoroughly enjoy my life during these moments.

Through my travels, I have made many new international friends. Conversing with them has helped me understand their cultures better and I also have opportunities of improving my English which is now very important when travelling in UK and US. Moreover, as I intend to study in United States, it is good to improve my language skills before I begin my studies. Travelling to the United States has also helped me absorb their local culture and understand the value of hard work.

Above all, whenever I return to Romania after my travels, it helps me appreciate my home country a lot. I value Romanian culture and the warm way in which people relate to each other. I can appreciate it all the more when I travel abroad. Thus, my passion for travel while giving me fun, dreams and confidence, has also educated me, helped me embrace new cultures and new communication skills, adopt a more global perspective, improve my English and given me lots of good friends and wonderful memories. It has made me a richer person internally.

Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, November 24). Travel: Personal Experience. https://ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/

"Travel: Personal Experience." IvyPanda , 24 Nov. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Travel: Personal Experience'. 24 November.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Travel: Personal Experience." November 24, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/.

1. IvyPanda . "Travel: Personal Experience." November 24, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Travel: Personal Experience." November 24, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/travels-personal-experience/.

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Essays About Traveling: Top 5 Examples and 10 Prompts

Discover our guide with essays about traveling, including topic prompts that will make you write about traveling and hit the road for your next adventure.

Traveling is a much-loved activity by many; exploring the world and seeing new and beautiful places can be a great way to unwind and recharge. Many fond memories are created during holidays abroad, and we carry these precious times with us. But for those who only travel for official business purposes and never really get to explore destinations fully, travel can be a more stressful experience.

Beyond the anxieties one endures in planning a travel or boarding flights, traveling can do wonders for mental health, open our eyes to new experiences, help us be closer to nature, and allows us to reflect on our progress and accomplishments in life.

5 Essay Examples

1. rebooting the economy: restoring travel and tourism in the covid-19 era by patrick l. osewe, 2. humans may dream of traveling to mars, but our bodies aren’t built for it by charles wohlforth and amanda hendrix, 3. what’s sustainable about soaring private jet use by terry slavin, 4. instagram travel bragging is killing the family vacation by meagan francis, 5. pre-travel stress by sally black, 1. travel bucket list, 2. your first solo travel , 3. travel to ghost towns, 4. how technology transformed travel, 5. how movies influence our travel preference, 6. learning cultures from traveling, 7. earn from travel vlogging, 8. traveling through time, 9. your most memorable travel experience, 10. benefits of traveling while working .

“Even as travel restrictions and lockdowns have relaxed, cautious return-to-travel behavior among travelers—due in part to lingering health and safety concerns—suggests that the recovery process for the industry will be long and slow.”

The travel industry was one of the hardest hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. With its importance to the economy, especially in Asia, where the industry could easily account for 80% of the GDP, a fast recovery is imperative. To make this goal more attainable, multisectoral coordination in planning and implementing safety rules will be essential. You might also be interested in these essays about holidays with family and essays about journeys .

“Even a short, sortie mission to Mars and back would be extremely hazardous to human health. A Mars colony is out of the question. Living long-term on its surface is beyond the capacity of our bodies to survive.”

Amid the excitement over sending humans to travel to Mars, there has been emerging research that highlights the dangers of such missions. The space between the Earth and Mars already poses many obstacles. And even if, by rare luck, man reaches Mars, staying will be the next paramount challenge as consequences could mean a halt in blood circulation or blindness.

“When it comes to the carbon footprint of travel, there is nothing worse than traveling by private jet… Yet despite all the net-zero rhetoric from the corporate sector, and pressure from the flight-shame movement, private jet use is booming.”

As private jet use is starting to burgeon, society is demanding greater accountability from the ultra-rich and the commitment to invest in sustainable technologies for air travel. This could compensate for their use of private jets, a single one of which is estimated to be several times more polluting than commercial planes.

“What, I wonder, does the financial strain of planning a trip you can’t really afford do to your expectation level — and how much can you enjoy your vacation once there? When the bill arrives, do most find that the experience was worth the stress after all?”

The culture of bragging on Instagram is destroying the true meaning of family vacations. Where such experiences used to be for relaxation, fun, and strengthening of family bonds, family travels are now a ticket for boasting, requiring ridiculous expenses for which some families are willing to be in debt.

“While a vacation maybe me one of the highlights of your entire year, the days leading up to departure can be stressful. For some people, this stress can bubble over into a full-blown anxiety or panic attack complete with physical symptoms.”

Pre-travel stress is a common symptom for many. Worries often stem from hoping for the vacation to be smooth sailing. However, unpleasant incidents may always occur. On our part, we must focus on those we have control of, such as how we pack and how we address our ultimate pre-travel concerns.

10 Topic Prompts To Help With Your essays about traveling

Essays About Traveling: Travel bucket list

How far have you progressed in completing your travel bucket list? Take this essay to share your experiences in traveling to your dream destinations. If you haven’t started ticking anything from your travel bucket list, you can simply enumerate these places and explain what drove your attraction. For example, you may visit Italy for tasty authentic Italian food and drink.

If you’ve traveled solo, this is the essay prompt for you. Turn this essay into a guide for helping people travel solo. So, provide tips on planning a solo trip and making the proper arrangements. Share the places you’ve gone to and travel hacks that helped ensure your safety, especially as safety is a chief concern when traveling solo. Finally, don’t forget to write down what made you bold enough to try a solo flight and how it has benefitted you.

For seekers of thrilling adventures, ghost towns are the best place to travel. First, find a ghost city that allows tourists. Then take on a story-telling essay by narrating the town’s story from its birth to its abandonment. Finally, ensure to provide your readers with a list of what they must do to enter the ghost town’s premises.

Efficiency and convenience in travel are the best gifts technology has given modern generations. Gone were the days when you still had to scout for a hotel upon arriving at your destination. For this writing prompt, compare today’s travel experience with the days before the computer. You may extend your essay by adding what more digital advancements the tourism industry has in store for travel lovers.

Almost always, the setting of a favorite movie becomes a part of your travel bucket list. This desire stems from the longing to connect with your favorite characters and mentally relive your favorite movie scenes, this time with yourself in the picture. For your essay, write about film-induced tourism becoming a key strategy for marketing travel destinations.

Traveling is the best way to immerse in cultures and better understand the many worlds beyond your own. Share your experience traveling has helped open your mind to new cultures, practices, languages, and beliefs. To help your readers appreciate your trip, write a few paragraphs about the place, starting from its main point of attraction and its economic and socio-cultural statures. You can also interview other travel enthusiasts for this cultural essay.

Essays About Traveling: Earn from travel vlogging

Travel vlogging is one of the best ways to earn money while having the best time. First, give a short overview of the travel vlog industry to entice your readers into travel vlogging. Next, gather reports that inform how one can generate money from this venture and how much they can expect in time with quality content. Then, provide a list of recommendations. You can use tips from other successful travel vloggers as well.

Movies that tinker with time travel machines always appeal to many of us. This is certainly true for those thrilled over the possibility of visiting an era we can only imagine through our history books. If you were to time-travel, what historical period would you like to visit? Reveal this in your essay and explain why.

Share the most memorable travel experience with your readers and help them picture it with adjectives and vivid detailing. Your story doesn’t have to be a luxurious experience. It can be as simple as a scenic drive around the lake, a tan from a sunny beach, or your first travel by plane or boat.

Looking for more? Check out our guide on how to write a postcard .

The COVID-19 pandemic has made us realize that work can be done from a distance, pushing the telecommuting trends higher and fulfilling people’s travel vengeance. This essay cites the physical and mental health benefits of traveling while working. Share your opinion on whether companies should incentivize arrangements that allow work while traveling. For more help with your writing, read our guide explaining persuasive writing . If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips .

Yna Lim is a communications specialist currently focused on policy advocacy. In her eight years of writing, she has been exposed to a variety of topics, including cryptocurrency, web hosting, agriculture, marketing, intellectual property, data privacy and international trade. A former journalist in one of the top business papers in the Philippines, Yna is currently pursuing her master's degree in economics and business.

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Dave's Travel Corner

Seeing the World One Step at a Time

How to write a travel essay

November 22, 2023 by Josh Collins Leave a Comment

Travel essays and short notes allow you to dive deep into the memories and share your experience with readers. If written well, readers can explore new places without traveling or get inspired to explore new things. The location you have visited may contain many things to discuss: architecture, sightseeing, nature, culture, and much more. How can you tell about it in a short essay? Whether you are planning to write an essay, blog post, or another type of writing – all the tips below will help you craft an appealing paper.

Understand your goals

Before writing a travel essay: 1. Define the main idea you want to stick to in your writing. If you have a specific word limit, you may be unable to cover everything you wish to write about. 2. Check whether the professor asked you to cover specific experiences during your trip or stick to a more descriptive writing style. 3. If you are free of what to write about, make up a list of things you wish to focus on.

Understanding your goals will help you see the big picture and write the text within a limited time. If you were assigned to write an essay about your travel and can’t meet the deadline or have no ideas, you can get punctual help with essay writing from EssayShark .

Write catchy introduction How did your travel start? What were your plans? You can start with a quote about adventure or just begin your story by planning or arriving at the destination place. For example, here are some starters for travel essays: ● Who has said traveling is pricy? ● Don’t let the routine bore you; add a bit of spice with traveling to your everyday life. ● And the adventure begins!

Experiment with various approaches to engage the reader. You can put this step at the end when you finish the first draft, when the overall idea will be more transparent.

Add vivid descriptions First, think about whether you can attach images to your essay to make it more appealing to the reader and support your adventures with real photos. An additional illustration can create a unique atmosphere that will transfer the reader to the place you have visited.

Use a more relaxed writing style and understand that a travel essay is not a formal academic paper but more personal writing. Use the language you use every day, and avoid cliches and slang to sound more natural and appealing to the reader.

Focus on several ideas What if you have no solid experience in traveling? Or maybe you haven’t seen anything special to talk about. In fact, even a small town has its own spirit and local sightseeing that, you can tell in your essay. For example, you can discuss local cuisine the weather, and share specific descriptions of the places.

Tell the simple story The main aim of every travel essay is to help the reader wear your shoes and imagine what you have experienced during the trip. Describe your emotions and experience in detail to help the reader feel like they have already visited the place. Avoid listing attractions or telling the traveling process step by step. Share your thoughts, and use creative expressions to keep your natural flow.

Ensure your travel story has a standard format and contains an introduction, main body, and conclusion. Don’t interrupt your writing in the middle of an idea; wrap up everything you have said in a meaningful conclusion.

Wrapping Up In general, you can approach traveling essays from different points of view. Grab the reader’s attention with an exciting intro, add vivid details, and focus on several aspects of your journey to keep them reading. Share your experience in a storytelling manner, and your writing won’t be unnoticed.

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How to write a travel essay?

August 25, 2020

What could be more exciting than a trip? One finds himself in it, understands what is wrong with the place where he was born and grew up, and rethinks his whole life. An exciting journey is a sort of sip of freshness and inspiration for new beginnings. However, it’s not easy for everyone to describe and talk about their travels. We spoke to essay writers from EssayShark and discovered all the secrets of writing about travel.

What is a travel essay?

A travel essay is a story about the author’s journey to a certain place and a description of his or her emotions, feelings, and experiences resulting from that journey. The trip does not need to be to a remote or extreme location. A visit to a village with relatives whom you have not seen since childhood can be more precious and memorable than climbing to the highest peak in your country. This type of essay is usually written in the first person and includes a large number of personifications. Today travel blogs are becoming more and more popular and are not just about colorful photos. Texts play an equally important role.

Tips on writing a travel essay

It is important to be able to interest your reader and make them read the story to the end. If you start your story with “Last summer, I went to a neighboring state,” you are unlikely to intrigue anyone. Try to start your essay with a quote or a phrase that will make you want to dig deeper. “Jump faster, what are you waiting for? He’s already right behind us! “my friend shouted.” The reader immediately has many questions: Where should he jump? Who is chasing them? Will they be able to run away? Then comes the story, and the intrigue of jumping with a friend is revealed only at the end.

Breaking the chronology also works fine if you have the task of enticing the reader. For example, the story begins with a description of a situation where the author of the text finds himself in some incredible situation. Then the text follows the phrase: “Two hours before these events, I had no idea that this could happen to me.”

Never write an essay when you are still traveling

During the trip, it is better to write down the details and emotions that you get in new places, but not to write the whole essay. You’ll do that when you get back. You need the information to calm down, and the analytical part of the brain will come into play.

Do not rewrite Wikipedia

No one is interested in reading about the Eiffel Tower in Paris for the thousandth time or about the year the Colosseum was founded and who fought there. Leave it to Wikipedia. Stop and think about what you know that’s not on Wikipedia. For example, it doesn’t know what flavors fill the streets of Paris, where they sell delicious buns in Amsterdam, and where to find the biggest bicycle parking .

Tell Stories

The most powerful “hook” to attract readers or listeners is a good story. Something that brings the story to life and what is ultimately memorable. When you tell a story about an architectural monument, no one will remember what year and style it was built. They will remember the legend associated with it. Stories can be written about anything.

Add emotions and dynamics to your essay

When approaching the text critically, however, do not forget about the emotional component. Try to write not so much in words as in images. A genuinely fascinating text should capture the reader, teleport him to the very heart of your story. The reader should feel the air temperature, sounds, tastes, and fragrances that surround you. Do not be afraid of metaphors and epithets.

Do not emphasize the negative aspects of the journey, but do not hide the mishaps

Everyone knows that delicate things can spoil the mood. You get off on the wrong foot, and the day is ruined. You should not confuse your expectations with the actual state of things. However, when you stand on a sea urchin with that very foot, for example, where the encounter with him could not have happened, that’s another story. This experience makes your report special. That’s where practical advice is born.

What should you remove from the travel essay?

pathos and pathetic (they kill the text and make it dull);
other people’s ideas (use your own words and feelings);
the beautiful (magnificent, luxurious, delightful — these epithets no longer have any meaning). It’s better to talk about tactile sensations, smells, and tastes;
lengthy descriptions, unnecessary details — banalities and common places;
cliches and stamps (“narrow, cobbled streets,” “indelible impressions,” “the fall was due to a loss of balance”);
exclamation points and ellipses (their abundance reveals the author’s powerlessness).
figures, dates;
proper names;
geographical titles;
everything that indicates the “biggest,” “oldest,” (it often turns out to be false).

Fact-checking

You should especially double-check those facts where you are 100% sure.

If the truthfulness of the story cannot be confirmed, but it is fascinating, there are magic expressions such as “they say,” “there is a version that,” “according to a local legend…”.

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How To Write a Good Travel Essay

Few things can be more enjoyable than telling a fascinating story about your holidays. You can post it on your social media, create a travel blog, or write an essay for school. Sharing memories of the pleasant trip is for sure much more interesting and exciting than writing an academic essay on some obscure topic. Besides obvious fun, however, this kind of writing could bring the same challenges as any other topic and even a few more.

Traditional struggles with essay writing include crafting a clear outline, selecting your key ideas and related arguments, and drafting a concise text. Travel essays may additionally raise the issue of wanting to tell too much. It is also easy to overwhelm your readers with lots of new facts and information about another country or activity. So, let’s discuss some tips and tricks on how to write your travel essay smoothly and with the best result.

Start With a Map

Your wonderful journey was born after looking through the bucket lists of the most remarkable destinations and choosing several highlights of your trip. Most probably, you’ve planned an itinerary connecting your dream destinations trying for it to be the shortest or the most picturesque. Same is valid for planning your travel essay – always start with an outline.

Clear draft of the points you’d like to describe and details to better illustrate your story could keep you in check while writing your essay. It’ll be easier to follow one narrative line without wandering off. The best about the outlines is that anyone can write an essay with an elaborated outline. And if you struggle with finding time or inspiration to complete your essay, you can always apply for help to professionals. As the best essay writing service reviews show, experienced writers deliver great essays based on the clients’ outlines.

Focus on Your Goal

Even travel essays can differ in type and end goals. You can describe your journey from start to finish concentrating on the attractions seen. Or you can talk about funny incident that happened to you. One can always dare to beat Jack Kerouac and write a road story. It is even possible to go travel-blog style and write about lifehacks for those planning a journey.

Whatever you choose as your aim for an essay would decide the text structure, language, and whole approach to writing. It is advisable to keep this in mind and avoid mixing several goals in one paper. The essay format requires being brief and sticking to one line of narrative. It wouldn’t work to start philosophical dwellings on the symbolism of the road and continue with lifehacks about packing light for a journey.

Paint a Picture

Unless you’re writing an essay for your personal travel blog, it’d be difficult to attach photos to illustrate your text. So, you should use your words instead. Try to add adjectives and phrases that bring your memories to life. If a good description makes you feel the taste and smell of your holidays, it’s probable your readers would feel that too.

Remember, though, to stay tasteful and brief. Too many personal details may spoil the effect your essay was supposed to make. And documenting every step of your journey may turn your account into a boring story. Keeping a balance here is a challenge, but if succeeded you’ll have a captivating essay for any kind of audience.

Tie Your Story to Bigger Issues

Of course, your vacations deserve detailed storytelling. But without clearly demonstrated relations between the lessons you’ve learned on your trip and more universal challenges and experiences, it might be quite boring for other people to read your essay. In the end, we all worry most about our own lives. So, to grasp the attention of your readers try to plan your captivating story around some relatable issue. For example, feeling of sadness away from home despite wonderful landscapes around you. Or practical challenges of finding a common language with locals in another country.

With such an approach in mind, you can add advice or travel recommendations to your essay based on your own experience and reflections. This would make your paper more useful, important to finish, and relatable.

Recounting your exciting travels is a pleasant task. Even with efforts to put into writing an essay, the subject itself warms sparks the inspiration. There is an obvious need to follow the traditional essay-writing rules. Start with a clear outline in mind, limit your account to several highlights of your journey, connect your experience to some relatable issue your reader would feel close to. Consider choosing some stronger emotional adjectives or phrases to convey your personal feelings about the journey. Think about your paper as of your travel journal and as a brief educational piece for someone who’s never traveled. This way your essay would be both colorful and concise for any reader to love.

Travel Writing and Essay Writing: Similarities and Differences

savvyglobetrotter

Travel Essay

Being given the chance to write essays travel to places around the world is a privilege that shouldn’t be taken for granted. For some people, it’s a dream that isn’t quite easy to reach. After all, not everyone is fortunate enough to afford such luxury.

When one travels, it’s an experience that they want to share with others. They want to tell a story of the things they’ve seen, the people they met, and the culture they’ve experienced. Most people tell this story through photographs, video diaries, or even travel essays. Through this, they are able to express the thrill and joy from their travel experience. It’s not about bragging but it’s about sharing the beauty of our surroundings.

Travel Writing Essay

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Travel Photo Essay

How to Write a Travel Essay?

Writing a travel essay is simple. The only thing essential is how you deliver the message. When you travel, it’s important to pay close attention to details.

This would be anything from the structure, the ambiance, and the locals. Allow yourself to wander and focus on the uniqueness of the given place. Tour guides, natives, and travel brochures often provide a short history of a place that you could include in your essay. It’s also best to learn the backstory of a place through your own research. This will allow you and the reader to feel the historic value of a place. It’s best to create an essay outline of your experience for you to properly organize your thoughts.

Purpose of Travel Essay

You have probably read a travel essay in the past. This could be from blogs, newspapers, or magazines. Some essays are so well-written that it makes you feel like you’re a part of the experience. This would inspire you to visit the place at one point in your life. However, it’s not all about what to see or where to go. It’s about the experience. It’s about sharing the beauty of a place that most people aren’t aware of. Travelling isn’t only about having fun but it’s also about appreciating the world we live in.

It’s a descriptive essay explaining the endless wonders of mankind. A travel essay also provides a glimpse of the culture of a given place. Writers inform us of the living conditions of the people there, their character traits, and their outlook in life. These essays are meant to be informative for people to remember that there’s a whole different world out there to explore.

Travel Experience

Short Essay Sample

Size: 150 kB

Sample Space Essay

Why Is It Important to Write a Travel Essay?

Travel essays may be written for different reasons. This could be to promote a given location to encourage tourists for a given travel agency or even as a good subject for a high school essay . Writing a travel essay is important in such a way that we can promote local tourism.

Not only can this support a country’s economy but it can also contribute to a local citizen’s means of living. A travel essay is often more accurate and descriptive than a mere photograph. It simply brings the image to life.

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Use our free Readability checker

Writing a great essay about traveling is a common academic assignment. It’s a simple task if you know useful tricks to tell readers an interesting story. Find enough information and use vivid observations. Know relevant facts to convince the audience. Follow helpful guidelines to submit a perfect essay about traveling experience.

Your College Essay About Traveling: Research a Certain Place

An essay about traveling is all about a specific place you visited. Look at relevant sources and try to write something unique or different. Recreate this place in your readers’ imagination. Be specific and creative in its descriptions. Before you start writing your essay about traveling with family, conduct your research. You should read more about a given place. Learn more about its backgrounds, religion, culture, and so on. This simple strategy will boost your curiosity and reveal other sides of your destination. If you struggle with remembering all the details, it is great to create a blog while traveling where you would put all the interesting stories, remember them and use them when needed.

Writing the Best College Essay About Traveling Experience

If you’re interested in the art of travel essay writing, make sure your paper fits these basic criteria:

Has a coherent structure and proper sections.
Gives the audience a good grasp of relevant data.
Meets the highest academic standards and contains clarity of expression.
Includes counter-examples and counter-arguments if appropriate.
Uses smooth transitions and signposting to help readers navigate your thoughts.
Contains proper references in the required citation style.
Offers strong claims with evidence.
Has a catchy essay introduction with a thesis and a clear conclusion.

Writing an Essay on Traveling Experiences: Useful Tips

There are certain tips that can help you submit the best essay about your last trip. What are they?

Use a capturing introductory section.
Use the 1st person perspective.
Include smooth essay transitions .
Conclude it correctly.

The introduction plays an important role in writing a great paper. Use excellent essay hook examples to grab readers’ attention. Introduce your major argument and use a specific tone to excite the audience. Your essay on traveling is a certain narration of personal experiences. That’s why you need to use the 1st person perspective to make this story real. Including all the experiences is a mistake because some of them are boring. Use only the most interesting ideas. Include people living in the chosen area and quotes or short stories of their lives. Why use transitions? Your story must flow from its beginning to the end. Add smooth transitions to achieve this goal. Use a few interesting details to connect all the parts of your story. How to conclude an essay about traveling expenses ? You need not only to start your paper strongly but also conclude it effectively. Sum up key ideas and include a call to action. Feel free to restate a thesis to do that.

What Else You Can Do: Improve Your Essay About Traveling

To enhance your traveling essay, use these tried and tested tricks:

Use images.
Avoid clichés and formal language.
Avoid assumptions.
Specify your story.

Avoid clichés or formal language to make your piece of writing sound more natural. Be sure to use only original and meaningful descriptions and let readers understand everything with ease. Use images in your thematic essay about traveling experience because visual descriptions are an effective way to make the audience understand your story. They bring the audience closer to it. Use breathtaking pictures because they’ll stick in people’s mind for a long time. There are certain errors that many students do when completing this academic assignment. Failing to specify a story about traveling is one of them. Cover minor details to make your paper interesting. Making assumptions is another common error that students make. You need to get facts about a specific place. Assumptions only tell readers a false story. Don’t assume if you aren’t sure about details.

Key Points When Writing a College Essay About Traveling

Keep these basic points in mind when writing your essay about why traveling is important:

Take a prompt question into account when reading relevant sources of information.
Before you start writing a rough draft, outline what you will say, what evidence you want to use, and how you’ll structure all paragraphs.
Use the essay introduction to state your thesis and outline major ideas.
Include only the facts relevant to your topic because using irrelevant information won’t bring you high grades.
Ensure that every point is clear because readers shouldn’t be puzzled over your words.
Use plain and simple language to make strong points and avoid writing confusing or complex sentences. Verbosity will only frustrate teachers. Use a readability tool to make your writing easy-to-comprehend.
Demonstrate your awareness of relevant materials.
Make sure all paragraphs are in their coherent order with smooth transitions.

The above-stated secrets will help you write a brilliant essay about traveling. If you still find this task challenging, pay for an essay at StudyCrumb and get proficient help from academic writers. They will solve all of your problems easily.

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

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The author near her home in Rhode Island

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People develop sensitivities to just about everything these days, but can you really be allergic to frigid temperatures? Our writer takes us on a wild—and potentially life threatening—journey to find out.

Campers wait to get into a national park.

Why I’ve Given Up on Lottery-Based Outdoor Permits

From the Wave to the Wonderland Trail, more famous outdoor destinations are enacting lottery systems. For one writer, it’s not worth the hassle.

In Defense of Visiting an Instagram-Famous Destination

There’s a reason crowds flock to places like Havasu Falls and Horseshoe Bend—they’re absolutely gorgeous

Grace Butler descending a glacier during her run on the Via Valais

Navigating Aches and Aging on the Best Trail-Running Route in the World

The Swiss Alps are home to an incredible new hut-to-hut runners’ route called the Via Valais. It’s a little demanding—150 miles, nine stages, and 42,000 feet of elevation gain—but if you can take it on, you’re guaranteed one of the most spectacular adventures of your life.

Shadow in water of the author's family waving from their catamaran

What Do You Do Once You’ve Fulfilled Your Life’s Dream?

After setting out on her longtime fantasy to travel the world on a sailboat with her family, one writer learns just how beautiful—and devastating—it can be to finally get what you want

Tourists gather at the Airport Vortex one of many spiritual hot spots in and around the desert town of Sedona Arizona.

I’m Part of the Sedona Problem

The stunning destination of Sedona, Arizona is feeling the squeeze, along with many other iconic destinations worldwide. A new film called ‘The Last Tourist’ offers up ways we can fix the travel glut.

The author pondering her marriage on the Green River, Utah

Kiss My Ass, I’m Going on the River

Reeling from her husband’s request to divorce after 25 years of marriage and two kids, Florence Williams was experiencing debilitating grief. An accomplished reporter, she decided to explore the science of heartache to see if she could find a cure. In this excerpt from her new book, ‘Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey,’ she heads out for a 120-mile solo paddle on Utah’s Green River, with a too heavy portable toilet and a shattered heart.

Five Women. One Wilderness. Zero Mansplaining.

When Maggie Shipstead set out to report on women-only expedition travel, she was driven by a desire to learn new skills in a low-bro-factor environment. But six days exploring Alaska with the state’s first woman-owned adventure outfitter turned out to be regenerative in ways she didn’t expect.

The Pandemic Changed How I Approach Ski Trips

With far-flung travel off the table, I learned how to enjoy the meandering flexibility of a road trip

On Breakups and Taking Your Dream Adventure Solo

Our writer and her partner were about to embark on a longtime plan when their relationship abruptly ended. Despite her fears of doing it alone, she’s hitting the road—it was always her fantasy to be realized, anyway.

On Navigating the World with a Terrible Sense of Direction

Getting lost teaches me mindfulness, even when I’m terrified

Evie Neville, left, and her cousin, Beckett Neville, take the leap into the warm, saltwater of Kings Creek Marina near the mouth of the Chesapeake in Cape Charles, Va.

A Magical Realm of Crabs and Chickens

When President Biden needs a break from Putin and Mitch McConnell, he vacations on the Delmarva Peninsula, a blend of mid-Atlantic beauty, quirky accents, and tasty treasures from soil and sea. I grew up in the heart of it. Hear my song to this glorious land.

How Public Lands Healed Me During Difficult Times

Our country’s open spaces are a sanity-saving antidote for this writer

It’s well-documented that we actually enjoy the anticipation and planning of vacations more than we enjoy actually going on our vacations.

The Joy of Planning Trips I’ll Never Take

The weather is perfect. You get to do everything on your list. No one gets food poisoning or giardia or blisters.

Lessons from Spontaneous Packing and Hermit Crabs

Nothing matters once you’re out the door! Whatever you forget is simply not joining you on the adventure.

Puerto Ayora, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador - November 3 2015. A young man cleans a fish at the Puerto Ayora outdoor fish market while a wild Galapagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) and brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) wait for scraps

Theory of Evolution: How the Galápagos Adapted to the Pandemic

Oranges for dental work, milk for English lessons—when COVID-19’s initial lockdown dried up tourism dollars and supply chains, the islands bartered their way through

Inspirational natural landscape image of tall trees at The Redwoods Forest, Rotorua, New Zealand

Adventuring with My Disabled Mom Healed Me, Too

After my mom suffered a massive stroke that left half of her body paralyzed, my family and I decided to create adventures where none seemed possible

Marlon Brando In Rainforests In 'Mutiny On The Bounty'

Welcome to the World’s Most Exclusive Eco-Resort

In 1967, Marlon Brando bought a tiny atoll near Tahiti with the aim of preserving it as a tropical paradise. That effort continues, supported by a resort where Beyoncé, Obama, and other big shots chill next to a stunning private lagoon. Hampton Sides went there to meet with scientists and splash around an eco-fantasy island.

“What I wanted most was to gather stories and see it all.”

I Saw the World on Cruise Ships

High school didn't serve up much adventure, so Devin Murphy signed up to do grunt work on expedition ships that sailed to Alaska, Iceland, Antarctica, and other far-flung places. Turned out to be a pretty great idea.

Though scientists think that singing plays a role in breeding displays, a lot remains unknown about humpback songs.

The Man Who Wants the World to Hear Whale Songs

For more than three decades, Paul Knapp Jr. has taken travelers out into the Caribbean Sea to hear humpback whales. Now seismic blasts threaten to silence their songs.

APR 24 1981, APR 25 1981; The Lure of the Open Road in Strong; Smoothie Hancock, left, and Happy Rya

The Pull of the Open Road

As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19, travel for many is still a faraway dream. But Ian Frazier reminds us that there’s no more promising feeling than hitting the road, windows down, hair blowing, full speed ahead.

A Boy Jumping Into The Air Near Grand Canyon

What I Learned from Visiting the Most Instagrammed Outdoor Places

Are social media and selfie culture killing the outdoors? Nah... but as a visit to some overshared spots reveals, they’re challenging our notions about whether there’s a right way to appreciate nature—and who gets to do it.

An Ode to Exploring the Wild Places We Miss

Polar explorer Eric Larsen found inspiration in Robert Service's poem "The Call of the Wild" when he first read it

Can a Western Road Trip Be Done in an Electric Car? We Found Out.

Electric vehicles are becoming popular among the environmentally conscious, but are they realistic for road trips to more remote destinations? I took my Tesla to Utah to find out.

How Sailing Prepared Me for Sheltering in Place

While a sailing trip is undoubtedly less stressful than the current times, crossing the Atlantic with three other people taught me some important lessons for lockdown

What Your Basic Outdoor Instagram Pose Says About You

An armchair psychological study of outdoor Instagram poses—and what you can do to stand out from the crowd. As illustrated by Outside staffers.

A snowboarder rides the synthetic Neveplast surface of Denmark’s CopenHill, a ski area on top of a waste-to-energy plant.

Denmark Took a Mountain of Trash and Made a Ski Hill

Renowned architect Bjarke Ingels has crafted an epic synthetic slope on top of a massive waste-to-energy plant

How I Manage My Anxiety While Traveling

Anxiety, hypochondria, OCD, and travel might sound like a recipe for disaster. But I've seen the world despite my mental health. Here's how I manage my mind on the road.

The author dragging his canoe onto the Dismal River

Blood. Bruises. Cow Pies. Our Anniversary on the "Divorce River"

The author, a proud son of Nebraska, and his wife were in a funk after a move from the soothing heartland to the noisy canyons of Chicago. What better cure than a trip down a short, muddy stream that's often interrupted by dead trees and barbwire fences?

The Case for the Travel Carbon Footprint

Travel Is Worth the Carbon Footprint

There have been countless reports denouncing travel in the fight against climate change. This environmentalist thinks you should consider the bigger picture.

Aurora borealis on full display over Wiseman, Alaska

The Man Who Chases Auroras to Push Away Darkness

After tragedy followed Hugo Sanchez from El Salvador to Canada, he started photographing the northern lights, finding a new sense of purpose in the wintertime sky

Stuart Stevens skiing the Border to Border in March 2019

An Irresistibly Loony 420-Kilometer Ski Trip Across Finland

Author and political consultant Stuart Stevens loves a good sufferfest, so he couldn't resist Border to Border: 420 kilometers of nordic sliding through a country that defines what winter is all about

The Best Travel Writing of 2021: Our Favorite Stories of the Year

Tom Lowry , Skift

December 28th, 2021 at 1:30 AM EST

In a year when travel's recovery began, only to sputter, the pandemic was still a story for Skift that just kept giving. Our reporters and editors kept their heads down on crisis coverage, but shared some of the adrenaline too, on other worthy travel topics. Here's our team members' favorites, and how those stories came to be, in their own words.

The first year of the pandemic was an extraordinary achievement for Skift’s team of reporters and editors covering the unparalleled crisis in real time. Year two tested the mettle of the team in new ways, as glimmers of hope seesawed with the heartbreak of setbacks. But the journalism was no less exceptional in 2021.

As I am at this time every year, I am proud upon reflection of what Skift’s journalists accomplished. As is our tradition, I once again asked the difficult question of every reporter and editor who each produce a couple hundred stories a year: Which one was your favorite? They delivered, of course, explaining why the story was their favorite, and how it came to be.

We hope you find that our favorites are yours, too.

Edward Russell, Airlines Reporter

Behind-The-Scenes With American Demothballing Jets From Pandemic Storage

The Backstory: After writing so much about airlines pulling down their schedules, parking jets, and threatening to furlough staff, it was refreshing to actually see how airlines were recovering. In this case, how American Airlines put their jets back in the air to be ready for the then-forecast surge in summer travel. I flew to American’s largest maintenance base in Tulsa, Okla., to see exactly how the carrier did this. The team in Tulsa walked me step-by-step through the process of checking and re-checking every flap, seal, door, and crevice to make sure they were up to par for carrying passengers again.

What really struck me on my visit to Tulsa was how, for all the doom and gloom around the pandemic, the dedicated professionals at American never ceased working hard to make sure every aircraft was safe and ready to fly. Even for the seemingly thankless task of keeping black widow spiders from building webs in wheel wells.

Matthew Parsons , Corporate Travel Editor

Companies Face Challenge of Inclusivity on Travel for Remote Workers

The Backstory: The conversation around business travel shifted even further to remote work In 2021, as the phenomenon flipped from temporary measure to mainstream movement. It spring-boarded countless scenarios, mostly tinged with tourism because destinations saw plenty of marketing opportunities.

But among the images of work and play, I was struck by a conversation I had with the co-founder of a community interest organization who wants to level the playing field. Talking with Lorraine Charles of Na’amal , I was reminded the brave new world of remote work doesn’t revolve around middle and high-income countries, where people have ample opportunity to travel and work where they please.

Charles’ mission is to make remote work available for refugees, for people who don’t have the privilege of a U.S. or European passport, or the means to hop from one sun-kissed island to another with their laptop. She told me she wanted to help convert refugees into employees by training them on the softer skills needed, like Zoom meeting etiquette, then help them connect with potential employers.

In the same way travel broadens horizons for a tourist, does the same apply to an organization that recruits outside of its comfort zone? Later on in the year the topic was broached by immigration lawyer David Cantor , while the growing need for intercultural communications also emerged as a one-to-watch topic during 2021.

The plight of refugees around the world was brought home as we witnessed crises such as the large-scale evacuations from Kabul, and the tragedies of migrants in France attempting to cross the channel to the UK. Climate migration may also become a factor in the years ahead.

A lot of progress has been made in diversity and inclusion over the past few years, and this is one area that I imagine, or hope, more organizations will address over the coming years.

Sean O’Neill , Senior Travel Tech Editor

What Accor’s Top Technology Executive Has to Say May Surprise You

The Backstory : This year, we launched Skift’s first Travel Tech Briefing , a guide for travel executives to decide if their company should “build, buy, or partner” to stay ahead in enterprise technology.

I was delighted that the first edition spotlighted Floor Bleeker, who gave his first interview since becoming Accor’s chief technology officer. The hotel giant had taken a contrarian tech strategy but hadn’t publicly discussed it before.

Until recently, Accor had planned to centralize its core technology systems. That’s a common trend among many large hotel groups. But around the time Bleeker came on board, the company decided to give up its plan to centralize its core technology systems. It will now be running multiple property management systems instead, allowing owners to tap upstart players, such as Treebo and Mews, after it certifies them.

While the move may seem like small potatoes to an outsider, the decision is significant for the hotel technology sector. It allows smaller players to compete to provide critical software to properties. Guests could be the ultimate beneficiary as competition may spur faster innovation in how hotels interact with guests.

Madhu Unnikrishnan , Editor, Airline Weekly

The United Airlines Engine Failure Is a Story Being Wildly Botched by Media: Commentary

The Backstory : On February 20, 2021, one of the two engines on a United Airlines Boeing 777 exploded in spectacular fashion, showering a Denver suburb with wreckage and terrifying passengers with sights of flames shooting out of the jet. The story dominated U.S. television news for several days, and pundits spouted dire predictions about Boeing’s future and the safety of commercial aviation.

Granted, it’s been an exceedingly difficult few years for Boeing, after two fatal crashes grounded its best-selling 737 Max for almost two years (forcing Boeing to admit that the aircraft’s flight-control software was flawed and responsible for the crashes); Federal Aviation Administration inspections of its 787 have halted delivery of a long-range aircraft airlines depend on; and its 777X has been delayed by several years. Boeing has gotten a lot of things wrong in recent years, but the United 777 failure was not one.

There’s an old adage that says a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth puts on its pants. Television news fell all over itself to air video that had already spread on social media. Important context was missing. Yes, the footage was horrific, but what was lost was why the incident happened. A fan blade broke loose from one of the aircraft’s Pratt & Whitney engines, causing the engine to fail and exposing its combustion chamber. The fan blade did not pierce the fuselage.

What was lost in the consumer media’s coverage was this: The aircraft stayed intact, and its many safety systems prevented a catastrophic accident. The crew performed flawlessly and safely landed the airplane without any injuries. In fact, most of the flight’s passengers were rebooked and carried on with their travels that same day. In other words, the real story was that the everything and everyone worked as they should, which may be a lot less exciting than the breathless stories the news media reported, but important to note.

Lebawit Lily Girma, Global Tourism Reporter

Why Tourism Needs to Step Up and Push for Vaccine Equity

The Backstory: The horrific pandemic surge in India in April had just unfolded and in parallel, the travel industry in the U.S. and Europe, and their consumers, were focused on planning for the start of a “hot vaxxed summer.” The contrast was glaring and a clear sign to me that vaccine access would be critical for a full and fair tourism recovery. So while it was a difficult choice to make — this being my first full year of tourism coverage for Skift — I am most proud of this initial story on vaccine equity. It became the first in what has been a series of updates from us throughout the year after leading this conversation for the travel industry.

Why this topic continues to matter is because first, it’s an issue that remains critical for the industry and continues to impede and influence travel’s recovery everywhere, as we’re currently witnessing with the Omicron variant. Second, it’s critical to push travel leaders in the major source markets to recognize that solely advocating for the lifting of border restrictions is a short-sighted approach. There’s a clear business case for the industry — particularly the World Travel & Tourism Council and the United Nations World Tourism Organization and their members — to use its political muscle to push for more rapid vaccine distributions and donations globally so that the recovery is sustainable.

Third, this is a time in which we need bold leadership and vision. We saw companies such as Intrepid Travel and Expedia Group move forward with vaccine equity campaigns some months after this initial story was published. Many more need to follow.

We need this industry to have a reckoning on what global tourism should represent and stand for in the future, and that it’s about more than arrival numbers and gross domestic product. Vaccine equity is an opportunity to do just that.

Rashaad Jorden , Editorial Assistant

How One Tour Operator Is Using a 1977 Hit Tune to Lure Back Travelers

The Backstory: I was looking to write a story about a tremendously successful tour operator marketing campaign that I thought could become a regular feature, and I was referred to Steve Born, the chief marketing officer of the Globus family of brands.

How exactly? Globus was saying that landmarks popular with their guests – including the Eiffel Tower and the Easter Island statues – had missed them by singing Player’s hit Baby Come Back. Born explained in the story how the campaign came about and why it had enjoyed success.

It was my favorite story from the year because as Born mentioned, travel is fun and supposed to bring a smile to travelers’ faces. Seeing the video of popular landmarks — or even thinking about it — has never failed to elicit a chuckle from me. Born talked about the hard work that went into creating the campaign, which was timed to coincide with the reopening of numerous destinations.

But most importantly, travel for many is a cause for celebration, and despite numerous ongoing challenges, some tour operators have had things to celebrate this year.

Cameron Sperance , Hospitality Reporter

Lessons for Travel’s Recovery From Anthony Bourdain’s New Book

The Backstory: Some travel stories span beyond one’s assigned beat. It was timely to see the late Anthony Bourdain’s travel guide come out just as unruly airline passengers and rude hotel and restaurant guests became the unfortunate legacy of the pandemic. You couldn’t go days without seeing a headline of a diverted aircraft because some idiot wouldn’t wear a mask and punched a flight attendant to make a point — a point the federal government and airlines responded to with jail time and a lifetime ban from flying.

Restaurants and hotels weren’t spared the abuse. Irate was the default mood for patrons who had to wait longer than expected for a meal or, heaven forbid, were told by hotel management to keep their volume down.

Bourdain’s book made me miss his weekly wisdom doled out on his TV series, and I felt a particular bond with the words since I live in Provincetown, Mass. — the seaside town at the end of Cape Cod where he got his start in the world of restaurants.

But the guide also painted some important travel lessons: Always remember you’re a guest in someone else’s hometown. Be patient in this era of longer waits: It’s not neglect; it’s a labor shortage crisis.

Oh, and stop being a jackass to hospitality workers.

Angela Tupper, Deputy Editor, EventMB

The Catch-22 of Zero-Covid Zones: Events Happen But Can Cancel on a Dime

The Backstory: A major part of our 2021 news cycle was dominated by Covid coverage, but this story was particularly compelling because it approached a well-known news story from an under-reported angle. While major publications were drawing attention to Australia and New Zealand’s success with enforcing a zero-Covid policy, there was very little coverage of what this approach meant for the event industry. Headlines announced that life Down Under was able to continue largely as normal, apart from periodic snap lockdowns whenever a handful of cases were confirmed. Were large-scale events able to move forward as well?

Through multiple interviews with event professionals in Australia, a consistent story emerged: The nation’s successful suppression of Covid transmission made it much safer to hold events from a public health standpoint, but the measures needed to maintain zero-Covid status also meant that a lockdown could be triggered by just one case — with events therefore prone to last-minute cancelation. In other words, reducing the health risk indirectly amplified the financial risk. In turn, What began as an investigation into the viability of events turned into a conversation around the need for event cancelation insurance. With private insurers unwilling to cover the risk, lobbyists were calling for government-backed programs.

In some ways, this story provided a glimpse into the “stop-and-go” future that the global event industry would soon be facing in a post-vaccine world periodically threatened by new variants of concern. Since then, the UK has announced a government-backed event insurance scheme, as has the Australian state of Victoria. The impact of these programs will be a story to watch in the coming year.

Dennis Schaal , Founding Editor

Vacasa Paid $619 Million for TurnKey Vacation Rentals in Mostly Stock

The Backstory: This story combined two things I love: A scoop of sorts and scouring Securities and Exchange Commission financial filings.

What’s the first thing that travel veterans ask you when they learn of an acquisition? Namely, what do you think the sale price was? On smaller deals, when a startup gets bought by a public company, the buyer doesn’t necessarily have to explicitly disclose the price, and when a private company acquires a startup, the usual thing is there is no public statement about the price.

Vacasa’s acquisition of a smaller property management company, TurnKey, wasn’t a small deal, it turns out, but it involved two private companies. I therefore didn’t expect Vacasa to disclose the acquisition price — and apparently neither did the rest of the press — but the twist was that Vacasa was slated to go public in a blank check merger and was filing its financials with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Vacasa eventually went public, on December 7.

I love reading certain Securities and Exchange Commission documents and frequently tell my reporter colleagues that you can find all kinds of news bits and scoops if you take the time to read them, which I often do during the evenings or on weekends — for fun.

So there was the price tag and details about the deal in a Vacasa financial filing. Vacasa acquired TurnKey for nearly $619 million, mostly in stock. As TurnKey had only raised some $120 million in funding, it appears as though co-founders T.J. Clark and John Banczak did fairly well for their investors.

Miguel Neves , Editor-in-Chief, EventMB

Event Tech Investment Tracker

The Backstory: For my favorite article, I am going to say the EventMB Event Tech Investment Tracker . This continually evolving post sums up a lot of my learnings in 2021. I knew that joining Skift to lead EventMB, I would bring the event professional’s point of view with me. With this post, I am not distilling what I have learned from all the amazing editors at Skift and their unique ways of looking at the travel industry. I’ve had help from many members of the Skift and EventMB to make this post a real at-a-glance review of the crazy world of mergers and acquisitions in event tech. Everyone I have shared it with has given positive feedback and I know it will be an important part of future iterations of the EventMB website, so the story will continue to evolve.

Colin Nagy, On Experience Columnist

Doha Quickly Comes of Age Ahead of World Cup 2022

The Backstory: This was an interesting story to report, as Doha is in the harried run-up to a major milestone, the World Cup in 2022. The event has been a forcing factor for a lot of the obvious things like hospitality and infrastructure but also has accelerated a lot of Qatari soft diplomacy: museums, interesting small businesses and centers to attract more of the global creative class. Covid has put a damper on a lot, but it is clear to see there’s been clear vision and a lot of progress. I liked this piece because it was an honest look at what is working well, and what needs to be improved in a region that has a lot of shallow, one-note coverage from Western outlets. There is a lot of depth and moving parts to the modern Qatar story: from regional and global politics, to business, investment, real estate to national country branding and the desire to live up to the promise of the World Cup. These are my favorite stories to try and make sense of when I can.

Ruthy Muñoz , Freelancer

How Unruly Do Airline Passengers Have to Be Before the Government Decides to Prosecute?

The Backstory: I love writing feature stories that bring extraordinary people to the forefront, but surprisingly, when faced with choosing my favorite account this year, a Skift feature wasn’t it. Instead, my favorite story is accountability in the other pandemic- unruly passengers.

As a former flight attendant, I understood there’s only so much flight crews could do without the backup of airlines, the FAA, the Justice Department, and Congress. Writing this and other stories on unruly passengers and holding everyone accountable to bring about needed change is what the power of the journalistic keyboard is for me.

Lisa Jade Hutchings , Branded Content Writer

How Event Professionals Can Cope With Imposter Syndrome

The Backstory: I have had the opportunity to work on some great stories this year, such as the effect of the pandemic on local event industries around the world and an analysis of the sector’s commitment to net-zero. However, my favorite post explored the topic of how event professionals can better cope with imposter syndrome.

While massive technological advancements and innovation have taken place within the sector, I wanted to delve deeper into the human experience of an event professional through real-life insights into the current situation. As professionals working in a high-stress industry (events), the cancellations and job losses due to the pandemic have impacted the mental health of those working within the space. Because of this, many planners have experienced crippling self-doubt in adapting to new tech, event formats, external stressors — all while learning new skills.

In writing the post, a background of the syndrome was given, alongside actionable tips to coping so people could gain tangible value by reading the piece. To better understand imposter syndrome, its effects, and how people can manage, insights were gained by speaking at length with a counseling psychologist, researching the topic online, connecting with others in the industry, and drawing on past personal experiences.

The highlight of the post for me was seeing the effect it had on others in the industry — people were able to relate and felt that a voice had been given to an experience so many people live with daily.

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Tags: airlines , coronavirus , events , tour operators , tourism , travel recovery , vacation rentals , vaccine equity

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Great Travel Writing Examples from World Renowned Travel Writers

Are you ready to be a better travel writer? One of the best ways to do this is to read great travel writing examples from great travel writers.

Writing about travel in a way that keeps your reader reading is not always easy. Knowing how to write an irresistible first paragraph to entice the reader to keep reading is key. Writing a lede paragraph that convinces the reader to finish the article, story or book is great travel writing. This article features travel writing examples from award-winning travel writers, top-selling books, New York Times travel writers, and award-winning travel blogs.

Ads are how we pay our bills and keep our blog free for you to enjoy. We also use affiliate links; if you make a purchase through them, we may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

typewriter with a piece of paper that says travel writer, a notepad and old fashioned pen and cup of coffee.

The writers featured in this article are some of my personal favorite travel writers. I am lucky to have met most of them in person and even luckier to consider many friends. Many I have interviewed on my podcast and have learned writing tips from their years of travel writing, editing and wisdom.

11 Great Travel Writing Examples

Writing with feeling, tone, and point of view creates a compelling story. Below are examples of travel writing that include; first paragraphs, middle paragraphs, and final paragraphs for both travel articles as well as travel books.

I hope the below examples of travel writing inspire you to write more, study great travel writing and take your writing to a higher level.

Writing Example of a Travel Book Closing Paragraphs

Travel writer Don George holding a glass of wine

Don George is the author of the award-winning anthology The Way of Wanderlust: The Best Travel Writing of Don George , and the best-selling travel writing guide in the world: How to Be a Travel Writer .

He is currently Editor at Large for National Geographic Travel, and has been Travel Editor at the San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle, Salon, and Lonely Planet.

I had the wonderful opportunity to see Don speak at Tbex and read from one of his books as well as interview him on the Break Into Travel Writing podcast. You can listen to the full podcast here .

Below is the closing of Don’s ebook: Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus: Dispatches from a Year of Traveling Close to Home

I continued hiking up to Lost Trail and then along Canopy View Trail. Around noon I serendipitously came upon a bench by the side of the trail, parked my backpack, and unpacked my lunch. Along with my sandwiches and carrot sticks, I feasted on the tranquility and serenity, the sequoia-swabbed purity of the air, the bird and brook sounds and sun-baked earth and pine needle smells, the sunlight slanting through the branches, the bright patch of blue sky beyond.

At one point I thought of shinrin-yoku, forest bathing, the Japanese practice that has become widely popular in the U.S. This was a perfect example of shinrin-yoku, I thought: Here I am, alone in this forest, immersed in the sense and spirit of these old-growth redwoods, taking in their tranquility and timelessness, losing myself to their sheer size and age and their wild wisdom that fills the air.

I sat there for an hour, and let all the trials, tremors, and tribulations of the world I had left in the parking lot drift away. I felt grounded, calm, quiet—earth-bound, forest-embraced.

In another hour, or two, I would walk back to the main paved trail, where other pilgrims would be exclaiming in awe at the sacred sequoias, just as I had earlier that day.

But for now, I was content to root right here, on this blessed bench in the middle of nowhere, or rather, in the middle of everywhere, the wind whooshing through me, bird-chirps strung from my boughs, toes spreading under scratchy pine needles into hard-packed earth, sun-warmed canopy reaching for the sky, aging trunk textured by time, deep-pulsing, in the heart of Muir Woods.

You can read the whole story here: Old Growth: Hiking into the Heart of Muir Woods
Please also download Don’s free ebook here: Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus
In addition to writing and editing, Don speaks at conferences, lectures on tours around the world, and teaches travel writing workshops through www.bookpassage.com .

Writing Example of a Travel Book Intro Paragraphs

Francis tapon.

Francis Tapon , author of Hike Your Own Hike and The Hidden Europe , also created a TV series and book called The Unseen Africa, which is based on his five-year journey across all 54 African countries.

He is a three-time TEDx speaker. His social media username is always FTapon. I interviewed Francis on the Break Into Travel Writing podcast about “How to Find An Original Point of View as a Travel Writer “. You can listen to the full podcast here .

Below is the opening of Francis’ book, The Hidden Europe:

“This would be a pretty lousy way to die,” I thought.

I was locked in an outhouse with no way out. Outhouses sometimes have two latches—one on the outside and one on the inside. The outside latch keeps the door shut to prevent rodents and other creatures who like hanging out in crap from coming in. Somehow, that outer latch accidentally closed, thereby locking me in this smelly toilet. I was wearing a thin rain jacket. The temperature was rapidly dropping.

“This stinks,” I mumbled. It was midnight, I was above the Arctic Circle, and the temperatures at night would be just above freezing. There was no one around for kilometers. If I didn’t get out, I could freeze to death in this tiny, smelly, fly-infested shithole.

My mom would kill me if I died so disgracefully. She would observe that when Elvis died next to a toilet, he was in Graceland. I, on the other hand, was in Finland, not far from Santa Claus. This Nordic country was a jump board for visiting all 25 nations in Eastern Europe.

You can find his book on Amazon: The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us

For $2 a month, you can get Francis’ book as he writes it: Patreon.com/ftapon

Intro (Lede) Paragraph Examples of Great Travel Writing Articles

Michele peterson.

Former banking executive Michele Peterson is a multi-award-winning travel and food writer who divides her time between Canada, Guatemala, and Mexico (or the nearest tropical beach).

Former banking executive Michele Peterson is a multi-award-winning travel and food writer who divides her time between Canada, Guatemala, and Mexico (or the nearest tropical beach). Her writing has appeared in Lonely Planet’s Mexico from the Source cookbook, National Geographic Traveler, Conde Nast’s Gold List, the Globe and Mail, Fifty-five Plus and more than 100 other online and print publications.

She blogs about world cuisine and sun destinations at A Taste for Travel website. I met Michele on my first media trip that took place in Nova Scotia, Canada. I also had the pleasure of interviewing about “ Why the Odds are in Your Favor if you Want to Become a Travel Writer” . You can listen to the full podcast here .

Michele’s Lede Paragraph Travel Writing Example

I’m hiking through a forest of oak trees following a farmer who is bleating like a pied piper. Emerging from a gully is a herd of black Iberian pigs, snuffling in response. If they weren’t so focused on following the swineherd, I would run for the hills. These pigs look nothing like the pink-cheeked Babe of Hollywood fame.

These are the world’s original swine, with lineage dating back to the Paleolithic Stone Age period where the earliest humans decorated Spain’s caves with images of wild boars. Their powerful hoofs stab the earth as they devour their prized food, the Spanish bellota acorn, as fast as the farmer can shake them from the tree with his long wooden staff. My experience is part of a culinary journey exploring the secrets of producingjamón ibérico de Bellota, one of the world’s finest hams.

You can read the full article here: Hunting for Jamón in Spain

Perry Garfinkel

Perry Garfinkel has been a journalist and author for an unbelievable 40 years, except for some years of defection into media/PR communications and consulting.

He is a contributor to The New York Times since the late ’80s, writing for many sections and departments. He has been an editor for, among others, the Boston Globe, the Middlesex News, and the Martha’s Vineyard Times.

He’s the author of the national bestseller “ Buddha or Bust: In Search of the Truth, Meaning, Happiness and the Man Who Found Them All ” and “ Travel Writing for Profit and Pleasure “.

Perry has been a guest on my podcast twice. He gave a “ Master Class in Travel Writing ” you can listen to the full podcast here . He also shared “ How to Find Your Point Of View as a Travel Writer ” you can listen to the full episode here .

Perry’s Lede Travel Article Example from the New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — A block off Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown – beyond the well-worn path tourists take past souvenir shops, restaurants and a dive saloon called the Buddha Bar – begins a historical tour of a more spiritual nature. Duck into a nondescript doorway at 125 Waverly Place, ascend five narrow flights and step into the first and oldest Buddhist temple in the United States.

At the Tien Hau Temple, before an intricately carved gilded wooden shrine and ornate Buddha statues, under dozens of paper lanterns, Buddhists in the Chinese tradition still burn pungent incense and leave offerings to the goddess Tien Hau in return for the promise of happiness and a long life.

You can read the full article here: Taking a Buddhist pilgrimage in San Francisco

Elaine Masters

Elaine Masters apologizes for pissing off fellow travelers while tracking story ideas, cultural clues, and inspiring images but can’t resist ducking in doorways or talking with strangers.

She’s recently been spotted driving her hybrid around the North American West Coast and diving cenotes in the Yucatan. Founder of Tripwellgal.com, Elaine covers mindful travel, local food, overlooked destinations and experiences. Elaine was a guest on my podcast where we spoke about “ How to Master the CVB Relationship “. You can listen to the full podcast here .

Elaine’s Lede Example

I jiggered my luggage onto the escalator crawling up to the street. As it rose into the afternoon light, an immense shadow rose over my shoulder. Stepping onto the sidewalk, I burst into giggles, looking like a madwoman, laughing alone on the busy Barcelona boulevard. The shadow looming overhead was the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It had mesmerized me forty years earlier and it was the reason I’d finally returned to Spain.

You can read the full article here: Don’t Miss Going Inside Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s Beloved Cathedral

Along with his wife, photographer Mary Gabbett, Bret Love is the Co-Founder/Editor In Chief of Green Global Travel and the Blue Ridge Mountains Travel Guide.

He’s also an award-winning writer whose work has been featured by more than 100 publications around the world, including National Geographic, Rolling Stone, American Way, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

Bret’s Lede Example

Congo Square is quiet now. Traffic forms a dull drone in the distance. A lone percussionist taps out ancient tribal rhythms on a two-headed drum. An air compressor from Rampart Street road construction provides perfectly syncopated whooshes of accompaniment.

Shaded park benches are surrounded by blooming azaleas, magnolias, and massive live oaks that stretch to provide relief from the blazing midday sun. It’s an oasis of solitude directly across the street from the French Quarter.

Congo Square is quiet now. But it’s here that the seeds of American culture as we know it were sown more than 200 years ago. And the scents, sounds, and sights that originated here have never been more vital to New Orleans than they are now, more than a decade after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

You can read the full article here: Treme, New Orleans (How Congo Square Was The Birthplace Of American Culture)

Middle Paragraph Examples of Great Travel Writing Articles

Mariellen ward.

Canadian travel writer and blogger Mariellen Ward runs the award-winning travel site Breathedreamgo.com , inspired by her extensive travels in India.

She has been published in leading media outlets worldwide and offers custom tours to India through her company India for Beginners. Though Canadian by birth, Mariellen considers India to be her “soul culture” and she is passionate about encouraging mindful travel.

Mariellen’s Middle Paragraph Example

While the festival atmosphere swirled around me, I imbued my diya with hope for personal transformation. I had come to India because a river of loss had run through my life, and I had struggled with grief, despair and depression for eight years. I felt I was clinging to the bank, but the effort was wearing me out. Deciding to leave my life and go to India was like letting go of the bank and going with the flow of the river. I had no idea where it would lead me, what I would learn or how I would change. I only knew that it was going to be big.

You can read the full article here: The River: A tale of grief and healing in India

Joe Baur is an author and filmmaker from Cleveland currently based in Berlin. His work has appeared in a variety of international publications, including BBC Travel, National Geographic, and Deutsche Welle.

He regularly reports for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and is the author of Talking Tico detailing his year of living in Costa Rica and traveling around Central America. I interviewed Joe about “ How to Find Unique Travel Stories “. You can listen to the full podcast here .

Joe Baur’s Middle Paragraph Example

I first became aware of the Harz mountains and the Brocken when reading the works of some of Germany’s great writers, like Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Legends of witches congregating with the devil being the main theme of the mountain’s mythology. I, however, was more interested in a refreshing time spent in nature rather than reveling with the devil.

The first stage from Osterode to Buntenbock was a warm-up to the more rigorous stages ahead. It began on sidewalks before sliding into the forest sporting a healthy shade of green — a gentle jaunt that made my hiking boots feel a bit like overkill given the dry, pleasant weather.

You can read the full article here: Follow the witch through the forest: 5 days hiking Germany’s Harz

Samantha Shea

Samantha is a freelance travel writer with bylines in Matador Network, GoNomad and more. She also runs the travel blog Intentional Detours which provides thorough guides and tales related to offbeat adventure travel in South Asia and beyond.

When she’s not writing she enjoys cycling, hiking, the beach, as well as language learning.

Samantha Shea’s Middle Paragraph Example

Suddenly, the spark of a match pulsed through the early-fall afternoon and my head snapped towards the men. Amir touched the flame to an unidentifiable object that seconds later made itself known by the deep earthy scent of Pakistani hashish.

Amir’s ice blue eyes focused intently on his creation: a combination of tobacco and nuggets of greenish-brown charas. He forced the mixture back into the cigarette, before bringing it to his pursed lips, flicking the match, and setting flame to his high.

I reached out from the cot to take my turn and took a deep inhale, acutely pleased. I savored the familiar burn of the drag, the rows and rows of corn and apple plants in front of me, the stuttered cacophony of animal exclamations behind me, and the generosity of the men to my left, some of whom we had just met an hour before.

You can read the full article here: Thall Tales: A Hazy Afternoon in Thall, Pakistan

Final Paragraph Example of Great Travel Writing Articles

Cassie bailey.

Cassie is a travel writer who has solo backpacked around Asia and the Balkans, and is currently based in Auckland. Alongside in-depth destination guides, her blog has a particular focus on storytelling, mental health, and neurodiversity.

Cassie’s Final Paragraphs Example

So my goal is to feel, I guess. And I don’t mean that in a dirty way (although obvz I do mean that in a dirty way too). This is why we travel, right? To taste crazy new foods and to feel the sea breeze against our skin or the burn on the back of our legs on the way down a mountain. We want to feel like shite getting off night buses at 4am and the sting of mosquito bites. We know we’re going to feel lost or frustrated or overwhelmed but we do it anyway. Because we know it’s worth it for the ecstasy of seeing a perfect view or making a new connection or finding shitty wine after a bad day.

My goal is never to become numb to all of this. To never kid myself into settling for less than everything our bodies allow us to perceive. I’m after the full human experience; every bit, every feeling.

You can read the full article here: Goals inspired by life as a solo backpacker

Lydia Carey

Lydia Carey is a freelance writer and translator based out of Mexico City who spends her time mangling the Spanish language, scouring the country for true stories and “researching” every taco stand in her neighborhood.

She is the author of “ Mexico City Streets: La Roma ,” a guide to one of Mexico City’s most eclectic neighborhoods and she chronicles her life in the city on her blog MexicoCityStreets.com .

Lydia’s Final Paragraphs Example

Guys from the barrio huddle around their motorcycles smoking weed and drinking forties. Entire families, each dressed as St. Jude, eat tacos al pastor and grilled corn on a stick. Police stand at a distance, keeping an eye on the crowd but trying not to get too involved.

After this celebration, many of the pilgrims will travel on to Puebla where they will visit some of the religious relics on display in the San Judas church there. But many more will simply go back to their trades—legal and illegal—hoping that their attendance will mean that San Judas protects them for another year, and that he has their back in this monster of a city.

You can read the full article here: San Judas de Tadeo: Mexico’s Defender of Lost Causes

I hope you enjoyed these examples of travel writing and they have inspired you to want to write more and write better! The next article that will be published is a follow-up to this and will include travel writing examples from my first travel writing teacher, Amanda Castleman. This article will include travel writing tips from Amanda and travel writing examples from her students as well as one from her own writing.

Great Travel Writing Examples from from the best travel writers. Beautiful travel narratives from that offer invaluable insights to better your own writing.

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Alexa Meisler is the editorial director of 52 Perfect Days. Born in Paris, France she has since lived in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. She currently resides in San Diego with her husband and son where they enjoy exploring California and Mexico.

Travel has always been a part of her life; traveling to such places as Morocco, Tangiers and Spain as a young child as well as taking many road trips to Mexico with her grandparents as a young girl. Since then, she has traveled abroad to locations such as Russia, Taiwan and throughout Europe.

Prior to working at 52 Perfect Days she was a freelance travel writer; focusing on family and women’s adventure experiences.

12 Types of Travel Writing Every Writer Should Know

So, you want to be a travel writer?

There are plenty of reality doses out there already, so we’re going to focus on the positives, and what you can do to maximize your chances of travel writing professionally. One of the first steps: you should absolutely know your markets, and what types of travel writing are popular in them. In today’s competitive market, this knowledge can both help you structure your article and target the right audience.

In this post, we break down modern travel writing into three distinct categories: freelance journalism , blogging, and book-writing. Then we identify the prevalent types of travel writing each category is known for, to give you an initial sort of compass in the industry.

Freelance Travel Journalism

The truth is this: the travel sections in major publications (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal) are slimmer now, so competition will be tall. But there are other outlets. Local newspapers are sometimes open to travel pitches from freelancers. Certain websites pay for travel articles, while magazines can be great for targeting niche audiences.

So what are the common types of freelance travel journalism?

Destination articles

Here, the game’s in the name: destination articles tell readers about a place to which they might want to travel one day. One of the most standard type of travel stories, these pieces act as the armchair reader’s bird-eye view of a place. Useful or interesting facts pepper the writing. History, points of interest, natural scenery, trendy spots: a destination article can touch upon them all within the framework of a broad narrative.

Where the average article gives readers a sense of the destination, the best of the best convinces readers that this is a destination they want, nay, need to visit. As such, though some destination articles are written in first person, the focus is rarely on the writer. Instead, the destination is the star of the show.

For examples of destination articles, check out:

Besalú, the most interesting Spanish village you probably don’t know (LA Times)
In Indonesia (Washington Post)
36 Hours In The Finger Lakes Region of New York (New York Times)

Special-interest articles

Special-interest articles are offshoots of destination articles. Instead of taking the reader on a tour of an entire country or city, these pieces cover one particular aspect of the destination. This kind of writing can cover anything from art in Colombia, ghost towns in the U.S., trekking in Patagonia, alpaca farms in Australia, motorbiking in Brazil, railroads in France, volunteering in Tanzania — you get the gist.

Since special-interest articles are narrower in topic, many writers tailor them for niche magazines or websites. Before you start pitching, we recommend flipping through the Writer’s Handbook , one of the most useful guides to the freelance publishing market, to see which publications fit your target audience.

For a taste of some special-interest articles, see:

Exploring Portugal — From Pork To Port (epicurious.com)
This Unsung Corner of Spain is Home to Fabulous Food (Washington Post)
Karsts of China's Getu River region attract rock climbers, other travelers (CNN Travel)

Holiday and special events

Holiday and special events travel articles ask writers to write about a destination before the event takes place. The biggest global events are magnets for this type of travel writing, such as the World Cup, the Olympics, the World Expo, fashion weeks, and film festivals. Depending on the publication, regional events work just as well.

Want to see what special events pieces look like? Have a read through these:

This summer’s solar eclipse is southern Illinois’ chance to shine (Chicago Tribune)
How To Plan A Trip To The 2016 Rio Olympics (Travel & Leisure)

You’ll recognize a round-up article when you see one, as it’ll go, “40 best beaches in West Europe,” or, perhaps, “20 of the greatest walks in the world!” It’s a classic tool in any magazine or newspaper writer’s toolbox, taking a bunch of destinations and grouping them all under one common thread.

Ultimately, a clear motif makes this type of article a breeze to read, as they’re a play on the ubiquitous List Format. But, OK, before you jump at this excuse to sacrifice your belly at 99 food trucks in New York City, remember that your premise should be original, not to mention practical. What’s tough is coming up with X ways to do Y in the first place, as that demands you put in the travel and research to produce a thorough write-up.

Want even more examples of round-up articles? Here you go:

12 new art exhibits to see this summer (Smithsonian)
21 ways to see America for cheap (Huffington Post)
41 places to go in 2011 (New York Times)

Personal essays

Publishers are experiencing something of a personal essay fatigue , so the market for more might be scarce these days. However, quality trumps all, and a good personal travel essay is just plain good writing in disguise: something that possesses a strong voice while showing insight, growth, and backstory.

Just don’t make it a diary entry. In an interview with The Atlantic , travel writer Paul Theroux said: “The main shortcut is to leave out boring things. People write about getting sick, they write about tummy trouble. They write about waiting. They write three pages about how long it took them to get a visa. I’m not interested in the boring parts. Everyone has tummy trouble. Everyone waits in line. I don’t want to hear about it.”

Here’s a jumping-off point for personal travel essays:

Taking the Great American Roadtrip (Smithsonian)

Have a burning opinion to share? Sometimes publications end up giving op-eds to staff, but there are always open calls for opinion pieces.

Travel op-eds are much rarer than political opinion pieces, but there’s a pattern to the ones that make the cut: good persuasive writing. If you can come at a topic from a unique angle (and argue your case clearly) then you may be able to publish your opinion.

If you’re in the mood for travel op-ed articles, see:

The West Coast Is The Best Coast For Food In America (Food & Wine)
Why Climate Change Is Actually Relevant To Travel (Conde Nast)

Travel Blogging

When typing “travel blog” into Google returns 295 million results, we can guess it’s a fairly competitive market.

Here’s the plus side: bloggers get to write what they want and go where they please. When it comes to blog posts, there are no editors, no gatekeepers. Only you and the “PUBLISH” button.

We won’t go revisit the types of travel writing we covered earlier (such as the roundup format). Instead, we’ll explore some of the other formats bloggers use to tell their travel stories. Since the rules of travel blogging are next to non-existent, our tally below is by no means definitive. And, again, our best advice is to note what your favorite bloggers do on their blogs.

Already running a successful travel blog? You might consider turning that blog into a book !

How-To articles are already fairly popular in magazines, but they’re positively omnipresent in the travel blogging world. Blogs provide a direct communication platform, allowing trust to build up quicker with the readers. As a result, for the search query, “How to travel Europe on a budget,” six out of the top ten results are posts from trusted independent blogs.

A How-To article is the most standard form of advice column a travel blogger can produce. It’s intrinsically useful, promising that it’ll teach something by article’s end. A blogger’s challenge is delivering fully on that promise.

How to read more How-To articles? We got you covered:

How To Start A Travel Blog (Nomadic Matt)
How To Travel Solo To A Party Destination (Adventurous Kate)
How to Visit Penang’s Kek Lok Si Temple (Migrationology)

Itineraries

Itineraries reveal the schedule that the writer took at a given destination, city-by-city or sight-by-sight. They’re meant for the traveler who’s embarking on a similar trip and needs a template. Typically, you’ll find that an itinerary post is an easy place for you to slip in recommendations, anything from the accommodation you used or the restaurants you tried.

You can use itinerary posts to reinforce your blog’s brand. For instance, an itinerary posted on a blog focused around budget travel will probably maximize cost-saving chances.

For more itineraries, see:

My Trip To Japan (A Complete Japan Itinerary)
Backpacking Vietnam on a budget: 2-3 Weeks Itinerary + Tips

Longform posts

Longform travel blogging tells a travel story through extended narrative content, as it takes a week’s worth of adventure and shapes it into a story. Longform blog posts about travel often end up being creative nonfiction : a way to present nonﬁction — factually accurate prose about real people and events — in a compelling, vivid, dramatic manner.

Photography can add another dimension to the form, as Emmanuel Nataf (our co-founder!) shows on his travel blog . And Reedsy's very own Arielle provides a glimpse into why she prefers longform travel writing on her blog, Steps, a Travel Journal :

My favourite kinds of stories are the ones that give you a real sense of place. That’s why I enjoy longform travel blogging: I get to describe the character of a place through the experiences I encountered there.

If you want to dip your toe into the sea of longform posts, you can also read:

The Cow Head Taco Philosopher King of Oaxaca (Legal Nomads)
The Best Worst Museum In The World

When it comes to writing a book, you can take all the challenges about travel writing from above and magnify it times 2,000. If you’re asking readers to commit to you for more than 100 pages, you’d best make sure that your book is worth their while.

As far as examples go, travel writing’s boomed in the mainstream book market recently. But there’s much more to it than Eat, Pray, Love and its descendants.

Travelogues

In travelogues, authors record their adventures in a way that illustrates or sheds insight upon the place itself. Travelogues possess a storied past, from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters in 1763 to Mark Twain’s 1867 The Innocents Abroad , which paved the way for the sort of comic travelogues that Bill Bryson’s perfected today.

Up for some travelogues? Check out:

Notes From A Small Island , by Bill Bryson
In Patagonia , by Bruce Chatwin
Travels with Charley In Search of America , by John Steinbeck

Travel memoirs

Nowadays, travel memoirs are practically synonymous with Elizabeth Gilbert’s wildly popular Eat, Pray, Love and Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling Wild , which were both recently adapted into Hollywood blockbusters.

That said, be aware that you’ll need a pretty exceptional personal story for your memoir to compete in today’s market . If you’re still set on writing or self-publishing a travel memoir, it’s tricky to balance personal backstory and travel for 400 pages, so think about taking on a professional for a second pair of eyes.

Did you know? You can find Nicki Richesin , a top Bloomsbury editor who’s edited for Cheryl Strayed, on our marketplace.

In addition to Eat, Pray, Love and Wild , you can read:

Under the Tuscan Sun , by Frances Mayes
Coasting , by Jonathan Raban
Wind, Sand, and Stars , by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

As Oscar Wilde said, “I never travel without my diary. One should always keep something sensational to read in the train.” But these days, people are replacing diaries with travel guides — the ubiquitous Lonely Planet becoming one of the more common sights on transit.

Travel writing in guidebooks is straightforward, informative, and fact-filled. In addition, there’s a certain amount of responsibility that comes with the job. Lonely Planet alone is read by millions of travelers worldwide.

General Tips and Guidelines

As we mentioned before, the trick to producing great travel writing is ultimately simply writing well . To that extent, you should make sure to follow all the guidelines of good writing — not least, spell-checking your article before submitting or publishing it anywhere. You don’t want an editor or reader to see it while it stilll reads lik edis.

Also, keep in mind the tone, style, and vibe of the publication and platform (and by extension, your audience). A story about a moon-rock could go into a kid's magazine or it could go into Scientific America .

Finally, some category-specific tips:

If you’re freelance writing, always check submission guidelines. Publications may accept only pitches or they may welcome articles “on spec” (pre-written articles). Some sources only take travel articles that were written within 6 months of the trip.
If you’re blogging, brand your website (same advice if you’re an author who’s building an author website ).
If you’re writing a book, get a professional editor! An unedited book is an unwieldy thing, and professional eyes provide direction, continuity, and assonance. ( Layout designers can be important if you’re publishing a travel photography book, in the meanwhile.)

Travel writing isn't a cinch. In fact, it's a long and often hard grind. But by figuring out what type of travel writing you want to try your hand at, you're taking the crucial first step.

Have you tried travel writing before? Want to show us the cool travel blog that you're keeping? We're always in the mood for great travel writing + pretty pictures. Leave us a note in the comments and we'll be sure to check it out!

7 responses

Amanda Turner says:

20/03/2018 – 16:20

Thank you, this was very helpful. Here's one of mine: http://vagabondingwithkids.com/every-mothers-guide-to-piranha-fishing-in-the-amazon/

Travalerie says:

24/05/2018 – 18:42

I landed on this page Googling for one thing and coming up with another. Haha! But what I found instead was helpful as I'm devouring as much as I can on travel writing. A few months ago, I started a new travel business, revamped my website including a new blog, and am in the process of writing, writing, writing. I took 2 trips this year so far and wrote what seemed like a mini-novella. Burning out in the process. I know I can do better. But I had no idea what I was writing could be re-worked to fit a certain category of travel writing -- which is what I found helpful in this post above. Thanks https://www.travalerie.com/blog

Surya Thakur says:

04/03/2019 – 12:39

Very good information. Lucky me I discovered your blog by chance (stumbleupon). I’ve saved as a favorite for later! KuLLuHuLLs

David Bishop says:

08/05/2019 – 12:28

Thanks for this good article. I'm in my third year on the road and recently started my senior solo adventure travel website. I think my site has some pretty good stuff, of course. Take a look and tell me what you think. www.davidhunterbishop.com

Iris C. Permuy says:

23/05/2019 – 18:03

Thank you very much for all of these useful pieces of advice. I will make sure to implement them all on my travel blog, which is a combination of travel and gastronomy and uses the memoir and itinerary types, apart from recipes. Come check it out if you feel like it! I am more than open, eager for some professional feedback :)

Serissa says:

26/10/2019 – 14:53

This post is the perfect diving board for aspiring travel writers. I plan to link to this page from my travel blog if that is alright! ?? The link on my website will appear as "[title of this post] by Reedsy Blog". I assume this is alright, but if not, please email me directly to let me know! Thanks so much!

↪️ Martin Cavannagh replied:

29/10/2019 – 10:11

We'd be absolutely delighted if you shared this article on your blog :)

Comments are currently closed.

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Travelling Essay

500 Words Essay On Travelling

Many people travel for different purposes. Whether it is for a business trip or a holiday trip, we see people travelling often. Some people prefer a hilly area for travelling while the others like travelling to places with beaches. In this travelling essay, we will look at the importance of travelling and how it has changed ever since the old times.

Importance of Travelling Essay

While the reasons for travelling are many, we must not forget that it can be a refreshing experience. Travelling is an experience that can teach us so many things that you cannot possibly learn while living at home.

Firstly, it teaches you how to make new friends . The world is full of people who love interacting. You get to make friends when you travel to new places and spend quality time with them.

Moreover, it also helps you enhance your social skills. After that, travelling is great for learning new skills. For instance, going to mountain regions teaches you how to trek. Similarly, going to beaches helps you learn scuba diving or surfing.

You can also enjoy the beauty of nature when you travel. Similarly, you get to explore nature like never before and find discover the earth’s beauty. Travelling also helps us understand people.

After you spend time at a new place, you interact with the local people of the place. You learn so much about them and their culture. It makes you more open-minded and be mindful of the culture and beliefs of different people.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Travelling: Then vs. Now

Travelling has changed significantly thanks to technology. In the earlier days, it was not easy to travel. Travelling on foot or on animals was the only option back then. Ships were also an option but they were too risky.

Further, people use bullocks and horse carts and even camels to travel. Sled was an option for people travelling to snow-covered regions. Moreover, it was a hassle to travel even to a short distance as it consumed too much time.

However, with the changing times and revolutionary technology , travelling has become one of the easiest things to do. There are so many new ways and means to travel that the travel game has changed drastically.

We can board a variety of vehicles now to travel such as bus, train, truck, aeroplane, submarine, hovercraft, and more. You can reach a place far away within no time thanks to all these transport options.

Further, there are no barriers now. You can use online maps and translators when travelling to a different city or country to help you. Cab service and food service is readily available too. Thus, travelling is very easy now thanks to technology.

Conclusion of Travelling Essay

All in all, travelling can be a fun and learning experience for everyone now. Moreover, with technology, you can travel to any corner of the world without having to worry about barriers of language, distance, and more. Everyone must travel at least once in their life to enjoy an unforgettable experience.

FAQ of Travelling Essay

Question 1: Why is travelling important?

Answer 1: Travelling is important as it teaches us a lot of things. You can learn new skills, new languages, new cultures. Moreover, you get to make new friends and try out new foods when you travel to a new place. It can be a real learning experience for all.

Question 2: How is travelling different now?

Answer 2: Travelling has changed drastically thanks to technology. Earlier, people had to take animals to travel to a new place and it would be time-consuming. Now, there are many transport options available that help you reach within no time. Further, the internet has made travelling easier by offering maps, translation apps, food services, cab services, etc. available at our fingertips.

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✍️Essay on Travelling: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words

Updated on
Nov 2, 2023

Did you know the tourism industry accounted for $2 Trillion in 2022? Every year, people travel around the world to take a break from their busy routines. This in turn helps them to come back more rejuvenated and more focused. But do you know the importance of travelling and how it helps one mentally and physically? Well, don’t worry as we have got you covered. Here we will give you details on an essay on travelling, which you can use at school, college and other academic levels.

This Blog Includes:

Importance of travelling , essay on travelling in 100 words, essay on travelling in 200 words, essay on travelling in 300 words.

Travelling is a vital facet of personal development and cultural enrichment. Travelling broadens one’s horizons, and fosters tolerance and understanding of diverse cultures. On the positive side of travelling is that it allows one to break free from their routine, and travel and stimulates creativity and problem-solving skills.

One should make sure they travel at least once a year. By doing so, it will act as a motivation for self-discovery, building confidence and allowing one to navigate several unfamiliar territories. Moreover, it creates long-lasting memories as well as bonds with friends or other people.

Travelling to new places and exploring nature’s wonders, historical landmarks, or vibrant cities imbues us with valuable experiences. It also promotes lifelong learning as well as appreciation for the beauty and diversity of our world. All in all, travelling to new places acts as an investment in both personal development and in terms of creating connections with new people.

Malvika Chawla

Malvika is a content writer cum news freak who comes with a strong background in Journalism and has worked with renowned news websites such as News 9 and The Financial Express to name a few. When not writing, she can be found bringing life to the canvasses by painting on them.

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Jessie on a Journey | Solo Female Travel Blog

19 Inspiring Travel Experience Stories About Life-Changing Trips

Love inspiring travel experience stories ?

Then you’re in the right place!

Grab a snack and your favorite beverage and get ready to settle in, as you’re about to read some truly inspiring travel stories about life-changing trips.

In this roundup, some of my favorite bloggers share their best travel stories.

You’ll hear about travelers embarking on sacred pilgrimages, growing after a first solo female travel trip, deeply connecting with locals on the road, and getting out of their comfort zones in ways that completely alter the course of their life.

And if you’re looking for a unique travel experience, you’ll likely find it in the short stories about travel below.

Table of Contents

Free Travel Resources

But first…

Make sure to grab free access to my #BeyondTheGuidebook Travel Resource Library:

Want to take the hassle out of trip planning?

Enter your name + email below to subscribe and snag access to my FREE Ultimate Travel Planning Resource Library, full of trip planners, cheat sheets, packing lists, Google Map itineraries + more! // Privacy Policy .

Woohoo! You’re officially a member of the Jessie on a Journey community.

Make sure to also connect with me on Instagram , on YouTube , and on Facebook to start traveling #BeyondTheGuidebook.

I regularly share about solo female travel, New York City, lesser-known destinations, unique experiences, active adventures, and how to turn your passion for exploring the world into a profitable business through travel blogging.

Click here to head back to the travel blog .

There is so much included!

Plus, I’m constantly adding new resources, guides, and personality quizzes to help you travel beyond the guidebook!

On that note, let’s dive into the inspiring travel stories .

1. Travel Experience Stories In South America

My travel story takes place in South America, back when I used to travel solo for months at a time.

I was in my mid-20s, and even though I’d backpacked Europe, Southeast Asia, and China and had studied abroad in Australia, the mix of intense excitement and nerves I had leading up to my South America backpacking trip was different.

And despite family and friends warning me that South America wasn’t a place for a solo female traveler , it ended up being my best trip ever.

There are so many interesting short travel stories and unforgettable travel experiences woven into this trip, like:

Getting invited to have dinner with my Brazilian plane seatmate and her grandma
Having a group of complete strangers on Couchsurfing take me out for dinner and dancing on my birthday in Mendoza
Attending a small house party in Argentina and learning about the tradition of mate
Getting stuck on a broken-down bus and having an impromptu language exchange with an elderly woman in Peru
Having a love interest back home break up with me via text, and then experiencing the kindness of strangers as a woman in my hostel who I barely knew treated me to ice cream to cheer me up
Having a romance with a hostel mate in Ecuador and then traveling through the country together
Living in a giant treehouse with a group of strangers during a solo trip in Brazil and spending our days exploring hiking trails and swimming and our nights drinking and exchanging stories about traveling
Taking a 4×4 from Chile to Bolivia across the Siloli Desert to see otherwordly sites like rainbow lagoons and train graveyards in the middle of nowhere
Experiencing some of the world’s most incredible natural wonders, like Iguazu Falls, Torres del Paine, the Amazon River, Uyuni Salt Flats, and Perito Moreno Glacier

At times the trip was also challenging, from dealing with long bus rides and car sickness to flipping over my bicycle handlebars in Peru and getting my body (and ego) badly bruised.

But, I was okay.

In fact, I was more than okay, as the trip showed me how independent I could be and what I was truly capable of. It also showed me the beauty of immersing yourself in cultures different than your own and connecting with locals who want to share them with you.

Years later, when people ask what my best travel experience has been this is the trip that comes to mind.

-Jessie from Jessie on a Journey

2. Traveling With An Open Mind

Many people think of travel as an experience and rightly so. Sometimes, however, you cannot choose the places you travel to.

This happened to me in 2019.

My husband found himself posted in Brunei for work.

Three months pregnant meant that I had a choice:

Either stay with him in Brunei for three months before returning back to India or remain in India, alone.

I chose the former. Not because of my love for the country but because I wanted to be close to him.

Brunei had never held any appeal to me. Whatever research that I pulled off the Internet showed me nothing other than one beautiful mosque.

The flights in and out of the country were expensive so traveling frequently out was not an option either.

I was engulfed by a sense of being trapped in a remote place.

Needless to say, I reached Brunei in a pretty foul mood. I think one of the things that struck me the most even in the midst of that bad mood was the large swaths of greenery that surrounded us.

Mind you, we were not staying in the big city but as far away on the outskirts as you could imagine. I’m not a city girl by any stretch and the greenery eventually soothed my nerves.

It took a week, but I soon found myself interacting with people around me. Fellow expats and locals all went out of their way to make me feel comfortable.

The more comfortable I felt, the more we explored. We trekked (yes, while pregnant!), we joined the board game community, and we enjoyed the local cuisine.

Three months later when it was time to leave, I found myself reluctant to say goodbye to the warmth of the country I had called home for a short while.

I think that my time in Brunei taught me a valuable lesson:

Don’t judge a place by what others say or a lack of information.

Sure, you may not always like what you see, but there will always be something that you will like. You just need to look hard enough to find it!

-Penny from GlobeTrove

A slow travel experience across the Portuguese Camino de Santiago

3. From Half-Day Hiker To Walking Holiday Enthusiast

I’ve always enjoyed walking but never in a million years did I imagine I’d end up walking over 200 kilometers (~124 miles) in 10 days, become a fan of walking holidays, and end up developing self-guided hiking routes in Portugal with a local tour operator as part of my business.

The shift from being someone who was content with an easy three-hour walk to an experienced multi-day hiker began with a brief taste of the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrim trail through Portugal to Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.

Back in 2013 I did a guided one-day hike along one of the most beautiful stretches of the Camino, north of Ponte de Lima. It’s also one of the most challenging sections so it was hard work, but the views from the top of Labruja Mountain made the climb worthwhile.

My guides were so enthusiastic about the thrill of arriving at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral after the challenges of day after day on the Camino that I began to think I might want to give it a go, despite not being religious.

Fast forward a few years and I set off from Barcelos with a friend of mine to follow the Portuguese Camino de Santiago.

Apart from suffering from chronic back pain, I thought I was quite fit but nothing had prepared me for how utterly exhausted I would feel at the end of each walking day.

This was truly a slow travel experience, as we were averaging about 20 kilometers (~12 miles) per day and by the time we reached our hotel, I would barely have enough energy to get cleaned up and find food before collapsing. I had envisioned plenty of sightseeing but that ended up being minimal.

Quickly, I realized the moral of this unique travel experience:

The Camino was all about making the most of the journey rather than the destination.

For me, that was quite a shift in thinking as I am usually all about getting to where I want to be as soon as possible so that I can start exploring. It was, perhaps, also my first step on the path towards mindfulness.

I will never forget the sense of achievement and progress at the end of each walking day, and the relief and pride I felt when we finally made it to Santiago de Compostela.

We met people who had walked the Camino several times and I can totally understand how it can become addictive.

-Julie from Julie Dawn Fox in Portugal

A story about traveling the Banda Islands

4. A Story About Traveling & Its Ripple Effect

Tucked away in far eastern Indonesia is a tiny archipelago of islands called the Banda Islands.

Apart from world-class snorkeling and some crumbling colonial buildings, the Banda Islands are mostly forgotten and would be described as a backwater by all accounts.

However, the Banda Islands are possibly the main reason that I am who I am today.

Well, the Bandas are the original Spice Islands.

Nutmeg used to grow on this tiny group of islands alone and nowhere else. The Dutch colonized Indonesia and promptly became the owners of islands where money grew on trees.

The only problem was that Indonesia was so far away that they needed a halfway stop to and from Indonesia.

That’s where my travel experience story comes in.

The same Dutch East India Company that traded in spice set up a halfway station at the foot of Table Mountain to break up their long journey. As a result, my Dutch ancestors arrived in the southernmost point in Africa , and generations later we are still there.

When I visited the Banda Islands, it dawned on me how something happening on the other side of the world can ripple out and affect people on the other side of the planet.

And I’m not the only one!

The spice trade was so important to the Dutch that they even traded a tiny island in the Banda archipelago for a much bigger island…Manhattan.

Yes. That Manhattan.

Before visiting the Banda Islands I never really knew about this part of my history.

Along with the spice that the ships carried back to Amsterdam, it also carried slaves. These slaves, more often than not, ended up in Cape Town.

Just like my European ancestors, they too became a part of Africa and added another shade to our beautiful Rainbow Nation.

It was in the Banda Islands that I realized how much of my culture, food, stories and even words in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, actually originated in Indonesia.

Because of these tiny islands, I am a true mix of Europe, Africa, and Asia. While I always thought I knew how all things in life are somehow connected, I didn’t really grasp it until my visit to Indonesia.

This could have been a resort travel experience story, as I went to Indonesia to swim and snorkel and relax on the world’s best beaches. And while I did get to do that, I also learned a lot about who I am as a person, my people, and my country…on another continent.

My visit to the Bandas has sparked a fascination with Indonesia, which I have visited seven times since. I’m already planning another trip to this spectacular country!

-De Wet from Museum of Wander

5. Awakening My Spirit In A Costa Rican Cloud Forest

In February 2017, I was just coming out of a decade of mysterious chronic illness that had shrunk my world.

And one of the things that finally helped me to resurface during the previous year was an online Qi Gong course I stumbled upon:

Flowing Zen .

To the casual observer, Qi Gong looks a lot like its better-known cousin, Tai Chi — the ancient art of moving meditation — but it’s actually energy medicine for healing.

In fact, it’s commonly used in Chinese hospitals.

My daily practice that year made such a difference for me that I dangled a reward for myself:

If I stuck with it all year, then I’d head to Sifu Anthony’s annual retreat in a cloud forest in Costa Rica the following February.

And I did! It was my first trip out of the country for more than a decade.

Just like that, I booked a solo trip — something I hadn’t done since I was an exchange student to Europe 30 years earlier — to San Jose where I met up with a dozen strangers and Sifu Anthony, our Qi Gong master.

We boarded a tiny bus and rode up, up, up around carsick-inducing curvy mountain roads into a magical cloud forest jungle where we finally arrived at The Blue Mountain (“La Montana Azul”) for a weeklong Qi Gong retreat.

There were no Internet or distractions here — just delicious organic vegetarian meals made with love and shared with the community under a gorgeous open-air palapa.

There were also colorful tropical birds singing in the jungle, as well as the largest arachnid I’ve ever seen in my gorgeous (but also roofless) room for a little extra adventure.

I’d felt a little energy movement during my year of online practice, but during that week on The Blue Mountain, my body began to really buzz with Qi — life force energy — as I Lifted the Sky, stood in Wuji Stance, and practiced Shooting Arrows.

I felt electrified and joyful.

And that was when everything changed for me.

At home, I had a successful career as a freelance writer, but I decided during my week in the cloud forest that I wanted more from life.

I wanted to explore the beauty, diversity, nature, and culture in every corner of the world.

And I wanted to share this intoxicating joyful feeling of life-giving freedom and adventure with anyone who wanted to come along for the ride.

Shortly after that, at age 53, I launched my travel blog.

Dreams really do come true. They are just waiting for you to claim them.

-Chris from Explore Now or Never

Enter your name + email below to subscribe and snag access to my FREE Ultimate Travel Planning Resource Library, full of trip planners, cheat sheets, packing lists, personality quizzes, travel guides, Google Map itineraries + more! // Privacy Policy .

6. From Rome With Love

This wasn’t the way I wanted to see Rome.

Sure, I was happy to spend Christmas in Rome and stand in awe of the city’s many iconic attractions. But, life wasn’t meant to turn out like this.

I was supposed to go to Rome with my mom back in 2012; however, life had different plans, because a week before our trip, I got a double kidney infection. A condition that required a week of hospitalization.

Although I was annoyed I had missed my trip, it wasn’t the end of the world since I was fine and everything seemed okay…until my mom developed a cough.

A cough that later became a heartbreaking diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer.

My mom spent the final months of her life in chemo, desperately trying to fight a horrific disease so that she wouldn’t let her family down.

And she didn’t.

Instead, she showed us how to never give up on life, even if it was a losing battle.

So, when she eventually passed away, I booked a trip to Rome.

Sure, it wasn’t the trip I had hoped for. But, I knew that as her daughter, it was my job to live enough for the both of us.

And that’s exactly what I did.

Was I an anxious, sad, angry mess of a person?

Absolutely. I was still getting used to a world that my mother wasn’t a part of.

And honestly, you never get used to that world. You just deal with it because you don’t really have a choice.

But I also knew that I wanted my mom to live on through me and that I didn’t want to live a life where the haunting phrases “should of,” “could of,” and “would have” swirled through my head and ate away at my happiness.

So, I went. I packed a boatload of tissues, sobbed my heart out, and attended Christmas mass at the Vatican.

I also threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, walked through the Colosseum, chowed down on gelato, and spent two weeks doing all the things my mom and I had wanted to do.

And that’s when it hit me. I had never gone to Rome alone because my mom had always been there with me. Maybe she wasn’t physically there, but I thought of her and felt her presence every minute of every day.

Her presence also reminded me that life isn’t about the things we buy or the money that we have.

It’s about making memories with the people we love; people that never really leave us since they are constantly influencing our lives in countless ways.

And after my trip to Rome, I finally knew that my mom would always be there because she had forever changed my life in the best possible way.

-Kelly from Girl with the Passport

7. Studying In Finland

One of my major life-turning points happened during my exchange studies in Finland.

Until then, I was studying at a university in Prague, had a part-time job at a renowned management-consulting firm, and thought I was on the right path in life.

At the University of Economics where I studied it was notoriously difficult to get on an Erasmus exchange trip abroad since the demand was huge. Everyone wanted to go!

Regardless, I decided to sign up early for my last semester, just to see what the process was like to be better prepared for applying again in a year.

I did make it through all the three rounds and surprisingly got a spot at a University in Turku, Finland! I was ecstatic. The success brought its own challenges, but once you set your eyes on the goal, nothing can stop you.

And I had the time of my life in Finland.

I met the most amazing people, traveled a ton, partied a lot, and bonded with friends from all over the world.

Given I was one of the few people there who really needed to pass all her courses and additionally write her thesis, I managed to run on an impossible sleep schedule of four hours per night. But I made it!

My studies in Finland opened up my horizons, too.

The summer after, I wrapped up my life in Prague and went on to study in Germany and China . The whole time I traveled as much as possible, often going on solo adventures. It was only a matter of time when I’d start my own travel blog.

My Finland adventure led me to a life of freedom made up of remote work, travel blogging , and plenty of traveling. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. And it gave me one of my favorite true adventure stories that I can now share with others.

-Veronika from Travel Geekery

8. How Cuba Changed My Life

One of my favorite inspiring stories about travel takes place in Cuba.

I visited Cuba in February 2013 and it changed my life — and I like to think it did so for the better.

Interestingly, I expected a completely different country and was compelled to write about it when I got back home.

But let me tell you more.

I read copious amounts of blogs and travel diaries to prepare myself for the trip to Cuba so I thought I’d go in with a fairly good idea of what to expect. Each and every post I read spoke of marvelous landscapes, pristine beaches, crumbling but charming cities, and welcoming locals.

All of it was true, in my experience — except for the locals.

I didn’t find them so welcoming. At least, not genuinely so. They only seemed to welcome me as far as they could get something in exchange: money, clothes, pens, soap, you name it.

Each and every day in Cuba was a challenge to avoid the scams, to avoid being ripped off, to fight off each and every attempt of people trying to take advantage of me. I usually managed, but it was exhausting and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Once I got back home I felt the urge to write about my experience — not for other sites or papers as I’d often do. This time I was afraid I’d be censored.

So I opened my own blog. With zero tech knowledge, zero understanding of online content creation and SEO, I started writing and telling people what they should really expect during a trip to Cuba.

I’d put up the occasional post, but continued with my usual job.

At the end of the year, my contract as a researcher in international human rights law at the local university ended, and I decided to stop pursuing that career for a while.

I packed my bags and left for a long-term trip to Central and South America . I started writing on the blog more consistently and learning, and eventually took my blog full-time , turning it into a career.

As of today, I have never looked back and have no regrets.

The one thing I’ll do, as soon as I can, is travel to Cuba to say thank you — because it changed my life in a way nothing else has ever done.

-Claudia from Strictly Sardinia

9. A Short Travel Story About Finding Inner Peace In Patagonia

Life in London is hard.

Life in London as a gay single brown refugee is harder.

Juggling between work, my passion for traveling, and the prejudices that I dealt with on a daily basis eventually took their toll on me and I reached a breaking point.

The fact that I couldn’t return home to see my family and being away for them for almost nine years was enough to hammer in the final nail in the coffin.

I almost had a nervous breakdown and in that moment of desperation, which I knew would define the rest of my life, I took a month off and headed to Patagonia.

It was probably the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. The 36 hours it took me to get to El Chalten from London were tiring but Patagonia blew me away.

On my first day there I did a 28-kilometer (17-mile) hike which included a steep mountain climb. It was incredible how moving through the forest helped me clear my mind. And as I stood in front of Laguna de Los Tres, the rain and clouds gave way to sunshine and a rainbow.

I felt at peace.

The countless hikes, great food, and the warmth of locals in Chile and Argentina helped me get back in my skin and find the peace I was missing in my heart.

Nature is indeed the best medicine when it comes to stress relief and I won’t be coy about hugging trees to speed up the process (it did).

Patagonia was life-changing for me.

The beauty of nature struck me at each point and every time I thought it wasn’t possible to beat the view, the next one did just that.

I came back a changed, resilient, and most importantly, a happy person.

-Ucman from BrownBoyTravels

10. Looking Inwards & Making Connections With Strangers

It was decades before I traveled solo for the first time in my life.

This trip — a six-day escape to Colorado — was the first trip that was not for business or family reasons but just to travel and discover.

As I prepared for it, I had a strange feeling of excitement and nerves at the same time. I had all sorts of thoughts and doubts:

Would it be fun?

Would I be bored?

Would I stay in bed all day or would I bounce with excitement to do the next thing?

I wasn’t sure. Little did I know that it was going to be a memorable journey of self-discovery.

As a good wife and mom, for me travel is always about the family; always thinking of who would enjoy what. It’s about family time and bonding. It’s about creating memories and travel stories together. It’s all so wonderful.

But on a solo trip who would I connect with? What would I say?

Well, I found that I got to do anything I wanted!

Usually when I travel with my family, if I feel like going on a drive that’s not on the itinerary or getting a snack no one else is interested in, we simply don’t do that.

So it was weird to just go do it. Really, that’s a thing?

As for making connections, it was so easy to meet locals while traveling and also to connect with other travelers. Honestly, I had conversations everywhere — on planes, while hiking, in restaurants, in the hotel lobby.

It was quite an eye-opening experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of foster kids, a cookie baker, a professional photographer, a family of Fourteener hikers, and an internationally ranked marathon runner.

The inspiring stories I discovered were amazing and nothing like my wonderful safe life at home.

In terms of travel safety , I got to go rock climbing, solo hiking, driving up a Fourteener, eating alone.

And it was all fine. Actually, it felt surprisingly normal.

It was was just me, my SUV, and my backpack for a week. Most of all, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know existed.

It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are endless and there is so much more out there to explore and be wowed by!

-Jyoti from Story At Every Corner

life-changing travel experience stories in Colombia

11. A Solo Hike To Find Connection

I have traveled solo many times, but I admit I was a bit uneasy booking my trip to Colombia . In part, due to the country’s dark past. But also because I desperately wanted to do the Cocora Valley hike, and if I’m honest, I was terrified.

This hike is located in the Coffee Triangle, an area recognized for its beauty as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It features both rainforest and a stunning green valley speckled with cartoonishly-tall wax palms rising 200 feet or more.

It’s incredibly beautiful.

It’s also a long hike and quite challenging — it generally takes between six and eight hours and there is a steep area with over 3,000 feet of elevation within a quarter of a mile.

I wasn’t in hiking shape, so I was a little concerned. But, worst of all for me were the seven dodgy-looking suspension bridges.

I’m terrified of heights.

And, I’d be going alone.

I decided to go anyway and I met an incredible woman on the bus to Salento, the town near Cocora. She was also traveling solo and we agreed to hike together.

The town is a backpacker enclave and we met up with a small group of people all traveling solo. As the days passed, our group got larger and it was such a magical experience.

As much as I love city travel, this small town won my heart.

My new friend and I set off on the hike and met two other women who were nervous to do the hike. We all went together.

When we got to the first suspension bridge, I paused. I was embarrassed to admit my fear, but the bridge swayed widely and there was nowhere to hold onto.

When they realized how out of my comfort zone I was and how scared I felt, everything changed. Instead of me dealing with it alone, they were all there to encourage me.

One crossed the bridge to encourage me from the other side and they stayed off of it to limit the sway. Crazy enough, I not only crossed the seven suspension bridges, but I also crossed one an extra time when we went the wrong way on the trail.

I did it!

I was prepared to be blown away by Cocora Valley’s beauty, but what I wasn’t expecting was what a life-changing travel experience my time there would be.

-Sam from My Flying Leap

short stories on travel and sustainability

12. How A Pet Sitting Travel Experience Led To A Passionate Career

We wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it.

By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.

We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise landed a three-month gig in a beautiful house in the US Virgin Islands — with an infinity pool overlooking the British Virgin Islands.

A month into our sit, we had explored the destination pretty well and so had a lot of time on our hands. We managed to secure another sit in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.

Inspired by a Canadian couple that had previously stayed at our Grenada housesit, we decided to start our own travel blog. We began by writing about The Virgin Islands, highlighting the beautiful beaches and funky bars.

But for every photo of a beautiful beach there were 10 photos of trash.

It was hard to ignore the plastic pollution issue, especially on such pristine and remote beaches. So, we began to share photos of the trash we saw and how much we could pick up on our daily dog walks.

The more we looked into plastic pollution, the more we realized the severity of the global plastic pandemic. From that point, we used our platform to create awareness and highlight ways to say no to plastic and travel plastic-free .

We changed our daily routines, our way of living, and even our diets to accommodate more organic foods and little to no plastic packaging.

It’s been over three years now and we continue to do what we can. This journey has led us to some amazing places, working with great conscious brands and even organizing a country-wide beach clean-up campaign in Grenada.

Our aim now is to keep on going.

We love connecting with like-minded people and love the shift over the last few years that brands have made towards creating more sustainable products and services.

It’s been an amazing few years that was sparked by a conversation about pet sitting. Who would have guessed?

-Aaron & Vivien from The Dharma Trails

13. Learning To Slow Down The Hard Way

On Christmas of 2017, I was born again.

We like to spend our Christmas holidays somewhere warm abroad, and that year we chose Uganda.

Nature, wildlife, and sunny days were a blessing when it was so cold and dark in Europe. Life was beautiful, and we had a rental car and a busy schedule ahead to explore the country.

This is where this short travel story turns into one of my more scary travel experiences :

At Murchinson Falls National Park, we had a car accident.

I lost control of the car, and it rolled over, destroying windows, chassis, and engine.

But we were alive! My right arm was severely injured, but we managed to walk to our lodge, not far inside the park.

In the lodge, I was happy to learn that there was a pretty decent American hospital in Masindi that was just a one-hour drive from the lodge. Moreover, one of the lodge’s guests was a nurse who cleaned the wound while we were waiting for the taxi from/to Masindi.

The hospital took care of us, and after a couple of injections and stitches, I was ready to head to our new hotel in Masindi; however, my wound required daily dressing and more injections, so we were asked to stay in town for a few days.

Masindi is the kind of place where you may want to stop to buy some food or water, but that’s it.

The town’s highlights were the market and our daily visit to the hospital, so we ended up looking for the small things, chatting with the medical staff, the hotel staff, the people in the market, and learning more about their customs.

We learned to slow down the hard way.

When we were allowed to leave, we took a road trip south through the country to see something else. We did not care about our travel bucket list anymore — we were alive, and we wanted to enjoy Uganda’s unique nature and its people.

In the end, our Uganda trip was not about the places that we saw, but the people that we met. It was travel for experience vs sightseeing.

I hope to revisit Uganda one day, with a stop at Masindi for some food, water, and maybe something else.

-Elisa from World in Paris

14. A Cycling Trip To Remember

During the summer of 2019, I cycled solo from London to Istanbul. This huge bicycle tour took me 89 days and through 11 countries.

As you might expect, it was a challenging yet incredible journey, which saw me pedal along some of Europe’s greatest rivers, pass through some of its best cities, and witness some of its most beautiful scenery.

It’s becoming more and more important for us to think about the impact that travel can have on our environment. This was the inspiration for my bicycle tour; I wanted to find more responsible ways to explore the world and avoid flights where possible.

I discovered that bicycle touring is one of the most eco-friendly ways to travel, as using nothing but a bicycle and your own pedal power you can carry everything you need while covering surprising distances each day.

The simplicity of life and the sheer amount of time I spent cycling alone gave me a lot of time to just think . This really helped me to come to terms with some personal problems rooted in my past and, as a result, I arrived solo in Istanbul with newly found confidence, independence, and liberation.

Cycling across the entire European continent may seem like an impossibly daunting task, but I assure you, it will make you feel like a new person, just like it did for me.

-Lauren from The Planet Edit

15. How The Caribbean Shaped Me Into A Fully Sustainable Traveler

One of my first international trips as an adult was traveling around the Caribbean .

I checked into my hotel in Jamaica and asked for a recommendation for a local place to eat. The receptionist told me that under no circumstances should I should go into the town because it was really dangerous, but that — to my luck — the hotel’s restaurant offered wonderful Caribbean food.

I pondered my options:

Did I really want to spend all my time on the beach without getting to know a single local?

I was a very inexperienced traveler and very young, but there was only one answer to my question:

Absolutely not. I was not going to be visiting a new place and staying hostage in a hotel chain. So out I went.

The poverty hit me in the face. After only seeing fancy resorts, the reality was hard to swallow.

A few locals approached me and were super curious as to what I was doing there alone, since most tourists didn’t go there.

I told them I was interested in meeting them and experiencing their culture. And just like that, I was embraced.

We met more people, had some food, and then we danced the night away. They had so little, yet they wanted to share it with me. They wanted to make me feel welcome.

And they undeniably did.

The next morning all I could think about was how all the money most tourists spend goes to big corporations. The locals have to be thankful if they get a job that pays minimum wage, while foreign businesses earn millions.

I have always been environmentally conscious, but this trip made it clear that sustainability goes well beyond nature and wildlife.

It’s also about communities.

From then on I always look for locally owned accommodation, eateries, guides, and souvenirs.

Sustainability, with everything it entails, became a motto for me and changed the very essence of the way I travel.

-Coni from Experiencing the Globe

16. Lessons From My Students In Peru

One of the most life-changing trips I’ve ever been on was a volunteering experience in the stunning city of Cuzco in Peru.

I spent a month there teaching English and Italian to a group of local adults. And even though my time there was short, the travel experience was so humbling that it changed my outlook on life.

My lessons took the form of active conversations, which essentially turned into a massive multilingual cultural exchange between me and my students. Hearing my students talk about their lives — and realizing just how different they were from mine — made me look at my own life with a fresh new perspective.

One person spoke about the three years he spent living in a jungle with his dad, where they fed off of animals they hunted in order to survive.

Another student told me about her ultimate dream of mastering English so that she could become a tour guide and have a more stable future.

For me, these stories were a reminder of just how small I am in this world and how much we can get consumed by the small bubbles we live in.

Most of all, my students showed a passion and appreciation for life that I’d never witnessed before.

This is true for the locals I met in Cuzco in general. The quality of life in Cuzco is very modest; hot water is scarce and you learn to live with little.

But the locals there do way more than just that — they spontaneously parade the streets with trumpets and drums just because they’re feeling happy, and their energy for the simple things in life is incredibly contagious.

It was impossible to not feel inspired in Cuzco because my students always had the biggest smiles on their faces, and the locals showed me again and again that simply being alive is a blessing.

I went to Peru to teach, but ended up learning more from my students and the locals there than they did from me.

Ever since I got back from that trip, I made it a goal to slow down and not take the simple things in life for granted.

Every time I get upset about something, I think about the Peruvians in Cuzco parading their streets in song and pure joy, and I tell myself to stop complaining.

-Jiayi from The Diary of a Nomad

inspiring traveling stories about overcoming obstacles

17. Braving Travel With Chronic Pain

Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful city with a prominent cathedral positioned centrally within the city.

While the historical cathedral attracts numerous visitors, even more well-known is the route to Santiago de Compostela, Camino de Santiago –- the world-famous pilgrimage route that has a plethora of trailheads and ends in Santiago.

Home to locals, students, English teachers, and those on a spiritual pilgrimage, personal conquest, or a great outdoor hiking excursion, Santiago is a magical city.

My introduction to Santiago de Compostela doesn’t begin on the pilgrimage route, yet ends with a spiritual awakening analogous with those other unique pilgrimage stories.

It was my first solo trip abroad teaching English in Spain, a country that’s always been on my travel bucket list. A small town outside of Santiago was selected as the school I’d be teaching at for the year.

Unknowingly, this teach abroad program chose the perfect city for me to live in.

A year prior, I suffered a traumatic brain injury that left me unable to function normally and complete average tasks. Migraines, headaches, and dizziness became my body’s normal temperament, a hidden disability invisible to the naked eye.

Braving travel with chronic pain was the first lesson I learned during the trip.

The vast green outdoors and fresh dew from the morning rain enlivened me daily and reminded me about the importance of slowing down so I could enjoy traveling with my hidden disability.

I also learned to stop often for daily tea breaks and to embrace the long lunch hour, siestas , with good food, company, and a nap to rest.

Meeting locals , indulging in local food, and learning Spanish allowed me to connect deeply with the beautiful culture of Santiago. After all, my dream was to travel to Spain, and I more than accomplished that dream.

Difficult or not, I learned to own my dream and I was more than surprised with the results.

Who knew that a year after my injury I’d be traveling the world with chronic pain, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.

-Ciara from Wellness Travel Diaries

18. A Blessing In Disguise

2020 has been a wild year for all of us and foreign students in China are no exception. As soon as the malevolent virus began to make its rounds in China, our university sent us home for “two weeks.”

However, within a short time, countries began to shut their borders and these “two weeks” turned into months, a full year even.

Crushed by the burden of online lectures and virtual labs, my boyfriend and I packed our bags and caught one of the first flights to his home country of Pakistan.

I had always been an over-ambitious traveler. I believed numbers were everything — the number of countries I visited, the number of hours I spent on a plane, the number of international trips I took in a year. These numbers were what defined me.

My feet were constantly itching and I never liked to spend more than a few days in a place before heading to the next country. Revisiting a place felt superfluous to me.

That’s why I was hoping to spend a month or two in Pakistan and then continue to check new countries off the list — after all, my online classes finally granted me the freedom to “work on my numbers.”

But as is usually the case in 2020, things turned out quite different from what I had expected. Borders remained closed and worldwide infections stayed rampant. At this point, I have already spent nearly half a year in Pakistan.

During this peculiar time, however, an amazing thing happened:

My mindset about travel started to change and I began to look at my long stay in Pakistan as perhaps my most valuable travel experience ever.

I may not have visited dozens of countries like in previous years but my experiences were deeper than ever before.

From trekking to one of the world’s tallest mountains to sharing tea with heavily armed officers at nearly 5,000 meters altitude to exploring hidden beaches in the most secluded regions to spontaneously being invited to village homes, my adventures in Pakistan couldn’t have been more incredible. They opened my eyes to the sheer diversity of many countries and completely transformed my idea about traveling.

It took me nearly a full year of heavy restrictions on international travel and a few months in one of the world’s most fascinating countries to give up on my superficial ideals and become a more mature traveler.

This time will always have a special place in my heart.

-Arabela from The Spicy Travel Girl

short travel stories about life-changing trips

19. What The River Taught Me

My travel story takes place in the summer of 2017 — the final summer before I graduated university — as it continues to play a significant role in the person I’ve become.

When I say that, people ask me if it was the portion of the summer I spent solo backpacking in Europe . And to their surprise, it wasn’t. It was actually the latter portion of the summer where I stayed closer to home.

For July and August I worked as a canoe guide leading whitewater canoe trips on remote rivers in Canada. It was here that I got to canoe the powerful and iconic Missinaibi River, a river that continues to influence me all these years later.

The Missinaibi River flows from the powerful Lake Superior to the even more powerful salty waters of James Bay. Here, I led a group of eight teenagers through dozens of whitewater rapids over 500 kilometers (~311 miles).

With no cell service for 25 days, we were forced to disconnect from anything other than the river.

During this trip I learned two important lessons:

First, I learned to be confident in my own abilities as a leader and problem solver.

There were a few rapids where my campers’ boats flipped and I had to rescue the campers and the canoes. One rescue saw two boats flip on a mile-long rapid. It took six hours to make it down the rapid, and during this time I managed stuck canoes and crying campers.

And while this was one of the most difficult rescues I’ve done, I was amazed at how calm I was throughout it. I gave clear directions, prioritized effectively, and kept my campers safe throughout the entire experience. Following the rescue, I had a newfound sense of confidence in my abilities.

The second lesson I learned on the Missinaibi was the power of disconnecting from society and connecting with the people around you.

A wild river commands all of your attention. Each day, you and your group must take down camp, load canoes, paddle up to eight hours while navigating both rapids and portages, get to a new campsite, set up camp, cook dinner, and go to bed.

And without the distraction of technology, your attention has nowhere else to be. You focus on the river and your teammates.

As someone who had wrestled with anxiety and depression prior to this summer, I felt at total ease on the trip. Now I seek societal disconnection and human connection as much as I can.

Sometimes the most profound, life-altering trips are the least expected trips closer to home.

-Mikaela of Voyageur Tripper

Do you have any inspiring travel experience stories about life-changing trips to share?

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These stories are so much fun to read! Thanks so much for putting a post like this together. It’s great to be able to check out other people’s blogs and read about other people’s experiences!

Always great to read about travel experiences of others. Some great stories to read over coffee. I’ve Pinned your post for future reference and to share with others. Will check out each story author’s blog as well. Great Job! 🙂

Amazing story for new traveler like me thanks for your contribution

Short Essay: My Adventurous Trip

A couple of short essay examples on an adventurous trip.

Table of Contents

My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 1

Traveling is one of the most exciting experiences one can have in life. It allows us to explore new places, meet different people, and create unforgettable memories. My recent adventurous trip was one such experience that I will cherish for a lifetime. The trip involved hiking through a dense forest, crossing a river, and reaching the summit of a mountain, where I enjoyed a breathtaking view. Despite facing challenges such as unpredictable weather and rough terrain, the trip was a memorable and rewarding experience. In this essay, I will share my experience of this adventurous trip, highlighting the challenges, the exhilarating moments, and the memories that I will cherish forever.

Our trip started with hiking through a dense forest. The forest was full of tall trees, colorful flowers, and chirping birds. The trail was steep and rocky, and we had to be careful while walking. The forest was so dense that we could hardly see the sun, and the air was full of freshness. We had to take breaks in between to catch our breath and hydrate ourselves. As we walked, we could hear the sound of a river, and after a few hours of hiking, we finally reached the river. The river was wide and had a strong current, and we had to cross it to continue our journey. We had to be careful while crossing the river, and we held hands to maintain our balance. The water was cold, and we could feel the current pushing us, but we made it to the other side, feeling proud of ourselves.

The highlight of our trip was reaching the summit of the mountain. The climb was steep and exhausting, but the view from the top was worth every effort. From the top of the mountain, we could see the entire valley, and it was a sight to behold. The sky was clear, and the sun was shining brightly, making the view even more beautiful. We took pictures and sat there for a while, enjoying the serene beauty of nature. We could hear the sound of birds and feel the cool breeze on our faces. It was a moment of pure bliss, and we felt grateful for being able to witness such a beautiful view.

Despite facing challenges such as unpredictable weather and rough terrain, the trip was a memorable and rewarding experience. We had to face unexpected rain and strong winds, which made the climb more challenging. We slipped a few times, but we managed to keep going, motivated by the thought of reaching the summit. The journey was long and tiring, but the memories we created were worth it. We bonded with our fellow travelers, shared laughter, and created memories that we will cherish forever. The trip taught us to be resilient, to push ourselves beyond our limits, and to appreciate the beauty of nature.

In conclusion, my adventurous trip was an unforgettable experience that allowed me to explore the beauty of nature, push my limits, and create memories that I will cherish forever. Hiking through a dense forest, crossing a river, and reaching the summit of a mountain were challenging but rewarding experiences. Despite facing unpredictable weather and rough terrain, we persevered and created memories that will stay with us for a lifetime. The trip taught us the importance of resilience, perseverance, and appreciation for the beauty of nature. It was an experience that I will always treasure and would love to relive again.

My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 2

My adventurous trip was an experience of a lifetime. It was a chance for me to step out of my comfort zone and explore the great outdoors. The trip was filled with activities such as hiking, camping, and kayaking. The beautiful scenery and wildlife sightings made the trip memorable. Overcoming challenges such as inclement weather and physical exertion added to the sense of accomplishment and adventure. In this essay, I will share my experiences of this unforgettable trip.

Hiking was one of the most exciting activities of the trip. We started our hike early in the morning, and the trail was challenging, but the view was worth it. The trail led us through dense forests, and we saw wildflowers, butterflies, and birds along the way. We stopped for a break at a small waterfall, and the sound of the water was soothing. As we continued our hike, we came across a steep incline, which was physically demanding, but we pushed on. At the peak, we were rewarded with an incredible view of the valley below. The sense of accomplishment we felt after completing the hike was indescribable.

Camping was another activity that added to the adventure of the trip. We set up our tents near a lake, and the view was breathtaking. We spent the night sitting around a campfire, roasting marshmallows, and sharing stories. The night sky was clear, and we saw countless stars, which was a beautiful sight. The next morning, we woke up early to go kayaking on the lake. The water was calm, and we saw fish jumping out of the water. We even saw a family of ducks swimming nearby. Kayaking was a peaceful and relaxing experience.

The trip was not without its challenges, however. We faced inclement weather during our kayaking, and it was physically demanding. The waves were strong, and the water was choppy. We had to navigate our kayaks through the waves carefully. At times, it was nerve-wracking, but we were able to push through and complete the activity. Overcoming these challenges added to the sense of adventure and accomplishment.

In conclusion, my adventurous trip was an experience that I will cherish forever. The activities such as hiking, camping, and kayaking, the beautiful scenery and wildlife sightings, and the challenges we faced made the trip unforgettable. It was an opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone, explore the great outdoors, and create memories with friends. I hope to have more opportunities like this in the future.

My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 3

Going on an adventurous trip is an experience that many people crave. It is an opportunity to explore new destinations, push oneself to the limit, and create unforgettable memories. I recently had the chance to embark on one such journey, and it was an experience that I will never forget. My adventurous trip involved hiking through a dense forest to reach a remote waterfall. Along the way, I encountered challenging terrain and had to navigate through rough terrain. Despite the difficulties, the stunning views and sense of accomplishment made the trip a truly unforgettable adventure. In this essay, I will describe my trip in detail, highlighting the challenges and the rewards that came with it.

The first part of my adventurous trip involved hiking through a dense forest to reach a remote waterfall. The trail was not well-marked, and the terrain was challenging, consisting of steep inclines, muddy patches, and slippery rocks. The dense foliage made it difficult to see the path ahead, and we had to rely on our instincts and map reading skills to find our way through. The forest was alive with the sounds of birds and small animals, and the air was fresh and invigorating. As we got closer to our destination, the sound of rushing water became louder, and we knew we were getting close. Finally, after several hours of hiking, we arrived at the waterfall, and the sight before us was breathtaking. The waterfall was a powerful force of nature, cascading down from a height of over 100 feet. The water was crystal clear, and the surrounding rocks were covered in moss and ferns. It was a sight that made all the hiking and exertion worth it.

The second part of my adventurous trip involved navigating through rough terrain. The terrain was rocky and uneven, and we had to be careful not to slip or fall. At some points, the trail was so steep that we had to use ropes to climb up or down. The weather was also unpredictable, and we had to be prepared for sudden rain or wind. Despite the challenges, the sense of adventure and excitement kept us going. We were a group of friends, and we encouraged and supported each other along the way. We shared food and water, helped each other over difficult patches, and cheered each other on when we reached a milestone. The journey was not just about reaching the destination; it was also about the bonds we formed and the memories we created.

The final part of my adventurous trip was the sense of accomplishment that came with it. After several hours of hiking, navigating challenging terrain, and enduring unpredictable weather, we finally reached our destination. The feeling of standing in front of the waterfall, surrounded by the beauty of nature, was indescribable. It was a sense of accomplishment that came from pushing ourselves beyond our limits, from facing our fears and overcoming them. We took pictures, laughed, and savored the moment. It was a feeling that stayed with us long after the trip was over. The adventurous trip was not just a physical journey; it was also a journey of the mind and the spirit.

In conclusion, my adventurous trip was an experience that I will never forget. It involved hiking through a dense forest to reach a remote waterfall, navigating through rough terrain, and the sense of accomplishment that came with it. The trip was challenging, but it was also rewarding. It reminded me of the beauty of nature, the importance of perseverance, and the power of friendship. It was an experience that taught me to appreciate the simple things in life and to embrace the adventure that comes with it.

About Mr. Greg

Mr. Greg is an English teacher from Edinburgh, Scotland, currently based in Hong Kong. He has over 5 years teaching experience and recently completed his PGCE at the University of Essex Online. In 2013, he graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BEng(Hons) in Computing, with a focus on social media.

Mr. Greg’s English Cloud was created in 2020 during the pandemic, aiming to provide students and parents with resources to help facilitate their learning at home.

Whatsapp: +85259609792

[email protected]

Essay About Traveling: Why Should You Start Travelling Today?

Traveling is an extraordinary experience every person needs to try. It reveals a whole new and exciting world out there, opens out your inner strength, and presents with unforgettable adventures. Read an example of essay about traveling to learn more and get inspired.

Traveling – The First Thing on Your To-Do List

There is nothing quite like traveling, like seeing a new place for the first time or returning to a favorite one. People of all ages, from all around the world, go to foreign places for different reasons – mainly, for work, family, and leisure. Whether by plane, train, ship or by automobile, traveling is generally a pleasurable experience, at least for the people who can financially afford comfortable and safe methods of travel. But it has more benefits than satisfying one’s need to make money, like, for example, to see loved ones and enjoy oneself on vacation. There are other benefits of traveling worth mentioning and trying out.

HOW DIETING AND EXERCISING CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE?

One of the significant benefits of traveling is finding and keeping inner balance. Too often, people get wrapped up in their lives, their daily routine of working, sleeping, eating, and living. They become self-absorbed to the point when their fatigue affects their health, their happiness , and their future.

It’s a great, big world out there with billions and billions of people, who each day live their life and have their own unique experiences.

Traveling is a humbling experience. It is merely a superior feeling: to go to another country, and to see people live differently, speak differently, look differently. This is how one comes to understand how big and crazy our world is.

Another benefit to traveling is coming to see one’s native country in a different light, in a different way. It is possible through making a comparison of your home and a foreign location. Sure, this is impossible without traveling. Going to unknown places create new perspectives and inspiration.

Away from home, one comes to understand what “home” actually is and what it means.

Perhaps their native country is not as free as they had been told or initially thought it to be, for example. One does not understand what it means to be a citizen of their native country until they have seen it from a distance, from another, completely different country. When traveling elsewhere and having to live according to a foreign place’s laws and social norms, one immediately thinks of how things are done in their own country and culture and begins to favor one way or another. This changes how one feels about their native land, whether in a better or a worse way. This notion can be applied to various characteristics, such as women’s rights, human rights, customs and traditions, beliefs, a trust for government, etc. Traveling is always beneficial for the individual experiencing it.

Another great benefit of traveling is a life experience. Many people do not have the luxury of going to another country, or even to another city of their own country.

Traveling gets a person out of their comfort zone, away from all their ordinary pleasures and comforts and way of doing things.

This forces them to be adventurous, to live life to the fullest, to make the most of this precious gift and use the time they have to discover new things, and meet new people. This is similar to what people experience when reading a fictional story. They get to become whoever they are reading about, just like when traveling, they get to become the citizens of the country they are visiting, even if it is only for a short time. They live outside their life.

To conclude, traveling is the perfect entertainment for a person of any age. On the one hand, it helps people to form a better understanding of themselves, their beliefs, and their lives. On the other, it also provides people with a better understanding of the world they live in, even if it’s beyond their immediate environment. Moreover, it may even help a person to feel connected to the many people living in the world. Nevertheless that their lives may never meet or they are so utterly different that they may as well be from different planets.

There are no hesitations. Go and explore the world. In the meantime, Privatewriting.com will take care of your academic success from homework help to harvard format essay . Just place an order and get ready for the trip without a second thought.

Read next: Should Parents Be Held Responsible for the Crimes of Their Children?

Persuasive Essay

The primary purpose of persuasive essay is to persuade or convince the reader that a certain claim or viewpoint is right. A persuasive essay can be written from either a subjective or an objective point of view simply because persuasion is found in a variety…

Full list of the most trending argumentative essay topics

Top-50 topics you would love to work on PLUS useful tips on writing a flawless argumentative essay. As you may already know, an argumentative essay is a writing genre where the student establishes a position on a given or chosen topic and then uses evidence…

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A trip to the last Blockbuster on Earth

Visiting the bend, ore., store is like stepping back in time.

BEND, Ore. — My family used to go to Blockbuster every Friday. Walking to the store on 19th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan, we’d wander through the aisles of DVDs, negotiating what to rent for our weekly ritual of making pizzas and watching movies, and I’d try to sweet-talk my way into a Nerds Rope or a box of watermelon Sour Patch Kids.

We cycled through countless discs before my parents signed up for Netflix’s DVD service. Our local store closed in 2010 — the year Blockbuster corporate filed for bankruptcy protection — and less than a decade later, almost all of Blockbuster’s 9,000 stores had followed suit.

These days, there’s only one Blockbuster left on Earth . It’s in Bend, Ore., about 820 miles from my home in Los Angeles.

But I’ve traveled farther for stupider reasons.

So I took a trip to Bend with my partner, Reanna (who loves DVDs even more than I do). Our journey there involved an extensive delay that stretched into 13 hours of travel — via cab, bus, plane and rental car — but it all felt worth it when we caught a glimpse of the glowing yellow Blockbuster sign in the distance.

‘A huge movie town’

Most of the tourism in Bend revolves around the city’s outdoor wonders, attracting people who love hiking, skiing, canoeing and exploring the local terrain.

But the city has always been filled with movie lovers, according to Ken Tisher, who owns the Blockbuster on Revere Avenue with his wife, Debbie.

“For those who don’t know, Bend is a huge movie town,” Ken said in the 2020 documentary “ The Last Blockbuster .”

The Tishers opened their first video rental store as Pacific Video in the early 1990s. With business booming, they launched two more locations, but when Blockbuster moved into town they had one option for survival: They made the store on Revere Ave into a Blockbuster franchise in 2000.

As a chain, Blockbuster peaked in 2004, when there were 9,000 locations worldwide. The company has shut down thousands of locations over the years, making the Bend Blockbuster the last Blockbuster in the United States in 2018 (after two stores in Alaska closed), and the only one in the world by April 2019 (after the second-to-last Blockbuster in a suburb of Perth, Australia, shut down).

Sandi Harding, the general manager of the Bend Blockbuster, has been working there since 2004. She watched the franchise’s decline from the front lines, giving countless interviews and figuring out how to keep the store stocked and relevant.

Since there’s no corporate supplier left, Harding buys candy and snacks in bulk from Costco and has figured out how to print and laminate new membership cards. Most of the DVD vendors that they have worked with have closed over the years, and the ones that are still open have minimum orders that are far too big for her store.

“I can’t afford to purchase movies through them, so I’m back to buying 100 percent of everything at Walmart and Target,” Harding told me.

The staff’s DIY efforts pay off: Harding estimates that they still get 500 to 1,000 customers over the course of a weekend.

“It’s all tourism driven now, where before it was all rental driven,” Harding said. “So it’s totally a different experience.”

The last on Earth

We made it to Bend a little before 7:30 p.m., exhausted but relieved that we didn’t miss our chance to indulge in some retro movie magic. It was a sleepy Sunday evening, so the store was nearly empty.

“The winter months used to be our bread and butter, like, that’s when we were the busiest: when people couldn’t go outside or travel,” Harding said. “Now it’s the opposite, the winter is quiet. So this time of year we get lots of projects done. We all take vacations, and we do things, because the summer is when we’re just crazy busy.”

Most of the store is straight out of the early 2000s: The walls are lined with DVDs and VHS tapes to purchase or rent; the location’s original triangular checkout counter has endured the test of time; and the staffers still wear blue and yellow shirts (though they’re not forced to don the retro polos ).

“The ticket tee that we have out there is the T-shirt we’ve always had here at the store for our employees,” Harding said, referring to the ticket stub design on the shirts that her employees wear. “But on the back of it used to say ‘your ticket to the movies,’ and then it went to ‘last one in America,’ and now it’s ‘last one on the planet.’”

The rentals are still reasonably priced: New releases cost $3.99 and older DVDs are just 99 cents. And these days, nobody complains about late fees.

“Now everybody is like, ‘Aw man, we miss it,’ which is always funny,” Harding said. “You’d be surprised how many people insist on paying their late fees now to support the store.”

Unsurprisingly, rentals and late fees aren’t enough to keep the store afloat. Harding estimates that 80 percent of its business comes from selling merchandise, including T-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, postcards, keychains and popcorn-scented candles.

Most of that merch is made by local artisans, since Harding wants to support her fellow Oregonians.

“We’re proud of the fact that we’re able to source as much as we can here in town,” she said. “If we can’t have them made in Bend, we buy them through another small business.”

“People come in and see [the merch] and then I remember why we’ve got it, because people smell the candle or they see the T-shirt and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this so brings me back,’” she added.

A blast from the past

As I browsed the aisles of Blockbuster, it felt like I stepped into a memory. The space was still warm and comforting, the snack and drink options were abundant, and the staff clearly had great taste.

There are a few things in the store that bring visitors back to 2024: Some of Russell Crowe’s costumes — passed along from the closed Anchorage store — sit next to a wall of Blockbuster memorabilia and letters that have been sent to the store. A modest living room occupies one corner, reminiscent of the Airbnb experience the store offered in 2020. The checkout counter also has a guest book, so visitors can sign their names and leave sentimental notes.

“I opened up an account the other day for somebody from Seattle, and she was like, ‘We’re on our way home, but we had to stop and rent a movie. I’m going to mail it back to you.’” — Sandi Harding, general manager of the Bend Blockbuster

“We have almost 30 of those little guest books signed,” Harding said. “I’m actually looking forward to the day when I can sit down and just go through them all.”

The store has welcomed visitors from all six habitable continents, and Harding can rattle off plenty of states and countries that people have traveled from. She tries to be as accommodating as possible for those who are passing through town and want the full rental experience.

“I opened up an account the other day for somebody from Seattle, and she was like, ‘We’re on our way home, but we had to stop and rent a movie. I’m going to mail it back to you,’” Harding said. “Sometimes people just do it and walk around outside and put it back in the drop box, just because they want to have that experience of renting the movie and returning it.”

Reanna and I had one night in Bend at an Airbnb with a DVD player , so we took our time perusing the shelves. Instead of doom scrolling through a streaming app on my TV, or trusting an algorithm to pick something out, I looked at a wall of the staff’s Valentine’s Day picks, feeling a kinship with Santana, who recommended the 2018 remake of “A Star is Born,” and Aidan, whose picks included “Moonlight” and “Knocked Up.”

That sense of connection is really what we’re looking for when we visit an old school video store.

“Video stores and movie theaters have always kind of felt like my church,” Jared Rasic, a local critic, said in “The Last Blockbuster” documentary. “They’ve always felt like the place where I go to feel the most like the calm, normal human being that I’ve always wanted to be.”

Reanna and I eventually settled on renting “Gentlemen Broncos,” a sci-fi comedy directed by the man who made “Napoleon Dynamite,” and “Vanilla Sky,” a thriller starring Tom Cruise. After grabbing some merch, a locally brewed Blockbuster beer and a respectable assortment of candy and microwave popcorn, we were ready to check out.

We also got two membership cards along with our wares; small yellow and blue reminders that sit in our wallets and remind us that we might get the chance to go back one day.

Julia Carmel is a Los Angeles-based writer. You can follow them on X: @julcarm .

A photo caption incorrectly said a visitor was from Cambi, Ore. They are from Canby, Ore. This article has been corrected.

Where to go

Our favorite destinations: These 12 destinations are at the top of our wish list for where to go this year, without crowds. In 2023, we explored an Alaskan bear paradise, Brooklyn’s famous pizzerias and a hidden gem in Italy, among other highlights ..

Travel like a local: Residents share their favorite places in our top city guides: New Orleans , Rome , Tokyo and Mexico City .

National parks: This comprehensive guide has details on all 63 U.S. national parks. For a deep dive into five of the most well-known, you can listen to the Field Trip podcast . Then explore tips from locals for visiting Yosemite , Glacier and Everglades .

Tales from the road: Dolly Parton has opened a new resort at her theme park complex in Tennessee, while “Fixer Upper” stars Chip and Joanna Gaines have a new hotel in Waco . Road-trippers may be just as excited to see the cartoon beaver at Buc-ee’s , and bargain-hunters should consider a stop at the Unclaimed Baggage store in Scottsboro, Ala.

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When I Became a Birder, Almost Everything Else Fell Into Place

An illustration showing a birder standing quietly looking through binoculars in four scenes. In the third scene, he says, “Amazing.”

Mr. Yong is a science writer whose most recent book, “An Immense World,” investigates animal perception.

Last September, I drove to a protected wetland near my home in Oakland, Calif., walked to the end of a pier and started looking at birds. Throughout the summer, I was breaking in my first pair of binoculars, a Sibley field guide and the Merlin song-identification app, but always while hiking or walking the dog. On that pier, for the first time, I had gone somewhere solely to watch birds.

In some birding circles, people say that anyone who looks at birds is a birder — a kind, inclusive sentiment that overlooks the forces that create and shape subcultures. Anyone can dance, but not everyone would identify as a dancer, because the term suggests, if not skill, then at least effort and intent. Similarly, I’ve cared about birds and other animals for my entire life, and I’ve written about them throughout my two decades as a science writer, but I mark the moment when I specifically chose to devote time and energy to them as the moment I became a birder.

Since then, my birder derangement syndrome has progressed at an alarming pace. Seven months ago, I was still seeing very common birds for the first time. Since then, I’ve seen 452 species, including 337 in the United States, and 307 this year alone. I can reliably identify a few dozen species by ear. I can tell apart greater and lesser yellowlegs, house and purple finches, Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks. (Don’t talk to me about gulls; I’m working on the gulls.) I keep abreast of eBird’s rare bird alerts and have spent many days — some glorious, others frustrating — looking for said rare birds. I know what it means to dip, to twitch, to pish . I’ve gone owling.

I didn’t start from scratch. A career spent writing about nature gave me enough avian biology and taxonomy to roughly know the habitats and silhouettes of the major groups. Journalism taught me how to familiarize myself with unfamiliar territory very quickly. I crowdsourced tips on the social media platform Bluesky . I went out with experienced birders to learn how they move through a landscape and what cues they attend to.

I studied up on birds that are famously difficult to identify so that when I first saw them in the field, I had an inkling of what they were without having to check a field guide. I used the many tools now available to novices: EBird shows where other birders go and reveals how different species navigate space and time; Merlin is best known as an identification app but is secretly an incredible encyclopedia; Birding Quiz lets you practice identifying species based on fleeting glances at bad angles.

This all sounds rather extra, and birding is often defined by its excesses. At its worst, it becomes an empty process of collection that turns living things into abstract numbers on meaningless lists. But even that style of birding is harder without knowledge. To find the birds, you have to know them. And in the process of knowing them, much else falls into place.

Birding has tripled the time I spend outdoors. It has pushed me to explore Oakland in ways I never would have: Amazing hot spots lurk within industrial areas, sewage treatment plants and random residential parks. It has proved more meditative than meditation. While birding, I seem impervious to heat, cold, hunger and thirst. My senses focus resolutely on the present, and the usual hubbub in my head becomes quiet. When I spot a species for the first time — a lifer — I course with adrenaline while being utterly serene.

I also feel a much deeper connection to the natural world, which I have long written about but always remained slightly distant from. I knew that the loggerhead shrike — a small but ferocious songbird — impales the bodies of its prey on spikes. I’ve now seen one doing that with my own eyes. I know where to find the shrikes and what they sound like. Countless fragments of unrooted trivia that rattled around my brain are now grounded in place, time and experience.

When I step out my door in the morning, I take an aural census of the neighborhood, tuning in to the chatter of creatures that were always there and that I might have previously overlooked. The passing of the seasons feels more granular, marked by the arrival and disappearance of particular species instead of much slower changes in day length, temperature and greenery. I find myself noticing small shifts in the weather and small differences in habitat. I think about the tides.

So much more of the natural world feels close and accessible now. When I started birding, I remember thinking that I’d never see most of the species in my field guide. Sure, backyard birds like robins and western bluebirds would be easy, but not black skimmers or peregrine falcons or loggerhead shrikes. I had internalized the idea of nature as distant and remote — the province of nature documentaries and far-flung vacations. But in the past six months, I’ve seen soaring golden eagles, heard duetting great horned owls, watched dancing sandhill cranes and marveled at diving Pacific loons, all within an hour of my house. “I’ll never see that” has turned into “Where can I find that?”

Of course, having the time to bird is an immense privilege. As a freelancer, I have total control over my hours and my ability to get out in the field. “Are you a retiree?” a fellow birder recently asked me. “You’re birding like a retiree.” I laughed, but the comment spoke to the idea that things like birding are what you do when you’re not working, not being productive.

I reject that. These recent years have taught me that I’m less when I’m not actively looking after myself, that I have value to my world and my community beyond ceaseless production and that pursuits like birding that foster joy, wonder and connection to place are not sidebars to a fulfilled life but their essence.

It’s easy to think of birding as an escape from reality. Instead, I see it as immersion in the true reality. I don’t need to know who the main characters are on social media and what everyone is saying about them, when I can instead spend an hour trying to find a rare sparrow. It’s very clear to me which of those two activities is the more ridiculous. It’s not the one with the sparrow.

More of those sparrows are imminent. I’m about to witness my first spring migration as warblers and other delights pass through the Bay Area. Birds I’ve seen only in drab grays are about to don their spectacular breeding plumages. Familiar species are about to burst out in new tunes that I’ll have to learn. I have my first lazuli bunting to see, my first blue grosbeak to find, my first least terns to photograph. I can’t wait.

Ed Yong is a science writer whose most recent book, “An Immense World,” investigates animal perception.

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That Viral Essay Wasn’t About Age Gaps. It Was About Marrying Rich.

But both tactics are flawed if you want to have any hope of becoming yourself..

Women are wisest, a viral essay in New York magazine’s the Cut argues , to maximize their most valuable cultural assets— youth and beauty—and marry older men when they’re still very young. Doing so, 27-year-old writer Grazie Sophia Christie writes, opens up a life of ease, and gets women off of a male-defined timeline that has our professional and reproductive lives crashing irreconcilably into each other. Sure, she says, there are concessions, like one’s freedom and entire independent identity. But those are small gives in comparison to a life in which a person has no adult responsibilities, including the responsibility to become oneself.

This is all framed as rational, perhaps even feminist advice, a way for women to quit playing by men’s rules and to reject exploitative capitalist demands—a choice the writer argues is the most obviously intelligent one. That other Harvard undergraduates did not busy themselves trying to attract wealthy or soon-to-be-wealthy men seems to flummox her (taking her “high breasts, most of my eggs, plausible deniability when it came to purity, a flush ponytail, a pep in my step that had yet to run out” to the Harvard Business School library, “I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me, given their intelligence”). But it’s nothing more than a recycling of some of the oldest advice around: For women to mold themselves around more-powerful men, to never grow into independent adults, and to find happiness in a state of perpetual pre-adolescence, submission, and dependence. These are odd choices for an aspiring writer (one wonders what, exactly, a girl who never wants to grow up and has no idea who she is beyond what a man has made her into could possibly have to write about). And it’s bad advice for most human beings, at least if what most human beings seek are meaningful and happy lives.

But this is not an essay about the benefits of younger women marrying older men. It is an essay about the benefits of younger women marrying rich men. Most of the purported upsides—a paid-for apartment, paid-for vacations, lives split between Miami and London—are less about her husband’s age than his wealth. Every 20-year-old in the country could decide to marry a thirtysomething and she wouldn’t suddenly be gifted an eternal vacation.

Which is part of what makes the framing of this as an age-gap essay both strange and revealing. The benefits the writer derives from her relationship come from her partner’s money. But the things she gives up are the result of both their profound financial inequality and her relative youth. Compared to her and her peers, she writes, her husband “struck me instead as so finished, formed.” By contrast, “At 20, I had felt daunted by the project of becoming my ideal self.” The idea of having to take responsibility for her own life was profoundly unappealing, as “adulthood seemed a series of exhausting obligations.” Tying herself to an older man gave her an out, a way to skip the work of becoming an adult by allowing a father-husband to mold her to his desires. “My husband isn’t my partner,” she writes. “He’s my mentor, my lover, and, only in certain contexts, my friend. I’ll never forget it, how he showed me around our first place like he was introducing me to myself: This is the wine you’ll drink, where you’ll keep your clothes, we vacation here, this is the other language we’ll speak, you’ll learn it, and I did.”

These, by the way, are the things she says are benefits of marrying older.

The downsides are many, including a basic inability to express a full range of human emotion (“I live in an apartment whose rent he pays and that constrains the freedom with which I can ever be angry with him”) and an understanding that she owes back, in some other form, what he materially provides (the most revealing line in the essay may be when she claims that “when someone says they feel unappreciated, what they really mean is you’re in debt to them”). It is clear that part of what she has paid in exchange for a paid-for life is a total lack of any sense of self, and a tacit agreement not to pursue one. “If he ever betrayed me and I had to move on, I would survive,” she writes, “but would find in my humor, preferences, the way I make coffee or the bed nothing that he did not teach, change, mold, recompose, stamp with his initials.”

Reading Christie’s essay, I thought of another one: Joan Didion’s on self-respect , in which Didion argues that “character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.” If we lack self-respect, “we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out—since our self-image is untenable—their false notions of us.” Self-respect may not make life effortless and easy. But it means that whenever “we eventually lie down alone in that notoriously un- comfortable bed, the one we make ourselves,” at least we can fall asleep.

It can feel catty to publicly criticize another woman’s romantic choices, and doing so inevitably opens one up to accusations of jealousy or pettiness. But the stories we tell about marriage, love, partnership, and gender matter, especially when they’re told in major culture-shaping magazines. And it’s equally as condescending to say that women’s choices are off-limits for critique, especially when those choices are shared as universal advice, and especially when they neatly dovetail with resurgent conservative efforts to make women’s lives smaller and less independent. “Marry rich” is, as labor economist Kathryn Anne Edwards put it in Bloomberg, essentially the Republican plan for mothers. The model of marriage as a hierarchy with a breadwinning man on top and a younger, dependent, submissive woman meeting his needs and those of their children is not exactly a fresh or groundbreaking ideal. It’s a model that kept women trapped and miserable for centuries.

It’s also one that profoundly stunted women’s intellectual and personal growth. In her essay for the Cut, Christie seems to believe that a life of ease will abet a life freed up for creative endeavors, and happiness. But there’s little evidence that having material abundance and little adversity actually makes people happy, let alone more creatively generativ e . Having one’s basic material needs met does seem to be a prerequisite for happiness. But a meaningful life requires some sense of self, an ability to look outward rather than inward, and the intellectual and experiential layers that come with facing hardship and surmounting it.

A good and happy life is not a life in which all is easy. A good and happy life (and here I am borrowing from centuries of philosophers and scholars) is one characterized by the pursuit of meaning and knowledge, by deep connections with and service to other people (and not just to your husband and children), and by the kind of rich self-knowledge and satisfaction that comes from owning one’s choices, taking responsibility for one’s life, and doing the difficult and endless work of growing into a fully-formed person—and then evolving again. Handing everything about one’s life over to an authority figure, from the big decisions to the minute details, may seem like a path to ease for those who cannot stomach the obligations and opportunities of their own freedom. It’s really an intellectual and emotional dead end.

And what kind of man seeks out a marriage like this, in which his only job is to provide, but very much is owed? What kind of man desires, as the writer cast herself, a raw lump of clay to be molded to simply fill in whatever cracks in his life needed filling? And if the transaction is money and guidance in exchange for youth, beauty, and pliability, what happens when the young, beautiful, and pliable party inevitably ages and perhaps feels her backbone begin to harden? What happens if she has children?

The thing about using youth and beauty as a currency is that those assets depreciate pretty rapidly. There is a nearly endless supply of young and beautiful women, with more added each year. There are smaller numbers of wealthy older men, and the pool winnows down even further if one presumes, as Christie does, that many of these men want to date and marry compliant twentysomethings. If youth and beauty are what you’re exchanging for a man’s resources, you’d better make sure there’s something else there—like the basic ability to provide for yourself, or at the very least a sense of self—to back that exchange up.

It is hard to be an adult woman; it’s hard to be an adult, period. And many women in our era of unfinished feminism no doubt find plenty to envy about a life in which they don’t have to work tirelessly to barely make ends meet, don’t have to manage the needs of both children and man-children, could simply be taken care of for once. This may also explain some of the social media fascination with Trad Wives and stay-at-home girlfriends (some of that fascination is also, I suspect, simply a sexual submission fetish , but that’s another column). Fantasies of leisure reflect a real need for it, and American women would be far better off—happier, freer—if time and resources were not so often so constrained, and doled out so inequitably.

But the way out is not actually found in submission, and certainly not in electing to be carried by a man who could choose to drop you at any time. That’s not a life of ease. It’s a life of perpetual insecurity, knowing your spouse believes your value is decreasing by the day while his—an actual dollar figure—rises. A life in which one simply allows another adult to do all the deciding for them is a stunted life, one of profound smallness—even if the vacations are nice.

Deadly April storm batters Northeast, snarling travel and knocking out power to half a million

A powerful April storm is hitting the Northeast on Thursday, dumping rain and snow with howling tropical force winds, prompting major airport delays and whiteout road conditions, and knocking out power to over half a million customers.

The strong storm system has been crawling across the U.S. since the weekend — and has already led to several weather-related deaths.

In Pennsylvania, two people died in separate incidents in which a tree fell on the car they were in during Wednesday’s storms. An elderly man died in Delaware County, and an elderly woman , described as in her early 80s, was also killed in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, NBC Philadelphia reported.

Another death was reported in Armonk, New York, Wednesday evening after a tree fell onto a car, killing the operator, North Castle police said.

As of Thursday morning, the system is making its way out of the Northeast, with 5 million people under wind alerts across New England and 8 million under winter alerts.

The system will produce heavy, wet snow over north-central New England and northeast New York and pass through Maine on Thursday, the National Weather Service Prediction Center forecast. An additional 12 inches of snowfall is possible through Friday.

A woman exits a tornado damaged building on April 3, 2024 in Sunbright, Tenn.

The system will create “significant impacts from heavy snow and wind,” and perilous travel due to whiteout conditions, snow-covered roads, tree damage and power outages, the NWS said.

Disrupted travel, crashes and power outages

Air travel has already been affected, with over 1,200 delays and over 300 cancellations inside, into or out of the U.S. reported, according to Flight Aware data — all amid a week of busy spring break bookings.

The storm system has also wreaked havoc on roads.

In New Hampshire, state troopers responded to three tractor-trailer rollover crashes in less than seven hours by late Wednesday. State police urged locals “to avoid unnecessary travel.” Massachusetts State Police also responded to multiple crashes Wednesday evening, describing road conditions as “poor.”

Powerful winds have whipped through the region since Wednesday, downing power lines and trees.

Nationally, over 500,000 customers are without power — including over 235,000 in Maine, 53,000 in West Virginia and over 51,000 in New York as of 8:30 a.m., according to PowerOutage.us.

By 2:30 p.m. ET, more than 640,000 were without power with over 334,000 out in Maine and over 173,000 out in New Hampshire.

In New Hampshire as of early Thursday, more than 100,000 customers were without power, the state’s division of homeland security and emergency management said. The agency’s State Emergency Operations Center has been activated in response to the storm.

New York State Electric and Gas, which serves the upstate region, said Wednesday’s severe weather led to 180 downed wires and more than 30 broken poles.

“NYSEG pre-staged more than 2,100 additional line workers and tree personnel across its service areas in preparation for the storm and are currently shifting resources to support its hardest hit areas,” the company said.

Utility company National Grid said it was responding to stormy conditions in upstate New York by increasing staffing, extending overnight shifts, bringing in additional resources from other states and Canada, and pre-staging crews in areas anticipated to be “most severely impacted.”

In Brookfield, Connecticut, a mother and her three kids narrowly escaped injury Wednesday when stormy winds caused a tree to fall on their car, completely crushing it.

In Maine, where heavy snow is forecast, Gov. Janet Mills directed all state offices to be closed Thursday and urged locals to “take proper precautions and to prepare for possible power outages.”

Lightning strikes the Statue of Liberty in New York on Apri 3, 2024.

More wind, rain and snow

The storm has already drenched much of the Northeast, with a daily record of 1.75 inches recorded at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday, 1.55 inches in Central Park, 1.49 inches in Philadelphia, and 1.84 inches in Newark, New Jersey.

Even Lady Liberty was hit by rumbling thunderstorms, struck by a bolt of lightning Wednesday evening around 6 p.m. in a stunning moment captured by a photographer from Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

The system has also brought with it dangerously high winds, with a gust of 67 mph reported Wednesday in Nantucket, Massachusetts, 64 mph in Stamford, Connecticut, 59 mph in Manhattan and 54 mph in Boston.

Winds are forecast to stay strong through Thursday, with isolated wind gusts of 50-60 mph possible especially for coastal New England.

People with umbrellas during heavy rain in New York on April 3, 2024.

Alerts for minor to moderate coastal flooding also remain in effect through Thursday evening for 26 million from the Delmarva Peninsula to the Maine coast.

The system will slowly move off the Northeast coast by Saturday.

Breaking News Reporter

Kathryn Prociv is a senior meteorologist and producer for NBC News.

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Angel Reese Bids Farewell to LSU, College Basketball With Heartfelt Video Essay

Author: Karl Rasmussen

In this story:

Angel Reese announced Wednesday morning that she intends to enter the 2024 WNBA draft following LSU's season-ending defeat against Caitlin Clark and Iowa in Monday's Elite Eight .

Shortly after her announcement, Reese bid farewell to the Tigers and all of her fans across the country on a more personal level, sharing a heartfelt video essay to her social media accounts. In the video, Reese thanked her supporters and expressed her gratitude to those who helped her along her journey.

"I'm leaving college with everything I've ever wanted," Reese said. "A degree. A national championship. And this platform I could have never imagined. This is for the girls that look like me, that's going to speak up on what they believe in, it's unapologetically you. To grow up in sports and have an impact on what's coming next.

"This was a difficult decision, but I trust the next chapter because I know the author. Bayou Barbie, out."

Grateful for these last four years and excited for this next chapter. #BAYOUBARBIEOUT pic.twitter.com/EvkzUW08JV — Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) April 3, 2024

Reese played two seasons at LSU after transferring from the University of Maryland. With the Tigers, she racked up a multitude of accolades and won a national championship last season, vaulting herself into the national spotlight in the process. Across 69 games for LSU, Reese averaged 20.9 points and 14.4 rebounds.

After wrapping up a legendary college career and bidding an emotional farewell to her fans, Reese has officially declared her intention to enter the WNBA draft, where she projects as a first-round pick in what figures to be a loaded draft class.

Latest NCAAB News

Jan 13, 2024; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) smiles after scoring against the Orlando Magic during the first quarter at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports

Former Kentucky Wildcats are favorites or near the top for every important NBA Award

Indiana State Sycamores center Robbie Avila (21) recovers a rebound from Southern Methodist Mustangs guard Emory Lanier (24) on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, during the first round of the NIT at the Hulman Center in Terre Haute.

Minnesota to face No. 1 Indiana State in NIT second round

Louisville Men's Basketball Head Coach Hot Board 2.0

Rams guard Zek Montgomery heads to the floor after trying to drive between Bulldog defenders John Poulakidas and Danny Wolf in the first half.

The Auburn Tigers need to watch out for these two Yale stars

2024 NCAA Tournament: How to watch Gonzaga Bulldogs vs. McNeese State Cowboys, live stream, TV channel for first round matchup

Here's how fast the eclipse's shadow could move on Monday, April 8

The 2024 solar eclipse, set for April 8, is a few days away, and with the next total solar eclipse taking place in 20 years, you won't want to miss it. Many Indiana viewers will have a front row seat to watch the rare phenomenon.

Can you guess how fast a solar eclipse shadow travels? Here's what we know about the upcoming event:

Anxiety and the eclipse: What is 'eclipse sickness?' How to manage stress, anxiety on April 8

How fast does an eclipse shadow travel?

According to a post from the National Weather Service of Indianapolis on X, formerly Twitter, an eclipse shadow travels at speeds between 1,100 and 5,000 mph. Near the equator, it travels at around 1,100 mph. and increases in speed as it approaches the poles.

2024 eclipse path

How much of the eclipse will i see in indiana cities.

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The first year of the pandemic was an extraordinary achievement for Skift's team of reporters and editors covering the unparalleled crisis in real time. Year two tested the mettle of the team in ...
Great Travel Writing Examples from World Renowned Travel Writers
11 Great Travel Writing Examples. Writing with feeling, tone, and point of view creates a compelling story. Below are examples of travel writing that include; first paragraphs, middle paragraphs, and final paragraphs for both travel articles as well as travel books. I hope the below examples of travel writing inspire you to write more, study ...
12 Types of Travel Writing Every Writer Should Know
Round-ups. You'll recognize a round-up article when you see one, as it'll go, "40 best beaches in West Europe," or, perhaps, "20 of the greatest walks in the world!". It's a classic tool in any magazine or newspaper writer's toolbox, taking a bunch of destinations and grouping them all under one common thread.
Essay on Travel
Answer 1: Real experiences always have better value. When we travel to a city, in a different country, it allows us to learn about a new culture, new language, new lifestyle, and new peoples. Sometimes, it is the best teacher to understand the world. Question 2: Why is travelling essential? Answer 2: Travelling is an incredibly vital part of life.
Travelling Essay for Students and Children
Answer 1: Travelling is important as it teaches us a lot of things. You can learn new skills, new languages, new cultures. Moreover, you get to make new friends and try out new foods when you travel to a new place. It can be a real learning experience for all.
Essay on Travelling: Samples in 100, 200, 300 Words
Essay on Travelling in 200 words. Travelling is a captivating and enriching experience that broadens horizons, fosters personal growth, and connects individuals with diverse cultures and landscapes. It is a journey of discovery, both of the world and oneself. One of the most profound aspects of travelling is the opportunity to explore new cultures.
19 Inspiring Travel Experience Stories About Life-Changing Trips
4. A Story About Traveling & Its Ripple Effect. Tucked away in far eastern Indonesia is a tiny archipelago of islands called the Banda Islands. Apart from world-class snorkeling and some crumbling colonial buildings, the Banda Islands are mostly forgotten and would be described as a backwater by all accounts.
Short Essay: My Adventurous Trip
My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 2. My adventurous trip was an experience of a lifetime. It was a chance for me to step out of my comfort zone and explore the great outdoors. The trip was filled with activities such as hiking, camping, and kayaking. The beautiful scenery and wildlife sightings made the trip memorable.
Essay About Traveling: Why Should You Start Travelling Today?
Traveling is a humbling experience. It is merely a superior feeling: to go to another country, and to see people live differently, speak differently, look differently. This is how one comes to understand how big and crazy our world is. Another benefit to traveling is coming to see one's native country in a different light, in a different way.
Narrative Essay About Traveling The World
Narrative Essay About Traveling The World. When I was younger, I did not necessarily know what the earth holds, I was just used to my house and the places around me. I wondered what the universe had, the world's whereabouts remained secret in my eyes until I could travel and explore. But, I have not been far outside of Minnesota.
A trip to the last Blockbuster on Earth
April 6, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. EDT. The last Blockbuster in Bend, Ore., on Friday. (Isaac Wasserman for The Washington Post) BEND, Ore. — My family used to go to Blockbuster every Friday. Walking to ...
When I Became a Birder, Almost Everything Else Fell Into Place
It has proved more meditative than meditation. While birding, I seem impervious to heat, cold, hunger and thirst. My senses focus resolutely on the present, and the usual hubbub in my head becomes ...
The Cut's viral essay on having an age gap is really about marrying
The Image Bank/Getty Images. Women are wisest, a viral essay in New York magazine's the Cut argues, to maximize their most valuable cultural assets— youth and beauty—and marry older men when ...
Deadly April storm batters Northeast, snarling travel and knocking out
Air travel has already been affected, with over 1,200 delays and over 300 cancellations inside, into or out of the U.S. reported, according to Flight Aware data — all amid a week of busy spring ...
Angel Reese Bids Farewell to LSU, College Basketball With Heartfelt
Shortly after her announcement, Reese bid farewell to the Tigers and all of her fans across the country on a more personal level, sharing a heartfelt video essay to her social media accounts.
Total solar eclipse in Indiana: How fast will its shadow move?
How fast does an eclipse shadow travel? According to a post from the National Weather Service of Indianapolis on X, formerly Twitter, an eclipse shadow travels at speeds between 1,100 and 5,000 ...
15 Cheapest Places To Travel In 2024
Edit Story. Forbes Lifestyle Travel. 15 Affordable Places To Travel In 2024, Ranked In A New Report ... a total estimated cost of just $64.51 a day for the travel essentials makes this charming ...

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