I really wanted to try add some more posts to my travel section of my blog. This week I have already published my what I ate in Prague post, and I also have a whole summary of my Prague trip coming on Sunday. I thought that I would put together a post all about how I have found writing travel posts as a newbie, and the tips I have picked up along the way. Travel is definitely a newer category on my blog, and it can scary venturing out from the your safe place and into something new.
My first tip is probably that the notes section of your phone will become your best friend. I had a page where I wrote down all the places we ate, what we ate, prices, locations and what I loved/hated. It is so easy to forget names and places and the simplest of details when you are on to go and that can be so frustrating. I found just really simple key words helped me write my posts so much easier. I also had a page of what we did and things I don't want to forget to mention. When people read travel blog posts they want to know the little things you love that's made your trip different to everyone else's. I found writing down locations was really important as the names were very confusing in Prague, and there was no way I would of remembered them when I got home and ready to write the posts.
When your writing your post make sure you put life and personality into the post. Travel posts can be hard to write and say what you did without repeatedly saying "we went here and we did this and then that". This can get really repetitive especially if you've been on a longer trip which has been busy and a lot going on. I think splitting the trip up into smaller sections and reasonable sizable chunks to work with is much more manageable. I took each day and wrote it up with all the notes which I had made on my phone. This helped me to trigger all the extra information from the trip which I wanted to ensure I got in as I did not want to miss any important details.
I thought that writing travel posts would not be too different to my usual style of blog writing, but it was quite the opposite. I think you have to be more concise and to the point as it very easy to be rambling which is fine when you are writing a beauty post on how much you lovely a certain glitter golden eyeshadow, but on a travel review I prefer all the information to get across to me without have to scrawl for days to find the nitty gritty details. People want to read the highlights, the places you are saying people must not miss on their trips. Readers also want to know whats not worth the visit, and also the reasoning's why as you have to remember what you might not like, someone else might really enjoy. I think including prices can be really helpful, as it is so hard to know how much money to take on a weekend trip. Prague was very reasonably prices and for some that is a main factor when choosing where to go on a city break.
For me personally. I found writing up the posts within a week of coming back from the trip, with all the details fresh in my brain and still having that excitement about the trip worked really well. I think that if I had left it a while post coming back, the posts would not be as in depth and my personality regarding the highs and the lows would not have shined through the same. This may work differently for everyone, but it is definitely something to bare in mind when planning your blogging schedule. I am doing a week of travel posts, as I think its great to have a little series altogether which readers can follow. They will also therefore be in an order on your blog if people are just having a general read or are having a catch up.
What are your tips for writing travel posts?
Lucy
xoxo