What is travel writing? Why a blog?

When you hear the title “travel writer,” what comes to mind?

I could get paid to travel? I would love that job!

Would you love to be a travel writer?

Until recently, I thought travel writing included writing for guide books, blogging about recent adventures, and writing special interest pieces for magazines. For example, when I went on a vacation to Hawaii several years ago, I bought a travel book about the island I visited. It was a helpful guide; not only containing information on where to eat, sites to visit, places to stay and modes of transportation, it included insights from the author about possible activities and descriptions of her journeys on the island. The travel writer had stayed on the island for three years before writing the guide, similar to an anthropologist who lives in a village to study it. I bought it because I wanted suggestions on what to do. I wasn’t going with a tour group and wanted to make the most of my time.

Most of my experience with travel writing has been with guidebooks. I have had limited experience with blogs and travel articles. Essentially, I’ve read these while waiting in a doctor’s office or as a way to pass the time while on an airplane. As for travel blogs, I have read one or two but not with any regularity.

When I go on vacations, I usually talk to people that have been to the location. I research the sites online and use Google maps to look at the locations. Before I went to Europe for the first time, I visited with some friends who had gone on the same boat trip. It was similar to visiting a blog. I looked through their scrapbooks as they explained where to go and what to do. Whenever I get advice about traveling, I want it to be from someone I trust.

What is the history of travel writing?

According to Joan Rubies, “Travel writing [is] the varied body of writing that takes travel as an essential condition of its production” (p. 244). Explorers, merchants, pilgrims, missionaries, scientists, and colonizers wrote about their experiences traveling to the different parts of the world. Rubies concludes, “Despite the variety of forms of travel writing, it may be possible to generalize that the desire for information, for mainly practical purposes, lies behind the growth of the European genre of non-fictional travel writing throughout the Renaissance” (p. 243). As Europeans, particularly the British, conquered the world after the Renaissance, they recorded their experiences with the different natives. Europeans at home were curious about the people and habitats of the foreign places and read accounts written by the various travelers. Travel writing provided information about unfamiliar places to those who wanted to read it. In the eighteenth-century, travel writing also included “the entanglement between self and world” (Blanton, 1997, p. 11). People started to believe that when you traveled there was both an inner and outer voyage, so travel writers started to include more of their thoughts and emotions. Modern travel writing frequently includes the author’s inner journey.

Travel writing has expanded. As more people have been able to afford travel, travel guidebooks, magazines, and pamphlets have greatly increased. Even literary authors have written about their travels. One example is John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, a 1960s travelogue about his journey across America with his dog. Recently, travel writing has expanded to blogs and websites. Several people have made money blogging about their travels. For example, Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads blogs about her travels and gives advice on how to eat gluten free as you travel. Today I discovered a blog site titled, “LiteraryTraveler.” Like the LiteraryTraveler, one of the purposes of my blog is to connect literature to my travels.

What is travel writing?

Travel writing consists of all writing where travel is an essential component.

Why travel?

Francis Bacon said, “Travel for the young is a part of education, for the old, a part of experience.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Travel is a fool’s paradise.” I agree with both men. Travel is for education, experience, and fools. We learn as we travel, and our experiences teach us about other cultures and people. I also believe that traveling can make us all fools. It is necessary to become a fool in order to learn. (Remember it is usually the fool or jesters that seem to know the truth.) To be a fool means to be willing to be challenged, to fail, and to struggle with the unknown. It is what we do with the knowledge we gain that determines the value of travel. I am at a crossroad: travel is both a part of my education and experience. I also know that I will become a fool as I travel, but I will learn from my experiences.

Why do I want to write a travel blog?

I like, Henry David Thoreau, want to live life simply. I want to experience nature in the area around me and let it transform me (physically and mentally). I also want to experience the settings of the places I read about in literature. I want to visit the 9/11 memorial in person, not just online. When we can experience a place with all of our senses, our appreciation is expanded. I remember admiring the beauty of Yellowstone Park when I was a child. As a young adult, I experienced it for the first time in person. The sulfur scent was overwhelming, but it added to the experience. My last objective is to share these experiences with my friends, family, students, and others to get them to explore nature, literature, and travel writing.

References

Blanton, C. (1997). Narrating self and other: A historical overview. In Travel writing: The self and the world. (pp. 1-29). New York, NY: Twayne Publishers.

Ettenburg. J. (2013). Gluten free restaurant cards: Eat safely as a celiac. http://www.legalnomads.com/gluten-free/

Rubies, J. P. (2002). Travel writing and ethnography. In P. Hulme & T. Youngs (Eds.), Travel writing (pp. 242-260). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.