part time travel blogger

Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

Travel Better, Cheaper, Longer

9 Ways to Become a Successful Travel Blogger

I generally don’t write articles about how to be successful at blogging because this is a consumer travel website — not a blogging website. But I’ve seen a lot of articles on travel blogging over the years and many of those articles offer a lot of just plain ole’ bad advice.

As someone who has been blogging – very successfully – for over fifteen years , I want to share my advice on what has worked for me to counterbalance what I see is bad strategy by others.

Travel blogging is a crowded field — and it gets more crowded by the day. After all, the idea of “getting paid to travel the world” seems like an amazing thing to try to do. You get to visit wonderful places around the world on someone else’s dime!

It’s a dream job, right?

Well, first, running a successful travel blog — or any blog in any industry — is hard work and time-consuming. Putting posts up is not going to result in money falling like rain (though judging by some of the people I’ve seen on paid trips, it can at least amount to a drizzle). You have to work for it.

Blogging takes persistence. It takes consistency.

Unless you hit the Internet “viral” lottery, you should expect to plug away for a least a year before you start to see income coming in. Usually longer.

Building a blog is like building any other business: success takes time, patience, and dedication.

Think of travel blogging like the restaurant business. Just because there are a lot of restaurants doesn’t mean that they are all good or that you shouldn’t open one of your own! Instead, people who open a restaurant or desire to be a world-class chef look around and say, “I can do this better .”

That’s the mindset you should have about your travel blog.

Take a look around and go, “I can do this better!”

Here are nine things you can do to succeed in travel blogging (or any blogging field, really). Doing them will make you far more successful than most of the bloggers out there. The stuff below is what I do to grow this website.  

1. Read a Lot of Books

I am always shocked at how few travel bloggers read. Very few read any marketing, strategy, business, or self-development books. Running a blog is like running a business, and if you don’t go to “school” and constantly learn, you’re going to fall behind. Every successful person I know is a voracious reader. They constantly try to improve their skills and knowledge.

You must always be a student. You must always learn. After all, why reinvent the wheel?

Read what experts have to say, learn what works, and apply the tips you pick up to your blog. If someone has been there and done that, why try to learn that through trial and constant error? Read the best way to do it… and then do it!

I read a lot besides travel books. I consume books on marketing, management, writing, history, and biographies. Even if you only get one idea from the book, that book was worth it. I read at least one book a week and am often reading multiple books at a time. Travel, history, business, fiction — I read it all.

If you only do one thing from this list, make it this one.

Some of my must-reads are:

• Influence , by Robert B. Cialdini
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , by Stephen R. Covey
• What Got You Here Won’t Get You There , by Marshall Goldsmith
• The Psychology of Persuasion , by Kevin Hogan
• Start With Why , by Simon Sinek
• On Writing , by Stephen King
• Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing , by Don George
• Big Magic , by Elizabeth Gilbert

For more book suggestions, here is my complete list of must-read books for bloggers!  

2. Be Like Apple — Think Different

Whatever you are going to write about, try to present that subject in a way that hasn’t been done before.

If everyone is sharing sponsored content, don’t.

If everyone is writing text, make a video.

If everyone is serious, be funny.

If everyone has complex designs, go simple and visual.

If everyone is doing one-off blog posts, create a story through a series of posts that keep people coming back for more.

Always innovate — do something different and unique.

One thing we do here that makes us different is that we put a level of detail into our posts that no one else does. We make our posts the ultimate guides on destinations. We add photos, charts, and maps when we can. We add video. Contact information. We want you to come here over and over again because our resources are the best.

Many bloggers just provide a light dusting of information. We go deep.Whatever you decide to do, do it well and be unique.  

3. Invest in Your Blog

For a long time, I avoided spending any money on this website. I bootstrapped everything and viewed every expense negatively. “That designer would be nice but I can’t afford it. I’ll just create a crappier design myself.”

But I soon realized money spent wisely is an investment.

Now I pay for designers, SEO auditors, conferences, video and audio editors, copy editors, and much more. This allows me to improve the reader experience, develop useful products, work on other projects, and free up time to write. I focus on my core competencies and hire the rest out.

It’s easy to say, “Oh, that conference is too much. I don’t want to spend that much.” But if that conference results in one strong business connection that leads to new sales or a guest posting opportunity, then the conference is worth it. (See below for some good conferences to attend.)

Businesses invest in themselves. You need to do the same.

It can be easy for me to say now, but even when you start, spending a little bit of money can go a long way. I didn’t start out hiring lots of people. I hired one person, then another, then another. Even if you spend a few hundred dollars on a snazzier logo, that can go a long way to improving your readers’ experience.  

4. Be Niche

Back when I started blogging in 2008, it was easy to maintain a general budget travel website. You could cover a wide range of travel topics and face little competition. There was only a handful of bloggers. Now, there are too many long-established blogs and websites to do that. (And you’d also be way behind in Google search results.)

I recommend being as narrow and focused on your topic(s) as possible. Whether it’s RV travel , hiking and camping adventures, vegan travel , or focusing on a specific city or country, the power of search lets everyone define their niche and still be able to reach millions of potential readers. In fact, being niche now is better than trying to be a more general resource site like mine.

Moreover, focusing lets you become an expert. You can be the person to whom readers always turn for information on this subject or that destination, which allows you to cultivate a bigger presence online.

Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Go narrow. Go deep.  

5. Create Products

Businesses sell something — and so should you. Whether it’s a course, a book, t-shirts, tours, other people’s products via affiliate marketing, or by creating a Patreon, give your audience an opportunity to support your website.

Offering products for sale allows you to be independent from sponsors and brand deals and not compete with other travel bloggers for spots on press trips (see below). It allows you to scale your website and your revenue. Many products offer value to your readers by going more in-depth and in detail than a blog post usually allows.

There are very few travel bloggers that produce products. Most of the time, travel bloggers end up making money by creating sponsored content and getting paid to go on trips. That’s cool if that is something you want to do, but that is time-consuming and requires you to be constantly working (and it’s soul-sucking). You never have time to relax or do something for yourself. It’s not a hamster wheel you want to be tied to. It’s not sustainable.

Products allow you to create something once and earn revenue while sleeping, sightseeing, or getting a suntan on a beach! They give you ownership of your income and a chance for your readers to buy something from you and give back!

Trust me. Your readers want to support you. You just need to give them a way to do so.  

6. Don’t Only Do Press Trips or Sponsored Content

Why do people still buy guidebooks? Because they want an independent opinion on destinations. If everything you write is sponsored by someone, you’ll hit a limit to your number of readers.

Sure, some people won’t care and will follow your adventures no matter what, but a larger majority of people will feel that you can’t relate to their experience and will seek to find information elsewhere.

Consumers want relatable and independent travel content because they want to learn that they can make it happen too. If you’re in fashion, you can showcase all the makeup you want because a reader can look at that and think, “Yeah, I can do that too! To the mall I go!”

But when you’re talking travel, people can’t look at your free, multi-thousand-dollar trip to the Maldives and say, “Yeah, that’s realistic for me too! To Expedia I go!”

Think about it. When you see someone having a $10,000 holiday, how do you feel? Do you think “Wow! That’s pretty!” or “Wow! I can do that too! I’m going to book that!?”

Sponsored trips and one-off brand deals will help you travel and provide eye candy for your readers but it won’t create the expertise and relatable experiences that will have them coming back to you over and over for concrete advice or product purchases.

I’ve yet to see a pure travel blog get huge by only taking sponsored trips (though there are a number of fashion/travel hybrid blogs that are gigantic). The most successful bloggers in many niches avoid one-off partnerships and sponsored content because it dilutes their authenticity. (On the other hand, long-term partnerships are wonderful as they can bring value and unique deals to your readers.)

Avoid too many one-off trips paid by someone else, write about relatable experiences, and grow larger!

(And when you create products, you don’t need the money from these trips! Win-win!)  

7. Network Outside of Travel

Networking with other travel bloggers can help you become better known in the industry (which is a good thing), but by reaching outside  of the industry, you can be the travel person everyone else turns to for quotes, interviews, and advice.

And that is going to pay more dividends than just sticking to travel conferences. Yes, attend industry events (you’d be stupid not to!) but don’t attend only industry events.

Find where your expertise overlaps with other industries and meet the successful leaders in those industries. Then you can find people who know nothing about travel and be their travel expert on their websites. It’s how I’ve connected with so many finance, entrepreneurship, and tech experts. Here are some good conferences to attend:

• SxSW (Tech)
• FinCon (Finance)
• VidCon (Video/YouTube)
• Craft and Commerce (Entrepreneurship)

8. Stop Talking About Yourself

While running a blog means you are going to say “I” a lot more than in magazine or newspaper writing, that doesn’t mean you should write only about yourself. If your blog is solely a journal or trip down memory lane, write about anything you want. But if you’re looking to run a professional blog that creates a sustainable income, remember that it’s not all about you.

It is — and always will be — about the people reading your website.

Whether that is by providing practical advice, telling them a good story, or making them laugh, remember that it’s all about how you can be of service to them.

If you are going to write about yourself, do so sparingly or relate it to the bigger picture of travel on the road. Don’t write about your new shoes, what food you ate, your thoughts on whatever, or the mundane details about your life. Few people really care about that. We read writers because they connect with us on an emotional level, tell good stories, and allow us to visualize ourselves in the places they talk about it.

Far too many travel blogs are a glorified personal diary but the most successful ones tell stories of places and better their reader’s travel experience!  

9. Be Persistent

Rome wasn’t built in a day — and your blog won’t build itself overnight either. Maintain realistic expectations about your blog. Don’t expect anything but hard work for the first couple of years. Don’t rush. Build something that will last. The light is always at the end of the tunnel, but too many people give up right before the end.

Go back to my early posts from 2008 — they are horrible. I mean, really god-awful. There is a big difference between the content I produced then and the content I produce now. Sucking — at first — is part of the journey. You aren’t going to be great out of the gate.

And a lot of bloggers, expecting instant fame and success, give up. I have tons of people go “Hey, can I get a refund on my course? I just don’t have the time right now. I’ll come back to it later.”

They never do.

I see it all the time. The reason most bloggers fail is not because they have bad content but because they give up. They don’t want to put in the time to succeed. Part of success is just outlasting everyone else.

Be patient. Put in the time. And you’ll reach your goals!

Creating a travel blog is a time-consuming process. Writing about your trip to Paris is only a small part of the story. Successful blogs focus on content and are customer-centric and reader-centric. It’s easy to reach small or mid-tier status but if you want to stand out, focus on reader-centric content, being niche, creating products, and sticking to best practices.

If you follow these nine tips, I promise you’ll find success in the travel blogging industry. These are my nine guiding principles and they’ve served me well over the last decade!

And if you’re looking for more help and insight into creating a travel blog, check out my online masterclass . It’s the course I wish I had when I started blogging. It will show you how to get your website up and running, teach you how to build your brand, network, master SEO, crush it on social media, make money, and more!

If that sounds like something you’re interested in you can learn more at superstarblogging.com!

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner . It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld . If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

• SafetyWing (best for everyone)
• Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)
• Medjet (for additional evacuation coverage)

Want to Travel for Free? Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals.

Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip? Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more.

Ready to Book Your Trip? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.

Got a comment on this article? Join the conversation on Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter and share your thoughts!

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I recommend only products and companies I use and the income goes to keeping the site community supported and ad free.

Related Posts

Get my best stuff sent straight to you!

Pin it on pinterest.

• Work with Me
• Start a Blog
• Yearly Roundups
• 101 in 1001 Goals
• how to start a travel blog
• tips for new bloggers
• write me a guest post!
• Work With Me

A Passion and A Passport

Proving Travel is Possible with a Full-Time 9-5

20 Inspiring Part-Time Travelers >> Proof You Don’t Need to Quit your Job To Travel

last Updated: February 9, 2018 part-time travel

FYI: Affiliate links may be sprinkled throughout the awesome, free content you see below. I’ll receive a small commission when you purchase from my links (at no extra cost to you), which I’ll totally blow on adult things like boba tea and avocado toast. As always, thanks for the support.

Whoever tells you that quitting your job is the only way to see the world, is wrong! Absolutely, 100% incorrect!

It’s more than possible to have adventure-filled days, long weekend-breaks, and even those once-in-a-lifetime experiences while holding and maintaining a full-time job.  Sure, waking up at 7am to head to a 9-5 job everyday isn’t so glamorous, but the consistently of a paycheck is what keeps me going.

Hey, it just means we have that steady income we need to travel.  Less stress, for me at least.  Personally, I feel more comfortable knowing the amount of cash that’s being deposited into my checking account each and every month.  It makes travel budgeting and planning that much easier.  Plus, call me a diva, but I sure wouldn’t survive without my memory foam pillow and mattress each night.  And having my fridge stocked with all my absolute favorites, an absolute must!

I travel part-time >> on weekends and breaks from work. I’m a speech pathologist working in an elementary school, and thankfully have built-in extended breaks off, including two very lovely months off in the summer.

But I’m not the only one (!!!). Enjoy the stories and inspiration from those below, and let me know in the comments if you’re a part-time traveler!

MEET THE PART-TIME TRAVELERS:

1) Diane Williams | Wife with Baggage

In the last year, Diane dog-sledded with friends in Colorado, hiked glaciers with her husband, Michael, in Iceland and sipped wine with family in the vineyards of Napa Valley, California. When not traveling, Diane is a full time pediatric speech language pathologist (just like me)!  Her career affords her 5 weeks of travel time each calendar year.  Diane’s travel blog, Wife with Baggage , aims to educate working professionals on how to incorporate travel into their lives, without sacrificing their careers or families. Her articles give destination inspiration, no-nonsense time and financial budgeting tips, and even travel-inspired home décor ideas for those of us who have a home base.

Travel Tip #1: Budget your vacation time in the same way you budget your finances. Save them, plan how you will use them and value them.

Travel Tip #2: Use credit cards responsibly and make them work for you. Choose a credit card with perks and rewards that you like and are travel related. Hello free hotel stay and plane ticket!

2) Adelina Wong | Pack Me To

Adelina is the globetrotter and food lover behind the blog Pack Me To . Based in Vancouver, Canada, Adelina works in marketing, helping brands tell their stories using social media and online platforms. This year, Adelina has traveled as far as Budapest, Hungary and Hong Kong, China, but has also explored areas closer to home like the state of Oregon. By combining trips with statutory holidays, Adelina is able to squeeze more travel time out of her 10 annual vacation days. Additionally, she is able to gain a few extra travel days by working remotely or taking a few unpaid days just by asking.

3) Manouk Bob | Bunch of Backpackers

Manouk Bob is a medical doctor in the Netherlands and is currently in the final stage of her Ph.D. traject. She has about 25 vacation days per year (excluding the holidays) and this year her vacation days were spent on a Muay Thai trip to Thailand and short trips to Trapani (Italy), Athens (Greece), Tallinn (Estonia) and Vienna (Austria). This year (for the first time) she did not use all 25 vacation days because she aims to finish her Ph.D. before next summer. After this she will be ready for yet another long-term travel adventure: Overlanding from Rotterdam to Beijing.  Manouk blogs at Bunch of Backpackers.

Travel Tip: Don’t be afraid to ‘pause’ your life to travel. Things will still be there when you get back. Trust me.

4) Katie | From Shores to Skylines

Even though she’s been traveling since 2001, she has kept her full time job as a biologist, where she works in genetics research at a children’s clinic. Her passion lies in conservation biology, which she gets involved in when she travels. Also a certified diver, she spends a lot of time in or near water. This year alone she has traveled to Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico and Ireland. She gets 35 vacation days a year and extends her travels by traveling around holidays, and takes weekend trips whenever possible. Katie is the founder of  From Shores to Skylines , a blog that focuses on two of her favorite things: food and travel. She grew up in the US and still resides in Kentucky.

5) Jenn Malka | Who Needs Maps

Jack and Jenn are the two behind Who Needs Maps . Jack is from Australia and Jenn is from America, so together, they use travel as en excuse to see each other in a brand new place. Jack is a digital Marketer and Jenn works for marketing music festivals. They both love their jobs so travel is more for fun rather than an escape! Together, they have traveled bits of Australia and Southeast Asia. Australia gives you more vacation time compared to the US. Entertainment jobs are very seasonal so it was easier to get vacation time and Jack gets to work full time right from his computer!

Travel Tip #1: Just because you aren’t taking a plane to some destination doesn’t mean you aren’t traveling. You need to learn to take advantage of what is around you. Every coffee shop, restaurant, or place you have never been is still traveling. If we love to travel, take each opportunity as its own and you will be discovering new places and traveling within your own city

Travel Tip #2: Get a job that allows you to travel. Jobs like concert touring or conferences allow you to go around the country or even the world! Or find a job that you can do on your computer anywhere in the world.

6) Ashley Hufford | Under The Ash Tree

Ashley Hufford is a part-time traveler and full time NHL production assistant, currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Last year with 10 vacation days, 7 personal days and 2 “sick days” she visited 8 countries, and 17 states with her boyfriend, Brandon. F or stories of her travels, her cat and her Saturday brunches, check out her blog  Under The Ash Tree . 

Travel Tip #1:  Usually when I take a long weekend trip, I’m not picky on the destination, so I use the Sky Scanner Everywhere feature to book the cheapest ticket available. Thanks to that, I’ve gone to Denver, Charleston, Vancouver and San Francisco for way cheaper than I would have otherwise.

Travel Tip #2:  I love road trips!  My favorite app to travel with is Roadside America.  It maps your GPS location and shows you random, off-the-beaten-path attractions that are within 50 miles of where you are. It lets you explore things like Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska, Mark Twain’s grave in Elmira, NY and World’s Largest Chest of Drawers  in High Point, North Carolina, so you always have a fun place to stop on your road trip adventures!

7) Michelle | A Traveler Rests

8) Jen Seligmann | The Trusted Traveller

Jen was born and raised in beautiful Sydney, Australia where she lives with her husband Mick and works full time in administration to help pay the bills and fund her shoe collection, but mostly to fulfill her need to one day visit every corner of the world. She’s visited over 100 cities, towns and regions around the world with this list growing fast, as she tries to discover something new, whether it be in her own backyard or in a faraway land, every month. Her website, The Trusted Traveller , exists to provide others with reliable travel tips and inspiration to get them out there seeing the world in the most prepared way possible.

Travel Tip #1:  Travel doesn’t necessary mean going overseas or interstate. Discovering something new in your own backyard can we just as fulfilling to your wanderlust as a trip that takes you half way around the world. The months when I am not travelling overseas I prioritise one weekend to take a day trip or explore something new in my own city.

Travel Tip #2:  I can’t stress enough how important it is to use weekends to travel when you are working full time. On top of your allocated number of vacation days and public holidays throughout the year you have 104 weekend days that you can use to go anywhere. I like to use one or two of my vacation days around weekends to make a three or four day vacation to somewhere within a few hours from my home.

9) Anna | Travel with Penelope and Parker

Anna is a chartered accountant, working in London and the south east of England in practice.  This year Anna has been lucky enough to have some luxury breaks in the UAE, Venice, Ireland/Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Sardinia, Greece and Vienna – all justified as being birthday celebrations in a key milestone year for her husband!  Alongside this, work has taken her to Washington, Miami, Helsinki, Brussels, Zurich, and Leeds!  Anna is entitled to around 30 days of paid annual leave a year and is a master of planning short, but relaxing trips away.  She currently blogs at Travel with Penelope and Parker .

10) Lucy Dodsworth | On The Luce

11) Mary Solio | The World Is A Book

Travel Tip #1: My husband and I both work full-time and travel with our school-age kids. So, we also have to take into account school days and extracurricular activities and try to balance all of these factors. For traveling families, get the school calendar as soon as possible. Find out when the kids’ holidays are and try to plan trips during the vacation times and long weekends early.  Chances are everyone else will be traveling around that time. I set fare alerts through Kayak and airfarewatchdog to get the best airfare deals for the time we want. I also follow many of the airlines and sites like FlightDeal and Travelzoo on Twitter and turn on mobile notifications. I get their important tweets, including mistake fares, on my phone as text messages. Some of our recent trips have resulted from these low airfare alerts.

Travel Tip #2:  We love airline stopover programs (connections of more than 24 hours between flights) that extend our vacations and allow us to see more places with our limited time. Explore the multi-city option on airline websites to maximize your itinerary and budget. Iceland Air and Fiji Airlines are two of airlines we’ve used to take advantage of their stopover programs. Chances are you get to visit another country or city for little or no additional cost. These stopovers are a great way to break up the long flights especially with kids or while battling jet lag.

12) Kamila Napora | Kami and the Rest of the World

Travel Tip #1:  Plan your vacation carefully, go for holidays around bank holidays – less days off = more days for travel

Travel Tip #2:  You don’t need to go far away to find incredible places, weekends only are good for travelling too!

Travel Tip #3:  Don’t be afraid of hard work and overhours – you might take them as an extra day!

 13) Anu | Country Hopping Couple

14) Hannah | Not in Kansas Anymore

Hannah has sent postcards from African lion parks, European castles, Asian jungles, Middle Eastern deserts and beaches that nobody has yet named. She’s an Aussie journalist with a British passport living and loving doing ‘The London Thing’ while exploring Europe and beyond. As part of her day job in wine PR, Hannah travels throughout Europe and often extends her visits to make the most of these exciting opportunities. With a passion for history, writing and adventure, Hannah’s blog ‘ Not in Kansas Anymore ‘ resonates around the essentials of travel: brain, heart, courage… and a gorgeous pair of shoes.  She gets 23 days off a year, and has traveled to Germany, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, England, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, and New York in 2014.

Travel Tip #1: If you’re fortunate to be sent abroad for work, always tack on some extra leave to fully explore and always get the earliest and latest flights.

Travel Tip #2: Public holidays are obvious dates for people to get away, take some time off the week leading up to it when the destination is a little quieter. You’ve already got an extra day’s leave so you don’t need to ask for as much time off.

Travel Tip #3: Explore your own backyard. There’s always a stone unturned and often it’s much more surprising if it’s in your own town or city. Short day trips or weekend breaks all add to your portfolio of traveling experiences.

15) Samiya Selim | Selim Family

Samiya Selim is a conservation scientist and is finishing up her PhD in Marine Biology at the University of Sheffield. She combines her love of science with her passion for travel, whilst at the same time juggling family life (raising two kids with her hubby) and pursuing her other passions – yoga and running! She gets 6 weeks holiday plus Bank holidays. Fortunately, her work also allows her the flexibility as well as opportunity to travel numerous times a year. She had just been to China this October, combining travel with work. Earlier this year, she has travelled to USA for 3 weeks, did a 6-country Europe roadtrip and is now off to Morocco next week! She blogs at Selim Family.

Travel Tip #1:  Combining travel with work has been my best option for traveling more! I got to go to Rome, Turkey, Ireland, Scotland, France and now China just for conferences.

Travel Tip #2:  Travel Tips: Travel on planes the most before kids are 2, it’s free for them! Our two had been to USA and Bangladesh several times before they turned 2. Take them out of school and travel, much cheaper than in the school holidays!

16) Maria | Traveling Buzz

Maria from Travelling Buzz is a travel blogger from Bulgaria. She works full time from an office as an editor for a big online media in Bulgaria. Recently she discovered the true meaning of travelling and now she is trying to do everything possible to see as many places as she can. Maria is trying to prove to people that it is possible to keep a 9-5 job and to travel all the places you dream about at the same time. While struggling with the underpayment system in Eastern Europe, she is also trying to travel on a budget.

Travel Tip #1:  Create and follow a strict saving plan . Try to put aside a certain amount of money from your paycheck every month. When you have enough money look for a cheap flight to somewhere and just go!

Travel Tip #2:Stay local. Travelling doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to cross borders and use your passport. Most of the time there are plenty of interesting destinations to discover in your area so just take a map and see what’s next to you.

17) Ravati and Charles | Different Doors

Revati and Charles Victor, ( www.different-doors.com ) both advertising professionals from Mumbai, India sometimes wish really hard that they could clone themselves. But for all the craziness of their jobs (with hours that often extend late into the night and weekends) it’s taught them to maximise every 24 hours and multitask in an organised manner. Skills that have gone a long way in helping them travel more and blog more. While their offices grant 13 public holidays, they also get about 24 days of leave. In 2014 they’re already spent 43 days travelling in India (Ahmedabad, Hyderabad), Australia (Melbourne, driving the Great Ocean Road, the Barossa Valley, Sydney), the Philippines (Cebu) and we’ve still got Bengaluru and Kuala Lumpur coming up in December.

18) Hannah Logan | Eat Sleep Breathe Travel

Travel Tip #1: Travel during your work place’s off season: As a cake decorator there is no way I would get a chunk of time off during summer, aka wedding season. But when winter comes along and it gets a little quieter I’m much more likely to be able to get an extended holiday.

Travel Tip #2:  Go with the flow: Busy season or not, some weeks are less busy than others, and your boss probably wouldn’t mind if you asked for a Friday or Monday off.  Sure you may not be able to fly to Australia for a long weekend, but an extra day or two makes for a great road trip or city escape.

Tianna graduated with a BA in Media Communication with a focus in Journalism. She currently works for a radio station in New York doing digital strategy and social media coordination. This past year she spent time in Mexico, England, Belgium, France and Turkey. She receives only two weeks vacation a year. The other weeks she is away she doesn’t get paid for. To help afford her travels she works a second part time job on the weekends to save. She has begun to receive some sponsored work through her blog which helps off set travel costs. She doesn’t mind all the work while she is home because it means she gets to travel!

20) Vlad | Eff It, I’m On Holiday

Ever since he was a kid, Vlad has always loved traveling. From endless summers discovering his home country, Romania, to exploring new places abroad, the wanderlust feeling has never left him. With a full time job as a software developer and only 21 vacation days per year, he’s always looking for ways to travel more often. This year, his adventures took him from Paris on Bastille Day to the gorgeous Oslo and all the way to Portugal. He documents his trips on his part time travel blog, Eff It, I’m On Holiday , with stories and interesting pictures.

Travel Tip #1:  Plan short trips around weekends – for 2015 I want to travel more often by taking Thursdays/Fridays and Mondays/Tuesdays off, this way having some special extended weekends.

Travel Tip #2:  Travel in your own country – traveling abroad isn’t always possible so I like to take day trips or weekend trips to places close to home.

Are you a part-time traveler?!

Any travel tips to add, leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

January 29, 2021 at 2:43 am

We are a part time travellers for sure! Me and my partner love travelling and want to discover the world! I wish you can introduce us in this blog!

You may also love...

Subscribe To The Newsletter

FOR TRAVEL INSPO   and   FUN

No spam, only fun!

Favorite Destinations

• About Jessica
• How to Plan a Trip
• Fave Travel Companies
• Shop My Faves

Destinations

• World Travel
• San Francisco
• Northern California
• Southern California
• Central Coast

How to Be a Professional Travel Blogger – 12 Steps to Financial Freedom

Written By: The Planet D

Digital Nomads

Updated On: February 9, 2024

“How do I become a travel blogger? ” That’s a question we get a lot. People that run their own business in the real world work 18 hours a day to achieve success, and so do people who run successful travel blogs. We put in long hours every day. Luckily, we love what we do.

Our long hours at the computer and all the time spent traveling for several months of the year, doing research on the destination, and taking countless photographs…well, that’s fun for us.

Table of Contents

Do You Want to be a Travel Blogger?

Many travel bloggers decide to start a blog because they want to leave the rat race  and that is fine. I understand wanting to give up your career or take a break to travel the world. Many people are quite happy to take a year off, write about their experience, and then go back to their jobs.

Becoming a Professional Travel Blogger is Hard Work

But if you decide to become a professional travel blogger because you think it will be easy to make money , and that you will get away from the long hours and stress of business, you better think again. Travel blogging is hard work. But the hard work is worth it!

We travel blog because we love everything about it. Besides the travel and being together, we love writing, taking photographs, and making videos. Dave and I were willing to put everything we had into turning our dreams into a reality.

When we had setbacks or failures, we were willing to re-evaluate our situation, make the changes that needed to be made, and start again.

Questions to Ask Before you Become a Travel Blogger

Before you begin to think of being a professional travel blogger, ask yourself a few questions. 

Are you only in it for the money?

Making money as a travel blogger is secondary. Creating good content, giving our readers information, entertaining our followers, and being authentic are all first and foremost. When you focus on the right things, the money will come.

We have made a mid-six-figure income for several years as travel bloggers and financial freedom is within reach. Had we focused on that at the beginning of our professional travel blogger careers, I don’t think we would be where we are today.

Are you willing to make a solid plan and stick to it? 

Dave and I went into this business with a plan. We didn’t have the fantasy that it was going to be a permanent vacation, and we didn’t think that we’d suddenly be working a 4-hour work week .

To us, being a travel blogger was a career change, not a career break . We work hard, we have a plan, we are passionate about what we do, and we are willing to adapt when things don’t work out.

If you want to be a travel blogger, you’ll definitely want to read  How to Start a Travel Blog in 11 Easy Steps

Are You Willing to Put in the Time to Make your Travel Blog a Success?

It takes years for any business to succeed and being a travel blogger is no different. You most likely won’t be an overnight success as a travel blogger and you will have to work hard to meet your goals, perhaps for a couple of years, before you even start to see a payoff.

But, if travel and blogging are things that you are passionate about, you will have the time of your life getting there.

As  professional travel bloggers  we often hear these comments: “Wow, you have a great life!” “What do you mean work, you never work!” “You travel around the world having adventures and fun.” “It must be awesome to just travel all the time!” “You’re living the dream!”

And that is true! We are living the dream, but we worked hard to get here and we love every minute of it. If we can do it, you can too!

Are You Willing to Think of Your Travel Blog as a Business? 

That is the first question that you want to ask yourself. Do you want to be travel blogger for fun, or do you want to be in this business? If you just want to write about your experiences on the road for friends and family, no worries.

But, if you want to make money with your travel blog in the future, you need to start thinking of Travel Blogging as a business. Have a plan of where you want to be in a few years and be prepared to re-evaluate when necessary.

Are you willing to photograph and share everything?

Even the most mundane things like taking a photo of yourself working at the airport can help to tell the story. You need to take photographs of everything that you do in your travels.

Sometimes you won’t feel like it and would prefer to just sit and listen on a tour, but if you want to share the experience on your blog, you will have to make sure to take photographs of anything that could be relevant.

Are you willing to have your life on display?

Since we started out as travel bloggers, the business has changed a lot. At first we only had to focus on creating content for ThePlanetD blog.

Now we have to share our daily experiences social media sites that seem to change yearly. SnapChat has come and gone, Google Plus lasted for as long as a blink and now there’s TikTok and Instagram Stories, Facebook Live and so much more.

We have to constantly show people what we are doing in the moment. It’s a lot more work now. We still make the bulk of our money off of Travel Blogging and will never give up being travel bloggers. But to be a success you have to have your hand in everything.

A travel blog is the only content we truly own and control, but being a travel social media influencer is just as important.

We now have two jobs and every detail of our life is online. You need to decide if you want people peeking into your life on a daily basis.

And you will need thick skin. The Internet has evolved from a supportive loving place to a world of bot comments and nastiness. Sometimes you are gong to hear things you don’t like.

Are you ready to take notes on everything while being completely immersed in the history and culture?

Writing about your experience is not enough as a professional travel blogger.You need to learn about the history and significance of the place that you are visiting.

You need to find out about the important details, like how much it costs, how to get there, and what you will see. Heck, you need to tell your readers how to get there and what to do once they reach the destination. You can’t just float through a tour or a destination as an observer. You need to be an active participant.

You need to know about the destination and its people. You want to give your readers the best experience possible and being informed is a big part of that.

Will you put in the hours after a long day of adventures to upload photos, write a post, and edit videos?

I know, you’d rather be out drinking at the bar or turning in early after a busy day trekking , surfing , or paddling. But as a travel blogger, you need to spend your evenings sorting through your footage, writing drafts for a blog post, and organizing and tagging your photos.

There is a lot of work to be done each day and all those notes that you took while sightseeing now need to be edited and put into an enticing and interesting article for your readers to read.

Are you willing to go to see a sight or take part in an activity even if you don’t feel like it?

You’ve been travelling for a long time and you are burnt out . You really just want to sit on a beach, watch a movie stay as far away from your computer as possible. When you are starting a business, you can’t just up and leave it because you are tired.

The same can be said when you are starting out as a travel blogger. You need to keep working, especially in the early stages when you are building your audience.

People want to read new content and you need to network and publicize yourself. So even if you are relaxing at the beach for a week or so, you need to be prepared to keep working.

Dave and I are 10 years into our travel blogging careers but it has only been the past year two years that we’ve actually stopped to smell the roses. We are ONLY now in a place where we can say, “No, I don’t feel like getting up at 4:00 am for that sunrise.”

But during the building years, we never missed a sunrise, sunset, or moment. We worked every waking moment. It was working hard that allowed us to save money for our retirement. You can do it too! But, only if you work hard.

Can you Really Change your Lifestyle?

You have just quit your high-paying job to live the dream of being a travel blogger. Travel is expensive and it will take at least a year before you start to make a name for yourself and start to make money.

Money goes fast between flights, hotels, and sightseeing, and you are going to spend more than you make for the first couple of years. Before the money starts to roll in, you will be on a tight budget.

Are you willing to give up your designer clothes and expensive dinners? This is a very real question that you need to ask yourself. How much are you willing to give up to achieve your dreams?

Do you have the funds to last while you build your business?

I know the beautiful photos on Instagram make it look like everyone is staying in luxury hotels, but life doesn’t work that way. You don’t get those luxury jobs until you have a following and name for yourself.

Not everyone gets free travel instantly. Dave and I didn’t get our first free trip until nearly two years of traveling on our own dime. We had to use our savings to pay for our own travel.

During our first year as travel bloggers, Dave and I stayed in $6 guest houses in India that were disgusting. But, by stretching our dollar, we could document things like India’s most exciting festival.

Having a savings and sticking to a budget allowed us to travel through the continent for 5 months while we built our readership and social media following. By saving money and staying, putting aside our pride and need to stay in luxury, we built theplanetd to one of the largest travel blogs on the Internet.

Are you willing to answer comments from fans and followers who have questions about travel?

There is a lot more to being a travel blogger than just putting up a post. You will have to respond to comments, answer emails, talk to sponsors and  advertisers , and answer questions from your fans and fellow travel bloggers.

The behind the scenes work of a travel blog takes up more time than writing a blog post or putting up a photograph; especially as you grow bigger. Comments accumulate and emails come in from readers, advertisers, tourism boards, and brands.

PR companies contact you about going on press trips and attending media lunches and you can find yourself answering a hundred emails each day. You can’t ignore these emails. You need to be polite and answer every one of them.

Even if you don’t plan on working with certain companies, you still need to send a reply thanking them for contacting you. And most importantly, make sure you don’t ignore your social media interactions. It is important to remain professional and stay on top of things.

Can you make an editorial schedule and stick to it?

At first, it was fun writing a blog post every couple of days, but now it is cutting into your travel time. It suddenly doesn’t seem so easy when you have to write a post while you’d rather be sleeping on a lounge chair. However, you need to be consistent and decide if you really want to write on a regular basis.

Your readers will start to look forward to your posts and count on reading them when they expect them. If you suddenly don’t post for a few days or weeks, you will lose many readers. Even if you decide to only write once a week when you first start out, that is fine. Just be sure to stick to that schedule whatever you decide.

Are you willing to adapt?

Many people don’t want to compromise or change if things aren’t working out. If nobody is coming to your blog, stop complaining and start rethinking your business plan. Instead of whining about what everyone else is doing, start looking into trying new things.

Many people argue that they have integrity and write from the soul. They refuse to change because that is who they are. There is absolutely nothing wrong with writing from the soul and keeping your voice, but if nobody is coming to your blog you need to think about what you are doing wrong and why people aren’t connecting with you.

You can adapt while still keeping your core values and writing style. You may need to experiment with ways to connect with your audience. If you are not willing to shift your plan, you will have a difficult time in succeeding.

How We Adapted to Become Travel Bloggers

Before deciding on a career as travel bloggers, Dave and I wanted to have a TV Show. We thought it would be an amazing way to pursue our dreams of traveling full time.

When we didn’t succeed in our original goal, we looked into ways to raise our profile so that maybe one day someone would approach us to be on television. We worked hard at creating the blog and we changed and adapted over the years.

We didn’t change who we are and we stayed true to our core values, but we tried different things and made little changes to try to connect more with our readers and develop relationships with our peers.

Because we were willing to adapt, we were eventually approached by a TV station to do a weekly segment. If we hadn’t changed and adapted our plan in the beginning, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

Do you have what it takes to promote yourself?

My mom gave me the best advice when I was worried that we shared too much of our good news. She said “If you don’t promote yourself, who will?” Travel Companies, PR Agencies and Tourist Boards need to know about all the great stuff that you are doing.

The more you are doing, the more you should let them know. So, make announcements about where else you can be found on the web or who else you are writing for. Tell people when you are being interviewed or when you have won an award.

These are all things that are attractive to companies, and they will want to hire you or sponsor you.

Actors have a publicist doing this job for them, but you most likely don’t have enough money to hire a publicist so you need to be your own media machine. Being humble is nice, but it won’t get you a pay check.

So, do you still want to be a travel blogger?

Here are some links to check out to help get you started.

For Photography we highly recommend –  Photographing the World  by Elia Locardi in partnership with F-Stoppers

• How to Travel the World – The Ultimate Travel Resource
• 21 Ways to Get Paid to Travel
• Our best travel tips from years on the road
• How to Be a Professional Travel Blogger – 12 Steps to Financial Freedom
• Discover Your Passion – How to Find Your Path to Success
• Travel Resources
• How to Make Money Blogging
• 7 Common Travel Mistakes First Time Travelers Make
• 14 Ways to Promote Your Travel Blog – Tips to Finding Traffic
• How to Brand Yourself and Build Engagement on Facebook
• How to Do a Presentation for The Travel Industry

Have you had success with travel blogging? What have you done to make your blogging career a success? We’d love to hear.

Travel Planning Resources

Looking to book your next trip? Why not use these resources that are tried and tested by yours truly.

Flights: Start planning your trip by finding the best flight deals on Skyscanner

Book your Hotel: Find the best prices on hotels with these two providers. If you are located in Europe use Booking.com and if you are anywhere else use TripAdvisor

Find Apartment Rentals: You will find the cheapest prices on apartment rentals with VRBO . 

Travel Insurance: Don't leave home without it. Here is what we recommend:

• Allianz - Occasional Travelers.
• Medjet - Global air medical transport and travel security.

Need more help planning your trip? Make sure to check out our Resources Page where we highlight all the great companies that we trust when we are traveling.

You May Also Like

Most comprehensive Guide to Living As a Digital Nomad in the USA

How to Become a Digital Nomad – Tips for Getting Started

Best Travel Jobs – Ideas for Your Future Career

About The Planet D

Dave Bouskill and Debra Corbeil are the owners and founders of The Planet D. After traveling to 115 countries, on all 7 continents over the past 13 years they have become one of the foremost experts in travel. Being recognized as top travel bloggers and influencers by the likes of Forbes Magazine , the Society of American Travel Writers and USA Today has allowed them to become leaders in their field.

Join thousands of others who get our monthly updates!

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

174 thoughts on “How to Be a Professional Travel Blogger – 12 Steps to Financial Freedom”

Great article, it’s not all about the glamour! I’m just starting out myself and see the hard work setting up a blog whilst working full time, running a separate business and with 3 kids!

But the ends justifies the means. I have a lot of experience travelling (65 countries), I’m just doing this backwards and writing about it after I have done it all.

well said that making money sholud be our seconadary goal. Giving good and authentic information should be our first priority that will automatically complete our second priority. Thanks for sharing these points.

I’ve been blogging for almost six months now & have focused solely on creating good content and slowly trying to build a social media presence and a better domain authority. Now it’s all about building my audience so I can monetise my hobby in the future. You guys have so much useful information online to help me realise that dream! Thanks for another amazing blog post.

Jamie Boucher | Bristolian Abroad

Thank you on a detailed impressive guide! Saved your post for the future ?

I m not a super seasoned blogger, but I m definitely a voracious travel blog *reader* and I do think #8 (writing about yourself) is more of a grey area on Matt s list. Many of the travel blogs I follow are a bit more like diaries than guides. They certainly offer lots of practical travel tips to this or that destination, but it s the blogger s personal anecdotes and honesty that draws people in to begin with. Creating that magnetic personality is very difficult to do, but it has undeniably worked for some.

Awesome tips for all newbies to start a travel blog as a business. Your post is a good read to know what one needs to sacrifice to become a successful travel blogger. The kind of hard work that you and your husband put in to make people read your blogs is something to learn from and never forget for the rest of the life.

GREAT ARTICLE!!! You guys are amazing, my husband and I just started a travel blog and we are seeing how much hard work this really takes!! your article was clear and straight to the point, I will share it with my husband!

You guys are so inspiring to us! Thank you for all of this valuable information for blogging newbies like us. It’s success stories like yours that motivate us to keep pushing through on this crazy journey we’re on to hopefully one day become full time travel bloggers like you!

Wow, this is really so spot on. I just moved to blogging full time and I understand this all so well. So inspiring!

this is so inspiring bcuz you really share your experience. i’ve been wanting to become a travel blogger but i’m not sure where to start, but i guess that was just me finding excuses. i will think about it again and come up with a new plan. thank you.

I think your passion about travel is so exotic. Thank you for sharing this in depth information with us.

An exciting job to be a travel blogger, although very tired and sacrificed at first. Very interesting article for those who did not know what life is like for people who travel and write about it.

This is great advice – and very honest too! Thank you very much!

I really like your writing style, good info, thanks for posting :D. “Let every man mind his own business.” by Miguel de Cervantes.

Hi guys! I absolutely love this post. As someone who aspires to be a travel blogger, the reality of how hard it is and how much work is required in order to become successful. I’d like to think I’m down for the challenge that will inevitably come my way, but I have to say it seems so nice that you’re able to do this together! While I’ll be a solo traveler, at least for the time being, the idea of having a partner or friend along for the ride sounds great. Working on blog posts on the beach doesn’t sound too shabby either!

http://alainawritesitall.weebly.com/blog1

Thank you Alaina, we feel very fortunate to be able to do this together. I admire the solo travelers and bloggers out there, but I am not sure I would have their strength to do it. Dave and I have had each other to lean on, to pick up the slack when one of us is off, sick or tired and we are there to motivate each other. It can be done as a solo traveler, I have many friends that are a huge success and they do it on their own. You can do it too! And yes, working on the beach is pretty amazing

Superb Tips.

Wonderful post great information there I love to these ideas for travel blogging

Would love to have your feedback on our site Travel Jaunts. Would like to know where we should focus on to become as professional and as successful as can be.

Thank you so much for this post. This is definitively a wake-up call for me and just the kind of thing I needed to read this morning. You both are such an inspiration.

Thanks for this article. I will also like to mention that it can always be hard when you find yourself in school and starting out to initiate a long credit score. There are many scholars who are merely trying to pull through and have a lengthy or beneficial credit history can be a difficult thing to have.

Great tips! These are very helpful for me in my initial stages of blogging. Thanks a lot!

Really Appreciate this update, can I set it up so I get an email when you write a fresh post?

Above all tips you shared totally changed my mind and thankyou so much for sharing….

I’m new to blogging and found this post really helpful! please check my latest blog post on a tour of Los Angeles -http://earthsmagicalplaces.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/beverly-hills-90210-tour-of-stars.html

This is wonderful advice, thank you! I just started my travel/style blog and am working really hard to get it attention and deliver great content every week!

Great advice! It’s always such a struggle to keep going when results are slow to come. The internet is highly competitive for sure. Any additional advice you would give to a regional or place specific blog? I write about Alaska and just wondered about your thoughts on content. Thanks and as always love your blog and the pictures.

Thanks Janet, having a regional blog is a great way to build a niche. You are the expert. I think it’s similar to running a regular travel blog, you just have to keep consistent, interact, focus on solid content. Be the expert. Give insider tips that nobody else would know.

This is such great advice! We just started our travel blog 2 months ago and are super pleased with it so far! But there is a massive jump from hobby to business! This is so useful will be bookmarking this 🙂

Good luck with your blog. It takes time, but if you really put work into it and give it time to develop a niche, strong content and a network you will succeed. All the best for 2017!

Thank you for sharing this! As aspiring travel bloggers, it’s always incredibly helpful to see the ways in which successful bloggers have gotten where they are. And it’s definitely easy to forget just how much work is involved in getting to the next level and beyond. You’re definitely helping keep us motivated to shoot for the top, so thank you!

Glad we can keep you motivated Brian. Best of luck to you and if you keep at it, success will happen. A lot of successful blogs simply happen over time. IF you keep putting out good informative content, someone is bound to notice and all it takes is one break to take off. All the best to you!

Wow, this is a spot on post. It really asks all the right questions to get a realistic view of travel blogging professionally. Thanks

Wow, thanks for the info!

Great site you have here but I was wanting to know if you knew of any discussion boards that cover the same topics talked about here? I’d really love to be a part of community where I can get responses from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks a lot!|

You guys are so inspiring. 2014 is the year of my editorial scheduling!!

Excellent Nicola, you are going to find that it helps a lot.

Blogging for a while now and couldn’t agree more with your tips in this post! It’s no easy job that’s for sure.

Yes, this is my way. I’m ready for all of this steps in my life. Why not? When the thing which gives you a pleasure makes a money for you?

Blogging is the same hard work like a real business. I was a CEO and owner of 3 LTD’s. I was a booking agent, event manager (In my own company), I was a promoter for the “Big” pop stars. And I found myself in “travel blogging”.

Nothing was changed – it’s the same business with the same problems. But there is only 1 difference! – YOU ARE FREE!

Looking closely at this segment. Great article. I am a Canadian travel photographer presently in Sintra, Portugal.

Hi great post!! we are a family of three (7 yo daughter)travelling and volunteering around the world. We have a website/blog, but is hard work to keep update, and your suggestions make sense. We started as just fun/record for family and friends, but now we would like to change it and get some sponsors/money to keep on travelling and helping. Thanks for the reality check 😉 we’ll keep trying.

I just started a blog six months ago. Mainly for my own fun in order to store my travel experiences. But slowly you learn from reader’s comments that they start to value a particular aspect of your experiences. In my case is is traveling with (smaller) children. These posts get the most attention. So don’t worry if in the start-up of your blog, you find it difficult to find your own focus or expertise. It will grow upon you gradually.

Ah, I feel like a mind shift is coming after reading this. We LOVE travel, adventure and exposing the kids to as much of the world as we can! We are taking a “career break” because that was easier for everyone to digest. The hidden agenda is “how do we do this forever?”. So, I love the comment “…a career change, not a career break”. I haven’t been treating our blog as a business. I need to come up with a plan!

I’m so glad that we could help make things a little more clear. It’s true, I love the idea of a career break, but many people want a complete change. Once you start treating your blog as a business, things really do start to happen.

Great articles. In this one I said yes to all of the questions. My deal is that, I am a traveler, and I will be whether my blog fails or not. I’m completely dedicated to it and have plenty of stories since ive already been on the road 2 years before starting the blog. I literally bought the domain name using the wifi in my hostel in Estonia haha. So my biggest hurdles are that I am building this thing while on the road and also that I have no money for anything but a free theme on WP. But after a while hopefully I’ll get it all sorted, since I have so much good advice to get me going. Everyone look out for http://www.truenomads.com !

Good luck Justin. Great name that you bought on the wifi too! We started with a free WP theme as well. It’s all about taking baby steps and building as you go.

This is great. Recently, i have been interested in blogging and this blog has been the best so far for me with rich content and travel advice. I have just started a travel blog at http://www.traveltoeastafrica.com and world like to follow the route that you followed. Some advice, comments and guidance on this road. You are not alone Dave n Deb, the world is behind you. Happy new year 2013

Good luck with your blog Elly and let us know if you need any help or advice.

Wow, excellent post. Very helpful! Thanks for sending it over. We know all too well the feeling of just wanting to lie on a beach when there are articles to be written! It takes some serious will power to actually do it. At home, if you run a business, it’s a more integral part of your lifestyle where you are used to waking up, going to work and coming home. Travel is so spontaneous that forcing yourself to sit and write isn’t always easy. This article gives aspiring bloggers a lot to think about. It seems like you’ve covered a lot of points that I haven’t seen covered on other websites. Great job guys and thank-you!

Hi Dave & Deb, appreciate a lot of your advice. I am newbie of travel blogger and this article really provide me a lot of knowledge, once again, thanks!!!

Glad we could help Ken. Good luck with the blogging and we’ll see you on Twitter and Facebook!

I have to confess, I read every word of your post and now I want to send it to all of my friends who have no idea what I could possibly be doing with all of my “free time” now that I’m not in an office – ha! Seriously though, I’m feel like we’re on the right track after reading this. Thanks for all of the advice and support you give to others trying to make this a full time business.

You know the way people are always banging on about inspiring articles, well this is one of them. It’s given me a bit of a pazzazz to get on with my work day.

I’ve only had my site live for six months, and it’s doing pretty well, but I’ve been planning it for years. And years. Everything I’ve done to this point is to get where I am now.

I changed careers, started working in publishing, moved to online from print, worked on other sites/blogs, absorbed everything, sucked it up. Now I’m in the position I can work solely on my own site, and I’m excited.

I agree, too, about looking at it as a business, something I think too many people ignore, even though they’d like to make money from it somehow. Any new business needs countless hours invested in it to succeed, and money, I think.

I just wish there were a few more hours in the day to get everything done that I want to get done!

I am very excited for you Linda. It is a great feeling to work for yourself and be able to put 100% into your passion. We also agree about the hours. It’s funny, nearly every successful business person I read about states that they function on 5 hours a night of sleep. It is being excited about your job that makes getting up easy. When you are looking forward to the day, it’s easy to get out of bed:)

Hi Deb n Dave,

I came across this post just tonight, via Caz’s blog. Timeless advice! I’m happy to report, that after reading your advice, and giving it some good thought, I’m certain I have what it takes to give this “career path” a damn good shot.

This post, and the comments, represents all that is great about the world of travel blogging – the opportunity for newbies like myself, to learn from the big-names in the world of online travel.

Thanks for taking the time to help out the little guys, karma coming your way!

YOMADIC.COM : Travel the World, Travel Long Term

Hey Deb & Dave,

Brilliant post and inspirational. The answer to all your question you posed is YES!

My wife and I are heading overseas in 2013 and I have decided to blog about the whole process ( http://stephendcook.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html ) from leaving work ( http://stephendcook.blogspot.com/2011/12/leaving-teaching.html ) to selling our house and possessions, planning etc. It is likely that I will be working in teaching while Laura does more blogging and photography (she won the Guardian travel photographer of the year!) http://www.lauracookphotography.net .

Currently I am enjoying reflecting on my previous travels

http://stephendcook.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-love-of-travelling-part-1.html http://stephendcook.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-travelling-changes-you-my-love-of.html http://stephendcook.blogspot.com/2011/12/that-was-year-that-was-2011-sierra.html

and the latest one looks at Olympic stadiums I have visited over the years.

As I say, you are an inspiration and I look forward to reading more.

If you would ever like a guest blog, we would both be excited to do that.

All the best

Thanks Stephen, your excitement is contagious. Good luck with your future and thank you for stopping by. We are happy to receive guest posts anytime. Send us an email through our contact form and we’ll email you back. Cheers!

You bring up some good points, but the best point is that it takes awhile. Don’t expect to be financially successful overnight. Travel writing & blogging is very rewarding but not always financially rewarding. Hang onto your regular job until you know that your writing/blogging will support you.

You are so right, it does take a while. It is funny, once the good things start to happen, you are totally ready for them because it takes such a long time to establish yourself. Each year is a stepping stone and it all seems to happen in the right order. Nothing too rushed, I don’t know if we would have been able to handle instant success. You need time to prepare for the work load.

Hey great article! Love the interviews too, you two are seem very comfortable in front of a camera which isn’t easy to do. Good luck with all your ambitions!

Thanks Jeremy, we do enjoy talking so that camera is definitely our medium ;-) We can go on and on:) We appreciate the feedback! Cheers.

Hello D & D, the comments section is full of rich content and I don’t really have anything to add more. This is a great post and clearly explains that being “full-time” blogger requires intensive involvement and hardwork just like another profession would require. I am glad this is just my hobby, lol!

PS: I like the new header, much simpler and clear.

Thanks Priyank, we appreciate the feedback on the header. We’re working on integrating it into everything. The media package is next. We’ve made the change on facebook, but have to put it into twitter too.

This is a great article on the commitment one needs to make a travel blog successful.

Thanks Ted. We find that it takes a lot of commitment, but we also have an amazing time as well. When we travel, we set everything up in advance and we can really enjoy the experience.

I LOVE your motivation — wanting your own TV show. I think that’s fantastic, and I think it’s only a matter of time. Now, I wonder if you can write a post about how to become a part-time pro blogger? Because it is a bit tricky to do all the things you’re supposed to do with a little one running around, hell bent on causing mischief. What things would you continue to do — and what would you dump — if you had the same goal but only half the time?

That is an excellent question. I think that I wouldn’t dump anything, I would just ease up on all of it. I think that to be a part time blogger you need to do all of the above as well. However, you don’t have to be as strict. You will still want to take photographs and know a bit about the destination. But you don’t have to do as much research and can write more about your personal story and you don’t have to take photographs of very detail of the trip. You should have an editorial schedule, but you only have to post once a week as opposed to every day. You definitely don’t have to go as hard on promoting yourself, however it is always nice to share accomplishments and times when you are recognized by your peers. And you don’t really have to think about the business side of things, but you will still want to promote and network because you don’t want to only write for yourself, you do want people to read about your trips. So I guess I will answer that all of the points are important, but you don’t have to let them take up all your time. You can relax. If you don’t want to sightsee you don’t have to, if you don’t feel like writing, you don’t have to. You can be more relaxed and you can definitely travel without having to think about how it will be a blog post. I hope this answer makes sense.:)

One day I hope James and I at OurOyster will be big enough that we can work maybe just part time – full time job + full time travel + full time blogging is EXHAUSTING…. but its awesome too. (well maybe not the full time job part)

Great post! I think that a lot of the folks who are just starting out would do well to read this.

Ditto! I HATE when people say, “So when are you going to get a real job?” Uh, hello? I work just as hard as anyone, and likely for much less cash. Gotta love beating the status quo! I’m nowhere near as organized as you guys are though. 😉

I don’t know if we’re organized I have a long to do list that I keep adding to and losing. Between all my google docs, stickies and note pads I am not sure where the work is. I am sure that I am probably missing some interviews that I should have answered, the stars and “markeds as unread” emails in my inbox is overflowing. But it definitely helps having two people at work. You do work hard girl and it is fun having people think that you get to play for a living at least a little bit isn’t it? "-)

Wow, this post is brilliant and should be mandatory reading for every fledgling travel blogger. I’ve had a blog for almost 2 years but it’s only this year that I’ve realized that it’s more than just writing. Even then, after reading this post, I realize that I’m still making lots of mistakes!

Dave and Deb, thanks for this. After writing about travel for a couple of years and maintaining a couple of different blogs for two years, I sat here reading this and nodding my head in agreement. Yes, this is very hard work but it is a lot of fun!

I can’t even begin to tell you all the things I have learned through this. Not just about travel blogging but about myself. I’ve made mistakes, gone in the wrong direction, and am still learning stuff every single day. One of the things you mentioned is something I am really starting to understand now – take photographs of EVERYTHING!

I work a full time job, have 2 kids, and have to balance travel and all the stuff I do with my site. I am exhausted nearly every day. I know this is hard work. Honestly, one of the BIGGEST lessons I have learned lately is hitting me really hard and changing my focus – it’s not about you! That may be hard to really grasp when you are starting out but doing this long enough, you will figure it out.

That’s also changed my perspective on the travel blog community as well. I used to get jealous of other bloggers success and was worried about my own stats and traffic and wanted a piece of the pie. Now I absolutely love reading other people’s stuff (I don’t have nearly enough time though) and helping other bloggers where I can. It’s an attitude thing where I finally think I “get it.”

I could write so much more about this but I will close with this. Just recently I started a new project – most exciting thing I’ve done in travel. While I was in Seattle, I was going non stop all weekend doing research, getting stories, doing reviews, covering events, doing videos (holy crap those take a long time!), and taking photos. When I was done at the end of a whirlwind 56 hours I was exhausted. However, I was so happy about my work and all that I did that weekend I almost cried. I think that sums things up pretty well.

Hi Jeremy! I can hear the excitement in your words as I read this. It is awesome to see other people that are just as happy and excited as we are about this business. You raise a great point, we all make mistakes and we all have learned a thing or two, but the important thing is that we keep going and take what we have learned to make positive changes. Good luck with everything and all the best to you.

Hi Jeremy, can you explain me how a blogger get money out of his blog? Thanks a lot!

The Planet D is a top referral source for our own travel blog and location independence site, so I feel compelled to make a best effort contribution to this discussion.

I hope this comment adds value and offers fresh perspective to both beginning and pro travel bloggers about how the business of travel blogging could evolve into a more sustainable way to make a living online while traveling.

I came into the world of pro travel blogging via a nearly decade-long career in building businesses both online and off.

So when my wife, Heather, and I launched our own site in this space, I reviewed over 2,000 travel blogs (focusing on the top tier) with the help of a research assistant.

What I discovered through that research and through discussions with pro travel bloggers, is that travel bloggers could benefit from making 5 key enhancements to their business models:

1. Outsource more – For as little as $100/month a travel blogger can begin hiring technical ninjas to handle the low-leverage aspects of their business. It’s so cheap to hire help today that no pro travel blogger should ever spend time signing in to WordPress and uploading, categorizing, or tagging anything. Even some aspects of destination research can be inexpensively outsourced. I suspect that this important change could reduce a pro travel blogger’s total working hours by at least 30% or more and allow them to boost the quality of their content substantially.

2. Learn how to use email marketing like a pro – Travel bloggers seem to favor RSS and social media. I get that, but there is no measure of value with these tools and they are w-a-y overrated in my opinion. Travel bloggers can give and receive more value and build a much more intimate relationship with their readers “behind the scenes” via an email list segmented by specific interest and loaded with premium content.

3. Build the Tribe-side of your business – I noticed some pro travel bloggers underestimate the power of their niche celebrity status. They seem to forget that they have achieved a lifestyle that’s the equivalent of landing on Mars to the average human being.

Pro travel bloggers have fans and followers that would love to learn from them in a more “inner circle” type environment like a forum, coaching program, or membership. If more pro travel bloggers leveraged this aspect of their business, they would no longer have to be at the mercy of advertisers and sponsors to sustain their businesses. Additionally, adding these levels of relationship to a pro travel blogging business could easily double or triple income.

4. Become a media buyer, not just a media seller – One of the most important skills an online entrepreneur can have is knowing how to buy online advertising. If done right, thousands of new, targeted eye-balls can be purchased for pennies. This in turn would help travel bloggers attract better sponsors and sell more advertising to better, more relevant advertisers.

5. Sell digital and physical products – The Tribe members and fans of pro travel bloggers (me included) would gladly pay a premium for niche guidebooks for certain destinations and other such offerings. Travel bloggers can sell these as eBooks on their site or as Amazon Kindle books, which are incredibly easy to create and publish.

These 5 key enhancements, I believe, could make travel blogging a more sustainable online business, and fund more travel dreams for more aspiring travel bloggers.

I love this! I want the successful travel bloggers of the world to get more and more recognition. You guys work so hard! In addition to just being in awe over the adventures I admire on your site so much, the time you spend making personal connections with little ‘ol fans like me, and your amazing photography… This post really struck a cord with me. I am just not a full-time travel blogger! I never will be. Some people just don’t understand that. I get so embarrassed promoting myself for one, so I know I can only go so far. But here is so much more. Thank you so much for putting it all out there!! I have my career, and you have yours. Thank you so much for being such a strong leader!

Hi Abby, thanks for the comment. You are lucky because you also have a great career outside of travel blogging that you love. We definitely know that blogging isn’t for everyone. It’s definitely hard work.

You are so right, travel blogging is all but easy. Of course if you want many readers you absolutely have to give something that is not easy to find just googling some words. I love updating my blog, but I don’t hide that sometimes is very difficult, especially when I’m traveling and can’t find wifi anywhere 🙂

So true it can be difficult when you can’t find an Internet connection. A good way to deal with wifi when traveling is to schedule posts and some social media. It takes the stress away for sure.

Interesting and helpful post. Can I just say, as a professional travel editor of over ten years, it’s bad grammar to say “as people that…” should be “as people who” Watch your grammar, editors are watching 😉

Thanks for the heads up. Cheers. Can I ask where you are a travel editor? I didn’t see a website attached to your name and it’s great to hear from editors, we appreciate you stopping by.

For some reason reading this I was picturing Debbie Allen saying, “You want fame? Well fame costs…and right here is where you start paying!”

Great post guys! I don’t think mnay of my friends (and none of my family) realize how much work goes into blogging. It’s definitely a hard-working low-paying gig, but worth every single second of it… 🙂

Ha! I can totally hear her saying that. She said it perfectly and it relates to every business, Fame, Writing, Blogging, Big Business…it’s all hard work.

Very useful post, D&D. Blogging certainly certainly requires loads of work and dedication. I seem to spend much more time on it than on my day-job and it pays a pittance (or rather, a fraction of a pittance) in comparison. Some of it is almost painful (the selling-bit), but fortunately the most important part (the writing) is pure joy. If only one didn’t have to sleep…

Agreed Sophie, If only we didn’t have to sleep, life would be much easier.

Readers? We’re supposed to have readers?

Dang, I knew I was missing something.

Shhh. Please don’t tell the wife-person that this is supposed to be a business.

She just thinks it is something I am doing to get out of working on her list of honey-do projects.

Haha, Yep, I’m afraid so :-)

Hey guys! This is the first time I read your blog and it inspires me a lot! I’m a travel consultant and from a couple of months I’ve been blogging ( http://traveltik.blogspot.com/ ) but only in Italian; I’m thinking about doing it in English too but I don’t know how to reach the readers. What is important, (and that sometimes I miss) is the imagination, the allows you to write interesting post! How long did it take to have a good position in the travel blogger world? thanks and have fun, Claudia

Hi Claudia, Good luck with the blogging. I think that it took us about a year until we started to become well known. We worked very hard at it and if you look through our advice section, we have a lot of tips on finding an audience, building an audience and promoting your blog. It is a long process, but totally do-able. Cheers

I had to laugh when I read the part about taking photos of everything, too! I take photos of signs (as a way to take notes many times) and anything else that I think will be useful, or that just catches my eye. I’m often writing the story in my head as I take photos, so I have a good idea of exactly what I might need when I sit down to write, too. Sticking to a schedule is good advice, too. One of the first things I did when I started blogging more than three years ago was to determine a core schedule (the days I would always post each week), although I’ll add a story or two on different days as time or events permit.

That is awesome Dominique! You have a Bloggers mind. That is a very good point that you make. There is nothing wrong with adding to your schedule once in a while. The problem comes when you don’t post for a while. But adding an extra post here and there when you have the time will do nothing but add to your readers. As long as you have your core days consistent, you can then add special articles to extra days. Thanks for the advice!

Hey guys! Thanks for sharing! I have been blogging since 2007 but I am also another one of those who can’t give up the full time job yet! (Or unwilling to, either way ;-)) You are an inspiration!

Great tips! You’ve touched on a lot of what I know I need to work on over the next couple of years. And btw, I think you guys would do great with a travel show of your own. 😉

This is a great guide for anybody aspiring to do this as career as opposed to just a hobby. I plan to be in this position (where travel is my career) within a few years and I know I have a lot of work to do in order to get there – time to roll up my sleeves and get at it 🙂

Hi Samuel, You’ve been doing well already, I see you making it a career for sure. I think that it is great that you have a goal and know that the time will come in a few years. Planning is key instead of jumping in blindly. At least that is how we see things:)

Thanks Deb.

Your advice has come at the right time for me. I’ve finally given my blog a focus (Portugal) and am trying to stick to a schedule for posting.

I’ve been dreaming about taking the plunge and really trying to make a living out of travel writing so it’s extremely useful to have the reality laid out like this. And inspiring 🙂

I’ll look out for more of your tips…

Hi Julie, Good luck and all the best with your Portugal blog. It is a great thing to have a focus and be an authority on one place.I can’t wait how to see how it goes for you!

Last year when I left the successful freelance writing business I’d spent 25 years building in order to travel fulltime, I knew two things: 1. a blog was a way to finally write what I wanted without the soul-deadening, time-consuming, and largely dead-end submission process, and thus, 2. while I want to build a successful blog and even make some money at it, I DON’t want to make it a business for the very reasons you describe. It’s every bit as much work as I already put into a career, and I don’t have the fire in the belly to do it again. I love writing for my blog (www.wanderingnotlost.org), but I don’t want the travel to become a job. I’ve spent enough time in front of a computer.

That said, I still need to make some money and writing is the only way I know to do it. So–tis a quandary, but overall a good one.

Thanks for a thoughtful post. You obviously hit a nerve.

Very good points Kate. You have clearly already thought about the questions that we asked above. Everyone has to decide why they want to blog and we understand completely that many people don’t want to turn their travel blog and travels a job. Most people go on a year trip to take a break from stresses of work and life, not to step right back into another stress. You have to really love this business to put everything into it, because as we stated above, it’s definitely not a permanent vacation.

Yes some excellent advice there. I work as a travel writer for a portion of my time and I adore it, but other people definitely think it is more glamourous than it can often be! Sometimes, I spend my whole time on a trip putting on a ‘business head’ because I have so many meetings with tourist boards, PRs etc – so it’s not quite like ‘going on holiday’ and being able to relax. Very much enjoyed reading this post – thanks.

I know exactly how you feel. The entire trip is thinking and networking. It’s fun, but exhausting. Home is more relaxing for us these days:)

Great piece! Travel blogging really is hard work. This is a terrific article that I plan to refer people to that think that blogging is quick and easy.

Thanks Liz, I had been thinking about this post for a little bit. It is difficult to explain to people what we are doing. We don’t have to leave the house to go to work, we “play” on facebook and twitter, we browse articles and never seem to leave our computer screens. For anyone looking on, it doesn’t look like much of a job, especially when they also see us traveling the world as well. Wow, after writing this sentence, I even think it doesn’t look like that hard of work! ;-)

Thanks so much for this article. I am just starting out and pieces like this have a lot of great advice some of which I can already relate too. Keep it coming! 🙂

Glad that you can relate, stop by every monday, we’re going to keep doing pieces like this. Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a note, we really appreciate it.

I think this is great advice for any business. It takes time, dedication and LOTs of work! I’m really bad about taking the mundane photos and taking video on our trips. Thankfully Scott is good at doing that. I usually come back from a trip and realize I should have taken photos of certain parts of the trip, but instead I was just lost in the moment and missed the opportunity. I’m also extremely guilty of not wanting to work on the blog while we are traveling, but I think that is because we have day jobs and multiple side projects, so we need to force ourselves to take a breather every once in a while. You guys are extremely inspiring and keep up the great work!!

Hi Christy, it sounds like the two of you work together well as a team. I am not the photographer of this blog, but I find that I take all the mundane photos while Dave takes the gorgeous shots. It works well. I don’t have to have great talent to shoot off shots of us sitting in the airport or of a quick snapshot of the room. I know exactly how you feel, it’s tough to take them, but I have in the past been burned by not taking the photos of the little things. Now I snap away and it feels so good to be able to add a shot when I need it. The next thing to learn is to make graphics so that I can use my own cool ones as well. So much to do with so little time eh? ;-) Glad to know that you force yourself to take a breather, it is important to keep your sanity that way.

Anyone who reads this blog can tell how much work you guys put into it. You deserve the success you’ve had, a just reward for your life’s passion.

Thanks Erik, that is super nice of you to say.

I love you two. Your honesty. Your willingness to share. Your ability to inspire. While I am not sure what I want from my career at this point, this was a good read and very eye-opening. As always, thank you for doing what you do. x

Thanks for the kind words. Good luck with your decision on what you want from your travel blogging career. The sky is the limit.

Great post and one that has confirmed a long list of different things I’ve been discovering since taking the plunge as full time traveller and in spirit a full time blogger (remote freelancing in the “proper job” is still necessary to pay the travel bills). It is important to plan, is incredibly important to engage with readers and other bloggers but I do still think that most important is enjoying it. I happen to love blogging on the beach or answering emails in an airport lounge so as you and most of the wise folk commenting have said. – the love you have for it will go along way… Or at least I hope so!!

Thanks again and keep chasing your TV Show dream!!

Super Bird! You stated it perfectly…All businesses are hard work so you have to enjoy it! Like you, we enjoy answering emails and blogging on the beach as well. It is thrilling to see something exciting pop up in the in box or to have people enjoy a post and want to leave a comment. Answering comments at the end of the day is one of my favourite parts of travel blogging. I love how all people have a voice in the blogging world.

As a journalist, I make a living by writing all day long, not always about staff I enjoy though. My travel blog is still my break but I really admire you guys for taking chances and working hard to turn your dreams into a reality. I pay my respects! A few months ago, I start the English version of my blog (the main one is in Greek) and I have to work harder than I would in my native language. Reading your post is very inspiring to me.

Thanks Penny That is amazing that you are writing a blog in two languages. Congratulations, what an accomplishment.

Love the article. The hardest thing for me is the self promotion bit. I feel like a jerk sometimes being that guy… by the way, have you seen all the hot chicks and cool place on my site?

Thanks Gareth, I agree, the self promotion can feel a little strange at times but look at how it works! As soon as you mentioned the hot chicks and cool places on your site I had to head over to take a look. Well done:)

Hahaha, remember my post last year about travel bloggers needing a holiday. It started with a similar sentence as your opening. Many people choose to see the romantic side of travel blogging and don’t realise the amount of work & dedication that goes into it.

It is soooo rewarding though to be able to do your own thing, building a career based on something we’re passionate about.

Great post and congrats on the TV gig! Awesome stuff! 🙂

Cheers & big hugs, Keith

I totally remember your post about needing a holiday. I remember that I followed in your footsteps a few weeks later to take a break. We were talking on this last press trip we were on about how we are going to take a small vacation very soon. Only our vacation is going to be about renting movies, cooking dinner and going for walks in the conservation area near my parents place. It’s going to be amazing to just chill out.

I used to get irritated when I heard of other travel bloggers ‘taking a vacation’ while they traveled but that was before we got serious. Honestly, it is so exhausting and NO ONE understands! All your friends & family don’t want to hear how tired you are that you work for what seems like weeks and months on end. Is it fun and awesome? – yes. Is it exhausting? – definitely. I often remind myself how lucky I am that I love what I do. If you have passion for it and stay consistent, like you said, you can turn it into a full time job. I think the tough part is actually adding the travel to the mix! hahaha 🙂 Great post as always guys!!

That is a great attitude Bethany, we all have to remind ourselves how lucky we are or else we can easily become jaded and forget to take a look at the beauty around us. It is exhausting at times for sure, but like you said, as well, We love what we do too.

When I was freaking out over putting money into redesigning my blog, my mom asked “if you won’t invest in you, why should anybody else?” Always a good reminder that we need to fully believe in what we do before anyone else will! You two are super inspirational and your success is surely a result of hard work and passion 🙂

Moms give the best advice don’t they? Your mom is so right. We tell ourselves that too when we have to shell out some money for the important stuff. I am sure that your redesign will pay off ten fold. Cheers!

I loved reading this today! Just what I needed to hear. My family and friends have noticed my constant use of camera and smartphone to document everything, so I’m glad to know I’m on the right track. Gerard – I am glad to hear you say that 90% of the work is outside of the actual blog post – that sounds about right. Looking forward to reading more, and sharing more once we start our RTW trip next year.

Great Job Paige, you are already on your way to blogging successfully. You’re definitely on the right track. You’ll be happy to have the portfolio to choose from when you are writing a post. There is nothing worse than having the perfect article and not being able to find the photos to go with it. Good luck with the planning of your Round the World trip, we look forward to following along!

Brilliant as always! I wish I could print this post out and hand it to everyone I encounter along the way haha.

Enjoyed this post guys. I think its important to highlight “the other side” of travel blogging. I’ve tried communicating this to friends and family who only see the reward, the free trip or the end result. What many do not understand is the behind the scenes work that goes into building an online brand. I would say that 90% of my work is outside of the actual blog post (ie. the social media activity, the emails, the photos, the web development, the follow up, etc, etc). After the initial novelty and sexiness fades, its still a job that requires hard work to be successful… the perks are just a heck of a lot better! 😉

You’ve got it. Most of the work is outside of the actual blog post. The rest of the stuff is the hard part. It’s really important to love what your doing no matter what career path you decide to take because you’ll be putting in a lot of hours. But like you said, the perks are awesome:)

Great post. I think the hardest thing for me will be to sticking to a schedule while on the road given that my GF & I want to enjoy our RTW more as a vacation. But we also don’t take our blog lightly and want to make it great. Hopefully 1 post a week is good enough.

I should also note that the last title “How have you had succes” is missing an s. 🙂

Hi Gerard, that is the question you have to ask yourself for sure. If you want to enjoy your RTW and treat it like a vacation, you definitely don’t want start blogging as a profession. Do what feels right for you and if 1 post a week is all you can handle right now, than that is great and right. You don’t want to end up resenting either your travels or your blog, you want to enjoy the two of them together. Good luck with everything.

Interesting and inspiring advice here. I’ve only started blogging properly for a few months and am hoping, eventually, to monetise it enough to support my travels. It is a steep learning curve. I’ve only just figured out how to use Twitter properly, for example. But it is helpful to read blogposts like this to gain some inspiration and direction. Just discovered Stumbled Upon as well 🙂

That is great Alison, it sounds like you are on the right track. Don’t worry it takes time, when we started with both Twitter and StumbleUpon we were completely confused and wondered how it could possibly work for us. But soon it all comes together. Good luck with the new blog, we look forward to seeing it grow!

I think you really highlight all the important points in the life of a full-time blogger in this post. Everything you’re going to want to be successful in life at is going to be hard work at some point. Of course, there are the great times as well (travel) and writing for me is a great creative outlet as is my photography. This article for me came at a great time, you two don’t even realize how inspirational you are to others who are also trying to live their dreams and make a career out of this lifestyle. Thank you for always being an inspiration and for writing articles like this! I am sharing 🙂

Hi Mica, thank you so much for the kind words. That means a lot to us as well. It is a struggle for all of us and to have the support of our peers and to be able to help others out is important to us. A strong community can do great things together. I am happy to hear that you love writing and photography as much as traveling. That is exactly how we feel. Travel Blogging is truly a fulfilling career.

🙂 Awesome post today!

Thanks Melanie! I am trying to figure out how to incorporate all the advice that you gave us into the next one. I definitely want to talk about how you inspired us too! Coming soon… 🙂

I had to laugh when I read your section on picture taking. If I had a nickel for every time I interrupted my “moment” in order to whip out a camera. It’s tough to find balance, but I usually err on the side of documentation. I figure if it means something to me, I’ll want to share it with my readers at some point. Thanks for sharing and letting me see I’m not the only one.

You said it Jenna. Sometimes you just want to sit and enjoy the moment and then right in the middle of it, you realize “Wow, I have to get a shot of this!” We are a lot like you, we usually document the moment too. It’s hard to let a spectacular moment slip by.

Amen, sistah and bruddah! 🙂

I love your observation that for you, travel blogging was “a career change, not a career break”. Indeed!

I’ve found in the last five years of my own travel blogging experience, I got to times where I felt I’d traded one rat race in for another. Between volunteering in trade for accommodation (which keeps my costs low), and the hours put in at my laptop, I was “working” up to 60 hours/week! That ain’t no holiday, thankyouverymuch.

But what we have the luxury of, which many people don’t, is the ability to design our lives and lifestyles. When I grew tired of the above “work” regime, I changed my accommodation preferences, opting to volunteer fewer hours. I’m currently house-sitting on the Caribbean island of Grenada for 3 months, with very little obligations on my time. It’s perfect for me; allowing all the time I wish to work on my laptop, with oodles of time left over for relaxation, reading, and exploration.

As travel bloggers, the true gift we are given is the ability to “work” from anywhere. And it’s “work”, to be sure. But it’s pretty good work at that, if you’re willing to go the hard yards. 🙂

Hi Nora, I so remember talking with you this summer about moving from one rat race to another. It was such a great night. I think that you hit the nail on the head, we all have to work hard to succeed, but as travel bloggers we can change our situation unlike so many other businesses. We are house sitting for my parents while they are in Florida and it is giving us a chance to catch up as well and we can actually watch TV and enjoy our day as well. We can set our own hours and move on whenever we wish. It is an amazing and flexible job. If you have discipline, you can really enjoy life and work hard at the same time which I know that you are doing too. You have made it all look so easy and we have admired you and what you have accomplished from the start.

Aw….thanks! I think we can take a few pages from each others’ books. And it seems that we’re both hurtling towards blossoming television careers too! Wow – how exciting… Keep up the great work with CTV! You two are great.

Thanks Nora! I know eh, when you talked about your show last summer I was so excited for you and hoped that one day we’d have the opportunity too. We are striving to get the full on adventure show in the future that you already have! Hopefully our paths will cross again. Keep on inspiring all of us. We all need someone to look up to and we’ve always been a big fan of yours!

thanks for sharing your story.. and i agree with what you’ve said… travel blogging eats a lot of time but for those who really enjoy travelling and writing about their experiences, its a great career 🙂

Yay, well said. I think you have to love both aspects of blogging. The travel is only part of it, the other is the writing and photography and yes, we even love the social media and networking. We get a rush when things go right. And when things go wrong, we never think about quitting, we just think about how we have to fix the problem to move forward.

Thanks for the advice. As someone who is new to the world of blogging it is really helpful to see how much work goes into running a blog full-time.

Glad we could shed some light on it Emily. Hopefully it will help you to make some decisions early in your blogging career to avoid many pitfalls that people go through. We were just talking with someone from a travel company the other day and they put it perfectly…Many travel bloggers are playing catch up trying to change their thinking into how to run a business instead of how to run a travel blog.

Thanks Kristen, I hope that it helped to inspire you today in whatever you may be up to! Cheers.

I agree with Brett – and that computer cartoon is brilliant!

Ha, Isn’t that totally the way we all feel first thing in the morning when checking email. It’s completely overwhelming some days.

Sorry… I don’t get it. Are you really working hard? I thought you were just writing a few articles & add some photos. Hahaha… Just kidding of course! You do a great job!

Yes, when starting a business, what a blog could be, you’ll work much more than in a “regular” job. OK, there are people who work in a “regular” job just as much… Maybe they should start blogging? Hahaha

Every business is tough to start. I’m always saying “If it would be easy, everybody would do it.”. Stay patient & have lots of fun, as passion drives you to work like crazy, without letting it feel like work. 🙂

Great post!

Well said Melvin. Yes, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. You have been doing an amazing job and make it look so easy. Ah, that’s the key…work hard, but make it look effortless ;-)

Such an eye-opening and candid look into the industry and your lives. Thanks so much for being real. I love the fact travel is something you love, work your butts off, and regardless of all the challenges–you still put all your passion into it. Very inspiring to everyone, regardless of what they do.

Thank you Vitra. I think that is the key to life, knowing what you want and going for it. For years I would always say to Dave “If I just knew what I wanted to do, I know I could succeed at it” Before we started travel blogging, I always felt that something was missing. Now we feel completely fulfilled and we never thought that would happen in our lives. So, we’re living proof that it can.

You’ve hit the nail on the head. I’m going to use this article to send to a few people who still don’t quite “get it” as to why we spend hours on our “hobby.” It takes an incredible amount of dedication and time to be successful as a travel blogger. Thanks for such a positive and affirming post.

Glad we could help Sherry, It does help to have a carbon copy (err, mass email) to give to the people telling you how easy it is eh? 🙂

Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT story! So many people do seem to think that the life of a writer or blogger is easy, because it seems so glamorous in comparison to a 9 to 5 office job. Everyone who thinks they want to do it full time should read this so they’ll understand how much hard work goes into it.

Hi Bret, Glad you liked it. While it’s not easy, it is amazing and sometimes even glamorous. When we get to stay at 5 star resorts and eat in fine dining restaurants, we think about what kind of dream we are living in. But then again, we rarely get to sit down and just “be” when we are staying at any of these resorts. We are always on and working. But still, we get to do some of the coolest things in life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Being very new to the field ( http://www.travelandphototoday.com ), I found your article thought provoking and informative. I have already discovered the work involved, to a degree, and must admit that the idea of doing it full time seems a bit overwhelming. But as you imply, if you love it then you have to do it. Keep up the great work – and always enjoy it!

Thanks Bruce. You’re a step ahead of the curve already by discovering early that it is hard work. Many people coast for a year or so and wonder why their readership isn’t growing. If you want it to be a business you gotta put in the work which you have already discovered. All the best and good luck with everything.

What a GREAT read Deb. After attending the World Travel Market last week I had a severe ‘wobbly’ about whether or not I could ‘cut it’ in the business side of things but you helped to assure me that whilst, yet, it is about being in business, you don’t have to sacrifice your passion and personality to do it – THANK YOU!

Toni, that makes me very happy. I am glad that we could assure you that you Can Do It! One thing I am not a fan of when attending some conferences is everyone telling you that you can’t. Some presentations want to dwell on how difficult it is to succeed. Sure, we all know it’s difficult, but we attend conferences to be given the tools that we need to succeed. What we choose to do with them is up to us. If we’re passionate and dedicated, there is a good chance that it will all work out.

What a great, honest, and insightful article! I can completely agree with everything you wrote. As I have moved my travel blog from words to film, I can attest that it is an awful lot of work – but the greatest job ever! Keep up the good work!

Glad that you are loving it Wolfmaan and congratulations on putting your travels into film. That is our dream.

Great advice, I love how you have presented the truth. It is bloody hard work and to be successful you have to want it bad. you have to eat, sleep and breathe your blog. There really are no excuses. We have had so many life changing events since we started our blog, which could have easily led us down the path of quitting, but for us this is what we love so we will never quit on it and we will put in the hours we need to build that platform and our dream

We’ve realized that we were ready to get to the next level but we just did not have the skills needed to promote and sell ourselves. We have taken on an agent to do that for us and she is amazing. The best decision we made, yet completely scary!

You guys are such an inspiration to so many. Can’t wait to meet for a beer one day.

Hi Caz, I love the way you describe it…eat, sleep and breathe your blog and yes, want it bad! Every day we are so excited to come up with new ideas. We had a press trip to Jamaica this past week and talking with everyone on the bus was the highlight of our day. The ideas floating around were astounding. Now I have to get my head in order and get down to business. It really is an exciting time to be working in this business…that is if you love it as much as we do and I know you and Craig do as well. Cheers and we’ll definitely have a beer one day soon!

There’s far too much hype about “make money travel blogging”; as you’ve illustrated it takes a lot of dedication, perseverance and effort to build up a successful commercial blog.

Agreed Karen. People are focusing on the wrong things when it comes to travel blogging in our opinion. Like every business, you have to focus on a quality product first before the money starts rolling in.

This is wonderful food for thought! I’ve only had my blog up and running for a year and don’t really know yet what direction I will want to go with it – I initially saw it more as a means to an end to help get me in somewhere else in the travel industry. But, I actually answered positively to most of your questions and I have found I absolutely love writing and keeping up with it on my “career break” trip so far. You’ve given me stuff to think about. 🙂

Hi Katie, that is awesome! I think that many of us used our blog for a means to an end for other things. Blogs give businesses a voice. I don’t think that any blogger strictly runs a travel blog and does nothing else… be it public speaking, running tours, hosting travel shows or running conferences. A blog helps to raise your profile enough to do whatever you want in the Travel industry. If you want to lead photography camps or cycling trips etc, having a successful blog gives you the platform to promote and the personality to entice people to come along with you for the trip of a lifetime. If you want to be a travel writer for traditional media, the blog gives you the opportunity to show off your work, the possibilities are endless and that is what is so exciting. It sounds like you have the right frame of mind, you love travel first and want to be a part of the business no matter what and in any capacity. I think that’s important.

Great advice as always. Would love to be in your shoes but they are mighty big to fill. Looking forward to seeing where our blog takes us, unfortunately I don’t have the guts (yet) to throw my real job in and tackle this as a full-time profession. Maybe if we had some revenue coming in it would be a different story. Cheers Cole

Good luck Cole. That is wise not to give up everything until you are ready. It could be disastrous to leave your job without a solid plan.

Sidewalk Safari | Part-time Travel Blog

About dr. j, travel blogger at sidewalk safari.

• turning business trips into bleisure trips 
• workcation travel
• European expat life and travel
• building a life of travel through judicious career choices

• featured travel photography and writing  
• guest posts and podcasts  
• offline publications

Sidewalk Safari in the Press

• Music, deer and culture: How to spend a day in Dublin for free - Nov 30, 2022, The Irish Independent
• A walking tour of San Francisco’s Barbary Coast Trail, from the man who designed it - Sep 19, 2022, San Jose Mercury News

Sidewalk Safari Travel Stats

• 63 countries visited (66 if you count the UK as 4 distinct entities: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England)
• More than 250 destinations covered on the blog
• More than 1500 miles walked per year

Sidewalk Safari Travel Blog Favorites

Favorite destination in ireland, favorite road trip, favorite festival, the edinburgh fringe, favorite food halls and farmers markets, 23 european farmers markets and food halls worth visiting for, favorite unesco heritage site, visiting the temples at angkor in cambodia on a 2-day tour with a private air-conditioned car and guide, favorite birdwatching trip, why uganda is a birdwatchers paradise, coolest wildlife encounters, best place to drink coffee, best place to eat comfort food, a taste of buffalo: what to eat in western new york, best place to see fall foliage, autumn foliage: top 10 japanese temples in kyoto for leaf peeping, favorite european city break, favorite boutique wine region, favorite european christmas market, favorite place to travel for christmas, favorite new year’s eve destination, favorite beach destination, get our guide to business travel and workcations, click on the image below to subscribe to sidewalk safari and get your free guide on tips to turn your business trip into a bleisure trip., follow sidewalk safari part-time travel blog$type=social_counter.

• twitter|15k|followers|follow
• instagram|10.5k|followers|follow
• pinterest|3.8k|followers|follow
• facebook|819|likes|like

Featured In

Terms and Conditions

Privacy Policy

Part Time Travel

Thursday, august 6, 2020, 8 years later - katie edition.

Friday, July 31, 2020

2001: an odyssey of sorts, wednesday, july 15, 2020, 8 years later, wednesday, july 1, 2020, louvul, leweyville, looaville, louisville.

I don't usually care about my birthday, but with our relatively new-found passion for travel and the fact that my birthday happened to fall on a Friday this year, it seemed like a perfect time to take a quick break from the gloomy Michigan winter.

Picking a place was easy.  Paul and Katie had been talking up Louisville ever since they had stopped there back in October and it was a reasonable drive that would still afford us plenty of time to enjoy the city itself.

She Travels the World, Blogs About It, and Earns $6k Per Month Doing It

by Bradley Will | Apr 4, 2016 | Interviews | 11 comments

“Don’t let what other travel bloggers are doing intimidate you – find your own way and your own story, and the rest will follow.”

It’s the glamorous life.

A part time travel blogger seeing the world, snapping photos, unexpected adventures, indulging in the local cuisine, and creating lifelong memories.

Picture this as your job and you get paid to write about your experiences.

For some, it’s the dream, and it sounds far out of reach.

Nowadays, it’s fairly common to see millennials living this “digital nomad” lifestyle.

Renegades with nothing to lose, who live and travel abroad while running their blogs and/or businesses online.

I’ve got a handful of friends that do it.

They don’t have kids. They don’t have a ton of possessions. They don’t have a house.

Really, it’s an easy decision for them to let go and start living their dream.

But, what about those who don’t want to pack up shop, unload all of their possessions, and become a permanent vagabond?

Is travel blogging still a possibility?

Amanda Williams from A Dangerous Business

Enter Amanda Williams…

A small-town Ohio girl with a big vision to see the world.

Amanda caught the travel bug and started her blog in 2010 while working a full-time job for a newspaper.

She’s always been an ambitious traveler, but never so much to leave everything behind for a full-time travel lifestyle.

Never has she given up her normal life to travel, but she has been able to still visit 35 countries while being in school or working full-time.

“As much as I love traveling and having adventures, I also enjoy coming home to sleep in my own bed, drive my own car, and cuddle with my kitty.”

For Amanda, it’s been a slow passion fueled growth. It’s not about the money for her, but now she is earning a great income doing what most people can only dream.

She owns her time. She travels freely. She lives her passion. She inspires many others to do the same.

So, in today’s interview, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Amanda Williams and bring you into the life of a travel blogger.

What is your claim to fame at “A Dangerous Business” and who is your typical reader?

I’m not sure that I’m even really “Internet famous,” but I suppose my claim to fame is that I’m not a full-time traveler. I’m not a digital nomad. I have a home base, and try to focus on writing about how the average person (you know, with a job and bills and maybe some debt) can fit travel into a more “normal” lifestyle. And I absolutely practice what I preach.

Makeup of the Readers of Dangerous Business

My audience tends to skew towards female (70%, according to Google Analytics), which is probably because I myself am a woman writing about travel. I tend to draw an audience close to my own age, too, with 35% falling in the 25-34 age range, followed by 18-24 (24%) and 35-44 (14%),

Being able to travel the world and blog about it sounds like a pretty spectacular life. Are you living your dream? What are some of the not-so-glorious parts about being a travel blogger?

It definitely does not suck! And, most days, yes, I’m living my dream. Not only do I get to travel frequently, but I also get to be my own boss. I can write what I want on my blog and usually get to travel where I want, too, and tell the stories that stand out to me. I also get to choose which freelance/contract work to say yes or no to. For some people, that might *not* be the dream, but I’m happy with being able to work remotely (i.e. from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection), and to have the freedom to travel whenever I want.

But there are downsides. I’m way too connected most days – I spend much more than 8 hours a day working. And even though it usually doesn’t feel like work, I’m still working A LOT. I sometimes have to peel myself away from the blog or social media and actually be a real person (my boyfriend kind of gets mad when I ignore him for too long!).

Photos shot by Amanda from a few places she visited

There’s also the fact that I don’t really make a steady income. Some months I make a lot, and other months I struggle to reach the monthly income goal I’ve set for myself. It can get stressful when you never know exactly how much money you’ll be making each month.

Your philosophy is a little different than most. You speak from a perspective of not being a complete vagabond. In fact, when you first started, you told me that you were still working a job. How does one manage to work a job or have a family while being a travel blogger?

Yup, I started my blog when I was working full-time as a copy editor at a newspaper. And after that, I was blogging while going to school full-time to get my master’s degree (and working an assistantship to help pay for it). Last year, I was running my blog while also working 6-7 hours per day for a social media startup. It’s not easy to have a job AND try to run a successful blog – you have to prioritize and pay attention to your time management. But you know what? I found I was sometimes able to do that better when I was balancing work and blogging! Simply because I had my “work hours” and my “blogging hours,” and I was able to concentrate more fully on my blog when I had dedicated hours set aside for it.

What She’s Packing

Were you always so adventurous? It seems like that you would always have to outdo yourself as a travel blogger. How do you keep your readers (and yourself) excited about new content?

I guess I’ve always had a bit of an adventurous streak, yes, and I’ve also always been a really independent person (which is probably why I’ve taken to solo travel so well). But as far as content goes, I never really think of my blog content from a business standpoint. I plan my travels based on where I actually want to go; based on what’s on my bucket list at any given point in time. And I think the simple fact that I’m so excited about my trips translates into my audience being excited about my trips.

It’s easy for someone to think “she’s so lucky” because you get to travel the world. Like something was handed to you. How would you respond to that and what was life like before starting the blog?

Well, here’s the thing: I AM lucky, in many respects. It’s easy to take for granted the fact that I was born in the US to a middle-class family with parents who have been really supportive; it would be easy for me to say, “I’ve worked hard for all of this and luck has nothing to do with it!” But I AM lucky to have an American passport and a background that allowed me to go to college and gain some of the skills I use today to run my blog/business.

But, having acknowledged the privilege that I was born with, I also have worked to get to where I am today. Before I started my blog, I knew NOTHING about blogging or SEO or marketing or running a business. I had to learn it all along the way, and learn how to experiment to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Blogging is an easy thing to quit after a year or so, so I have worked hard to make it a viable career over the last six years. But it’s something someone else like me can do, too.

Nowadays, there quite a few travel blogs online. We are living in an incredible time with the internet allowing us these type of freedoms. How does one like you stay relevant with your audience and do you ever worry about competition?

I always say that people don’t follow blogs – they follow other PEOPLE. And, when you think about it that way, there’s nothing to worry about in terms of competition. Sure, another blogger could write about the same destination or tour as me. But no one can copy my voice or style or talk about my personal experiences the way I can. To stay relevant to my audience (and to hopefully attract even more of an audience), I simply have to keep being me. That sometimes means publishing more personal posts, and it ALWAYS means being upfront with my readers about anything I’ve received for free.

How much on average does your blog earn today and give us a breakdown of from where do you generate that income?

Right now, I’m earning anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 per month from my blog – some months I earn a little more, but that’s the average.

The largest chunk (probably about 40%) comes from the blog itself, usually from branded content (i.e. what we used to refer to as sponsored posts). I’m really picky about what branded content I will agree to run these days (my audience always comes first!!), but I usually sell 2-3 branded posts per month. I also sell other types of ads on my site – everything from mini reviews to the “Featured Blog” ads I sell to fellow travel bloggers for $75 per month.

Next (25%) would probably be affiliate income. I have Amazon affiliate links in some key posts on my site, and also, use Amazon CPM ads in a few posts. I also make a tiny bit each month from Booking.com’s affiliate program.

February 2016 Income from Amazon Associates Program

The next largest income source (20%) comes from a travel blogging course I launched in November 2015 in conjunction with Travel Blog Success. The course teaches travel bloggers how to pitch and work with travel brands and tourism boards. I hope this will eventually make up a larger chunk of my income!

Lastly, I also do freelance writing, which accounts for the last 15% or so of my income. This is usually writing travel pieces for other websites, with the occasional social media updates thrown in, too.

Now, I understand that is just a portion of what you earn. There are a lot of perks for being a travel blogger, am I correct? What are some of the coolest perks you have received and what did you have to do for them?

There are perks. For example, I often work with tour companies and tourism boards when I travel, which usually covers at least 50% of my total travel costs. Some cool perks in the past year include two different trips to Norway, where I worked with Visit Norway and some local tourism boards; a Christmas market river cruise with Viking River Cruises; and a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer train in Canada. In return for comped trips, I write about my adventures on my blog and social media – and this means working while I’m ON those trips, too.

If you had to put a value on those perks for 2015, how much would you estimate in total you received?

To be honest, I haven’t calculated it! It would be upwards of $15,000, though.

You are getting a ton of engagement on Instagram. What has been the impact of this on your blog traffic? 

I don’t get a lot of traffic from Instagram, but that’s not really why I like the platform. I use Instagram because it’s just another place to reach and grow a different subset of my audience.

What are your biggest traffic sources and how many unique visitors do you get on average per month?

My biggest traffic source is Google search, followed by social media (and my social media breakdown goes Pinterest, Facebook, and then Twitter). I get roughly 110,000-120,000 unique visitors per month to my blog.

Where Amanda Gets Her Blog Traffic

How big is your email subscriber list, how often do you email them, and what purpose does it server for you?

My email list isn’t nearly as big as it should be! I recently purged some inactive email addresses and have just under 2,000 total subscribers right now. I send out a monthly newsletter with exclusive content and links, and also give the option for people to get a weekly RSS roundup of new posts from my blog.

One of my goals for 2016 is to figure out ways to leverage and grow this list more with autoresponder series and opt-in incentives.

Take me into a typical day in the life of a travel blogger…

It’s honestly not that different from anyone else’s average workday! (The biggest difference is that I get to work from home – or from wherever in the world I happen to be.) I actually wrote a post about my day-to-day life .

What is the craziest thing that ever happened to you in your travels?

Hmmm, well I have plenty of crazy travel moments, but some of them were really only crazy at the time. Like the time a monkey jumped into my mini bus in Cambodia, or the time a tour guide bribed a border guard in Albania with 15 Euro and 3 cans of Red Bull to let our bus pass through without stopping to get our passports stamped.

The craziest thing I’ve *done* was probably a 134-meter bungee jump in New Zealand.

The craziest/scariest thing to happen to me was probably being driven off a small cliff on a mountainside in Iceland and honestly being convinced I was going to die .

How long did it take to make your first dollar? Is there an interesting story there?

No interesting story. It took me about a year of serious blogging before I started getting advertising offers. That was back in 2011 when the easiest way to make money on a blog was selling sponsored posts/links. It was easy money, and my first “paycheck” I think was for $100. That way of making money isn’t sustainable any longer, though, and I’d say it wasn’t until just the last year where I felt confident in going fully freelance and living off my blog/online income.

Let’s say someone who is reading this wants to become a travel blogger, any words of wisdom on how to do that when they are just starting off and without income?

First of all, I would say only do it if you’re passionate about both traveling AND writing. I don’t necessarily mean to dissuade people, but I know from experience that growing a travel blog to a point where it’s profitable takes a considerable amount of time and dedication – it’s more difficult to make money than if you’re blogging about, say, fashion or beauty or recipes. So step one is being really passionate about it.

Secondly, it’s all about building an audience in the beginning – this means producing quality content on a consistent basis, being active on social media, networking with other bloggers, and basically hustling to get your name out there. It’s definitely a time commitment, but you just have to stick with it!

What would you say to someone who wants to start a travel blog, but they feel like their travels are a lot less interesting compared to someone like you?

I would say don’t be silly! Every destination (even if it’s just your hometown) can be a travel destination for someone else. When I first started traveling, I didn’t travel very far or very often, and yet I made it work.

There’s that one saying that goes “comparison is the thief of joy,” and I think it applies to travel blogging, too. Don’t let what other travel bloggers are doing intimidate you – find your own way and your own story, and the rest will follow.

The design of your blog is gorgeous and unique. Is this something you did yourself? From where did the inspiration come?

My blog is currently just running on a paid theme called Simple Mag! I’m not very tech-savvy, and I definitely could never code a website myself. But thankfully so many other people CAN, which means there are some great pre-made themes out there. The header on my site (that gorgeous watercolor image) was made for me by Candace Rardon of The Great Affair, who is a talented artist.

The inspiration for my site (and name) comes from a Tolkien quote that goes: “It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and, if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might get swept off to.”

If you look closely at my header, you’ll find a further nod to Tolkien in the form of a hobbit hole. 🙂

You graduated college with a Journalism degree (and have the student loans to prove it). What is one thing that you learned from a journalism perspective that helps you as a blogger, that someone who doesn’t have your education likely would not know?

I think getting a degree in journalism helped me in a lot of ways. First, I learned how to edit and how to work on strict deadlines. It also helped me hone my writing voice. But writing for a blog is so different from “traditional” journalism. In news writing, a journalist is never supposed to let personal opinions/biases seep into a piece (unless it’s an opinion piece). But with blogging, that’s kind of the point!

I think, most of all, going to journalism school and working at a newspaper has given me an appreciation for how things “used to be.” I can appreciate the digital age of news and blogging, but I’ve also seen things from the “other side,” which I think gives me a unique perspective.

Also, when I want to pitch something more traditional to an online news outlet, I don’t have to go and learn how to conduct interviews or write feature stories. 🙂

If someone said “consistency is everything with content,” how would you respond?

I would say that’s correct, especially when you’re first starting out with a blog. When I decided to get serious about my blog back in 2010, I was posting 6-7 times per week.

As a blog grows, though, I think the consistency has to be more about voice and the quality of content. You have to make people want to keep coming back.

I like your “Stuff You Should Know About” posts. Let’s say as a new travel blogger, I don’t have the time to go on as many trips, what’s an idea for content I can write in between trips so that I can remain consistent?

I’m glad you asked – I actually wrote an entire post on this topic back when I was working my newspaper job and feeling a bit down because I wasn’t able to travel a lot.

Amanda’s Stuff You Should Know About Series

A few things you can try include:

• Spread out your posts (don’t be too hasty to write a ton of posts right after a big trip if you know you won’t be traveling again for a while)
• Publish photo essays
• Do interviews with other travelers
• Put together collaborative posts (great way to work with fellow bloggers)
• Write about places you’d like to go
• Concentrate on more inspirational topics

And, lastly, remember that you can “travel” closer to home, too! You don’t always have to travel far away to find interesting stories.

What are three things that you are sure to do every time you publish a new blog post?

1. Proofread! I’m not perfect, so the occasional typo does make it through. But I always take the time to re-read my post at least once all the way through before hitting publish.

2. Create a Pinterest-friendly image to put inside the post. Pinterest is now my #1 social referrer, so I always want to make it as easy as possible for readers to pin my new posts.

3. Share on social media! I usually share to Facebook within 24 hours of publishing a new post, and schedule at least 4-5 tweets for the weeks following publication, too.

What blog post are you most proud of and why?

That’s almost impossible to say! I have a couple (like my NZ bucket list) that get a ton of Google and Pinterest traffic, and my big manifesto on solo female travel that I think is useful. But, writing-wise, I think this Cambodia post might be the one I’m most proud of.

When you began, how technically savvy were you and how steep was your learning curve? Any advice for people who get slowed down by the tech side of things?

When I began, I wasn’t very tech/Internet-savvy at all. I mean, I knew how to use the Internet and had Facebook and MySpace and all that. But I knew nothing about actually running a blog or doing SEO or building a social media following. I’ve learned it all along the way.

The biggest advice I would give to other not-so-tech-savvy people who want to start blogs is to do what you can, learn what you can’t, and don’t be afraid to ask for/pay for help when you need it. There are so many resources online to help you through a lot of the stuff that seems daunting at first. And if you can learn how to do your own SEO or Pinterest, that’s one more marketable skill you can put on a future resume.

Was there ever a point on this journey where you felt like giving up? If so, how did you break through?

You know what? I don’t think there was. But that’s partly because that I never started this with the intention of turning it into a career. It’s always been a labor of love.

Too many people I think start blogs assuming they will be able to make money right away. And when that’s not the case, they give up. I’ve always just wanted to write, and the fact that I can make money doing it is just an added bonus.

Top three favorite online tools that you use…

Tailwind for Pinterest scheduling, SmugMug for photo storage/hosting, and Edgar for Twitter scheduling/sharing.

One book that was pivotal to your success…

I don’t have one! (Really. I don’t like reading books about business or blogging!)

Who inspires you?

Other travel bloggers who are doing cool and innovative things inspire me all the time. I can name some specific ones if you want, but my list changes all the time!

What is one thing that irritates you that is happening in the blogging world…

Hmmm. I think one thing that bothers me is the fact that a lot of newer bloggers have a bit of a sense of entitlement. They assume that they deserve press trips and freelance gigs right away before they’ve even built up an audience. Not only is this annoying, but it’s the sort of attitude that will hurt travel blogging in the long run.

What’s your biggest piece of advice for new bloggers?

Do what you love and what you want to do – make your stories real and authentic, and the audience will find you.

Also, don’t be afraid of or opposed to investing in your blog. If you want to treat it as a business, then that means you need to spend money on it. I can’t stand when I see bloggers complaining about paying for necessary services like web hosting or social media tools, and yet also trying to make money from their sites.

Imagine there were one million dollars on the line for the person who can give the best online marketing tip of something that is working well in your business. You’ve got one shot at it. What would you tell everyone?

Experiment, experiment, experiment. Don’t ever get comfortable just doing the same thing over and over. Things – hot topics, social media algorithms – change all the time, so the quicker you can be on top of those changes, the better off you’ll be.

If your whole online presence were deleted, and you had to build your blog audience rapidly from scratch, what would you do?

Probably the same thing I did when I was starting out: Produce kickass content, interact with other travel-lovers on social media, and make sure to let my personality and voice shine through in everything I do.

What is your vision for the future of this blog?

I hope to continue traveling and writing about it! It’s as simple as that.

I also want to start taking into account the interests of more of my readers and hope to write an ebook sometime this year about how you can fit travel into a more “normal” lifestyle.

Closing thoughts…

If you are starting a part time travel blog today, can you still make it?

It seems like the competition is huge.

Absolutely it is. There are millions of blogs online. But, why try to compete?

You are unique. You have a story to tell.

Just as there are certain people and styles that draw your attention, the way you tell the story is different.

Some people like to travel cheap, some living luxurious, some sustainable travel, some with family.

We like to hear the story from different perspectives. Stories in which we can relate.

So, while there are many people out there, no one can do it like you can.

If you would like to connect with Amanda, you can do so on her  blog ,  Facebook , and Instagram .

Want more interviews like these?

If you enjoyed this interview, please share this on Facebook. And let me know one “ah-ha” moment you had in the comments below. I love hearing your feedback.

And check out some of my other recent interviews…

How One Woman Blogged Her Way to a $20,000 Per Month Ornament Empire

She’s Quitting Her Hospital Job to Become a Full-Time Food Blogger

Bradley Will

Bradley is the Founder of LearnToBlog.com. He is crazy about marketing, pit bulls, traveling and creating new adventures. And he really, really believes that you were put on this earth to do something special. 😉

Pin It on Pinterest

Welcome to The Travel Narrative

I am a part-time travel blogger and an ex-travel & tourism professional.

I hail from the NE State of Assam, India. I share my personal travel tips & experiences here.

Hope you have a good time reading it.

Your valuable suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Happy Blogging Everyone!!!

Recently Traveled To 

• Mar 20, 2022

Weekend Road Trip to Hassan

• May 16, 2021

East of Eden - Thailand’s Best Markets

Part-Time Traveler

Find your balance of travel and home.

FOOD + WINE

February 19, 2024 At Home , Personal

I’m writing Five Favorites, a home + travel recommendations newsletter over on Substack. Join me! Or, learn more about Five Favorites first. I’m glad to be a part of your corner of the Internet. Thank you for reading here and I hope to see you in your inbox soon!

Where you’ll find me these days

Weekend Getaway: San Francisco to Mendocino

January 26, 2023 Travel , Weekend Getaway

A Mendocino Travel Guide Seeking a calm weekend getaway from San Francisco? Look no further than Mendocino. Growing up in Northern California, I thought I had weekend destinations here well established. Somehow it still took years of living in San Francisco for me to finally get to Mendocino. When I finally did, for the first […]

Our Wedding

January 27, 2022 At Home , Personal , San Francisco

As we embrace the start of 2022, I wanted to share the happiest day of 2021 (and many years to come, I’m sure!) here with you all.

Things to Do on the Big Island of Hawaii

December 22, 2019 City Guides , Travel

Highlights from my most recent visit to the Big Island of Hawaii and my stay at the Fairmont Orchid. Plus, all the planning tips for your trip!

It’s Always ‘Le Weekend’ in Paris: Paris Itinerary

November 4, 2019 City Guides , Itineraries , Travel

By popular request, I’m finally sharing ‘My Paris List’. Also known as: a flâneur’s guide to Paris.

• Next Page »

Plan a Trip

Plan a trip.

I’ve got…

JOIN THE LIST

Find your balance between home and travel.

© 2022 PART-TIME TRAVELER          Privacy Policy + Terms of Use            Subscribe

Destinations

North america,   travel the world - despite a full-time job., hello & welcome.

There’s this disturbing trend that tells you to leave your job to travel the world and I feel like so many people think this is the only way really. Well, it is not. There are so many reasons why you might not be able to leave everything behind: you don’t want to leave your family or friends behind, you might not have enough money to fund your long-term travels, you are too afraid to leave the safety of stabile life or you simply don’t want be away for too long.

And you know what? It’s all fine. I’m not saying leaving everything behind to travel the world is bad. It is not. I just want to tell you that there is no one way to do things. It’s your life, your travels and it’s all up to you and you only how you’re doing things. You don’t need to feel bad for not wanting to travel extensively. I’m here to show you stories of numerous people who work and travel in their free time.

Table of Contents

What I do for a living

But let’s start with me. As you know very well I do have a full time job that I really enjoy and that kind of is my passion too. I wrote the whole post how I manage balancing work and travel but to give you a quick summary: having 26 days off per year and being based in Warsaw, Poland with its central location definitely helps.

I also work very hard to balance everything but it’s worth it and I don’t complain at all. My full time job is in a way travel related too.

I work in the local railway company and I’m responsible for trains’ schedule (I focus on planning rolling stock for the connection and making sure all the data for each running train is correct. Also, if you fly to Warsaw Modlin Airport and want to get to Warsaw you will most likely use bus+train connection – managing it is all my job too).

It might sound like slightly difficult job, very technical or complicated and well, it is. There’s only a small bunch of people in the country dealing with trains’ schedule and we more or less know each other. So next time you complain about your train keep in mind that it’s all not as easy as it may seem, you can also blame everything on me, I’m used to that really.

My travels with full time job

Even if I have such a “serious” job I still manage to travel a lot, proving that it’s possible to balance two worlds. In previous years I’ve spent over 100 days per year travelling (here’s how I did it in 2017 , 2016 or 2015 ). At the time of writing this post (end of September 2018) my travel plans for the next 3 months are pretty crazy: weekend in Bucharest, Romania , long weekend in Bulgaria , work trip to Czech Republic , two weeks in Central Asia ( Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan ), weekend in Vienna , long weekend in Georgia and I will welcome the new year in Egypt .

And in the meantime I need to implement two train’ schedule changes, including the major yearly one (well, obviously I don’t do that myself but still). So as you see it is possible to have a normal, regular life and still be able to travel to some great destinations. It takes some planning skills and being able to compromise but is definitely possible.

Bloggers stories

But I don’t want to give you only my example as one swallow does not make a summer. I asked fellow travel bloggers who still have their normal jobs (and don’t forget blogging on top of that too) how they do it. Below you can find some stories proving that yes, it is possible to work and travel, to have a normal life and see the world. I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did!

Nicole from Travelgal Nicole

“Based in Wellington, New Zealand I own my consulting company and work full time as an IT Project Manager. I work on contract which means an organization hires me for a set amount of time to do a piece of work such as implement a new IT system. I usually work on a six month contract and at the end of the contract I can extend my contract if the work is not finished, look for a new contract or go travelling.

I usually decide to go travelling! My current contract finishes in a few months and then I am heading to West Africa for six months travelling from Gibraltar to Cape Town. I have been living this lifestyle of working for six months or so and then travelling for six months for the last four years.

Previously I would take a month off at a time and travel. I would use public holidays and take extra time off. I went to China for two weeks over Easter and I only took four working days off to do it. I also try to travel a bit closer to home and would visit the Pacific Islands like Tonga where I went swimming with humpback whales. I enjoyed this but it felt too rushed and of course living in New Zealand its a 12 hour flight to get anywhere so I prefer to go away for longer.”

Follow Nicole’s travels on Facebook !

Becky from KidWorldCitizen.org

“My name is Becky, and I teach English in Merida, Mexico. Whether I live here, or back in the US, I always take my kids to travel during the summer months when we are all off school. Because there are 7 of us, we like to do slow travel, to really take advantage of the trip. We started spending summers in Mexico, to improve their Spanish.

A couple of years ago, we road tripped through Europe, visiting family and sites in Germany , Slovenia , and France (and driving the countries in between!). The next summer we rented a place in Peru, where my sister was living at the time. We loved visiting Machu Picchu, but also joining a local soccer team, and our daily life in Arequipa. Last summer we spent a month touring in China, where my son was born.

Then we moved to Merida, Mexico, and enrolled in a local school. We’ve really enjoyed exploring the world together! At the same time, I am able to continue writing my web site, KidWorldCitizen.org, while taking a break from teaching, and producing my podcast, Language Latte.”

Follow Becky’s travels on Facebook .

Michael from The Round The World Guys

“I work full-time as a corporate training developer at one of the largest telcoms in the US. I’ve been there for 18 years and have 6-7 weeks of vacation every year now. But I didn’t always. About 6-7 years ago, I decided I wanted to travel more.

Fortunately, I’ve always had supportive, trusting bosses. That’s because they know I never let my work suffer, no matter what I do. They understand that I’ll buy any good flight deal and ask later for the time off. In 2010, I started So, I surrounding myself with travel-minded friends jumped in with one a trip to Southeast Asia in 2011. I’d been to 5-7 countries before this, but it was my first trip where I was responsible for everything.

I’m 48 now, and since 2011, I’ve been to 45+ more countries. We’ve been saving for 2 years. In 2019, my partner and I (who also works full time) are quitting our jobs to travel permanently. It’s going to be very liberating.

My rule since 2010: You have vacation for a reason. Use it. Subscribe to lists and buy the cheap flights no matter where they’re going. Prioritize travel. Seeing the world is important.”

Follow The Round The World Guys on Youtube !

Cynthia from Mackintosh Travels

“My family and I live in Florida just 1.5 hrs away from Disney World! I am a huge Disney and Hawaii fan! Consequently, one of our favorite family trips ever was at Oahu, Hawaii.

I am full-time elementary Spanish teacher. Because I am a teacher, my family and I travel primarily during the summer and any holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break.

Typically, we like to take a 1-2 week vacation (in the U.S. or internationally) during the summer along with 2 weekend trips within our state. If we can, we will take a weekend getaway during a holiday. We have traveled more internationally than in the U.S.!”

Follow Cynthia’s travels on Instagram!

Victor from Victor’s Travels

“When you make travelling a priority in your life, it’s almost always possible to find a way to do it while working full-time. In my case, I run an Amsterdam-based digital agency that creates websites from start to finish. I work with a team of remote freelance web developers and a business partner who handles the client meetings and designs the websites.

With this structure, I was able to travel for 6 months in 2017 visiting India, Japan, South Korea, Scotland, Spain, and Denmark. Apart from the occasional power outlet, I found that I only needed an old iPhone and a local sim card to create a personal hotspot, which allowed me to work practically anywhere: on trains, cafés, in a tent, on the floor of a bus station, you name it! Interested? Check out my in-depth article on the topic of how to become a Digital Nomad. ”

Follow Victor’s travels on Facebook!

Maggie from Pink Caddy Travelogue

“Maggie here, Virginia-based travel blogger from the Pink Caddy Travelogue! I don’t just work in DC – I work on Capitol Hill, frequenting the hallways around the House gallery, regularly attending meetings with Congressmen and Senators and other lobbyists. It’s a crazy place to be full-time, and as much as I love politics, it’s a world that can drive even the most diehard politico insane. So I travel – a lot. For my sanity.

My job gives me 2 weeks of vacation, and I use those two weeks to take two long trips each year. Those trips are when I go overseas or to the West Coast of the US, places that I can’t get to quickly. I try to connect those trips with holidays that the office is closed anyway to get the most out of my vacation time.

But two weeks just isn’t enough for me, so I also take a lot of weekend getaways. Fortunately, I live close to a lot of awesome places –New York City, east coast beaches, Shenandoah national park – so getting away for a couple of days is pretty easy.

Travelling with a full-time office job isn’t easy, but with strategic planning and a desire to just make it work, it’s doable!”

Follow Maggie’s travels on Instagram!

Mikkel from Sometimes Home

“I feel very proud I’ve built a successful business from the ground up. Whereas some people have the misconception being a business owner is easy it’s quite the opposite. It requires way more dedication, time and energy than simply working for someone else 90% of the time. I own and operate a wedding photography business I dedicate more than 60 hours to (if not more) on any given week.

One of the reasons I enjoy this is because I am in command of my schedule. Yet, I let weddings dictate when, and if, I am able to travel. I plan any trips around wedding dates and ensure I’m in the wedding location area in advance of the big day. The amount of days I’m able to travel vary. And if I have a lot of editing to do from a wedding, since I edit all my own images, I need to make sure I’m home, not traveling.

This limits my ability to explore new areas a lot of weeks of the year and means I often travel in the off-season and winter months. It also means my travel blog takes a backseat to my full time job, which affords me income to travel. But that’s a-okay with me because I love wedding photography and travel! If I can travel at all I’m grateful!”

Follow Mikkel on Instagram !

James from Travel Collecting

“I spent over a decade living and backpacking around the world and started teaching ESL in Japan as a way of doing this. When I got married and settled down in one place, I stayed in the ESL industry, but am now Executive Director at a university Language Institute in New York City. With generous (for the U.S.) university vacations, I travel abroad every year for a two-week trip and another one- or two-week trip.

If I don’t go overseas for the fourth week, I visit somewhere in the U.S. for a week. In between, I travel domestically on long weekends and travel around New York City and the Hudson Valley on regular weekends. I am still travelling in a way, as I am from Australia originally, but even if I wasn’t, there are always places to travel to close to home.

Attending conferences is another way to travel and if I go somewhere new for a conference, I try to stay there for at least the weekend before or afterwards. In total, I travel for about 35 workdays (7 weeks) a year including conferences plus multiple weekends. If travel is your passion, there are ways to keep the passion alive!”

Follow James on Instagram!

Sinjana Ghosh from Backpack & Explore

“I am a full-time analytics professional based out of Bangalore (India), currently working at Microsoft. I like my job because I get to work with some of the brightest minds in the industry in one of the coolest workplaces in India and have flexible working hours.

A regular day in my life would go like this – start for office at 9am , be on road for a couple of hours every day thanks to traffic, reach home at 8pm and cook and have dinner, check and reply to some mails from office, after which I have about 2 hours to focus on blogging if I don’t have anything pending for that day at work.

My travels are limited to road-trips and weekend wanderlust almost every other weekend, in which I have covered some outstanding hidden beauties in south India – Coorg, Ooty, Wayanad, Munnar, Mysore to name a few. I mostly like budget travels but I have enjoyed a few lavish luxury stays as part of corporate holidays.

My husband is my permanent travel companion since our marriage. We sometimes take 1-2-day leaves for extended weekends and two vacations every year- one for travel and one for family get-togethers.”

Follow Sinjana on Facebook!

Wendy from Worldwidewendy

“I am Wendy, a Belgian travel blogger based in between Antwerp and Eindhoven (Netherlands). During daytime I work in my husband’s company. We sell trucks and spare parts in Belgium, Holland, Poland and Russia . I am chasing the money so I contact the people that forgot to pay their bills. Unfortunately there are quite a few.

I am home at 4PM and at 5PM the kids are back from school. At that time I start cooking and helping with homework, bringing them to sports clubs ,… In the evening I love to plan our next trip or write about our last trip.

In 2017 we went to Cuba, South-Africa, Italy (Venice), The Netherlands, Spain (Valencia and Ibiza), Germany, France (Paris) Switzerland, Bali and Singapore. So I visited 10 countries, took 22 flights, stayed in 15 hotels and traveled 51 days. Thanks to good planning (weekends, bank holidays,..) I only needed to take 26 days of vacation. I think that proofs that traveling a lot is possible for everyone.”

Follow Wendy on Instagram!

Somnath from Travel Crusade

“Travel with a full time job is undertaken by travelers like me throughout the year but it depends on the individual as to how often he plans it. I normally plan at least 3 big travel events during the three seasons Summer, Winter and Autumn. Apart from that I plan small trips during national holidays, sometimes during the weekends and also during the festival time.

I reside in India and have a full time IT job where I work and spend 5 days apart from travelling quite often with my friends and family. I also undertake these trips quite often during my travel span with an agency or operator and sometimes even plan the journey as per our own convenience and time. I normally travel within India and my interests of travel are hilly destinations, places of natural interest, places of historic importance and economic importance.”

Follow Somnath on Facebook!

Sage from Everyday Wanderer “As the daughter of a career Army officer, my childhood was filled with frequent moves, lots of travel, and the opportunity to live half of my most formative years abroad. While I understand the tremendous benefits of travel and wish more than anything that I could sell everything and travel the world full-time, I am the single mom of four kids with a mortgage, three cats, and a dog. So I have to adult and work full-time instead.

I believe that wishing for something you don’t have will cause you to overlook all that you do have, so I work hard to love the life I live. That’s why I juggle a full-time job and a travel blog, embracing the opportunities that my work and personal life offer. In fact, this very philosophy is at the core of my travel blog, Everyday Wanderer. It’s a travel blog for people with wanderlust and a real life.

Based in Kansas City , in America’s heartland, I work for a software company located in Salt Lake City. This means that I spend four to six week a year in a beautiful, high desert community that is very different from home. While those travels are for work (and not pleasure), I do my best to experience at least one new thing each visit. This approach has allowed me to taste the local cuisine, hike mountain trails, and explore downtown. The company I work for has a global presence, and my job has international responsibilities, so I get to travel beyond Salt Lake City, as well. And, it is easy to tack on (and pay for) personal travel on either end of most business trips.

Because I get to keep my airline miles and hotel points, I use them — especially my cherished Southwest Companion Pass — to take advantage of weekends, holidays, and precious vacation days for fun trips. Planning family travel with a full-time job and school-aged children can take a bit of extra effort, but it is important to me to augment my children’s classroom education with real-world experiences. After all, is there anything worse than having to learn geography or history exclusively from a textbook?”

Follow Sage on Facebook!

Kavey from Kavey Eats

“For over 15 years, I’ve found a great way to work a regular job at home and spend plenty of time travelling too. My solution allows me to build a strong career and earn a good living, whilst taking lots of time off not only for travel but for a wide range of personal projects.

My solution? I work as a specialist contractor, signing on with a client for a contract that may last anything from a few weeks to several months or even a year.

My role is a Business Analyst, and I am essentially a conduit between the business and the IT team that will develop and deliver changes or new systems. In a nutshell, my task is to help the business work out what they really need (as opposed to what they may initially think they need!), to resolve and prioritise their requirements and to document and communicate these effectively to the techies.

The nature of my job is very much project-based, so it’s well suited to working as a contractor rather than a permanent employee. The downsides of working as a contractor are a lack of paid leave (vacation), or paid sickness. However, being good at my job means I am able to charge a high enough rate that I can cover the costs of time off, up to a few months per year.

Although I do take some time off for shorter trips during longer contracts, the bulk of my travelling time is when I’m not working – every time I finish a contract, I always take at least a couple of months off before seeking a new one, often more depending on the bank balance! It’s not as financially steady as a permanent job, but my contracting career gives me job satisfaction, a good income and plenty of time off to create a great work-life balance.”

Follow Kavey on Instagram!

Lotte from Phenomenal Globe

“My name is Lotte, born and raised in the Netherlands and trying to explore as much of the world as possible! Since 2013 I have successfully combined a fulltime job and traveling the world. How? By being creative with my annual leave and making smart choices.

In May 2013 I finished my first job, a 2-year Management Development program. Instead of immediately starting my new job, I negotiated my starting date would be 4 months after my successful application. That gave me 4 months to explore London, the city to which I accompanied my husband who was working there at the time.

In 2014 I didn’t travel but saved up all my money and annual leave, so I could go on a 5-month sabbatical in 2015 during which I explored Southeast Asia and New Zealand.

In fact, in 2016 I was working fulltime but still managed to travel for 87 days! I bought extra annual leave days at work and choose my holiday periods carefully so that any public or bank holidays would fall in this period (so I could travel longer).

In January 2017 my husband and I quit our jobs to travel the world for a year, during which we visited 11 countries! In January 2018 we got back in the Netherlands and I have been working full-time again since our return. Until we leave again…”

Follow Lotte on Facebook!

Shannon from SoleSeeking

“A British expat based in Victoria, Canada, I have a full-time job as a recruitment consultant with 3 weeks of paid vacation a year. While this is nothing compared to your average travel blogger’s lifestyle, it doesn’t make travelling impossible; I just have to be more selective, modify my expectations and use my vacation time effectively.

The west coast of Canada doesn’t offer easy access to the amount of varied countries within Europe that I could take for granted when living in England. However, the country’s vastness and diversity means that I have so much to explore here. Domestic travel is still travel. In the past year I have travelled to Kelowna in BC, the Rockies in Alberta, and Kingston in Ontario.

Each trip has only lasted a few nights but provided enough enjoyment to satisfy my travel appetite. Working on my birthday allowed me to use a lieu day towards the Kingston trip and treat myself through travel. Conveniently, British Columbia has 10 statutory holidays spread nicely over the year, so I try to time a trip with a long weekend, meaning I often only need to use one day of my annual leave.

Visiting family and friends in Europe is where things get tricky; I want to see them and yet this leaves less time to travel to other places. Fortunately, they are very understanding of my constraints. I recently squeezed reunion visits to Yorkshire, London and Poland into a 13-day trip (including a Canadian stat day) and simply did the best I could to get the most out of the short time.

Travelling with a full-time job is possible if you are prepared to compromise and organize!”

Follow Shannon on Facebook!

Justin and Tracy from A Couple for the Road

“While there are many people who travel the world based on the strength of living a digital nomad lifestyle and starting their own travel blog , or simply de-selecting from Corporate America, my wife and I have been able to keep a steady travel schedule while working demanding full-time jobs for nearly 10 years.

As a Sales Director for a neurosurgical consulting company, I’m fortunate enough to have 18 days of paid-time-off each year, while my wife has 25 days each year as a senior data analytics consultant. How many of these days do we use to travel? All of them – and then some!

Our key is to not waste days on anything other than travel, but this requires keeping your health at the forefront. Why? Because burning vacation days while getting over the flu or a bad cold is another day you aren’t on the road traveling. We eat consciously, work out, and do everything we can to keep ourselves healthy.

This allows us to use those precious days we’ve earned for roughly three weeks of international travel each year – in addition to the numerous weekends we use for road trips or short flights within the U.S. In total, we stay somewhere that isn’t home about 30 nights per year.”

Follow Justin and Tracy on Instagram!

Taima from Poor in a Private Plane

“Travel for me is a lifestyle choice. However so is working a full time job. I am an attorney based in NYC but I am also a travel blogger. Even though I work full time I have managed to travel to three continents, 25 countries and over 25 US states in the last several years.

Although I only have about two weeks of vacation I make it a point to maximize my time. I am a weekend warrior. Even if I have two days I will take a trip. Most of the time I travel around the holidays or take a Friday and Monday off for a long weekend.

Although traveling on holidays can be expensive I use tools like Google Flights to find cheap flights and use airline points when I can. So far this year I’ve taken 8 trips and I am scheduled for several more. On deck for the rest of the year. California, Florida, Washington, Canada, Mexico, Portugal and Puerto Rico.”

Follow Taima on Instagram!

Jules from Part-Time Passport

“It’s easy to think that the only way to travel the world these days is to quit your 9-5, pack up your bags and head for the open road with a one-way ticket in hand.

There isn’t a whole lot of advice out there for those of us who want so desperately to explore the world but with all the perks of a “normal” home life (and a comfy bed to come home to!). So I set out to share my own personal tips and fast-track travel itineraries on Part-Time Passport to inspire others that a life of travel and adventure is 100% possible without quitting your job.

I work full-time for a charity in Bristol, South West England – a job I absolutely love and feel very lucky to be able to do. But I’m also a wanderluster at heart and try to get away as much as I possibly can, within my budget and annual leave allowance.

In the last 12 months, I’ve visited 8 different countries and 3 continents. I’ve also been a local tourist in my own city and enjoyed stay-cations all across the U.K. I make this possible by planning my annual leave strategically around national holidays; prioritizing my wages on travel; and making the most of my location, with frequent cheap breaks to Europe and at least one long-haul or multi-centre holiday each year.”

Follow Jules on Instagram!

Priya from Outside Suburbia

“I’m Priya, a suburban mom with a full time job and lucky to have a family who shares a passion for travel. Outside Suburbia is a portal where I share insight about our family trips and feature travel inspiration. I’m a software Engineer, which gives me the flexibility of working from home in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas and also the ability to travel anywhere anytime within the US.

Our kids still go to school and we are bound by their schedule. We have one kid in college in California and one who just is in 10thgrade. We typically travel for 3 weeks in summer and 2 weeks in winter and do some weekend trips when all our stars and scheduled align!

While we don’t keep track of country counts or passport stamps, what we do have is a big fat bucket list of experiences, and keep working on checking things off the list. We recently checked off going on a safari to East Africa to see the Great Migration and the Big 5, we also got to hang out with some South African Penguins on Boulders Beach, in Cape Town . When we do retire (hopefully in 3 years) we plan on taking a mini sabbatical and going on a trip around the world with the kids.”

Follow Priya on Instagram!

Amrita & Agniswar from Tale of 2 Backpackers

“We have often been asked how do we manage our jobs and travel also. It seems like quite a feat to many who are into 9 to 5 job. But let me tell you, managing a full time job and travel is not that difficult. All that is needed is a little planning.

We both work in a very demanding banking industry in India. The job requires a lot on customer interaction in the rural grass root level as well as lots of desk job. We have transfers every three years, though our job does not require much travelling. And we definitely need the job as it pays the EMIs and also funds the travel.

So how do we fit in the travel? We use the weekends and the holidays to the full. When we work, we do that with full concentration and are good at it. So that when we ask for leaves, we are not usually turned down. We usually go for a Himalayan trekking for 7-10 days once a year and two long vacations in the year. And every month, we explore a destination nearby. So there are some serious work in job and many great travel escapades as well.”

Follow Amrita & Agniswar on Instagram!

Kris from Nomad By Trade

“I work full-time in the software industry with a base in the Detroit, Michigan area and get 15 vacation days and 7 paid holidays per year. I’m lucky because my job itself requires a lot of travel, so even though I only spend around 3 weeks vacationing during the year, I spend most of my working time traveling around the United States.

I like to maximize my travel time by combining vacation days with paid holidays – for example, I get Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday off, so by taking the previous Monday-Wednesday off, I can get a 10-day trip for only three vacation days. Long weekends like Memorial Day and Labor day are also your friend if you’re a full-time worker who loves to travel.

I like to plan 2 bigger trips lasting a whole week and then use my remaining vacation days to take long weekends throughout the year. Lately I’ve been aiming for one international trip and one domestic trip because as much as I love visiting new places and using my passport, I want to make sure I see amazing places in the United States too.”

Follow Kris on Facebook!

Lisa from The Travel Pharmacist

“Traveling as a pharmacist is never dull. Someone is always asking “what can I take for this?” or “what should I do for that?” – and that’s also what makes being a Travel Pharmacist fun!

I’m a registered pharmacist (RPH) based in Tampa, Florida and I typically travel 6-8 months of the year. The other months, I’m busy filling prescriptions and counseling patients on the correct way to take their medications. In the winter, Florida is a busy place for retirees looking to escape the colder temperatures of the northern United States.

That’s when I jump in with the company I’ve worked with for the past 6 years. They don’t have to hire on an extra pharmacist because they know I’m coming back during the busy times and I can count on the work to build up our travel account for the next season. Getting to help people along the way is just an added bonus!”

Follow Lisa on Instagram!

Veronika from Travel Geekery

“I’ve been travelling extensively for the last 4 years, 5 of which I’ve had my travel blog TravelGeekery. It all has become possible ever since I moved into the online marketing field.

In the last 4 years, I’ve had 3 jobs. First at a travel startup, which was fun and exciting, but incredibly busy. I don’t know how I managed the year I spent there. After that, I’ve managed social media for companies. While in my current job my boss prefers me staying at the office, I can still travel every month provided I get my work done. I rarely take a full vacation during which I’d be completely unavailable.

I’m based in Prague, which is also a great base for short weekend trips. Apart from that, I do longer weekend trips and a week or two here and there. In my current job I cannot afford escaping for, say, a month, but I’m still grateful for the official 25 days of vacation they provide.”

Follow Veronika on Instagram!

Brittany from Big Time Travels

“I’m a Primary School Teacher based in Ontario, Canada. Being a teacher is a great way to work full time and travel the world. With a lucrative holiday schedule, I’m able to optimize my time away from school to travel. Most of my travel experiences happen on school holidays.

This year I have been able to visit 6 countries over a 10 week span. During school holidays, I have been fortunate to explore Belize, Guatemala, England, Morocco, Indonesia and Taiwan, making for some epic adventures and even better memories. With an extensive background in travel, I’m able to help enrich my students experiences in the classroom.”

Follow Brittany on Facebook!

Brianne from A Traveling Life

“After 10+ years of working full-time for various nonprofit organizations, I started my own communications consulting firm in Boston, Massachusetts, five years ago. My main motivation for starting a business was to have more control over my schedule than is possible with most traditional “9-to-5” jobs in the U.S. However, although I do have more flexibility now, I’m unable to ever truly “check out” like I did when I had vacation days – I need to be available for my clients when they need me.

Regardless, I usually take one or two domestic trips each month, and go overseas two or three times each year for 1-2 weeks. On two occasions – most recently last spring – I managed to take extended trips of 6-8 weeks. Everyone always asks me when I’m going to become a digital nomad or move overseas, but I’m very content with how I’ve structured my life and career. As much as I love traveling, I enjoy having a home base – I own my home, I have a dog, and I’m doing work that benefits my community.”

Follow Brianne on Facebok!

Montoya from The Spring Break Family

“When I was about 17 years old, I saw the movie John Q. It’s a tragic story about a father that couldn’t afford a heart transplant for his son so he goes to drastic measures to provide one. In the movie, he interacts with a hospital manager and by the time the credits rolled I knew healthcare administration was going to be my lifelong career.

I entered the world of healthcare IT immediately after my college graduation — learning my way around Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and figuring out what it takes to run an intricate system like managed health care. It is a demanding field. After all, things in a hospital are literally life and death.

I spend so much time there working that it is almost fitting that it’s also where I met my husband. Before anyone asks — no, he wasn’t a patient! He also works in healthcare IT. Together, we juggle emergency system needs, maintenance events in the wee hours of the morning, and rigorous on-call schedules.

But somewhere in the melee, we manage to travel extensively with our three girls. We’ve been all over the United States, to Paris, London, Rome , Venice, and Milan — and we’re just getting started! Our “official” travel window is Spring Break where we spend anywhere from 7-10 days exploring an international destination. However, we are based in Houston and luckily benefit from plenty of airfare sales. If we find affordable airfare and lodging in a city in the US, then off we go!

Traveling while maintaining a traditional office job can be a challenge (and sometimes a complete and utter chore) but it is worth it! My tips? Keep track of your Paid Time Off (PTO), utilize paid holidays, watch for sales, and don’t be afraid to travel off the beaten path (sometimes it’s cheaper!).”

Follow Montoya on Instagram!

Suzy from Suzy Stories

“For the past two years my full-time job has been at a digital marketing agency in London where I work as a Social Media Manager. Working at a centrally located office of course has many perks, but as a travel lover and blogger escaping city life can prove difficult to balance with work.

Besides my 25 days annual leave each year (where I take 1 or 2 bigger holidays plus a few long city-break weekends), I’m also incredibly fortunate enough to have a job which allows me to work remotely for a few weeks of the year. This arrangement came about as a result of my long-distance relationship, where my partner currently lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Being able to travel such a long distance makes it worthwhile to stay at least 3 weeks or more, giving me the chance to spend time with my partner as well as exploring more of the beautiful South Island of NZ. With a job that simply requires an internet connection, time zones and locations hardly impact my work. The flexibility to continue working from abroad helps my circumstances enormously, I can continue earning without compromising on my personal life, as well as being able to visit my favorite country again and again! Needless to say, I’m very grateful for such an understanding team, and the power of Wifi!”

Follow Suzy on Twitter!

Catherine from We Go With Kids

“I am a public finance lawyer and mom to three kids who runs the family travel website We Go With Kids with another lawyer mom. We are based in Cleveland and love to travel as a family, but my billable hour requirement does not give me a ton of vacation flexibility. However, I am able to travel for work, over extended weekends and take one international trip each year and also take advantage of day trips in Northeast Ohio.

In the last year, my mom and oldest son traveled with me to a conference in Los Angeles, and we were able to spend most of a day sightseeing together. I’ve also added some sightseeing time to business trips to Phoenix and New York City and tagged along with my kids on several of my husband’s business trips to Pittsburgh. We also took weekend trips to New Orleans, Tampa, Washington D.C. and Amherst, Massachusetts and a summer trip to Paris, Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome in July 2018.

Combining work and pleasure or taking weekend trips have allowed me to travel in 11 states and three countries in the past year with minimal vacation time. The harder part is finding time to write about those experiences in my non-existent free time…”

Follow Catherine on Instagram!

Alison from Up&AtEm Travel

“Like many others, I have combined my love of writing and travel as a travel blogger – but luckily I am able to write about travel at my ‘regular office’ job, too. I am the content lead with an airline, whose headquarters are based in London; so I write and edit destination content about the places that we fly, in addition to useful articles about where to stay, what to eat and which attractions to see.

As an expat looking to settle in the UK, I can currently travel out of the country 90 days per year. I manage to stay below the limit, but travel is so easy from London because it is such a large travel hub. Within the past year or so, I have visited Paris, Macau, Hong Kong, Kuala Lampur, Colorado, Florida, Venice, Amsterdam and Zurich.

While I travel, I also work on freelance stories for digital and print publications. Although closely related, there are distinct differences between travel writing and travel blogging.

Follow Alison on Instagram!

Amy from The Wayfarer’s Book

“I got into teaching English after getting my CELTA, a highly respected TEFL certificate , in New York City. Since then, I’ve taught in Singapore, Ukraine , Georgia, and next week I’m heading to Moscow to work at an immersive English-language kindergarten.

I’ve taught adults and teenagers, group classes and one to one, general English, exam preparation, and specialized classes – I even got to teach English to film executives! While teaching conditions can vary from country to country (and school to school!), you can find a position that pays well, gives three to four weeks of vacation a year, and allows you to immerse yourself in a culture the way you never could on a two-week trip. I’ve been castle hunting in Ukraine, hiked in the mountains of Georgia , and spent my long weekends touring Southeast Asia’s treasures.

Many people think about teaching English to support their travels for a year or two, but I chose to do it because it’s actually a professional career that can sustain a lifestyle of travel for… well, as long as I want. I’ve been teaching English for five years, have just started my Delta (the next level qualification), and plan on transitioning into teacher training in the near future. It’s a career plan and a travel lifestyle rolled into one!”

Follow Amy on Instagram!

Lyn & Steve Baker from A Hole in my Shoe

“We first travelled overseas for our honeymoon in 2010 and fell in love. With travel, which when you live in the most isolated city in the world presents itself with a challenge. This is because we both work full time. Steve, an IT specialist works for local council and I work in Human Resources within the disability sector. We have been blogging since 2014 and try to travel as much as lives allow.

Our jobs give us 4 weeks paid leave per year and Steve also accrues one day per month (with pay). My employer allows me to purchase an additional 2 weeks’ leave per year and when taking leave we always try and take advantage of the weekends and public holidays.

We try to take one big trip each year and as Bali is our closest neighbor, we try to schedule a trip there each winter as well. A trip to the east coast (Sydney or Melbourne) is usually managed each year too. On top of this we try and do a road trip within our vast state every month or so. When we are not travelling our time is filled with attending local festivals, tourist attractions, national parks and seeking out local street art. So far we’ve managed to travel to 33 countries and have no plans to change our travel style in the next few years.”

Follow Lyn & Steve on Instagram!

Paroma from Year of the Monkey

“I am Paroma Chakravarty, aka the nerdy brown girl who lives in San Francisco, California with her husband and Babu, 15 year old Tibetan Spaniel mix and am the blogger behind Year of the Monkey (a travel, pets, food and lifestyle blog). I have a full time, 9-5 corporate job as a Material scientist (thanks to a backbreaking PhD in pharmaceutical material science) at a biotech company in the Bay Area.

I work in the research and development of cancer and immunology drugs, aka guide the formulation scientists on which form of the active therapeutic ingredient (the one that actually does the work in your body when you pop in a pill) to develop in the final product (our lingo for tablets/capsules/stuff that you need prescription for).

Traveling with a full time job and its demands is super hard, but when you love travel as much as I do and have a blog to talk about it, you come up with creative ways to satiate your desire to see the world. Unlike most other US companies, mine is pretty generous when it comes to leaves and we get 18 days of leave per year along with all the Federal holidays as well as a full shutdown from Christmas eve to New year. We also get a 6 week paid vacation (called “sabbatical) for every 6 years of service.

I try to make full use of my vacation time judiciously and besides taking 10 days off in summer, I plan mini breaks every 2-3 months utilizing long weekends or with 1-2 days tagged to a weekend. if possible, I take a few days off if I am traveling for work (with full ethics and transparency to my manager) and in this way I manage to travel 5-6 times a year, not including long weekends. There is never a dull moment while living in California and I hope to continue exploring my beautiful state and the world while chipping away towards healthcare innovations.”

Follow Paroma on Instagram!

Allison from Flights to Fancy

“My day job and my night gig couldn’t be more different. By day I’m a Senior Risk Manager with one of Australia’s biggest banks and I spend my 9 – 5 leading a team of highly-skilled individuals dedicated to investigating and preventing application fraud. I (mostly) love my job and I go home each night content in the knowledge that the good guys are on the case.

As you can imagine my job is demanding and the pressure is real. Travel is my escape; for the body and the mind. When I’m not on the job busting crime, I use every second of my allocated leave to explore the world. I get 20 days annual leave each year and by virtue of my tenure (almost 30 years!), I have a bucket load of long service leave available for the taking.

My employer promotes work life balance and flexibility and last year I took advantage of our lifestyle leave option to boost my existing leave by 4 weeks. Lifestyle leave is essentially leave without pay but instead of taking the hit all at once the deductions are averaged out over a year so it’s not so painful. I travel overseas a minimum of four times a year and sneak in as many Aussie trips as I can. More recently I’ve started to write about my adventures on my travel blog Flights to Fancy.

My hubby also works full time and his complicated schedule often dictates our travel style. He gets a week off every eight weeks in addition to his annual and long service leave and we use those breaks to maximum advantage. As our time off work is usually in short blocks, we stay close to home and mostly travel through Asia, Australia and Oceania.

The older I get the more I realize how much I value my comforts and I’m all about travelling in style. Let’s just say I left my backpacking days way behind in my 20’s and I don’t ever care to see the inside of a hostel again. That said, I love a bargain and I pride myself on finding the very best deals at the luxury end of town.

It’s all these factors that has shaped my blog’s niche which is ‘travelling the world a week at a time in luxury for less’. I share tips and tricks with my readers to help them save their pennies where it counts so they can splurge where it matters. I share amazing hotels, must-do activities and fabulous feasts so my readers can plan their own perfect getaway.

In 2018 I’ve visited Hawaii, Canberra, Bali and Darwin so far with Vietnam, Cambodia, and Tasmania still to go. 2019 is shaping up to be ever bigger. Fitting it all in is hard, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Head on over to the blog to see all my latest adventures.”

Follow Allison on Instagram!

Nicholas from Rambling Feet

“I’m based in Singapore and I work in a non-government organization (NGO). My employer isn’t exactly flush with money and my job doesn’t take me around the world. However, the 14 days of paid leave that I get are enough for me to travel five or six times a year. In addition, I earn extra time off work by volunteering at weekend events.

My trips are short weekend getaways to other Southeast Asian destinations. It helps that there are three budget airlines – AirAsia, Jetstar and Scoot – that operate out of Singapore. I don’t have the luxury of taking in multiple cities slowly but it’s a situation that I make the best of. Taking advantage of long weekends also requires advanced planning so that I don’t pay too much over the lowest prices.

Besides short trips, I take one vacation annually that lasts a week or more so that I can travel further. Over the last three years, this plan has enabled me to visit cities in 21 different countries in East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Europe.”

Follow Nicholas on Facebook!

Kevin from The Outcast Journey

“While it might surprise you, I didn’t start a major travel until I was 21 years old. My interest in going places really started to grow after I graduated in engineering. Since then, I discovered my potential in mountain climbing which eventually led me to landscape photography, other outdoor activities, and the nature in general.

Presently, I work in an IT company in Taguig City as a full-time business analyst. I closely work with software engineers to maintain and develop a stable ERP system most especially in the supply chain area. My career as a BA is great, but the outside of office always calls to me. That’s why I also tried being a part-time travel blogger.

My true love in hiking, photography, traveling, and all these adventures is enhanced through blogging. But due to my commitment in the corporate world, I should always have to plan all my trips for the whole year. Basically, I will book a travel overseas (mostly Asian countries) at least once, or if by any chance get two countries. The remaining trips will always be local travels to feature all the hidden gems in my home country, which is the Philippines.”

Follow Kevin on Instagram!

LIKED IT? PIN THIS POST FOR LATER!

If you enjoyed that post why don't you share it with your friends? That would mean so much to me! Also be sure to join 30.000+ fellow travelers and follow me on Facebook , Twitter , or Instagram for travel updates and even more pictures! If you don't want to miss new posts sign up to my newsletter or follow on Bloglovin !

16 Comments

Sinjana Ghosh

Wow this is an amazing post. Even I’m annoyed by the trend of celebrities telling people to leave everything behind and chase your dreams. I always wonder, what if my parents did the same, where would I be? We all have rights and duties, and it’s silly to assume that people stick to their “boring day jobs” because they are afraid. Inspiring to read about you and so many fellow bloggers. Yes, as a newbie sometimes blogging on top of work, domestic stuff and travel becomes overwhelming but reading this gave me a lot of positivity.Glad to be a part of this post

Thank you for your comment and thank you for being part of this post. I really believe everyone is allowed to do whatever they want to with their lives and sometimes you just have to stick to your job as you need to earn money somehow. This trend to leave everything behind doesn’t mention the ugly truth at all.

Shannon - SoleSeeking

Really interesting stories! Thank you for featuring me.

Thank you for being part of this post!

Muhammed Ismail

Ohh, that’s so inspiring me. I’m always thinking about that as I’m working in HR company in Istanbul after leaving my home town Alexandria one year ago. I’m totally feeling the passion they have and how it’s hard to balance specially with the full time work and deadlines :) I wish I could travel around the world and to get back to your post and write my adventure!

Thanks to all of you for sharing.

Thank you! I hope you will be able to travel soon too, fingers crossed!

Kami it is the Best Text I have ever red on your blog. I think that you are just great person You infect people wth your optimism!!! Never give up!! No matter what it takes!!!! (sorry for my English) Best wishes!!

thank you <3

James P Ghecas

Dear Kami, I am always Anazed by the quality and depth of your travelogues. Informative articles and full pictures. How do you keep a job and travel to distant places? Simply The travel person of our time. Ms. Marco Polo Would like to offer a financial contribution to your efforts. How would I do so ? Best Regards,

thank you, that’s so nice of you! There’s really no need of financial contribution to my travels, the best way to support me is just to visit the blog :)

fajnepodroze.pl

Very inspiring! I like it so much Kami :)

Peter Parker

Thanks for writing this awesome article and examples helped a lot…You definitely made my day with this awesome post. please keep on writing. Thank you for sharing information

I liked the post, very interesting and well written, I really needed to know about it, thanks for sharing :D!

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Sign me up for the newsletter!

Let’s become friends!

Join me on Facebook for even more travel updates!

Kami and the rest of the world

Destination Russia: An Intriguing Collection of Travel Stories About A Fascinating Country

Posted on Published: August 5, 2019  - Last updated: January 24, 2021

Categories Blog , Product Reviews , Resources , Reviews

Required reading for instant Russia wanderlust.

Have you traveled to Russia? I’ve yet to visit this alluring country. To be honest, I really don’t know much about Russia, yet it’s always intrigued me. The entire country feels shrouded in mystery. Perhaps it’s because Russia only opened itself up to mass tourism within my lifetime. Most people visit the big cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, but the country itself is massive. There’s so much that lies beyond those major destinations.

Want to learn more about traveling in Russia from those who have personally experienced the journey first hand? Enter Destination Russia: A Ship and a Cat in the Tundra and Other Extraordinary Encounters . Authors Roberta Melchiorre and Fabio Bertino put their experiences into a collection of short stories. In this Russia travel book, we gain insights into what it’s like to visit Russia as an outsider. It’s enlightening, fascinating, funny, and captivating.

Posts may be sponsored. Post contains affiliate links. I may be compensated if you make a purchase using my link.

Table of Contents

Personal Tales and Connections

One of the major aspects of Destination Russia are the personal connections and recollections from traveling around the country. Some of the best travel stories come from the people we meet while we travel. Every short story centers around the authors’ encounters with the people of Russia.

In The Beauty of Petersburg , the Italian travel companions, Melchiorre and Bertino reveal a story detailing the kindness of strangers. Their encounter with a boy named Andrey back in the early 90s demonstrates how the true beauty of Petersburg lies with its people. His kindness helps the traveling couple while making his life a little more difficult, and he asks for nothing in return.

In the story, A life on the Trans-Siberian Railway , we delve into the lives of a husband and wife working on the train. He works at night, and she works during the day. While they live together in a very small space on the train, their main encounters happen during their shift changes.

The whole life of Lyudmila and her companion is permanently linked to the Trans-Siberian Railway. He is from Moscow where from Yaroslavskiy Vokzal, one of the nine stations in town, depart the trains to East. She is from Novosibirsk, boasting the biggest and most im- posing station of the whole Siberia, more than 1,864 miles from the capital. Without the railway they would have probably never met.

Historical Context

In every short story in Destination Russia, we gain some historical context about Russia’s mysterious and intriguing past. Having a basic knowledge of the history of a place or event helps us understand the present day lives of the people. I’m grateful that the authors made these historical connections to help connect the dots for those of us who might not have a great knowledge of Russian history.

For instance, A Dinner in Moscow , highlights a dinner party with Lilya Mihaylovna, an elderly Russian lady. We learn about her personal history in the context of a broader framework about Moscow and Russia’s past. It’s amazing what you can learn over a meal with a local.

The story, Visiting the Museum , illustrates a trip to the small museum of Komi culture in Vorkuta. It also details the harsh conditions of living so far to the north, with frequent closures due to the winter weather. While the snow and ice make Vorkuta nearly uninhabitable, the city also has a harsh past for its residents. From its forced labour camps in the 1930s to the internment of prisoners in the 1940s and 1950s, the only memorial that remains are small metal crosses without names, poking through the deep snow of the tundra.

My Favorite Stories in Destination Russia

It’s hard to choose a few favorite stories from Destination Russia, but I was able to identify with a few of them. The first story, Towards Belarus , demonstrates the mishaps that can happen while traveling by train between countries. What seemed like an easy journey is never quite so easy. I felt like this story resonates with anyone who has traveled by train…or who has traveled at all. Nothing ever goes off without a hitch (at least, in my experiences it doesn’t). Something always goes a little askew. For Melchiorre and Bertino, this issue almost disrupted their entire trip from Warsaw to Brest, Belarus.

And naturally, I loved the story called A Cat in the Tundra (for regular readers of this blog, I’m sure you know how much I love cats !). The story isn’t so much about a cat as it is about living in a remote village in the Arctic tundra. It seems that the entire town of 25 residents welcomed the two travelers to their home. Social life in Seyda revolves around the main shop in town where a cat also happens to live.

Buy Destination Russia

Destination Russia is a fairly quick read at 140 pages, although I feel it’s a perfect length. You can pick it up, read a story or two before bed, and put it back down. Each story is self-contained, making it easy to pick up from where you left off with a new tale. This Russia travel book is such a captivating read that you might not want to put it down until you finish the whole thing!

If you’re interested in books about Russia, travel stories, or personal tales in general, definitely pick up a copy of Destination Russia: A Ship and a Cat in the Tundra and Other Extraordinary Encounters . I was left with a greater knowledge about Russian people and their history, and I now want to pack my bags to experience this amazing country first hand.

Have you ever traveled to Russia? Do you want to?

Lauren is the full-time travel blogger and content creator behind Justin Plus Lauren. She started Justin Plus Lauren in 2013 and has travelled to 50+ countries around the world. Lauren is an expert on vegan travel as one of the very first vegan travel bloggers. She also focuses on outdoor adventure travel, eco and sustainable travel, and creating amazing travel itineraries for cities and small towns.

Adventure Travel

What is adventure travel? Is it limited to long-distance trekking through gorges and mountain ranges, or kayaking down whitewater rivers, camping in rugged outcrops along the way?

Perhaps the idea of jumping out of a plane or bungy jumping gets your heart pumping. Maybe adventure travel can be considered wandering across the globe, seeking out places that few tourists have ever been.

We believe that adventure travel is anything that gets you out of your comfort zone, and makes you feel alive.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be extreme, or life-threatening. Adventure means something different to everyone.

Part of the reason we created this adventure travel blog is to showcase our love and passion for pushing ourselves to the limit and finding unique places around the world.

Over the years we’ve been lucky enough to have some incredible experiences, some of them might be considered extreme or foolish, while others are more exciting than daring.

We’ve camped with reindeer herders in Mongolia, and taken a cargo ship across the Caspian Sea during a missile strike. We have fended off pirates off the coast of Honduras, and ridden mountain bikes down Death Road in Bolivia.

That doesn’t mean that the answer to the question ‘What is adventure travel?’ has to involve death-defying activities though.

Some of our best adventures have had nothing to do with scaring ourselves. A month backpacking independently around Iran with no plans, no itinerary and no guide didn’t see us getting our heart rate very high, but it was still an incredible experience that we always consider a fun adventure.

And that’s the beauty of adventure. It can be anything you want it to be.

Not everything we’ve done has made it onto the adventure blog (we’re working on getting them all up there!), but a lot of our favourite ones can be found in the archives of this website.

There are no limits to what you can and can’t do on the road. Life’s too short to live in a bubble. Step out of your comfort zone.

So what adventures have we done over the years that have stood out to us?

• Travelled overland from Thailand to Turkey over two years without taking a single flight.
• Explored Hang Son Doong (the world’s largest cave) on a 6-day expedition.
• Rode more than 15’000km on two motorbikes around Southeast Asia.
• Sailed on a small catamaran in the Caribbean for two months, where we scared off pirates with our air rifles (true story) and went through the ‘perfect storm’ more than 150 nautical miles out to sea.
• Horse trekked to visit the Tsaatan reindeer herders in Northern Mongolia.
• Travelled to Antarctica and South Georgia on some Russian research vessels.
• Survived the “World’s Most Dangerous Hike” on Mount Huashan, China.
• We are both qualified rescue divers with wreck and nitrox certifications.
• Mountain biked down ‘Death Road’ in Bolivia.

Check out some of our favourite adventure travel blogs from around the world

Surviving The World’s Most Dangerous Hike – Mt Huashan

The best camping sleeping pad of 2024 | top 12 sleeping pads, hiking in patagonia – the ultimate guide to the best treks, our 12 best hiking tips (from 15 years trekking), peak lenin base camp trek – kyrgyzstan hiking guide [2024], the ultimate pamir highway, tajikistan travel guide (2024), a first-timer’s guide to trekking in sapa, the ultimate guide to hiking the overland track in tasmania, the ultimate guide to hiking the three capes track in tasmania, the ultimate mount rinjani trekking guide (2024 update), altyn arashan in kyrgyzstan – hiking and hot springs, hiking and canyoning in durmitor national park, montenegro.

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Travel & Food, Itineraries & Guides, Hotel Reviews

Moscow or St. Petersburg – Which Russian City Is Better?

June 4, 2017 by Bino 7 Comments

As two of the most popular tourist destinations in Russia, most travelers who visit the world’s largest countries end up making their way to both Moscow and St. Petersburg. Both cities have a wealth of attractions, including palaces, churches as well as exciting culinary and nightlife scenes. But what if you find yourself able to visit only one – should you visit Moscow or St. Petersburg? Alternatively, if you have time for both, in which city do you spend more days?

During a recent trip to Russia, I had a similar problem deciding. My trip allowed me to visit both cities but I was not sure in the beginning whether I should stay for more days in Moscow or St. Petersburg. As such, the comparison I am going to do here applies both to those trying to allocate the number of days between the two cities as well as those who have enough time to visit only one,

As Russia’s capital, the city serves as the financial center of the country. The city is highly cosmopolitan. You will find a large number of people from all around Russia here and even people from the former Soviet republics. Moscow also has a noticeable expat population and you’ll find various types of eateries here from Japanese to French as well as Italian – the latter which local chefs do very well.

a view of the kremlin over the moskva river

While the city sits firmly in Europe and plenty of the surrounding architecture are certainly typical of the continent, Moscow can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming (and clogged), not to mention polluted due to the smoke coming out of the cars. There are plenty of highways circling the city to reach areas outside the central core. Moscow is definitely one of the great cities of the world.

• Moscow is one of the world’s largest cities and you won’t get bored here. There are plenty of districts from which to explore. Personally, I love the area surrounding the Patriarshy Ponds filled with plenty of charming shops and hip restaurants.
• If you decide to spend more time or devote your entire time in Russia to Moscow, you’ll be pleased that there are plenty of day trip and excursion opportunities from here. The towns around the golden ring, i.e. Suzdal, Vladimir, Sergiev Posad, etc are either a car or train ride away and can easily keep you preoccupied for a couple of days.
• The city is not as touristy as St. Petersburg and that’s a good thing. I visited the Kolomenskoye Park for example, which houses a UNESCO World Heritage Site, without encountering the tour groups I typically see in St. Petersburg.
• If the hipster culture interests you, you’ll be pleased that you have plenty of options in Moscow. The most prominent is Flacon , a short walk from Dmitrovskaya station.

the izmailovo kremlin – one of the places you should include in your moscow trip

• Overall, I found Moscow to be more expensive – both in terms of hotels, food as well as transport. The Russian capital is frequently ranked as one of the most expensive cities in the world. All it takes is a visit to the iconic GUM shopping mall to see the astronomical prices.
• If you are visiting Moscow independently, you might find getting by via public transport a bit confusing. When taking the metro in particular, the signs are all in Cyrillic so it’s helpful to learn a bit of the alphabet in order to familiarize yourself with the names of the places. If any consolation, some of the stations are among the most beautiful subway stations in the world.
• While both Moscow and St. Petersburg have less charming Soviet style buildings, you’ll find more in Moscow – being once the capital of the Soviet Union.
• There are no shortage of sights in Moscow but many of them are scattered all around the city. Interesting places in the outskirts include: Kolomenskoye Park, the Izmailovo Kremlin, Novodevichy Convent and Flaocon. But these are at different directions from the center.

Where I stayed in Moscow: I found the InterContinental Tverskaya Moscow to be conveniently located. It’s within a short walk from at least 3 metro stations while the Red Square is just down the road. Service overall is fantastic compared to other Moscow hotels and vacation rental options and there are good deals to be had during weekends. You can also compare the best prices for hotels in Moscow HERE .

St. Petersburg

view of st. petersburg from st. isaac’s cathedral

Established some 300 years ago by Peter the Great, St. Petersburg probably ranks among the most visually appealing cities in Europe. Almost any building in the central core for example can be considered as a tourist attraction. The city is one of the great touristic cities in Europe – hosting plenty of daytrippers from cruises around the Baltics or Scandinavia.

inside the church of spilled blood in st. petersburg

• The city is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe with plenty of classical and baroque architecture. Peter the Great spared no expense in hiring the best architects from Western Europe when he established the city.
• St. Petersburg is relatively cheaper than Moscow. Uber rides between most points within the city center don’t go beyond $5.
• Many of the tourist attractions are concentrated within the center so it’s fairly easy to walk from one attraction to another or take a short cab ride.
• The city derives a good part of its income in tourism and you’ll find plenty of signs in English and even in other foreign languages. While I was there, I saw many restaurants and shops displaying signs in Chinese.

outside the hermitage

• While you will find daytrip opportunities in the form of Petrograd as well as Catherine Palace, they’re significantly less than if you choose to base yourself in Moscow.
• St. Petersburg can get quite touristy and you could find the crowds a bit maddening and you might even need to queue for a long time to enter. It’s possible to purchase tickets for some attractions online but others are available only on the spot.

Where I stayed in St. Petersburg: I was pleasantly surprised by the Crowne Plaza Ligovsky . Some of the rooms are styled like a palace with engravings on the walls. Fresh juices were served during breakfast – something relatively unheard of for a 4 star hotel. Best of all, it is located just across Galeria, one of the biggest shopping malls in St. Petersburg. You can also check out some other hotels and compare the best prices HERE for St. Petersburg.

Where to go if you could choose only one city?

Both Moscow and St. Petersburg are great in their own ways. However, if your stay in Russia is very short and barring any other limitations, I would suggest going to St. Petersburg instead. My reasons are as follows: St. Petersburg is quicker to navigate. You can finish most of the main attractions within a couple of days by focusing on the city center and perhaps visiting the area north of the river. In contrast, Moscow is quite spread out. The city is so much more than the Kremlin and Red Square that it will take you more days to really see the city. It would be better to visit Moscow next time when you have more days to spare.

If you have enough time for both cities, where should you allocate more days?

On the other hand, if you have more time to visit both cities and are deciding where to allocate more days – I would suggest allocating more days for Moscow. Other than the extra time required to see the city outskirts, you could also use the extra days to arrange excursions to the cities in the Golden Ring. Also check out my suggested one week itinerary for Russia . Alternatively, you can also consider venturing to Russia’s third capital, the multicultural city of Kazan if you have time.

Tips for Russia

• Know the Cyrillic alphabet  – the local alphabet is not difficult and is actually quite fun to learn especially after you learn how many words sound the same in both Russian and English! This will help greatly when you navigate metro stations and read shop signs.
• Travel insurance – If you are going for a simple eating trip near your home country, travel insurance may not be needed but for Russia which is quite far and rather exotic, I decided to purchase one. I bought from  this provider which has a higher than average medical coverage and compensates you for things like accidents and lost items at a relatively cheap price.
• Buy metro cards – Getting the metro cards in cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg will save you lots when it comes to transport cost and is far more convenient than buying tickets on the spot. For places that are not covered by the metro, you can consider ride-sharing apps like UBER.

You May Also Like

Hi, my name is Bino and I started I Wander around 15 years ago with the aim of sharing about some of my personal journeys and experiences, hoping that the information may benefit readers like yourselves. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below. Alternatively, you can also email me at b i n o (at) iwandered.net. You can follow I Wander on Facebook , Telegram , or Instagram . Also, if you liked this article, please feel free to SHARE or RETWEET

More Posts - Website

Reader Interactions

Older posts.

August 31, 2018 at 7:19 am

I’m researching whether to choose Moscow or St. Petersburg and this helped me decide. St. Petersburg it is. Thank you!

January 5, 2019 at 6:53 am

I have been to moscow and lived there for a while i only find out that in moscow people are so aggressive and not friendly at all. If you don’t kniw the Russian language then it means you would be in problems. People don’t like to help others. if you can’t find any address don’t ask any one they will not answer you.time is money for them they don’t waist time for you.

May 24, 2019 at 12:03 pm

That’s surprising! Me and a friend spent a week in Moscow without knowing a drop of Russian and everyone was so friendly and helpful to us. Sorry to hear your experience wasn’t too good 🙁

November 7, 2019 at 3:10 pm

Really??? You were extremely unlucky…

February 1, 2019 at 8:46 am

Im 17yrs old and i am being offered full scholarship in senior high in russia. I am told to select moscow or st petersburg. Thank you for this, i might pick st petersburg.

November 5, 2019 at 2:08 am

Thank you for all the helpful information. There are a lot of blogs comparing the two cities, but your info is really concise and practical.

I will plan to visit both but spend a bit more time in Moscow (if I can afford the hotels!!).

What time of year were you in Russia? I would like to go during the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.

November 7, 2019 at 10:37 am

Hi, I was there in May.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

•   Weather

Search location by ZIP code

New part-time lane along part of interstate 95 in new hampshire, maine to help ease congestion.

• Copy Link Copy {copyShortcut} to copy Link copied!

GET LOCAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox.

A new part-time lane system on parts of Interstate 95 in New Hampshire and Maine will open in time for Memorial Day weekend travel.

New Hampshire Department of Transportation said the new part-time shoulder use system would help reduce congestion along I-95 during peak travel periods between May and October when traffic warrants and unplanned incidents.

The system is along about three miles between Exit 5 in Portsmouth and Exit 3 in Maine.

>> Traffic tracker

NHDOT said they're opening the new lane for the holiday weekend to get a feel for how drivers are adjusting and to accommodate the expected congestion from holiday travelers.

NHDOT, along with the Maine Department of Transportation and Maine Turnpike Authority, will begin using the new system, officials said. Maine officials will manage the southbound side.

>> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: Apple | Google Play <<

"If the congestion is happening northbound, NHDOT will go into our system and be able to turn on a green arrow over the shoulder so traffic knows you can use this part-time shoulder use," said director of operations at NHDOT, Susan Klasen.

Officials said there will be warning signs at the on-ramps approaching the system to alert merging traffic when the lane is open. There will also be increased safety patrols when the system is in use.

NHDOT said it is important drivers really pay attention to the lane use signals. They said if you see a red "X" symbol, the shoulder is only available for emergency stopping only.

How to Navigate an Extra-Busy Summer Travel Season

Tips for beating the exceptional crowds expected this year and keeping your vacation budget manageable.

• Newsletter sign up Newsletter

To help you understand what is going on in the travel sector, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts ( Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe ). You'll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest…  

The upcoming summer travel season will be extraordinarily busy and exceed pre-pandemic levels, though it will look a bit different than the past two summers when Americans caught the travel bug after years of COVID-19 restrictions. On the wane is so-called revenge travel, a post-pandemic phenomenon in which Americans who were desperate to make up for lost time booked exotic, and often expensive, “ bucket list ” adventures. 

This year, the trend has shifted back to more traditional vacation destinations and cost-conscious practices. But overall travel volume will hit historic highs this summer. Online travel agency Expedia says flight searches are up 25%, overall for June through August, compared with the same time last year. And interest in international destinations across Europe and Asia is up by triple digits. The number of Americans who eventually book a trip this summer will be on par with last summer. But globally, 4.7 billion people are expected to travel in 2024, compared with 4.5 billion in 2019, with much of that travel occurring this summer. That means that flights, hotels and attractions in the United States and abroad will be crowded to levels unseen in years. 

Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

Be a smarter, better informed investor.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.

Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.

Domestic airfares will remain in line with or just slightly higher than last summer. Fares will begin to rise in May, reaching a peak at the end of May and early June. 

To save money, avoid holiday weekends and travel during late August, if possible, when airfares will drop more than $100.

International airfare will be a mixed bag. Overall, prices will drop for most regions of the world, compared with last year, though they will still be higher than pre-pandemic levels. But airfares will fluctuate significantly depending on the destination, so bargain airfares won’t be found everywhere.

Avoid holiday weekends and travel during late August, when airfares will drop more than $100.

Flight disruptions are a definite possibility this summer as airlines struggle to put enough planes in the air to meet demand. Some carriers will be forced to trim their schedules to cope with a lack of available planes due to production problems at aircraft makers Boeing and Airbus.

When planning a trip, be wary of major events taking place locally that boost prices and shrink availability for hotels, restaurants and car rentals.

• For Europe, avoid Paris during the Olympics in July and August. 
• The same goes for Germany from mid-June to mid-July, when it hosts the quadrennial European Football [soccer] Championship. 
• And singer Taylor Swift’s European tour this summer will cause price and availability issues in every city where she performs. 
• Domestically, political party conventions in Milwaukee (July) and Chicago (August) mean accommodations will be at a premium during those events, if they’re available at all.

If you’re hitting the road this summer, gas prices in the U.S. should be similar to or slightly higher than last year, ranging from about $3.50 to $4 a gallon, although some states will be much more expensive. Still, unforeseen international issues, like a worsening situation in the Middle East, could suddenly boost the national average well above $4.

Car rental prices will be slightly above last summer’s, with fleet availability improved over last year. 

Domestic hotel prices and availability will be in line with last year. But also consider short-term housing rental agencies like Airbnb , as this option may be more affordable and convenient, particularly for families and groups. 

As for where Americans are headed, interest in off-the-beaten-path locales that became popular immediately after the pandemic hasn’t evaporated. One booming trend is “destination dupes” — affordable alternatives to popular tourist spots. Think Liverpool for London, or Québec City for Geneva.

Another trend is “set-jetting” — traveling to destinations that are filming locations of TV shows and movies. While the concept isn’t new, the trend got a massive boost during the pandemic era, when TV watching dramatically increased during lockdowns. 

Other summer travel trends are “cool-cations” (summer vacations to destinations with mild climates to avoid potentially record-breaking heat) and “tour travel” (traveling for a concert).

The strength of the U.S. dollar and relatively low inflation are driving more Americans to travel to places where the dollar will go the furthest , like Southeast Asia. And there is a growing interest in Japan, which lifted its pandemic travel restrictions only last year.

New York City and Los Angeles will top the list of the most popular domestic travel destinations this summer, according to Expedia, followed by Seattle, Orlando and Las Vegas. 

Internationally, Cancun, Mexico and London top the list. Next up: Rome; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; and Paris. Other destinations that are trending: Auckland, New Zealand; Hong Kong; Osaka, Japan; and Da Nang and Hanoi, Vietnam.

This forecast first appeared in The Kiplinger Letter, which has been running since 1923 and is a collection of concise weekly forecasts on business and economic trends, as well as what to expect from Washington, to help you understand what’s coming up to make the most of your investments and your money. Subscribe to The Kiplinger Letter .  

To continue reading this article please register for free

This is different from signing in to your print subscription

Why am I seeing this? Find out more here

Sean Lengell covers Congress and government policy for The Kiplinger Letter . Before joining Kiplinger in January 2017 he served as a congressional reporter for eight years with the Washington Examiner and the Washington Times . He previously covered local news for the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune . A native of northern Illinois who spent much of his youth in St. Petersburg, Fla., he holds a bachelor's degree in English from Marquette University.

20% of adults ages 50+ have no retirement savings, 61% worry they won't have enough at retirement, as per new AARP survey. Plus six tips to start saving now.

By Kathryn Pomroy Published 23 May 24

Americans are driving older cars than ever before, a new report shows, as prices for new cars remain high.

By Alexandra Svokos Published 23 May 24

The Kiplinger Letter What’s behind the insurance price hikes, and what to do about them?

By Rodrigo Sermeño Published 9 May 24

The Tax Letter 529 plans can help blunt the cost of paying for college. But if you want to use leftover funds there are some tax tips to bear in mind.

By Joy Taylor Published 9 March 24

The Kiplinger Letter A new study by CheapAir.com has crunched the numbers.

By Sean Lengell Published 24 February 24

The Kiplinger Letter Regional bank stocks were hammered recently after news of New York Community Bank’s big fourth-quarter loss.

By Rodrigo Sermeño Published 21 February 24

The Tax Letter Qualified charitable distributions, otherwise known as QCDs, can be tricky when it comes to tax reporting. We've got some pointers to help with filing.

By Joy Taylor Published 17 February 24

The Kiplinger Letter Whether it's the routes to avoid that have the most turbulence or the safest airline, we've got you covered.

By Sean Lengell Published 30 January 24

The Kiplinger Letter Here's what to expect in the auto industry this year. If you’re in the market for a car it won’t be quite as daunting as it was during the pandemic and after.

By David Payne Published 28 January 24

The Kiplinger Letter As the world gets moving again, two more travel trends to consider: Solo cruising and airline passengers with loaded guns.

By Sean Lengell Published 26 January 24

• Contact Future's experts
• Terms and Conditions
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Advertise with us

Kiplinger is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site . © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Type and hit Enter to search

Part time jobs for international students in uk.

Table of Contents

Finding part-tme jobs in UK for international students is easy as there are several types of part-time jobs available in many verticals. If you are studying at any university in UK, you should not exceed more than 10-20 hours a week, students can work 40 hours (about 1 and a half days) in UK outside the term time.

If you are 21 and above, the minimum wage is less than £7.49/hour, which raised to £8.60 in April 2024. For part-time jobs in london for international students and elsewhere, you will be getting paid £100-200/week, and it can increase to £300-400 if you have an advanced skill, degree like Masters.

The question running in your mind is: Which part-time job is best for students in UK? We’ve got you covered on that note, we will give you the list of how student can earn in UK part-time.

On-campus part-time jobs for students: This type of job involves working within the campus; it will not pay as expected, but it will give you the best student experience.

Off-campus part-time jobs for students: This type of job involves working outside the campus and paying an hourly rate as set by the country.

Top 10 part time jobs in uk for students

Salary: £ 25.00

This is a very well-paid part time job in uk and it is one of the most popular ones amongst international students. You might have to tutor kids, and teens, or help your fellow students who need extra tutoring in certain subjects. In the universities, there’s always a requirement for a tutor to support the athletes as they miss a lot of classes! Some places require a degree in tutoring, so be aware of it. Since this job is highly paid, even working for a few hours will make good, sweet cash.

Salary: Starts at £10.00

This is an off-campus part time job and one of the best types of part time work in uk as you can choose to be a server across various verticals which can be a bar, restaurant, pub, and any hospitality industry. There are plentiful of offers accross the UK, and if you bit of a chatter then, this is the perfect job with some fun, networking and even get tips on the side. And, if you are fluent in the language, then it’s a big plus point!

Teaching Assistant

Salary: £11.650

If you’re fascinated by the thought of becoming a teacher, then this is a golden opportunity to take advantage of it! The job will entail assisting the teacher in lectures, giving feedback to students, and best of all gaining experience at the best university! And, if you are good at it, you may even get a chance to apply and teach in the lower grade classes although the jobs are usually given to graduates and postgraduate students.

Event Planner

Salary: £14.00

if you want an off campus uk part-time jobs for students, then event planner is also one of the best jobs you can apply to! Being an event planner is easy, if you are someone who loves organizing and managing things, then this is the ideal part-time job in uk for students. This job will entail planning, organizing, and managing events, locations, vendors and even the budget!

Salary: £12.50

If you need something to motivate you to get out now and then, you can try dog walking. It can be like killing two birds with one stone, you can earn money and get some exercise while walking the dog too. And, if you are an animal lover, you will be restricted from having a pet in your student accommodation in UK, so this is the best way to spend some time with your furry friend.

Baby sitter

Salary: £13.00

This is one of the best and easiest job you can try for as a part time job in UK. If the parents are up for you babysitting their kids, then this will be a good way to earn money. With the trust they have in you and depending on how good you are at the job; they will only call you for all the baby-sitting jobs. So, it’s something you should consider while looking for part-time student jobs london.

Salary: £12.00

This is a thrilling, exciting and adventurous job if you are someone who’s up for the ride. It might require the skill to know the city inside out as well as have a strong command over the language. And, if you have what it takes to take people around on adventures, then go for it…a well-paid part time job uk, meet new people, network and a fun job!

Do you know what this job entails? If you love listening to podcasts, this will be more like a hobby than a job for you! All you must do is listen to the audio provided by your employee and then transcribe it into text. That’s the fundamentals of the job. You can do it in your free time and submit it as per the delivery time.

Salary: £10.00

Love being the host at home? Preparing tea, coffee or drinks? Well,’ if that’s something you enjoy, then you can take up the job of a barista. It could be a great way to learn how to make a wide range of coffee and even that free too! So, this is a perfect job if you love coffee, being a host and meeting new people! The pay is also good for working at a coffee shop.

Library Assistant

The part time job for international students in uk on campus is to apply for a library assistant. It is one of the best and most advantageous jobs for students as you will not only be assisting readers, but you will know everything that’s available in the library. So, you will be paid for this and make it easy for you next time you need to find a book or reference for your research paper.

We hope this blog has been helpful, informative and a good resource to help you hunt part-time jobs in the UK . Good luck! 

Also read:- Tips for finding jobs in the UK , Top online jobs for students

We'd love to hear from you !

Share article, other articles.

Public Universities In Germany For International Students 

Related posts.

Cost of living in Hong Kong

Understanding Minimum Salary In The UK For Students

How to Tackle the Rising Cost of Living in the United Kingdom?

Cost of Living in Canada: Your Essential Guide for a Budget-Friendly Adventure

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy replaces special operations chief for second time in six months – as it happened

Move comes after deputy prime minister and agriculture minister dismissed by government

• 9 May 2024 Closing summary
• 9 May 2024 Zelenskiy replaces special operations chief for second time in six months
• 9 May 2024 Ukraine says attack drone flew 'record' 1,500km
• 9 May 2024 Cameron: UK must have the 'courage to act'
• 9 May 2024 Afternoon summary
• 9 May 2024 Western military trainers could go to Ukraine, Lithuania minister says
• 9 May 2024 Ukraine agriculture minister Mykola Solsky dismissed by parliament
• 9 May 2024 David Cameron: west has not learned lesson of Ukraine and must get tougher
• 9 May 2024 Putin accuses 'arrogant' west of risking global conflict and says forces are at 'combat readiness'
• 9 May 2024 Ukraine parliament votes to dismiss deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov
• 9 May 2024 Ukraine air attack on Belgorod injures eight, governor says
• 9 May 2024 Russia to mark second world war Victory Day as relations with west spiral towards crisis

Zelenskiy replaces special operations chief for second time in six months

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy replaced the commander of his special forces on Thursday, the second time in half a year that he has changed the head of the unit which operates in Moscow-occupied territories.

The dismissal of colonel Serhiy Lupanchuk and appointment of brigadier general Oleksandr Trepak in his place was announced in two decrees on the president’s website that provided no explanation for the move, Reuters reported.

Since 2014, Trepak has been actively participating in defence operations in east Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists. He was engaged in leading the push to repel the Russian assault on Donetsk airport, one of the biggest operations back then.

The Ukrainian military’s chain of command has been changed at different levels since February when Zelenskiy replaced his top commander, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, with then-ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi in a major shake up.

At the time, Zelenskiy said a new military leadership was taking control of the armed forces and promised to “reboot” the system by bringing in experienced commanders who understood the daily needs of the troops.

Closing summary

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy replaced the commander of his special forces on Thursday, the second time in half a year that he has changed the head of the unit which operates in Moscow-occupied territories. The dismissal of colonel Serhiy Lupanchuk and appointment of brigadier general Oleksandr Trepak in his place was announced in two decrees on the president’s website that provided no explanation for the move, Reuters reported.

The West needs to undermine and expose “the malign networks that Russia uses to spread its lies,” according to Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron. In his first major speech since taking up the role, he said over the last five years Britain had invested in that project by backing free media and supporting independent journalism in places like Georgia and Moldova, “where Russia seeks to bully and manipulate politics.”

A Ukrainian attack drone struck a Russian oil processing plant in the Bashkiria region on Thursday after flying a “record” distance of 1,500 km (932.06 miles) in an operation conducted by the SBU security service, a Kyiv intelligence source told Reuters. The drone hit a catalytic cracking unit at the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex, the source said. Russia confirmed the fact of damage at the plant earlier, but said the facility was functioning as usual.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine could stop Russian forces advancing in the east if allied countries increased the supply of arms. The Ukrainian leader made the comments at a joint news conference in Kyiv with the European Parliament’s visiting president Roberta Metsola, more than two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said Russian and Belarus’ forces had started joint preparations for tactical nuclear weapons drills , Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday appointed former army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who led Ukraine’s defence in the first two years of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, as Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. The decree was published on the presidential website. Zaluzhnyi was earlier named a “Hero of Ukraine”, Reuters reported. Ukraine has not had an ambassador in London since Zelenskiy dismissed former envoy Vadym Prystaiko in July 2023 after he publicly criticised the president.

Russia president Vladimir Putin has accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. As Russian troops advance against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces, Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world, Reuters reported.

A Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod region injured eight people and damaged scores of residential buildings and cars, the governor of the region bordering with Ukraine said on Thursday. Among the wounded is an 11-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. About 34 flats in 19 apartment buildings were damaged, as well as three dozen cars in the city of Belgorod, the region’s administrative centre, Gladkov added.

Drones launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck two oil depots near the town of Anapa in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region causing large-scale fires, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said the oil depots were used as transshipment points to supply fuel to Russian troops in the nearby occupied peninsula of Crimea.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s parliament has voted to dismiss deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, a key government figure who has overseen the wartime reconstruction effort and championed efforts to set up a vital Black Sea shipping lane, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. The 41-year-old’s dismissal comes amid plans to break up his powerful ministry into two separate government portfolios.

Ukraine’s parliament has dismissed agriculture minister Mykola Solsky who tendered his resignation in late April as he faces an investigation into alleged involvement in illegal acquisition of state-owned land, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. Solsky, 44, has denied the allegations, Reuters reported.

Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed 17 out of 20 attack drones that Russia launched targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s air force said. The drones were destroyed over the Odesa region in Ukraine’s south, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.

Lithuania’s foreign minister has raised the prospect of an ad hoc coalition of western countries sending military training personnel into Ukraine backed by ground-based air defence, days after Russia took an increasingly strident tone against what it sees as the threat of deeper western involvement in the war. Speaking to the Guardian after meeting his British counterpart, David Cameron, in London, Gabrielius Landsbergis also backed the British foreign secretary for saying that Ukraine could use British-made weapons against Russia; remarks that alongside Emmanuel Macron refusing to rule out western troops in Ukraine prompted the Kremlin to threaten UK assets and order a tactical nuclear training exercise.

Ukraine plans to double electricity imports on Thursday after a powerful Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system, the energy ministry said. The imports are expected to rise to 16,699 megawatt hours (Mwh) versus 7,600 Mwh on Wednesday, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. “Today, at Ukraine’s request, emergency electricity supplies have already been made from Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” the ministry said.

South Korea’s position remains it will not supply lethal weapons to any country, president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday, when asked if Seoul was prepared to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. Yoon also said his government intended to continue managing relations with Moscow to “pursue economic cooperation and mutual benefits” even though the two countries’ ties have become “uncomfortable” since the start of the war in Ukraine.

That’s it from the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine could stop Russian forces advancing in the east if allied countries increased the supply of arms.

The Ukrainian leader made the comments at a joint news conference in Kyiv with the European Parliament’s visiting president Roberta Metsola, more than two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Russia has been making small but steady territorial gains in the east of the country since the start of the year, with Ukraine’s forces depleted and weapons and ammunition running perilously low.

“We are putting maximum pressure on our partners to increase weapon deliveries,” Zelenskiy said at an open air briefing in the centre of the capital.

“If the delivery of weapons is increased, we will be able to stop (Russian forces) in the east, where they have the initiative.”

As he spoke, air raid sirens started to blare, a reminder of the threat of Russian missile and drone attacks which have intensified across the country, causing power outages for hundreds of thousands of civilians.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday appointed former army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who led Ukraine’s defence in the first two years of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, as Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.

The decree was published on the presidential website. Zaluzhnyi was earlier named a “Hero of Ukraine”, Reuters reported.

Ukraine has not had an ambassador in London since Zelenskiy dismissed former envoy Vadym Prystaiko in July 2023 after he publicly criticised the president.

Zaluzhnyi is very popular among many Ukrainians for leading the army in the first hours of Russia’s invasion and for planning a counteroffensive that helped liberate significant swathes of territory seized by Moscow.

Ukraine says attack drone flew 'record' 1,500km

A Ukrainian attack drone struck a Russian oil processing plant in the Bashkiria region on Thursday after flying a “record” distance of 1,500 km (932.06 miles) in an operation conducted by the SBU security service, a Kyiv intelligence source told Reuters.

The drone hit a catalytic cracking unit at the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex, the source said. Russia confirmed the fact of damage at the plant earlier, but said the facility was functioning as usual.

More images and reports are coming in from Russia’s events to mark victory in the Second World War.

Although the US and UK ambassadors did not attend, AP reports that Vladimir Putin was joined by other dignitaries and presidents of several former Soviet nations along with a few other Moscow allies, including the leaders of Cuba, Guinea-Bissau and Laos.

Many observers see Putin’s focus on World War II as part of his efforts to revive the USSR’s clout and prestige and his reliance on Soviet practices, AP adds. “It’s the continuous self-identification with the USSR as the victor of Nazism and the lack of any other strong legitimacy that forced the Kremlin to declare ‘denazification’ as the goal of the war,” Nikolay Epplee said in a commentary for Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

Cameron said Britain had imposed unprecedented sanctions against Russia and was continuing to call on allies to maintain military support for Ukraine .

“To persuade we need to be active,” he added, referring to trips he had recently undertaken to central Asia, saying that potential partners all over the world needed to be told they could be helped to make a choice to “be more open, more independent”

Cameron also announced a new £1m programme for the British Council to teach English to Ukrainian civil servants, saying that Britain should also not hold back on championing the language around the world.

Some reaction and analysis is coming through from those who eager to pick up on policy nuances from the speech, which happened to go ahed with some embarrassing technical glitche s.

Lord Cameron explicitly linking foreign, immigration, and economic policy in his speech this morning - the whole country needs to share in the benefits of globalisation, foreign policy is about prosperity too pic.twitter.com/drfXjpCy5z — Olivia O'Sullivan (@LivJOSullivan) May 9, 2024

Cameron himself had also tweeted a ‘speed version’ of the speech

Cameron was one of the biggest champions behind overthrowing Gaddafi in Libya, resulting in it becoming a failed state. David Cameron’s foreign policy single handily led to a country reinstating slavery and more than 4 million refugees pouring into Europe. Shut up David. https://t.co/bTdSU4HfbT — Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) May 9, 2024

• Ukraine war live
• Vladimir Putin
• Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Most viewed