If you think that you can’t become a travel writer or photographer because you can’t travel the world, I have some news for you. You don’t have to travel the world to write travel articles. You can create plenty of travel articles right here in your hometown. Travel articles are all around you—right where you live.
The key to finding local travel article ideas is looking at your town like a visitor. Where do you take your family, friends, and relatives when they visit? What makes your region interesting? Learn about the history of the region, and you’ll find a story that can be turned into travel articles. You just have to go and find them.
As one who has never spent a night outside of America, other than going to Jamaica for my honeymoon, through the years I have written and published travel articles in newspapers, magazines, and online publications. Specifically, I have published photographic illustrated articles in the newspaper travel sections of the Providence Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, New Haven Register, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Albany Times-Union along with travel magazines like Woodall’s Camperways, Northeast Outdoors, Original New England Guide, ALA Away, AAA Going Home, Highways,Golf Illustrated, GolfStyles, Washington, and Air Jamaica in-flight magazine.
If you want to write travel articles, look local. Look for museums and historical locations that are near to your home. For example, I’ve always lived along the east coast. Revolutionary and Civil battles were on this ground. History buffs are always looking for interesting places to travel, so I wrote an article for Woodall’s Camperways on the Appomattox Courthouse—the location where Grant and Lee ended the Civil War
I’m originally from New England. While living and visiting family on Cape Cod, I have written articles on windmills, golf courses, lighthouses, and other (smaller) museums on Cape Cod. Also, I have written about the city of Boston, the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA along with the Submarine Museum in Groton, CT. So you can see, it’s possible to find lots to write about in your surrounding area.
In my late 20s, I left Cape Cod for a three-week vacation/apartment-sit for my sister in Alexandria, VA. That visit turned into almost 40 years of living just outside of our nation’s capital. Over the past few years, I have written about famous homes of Presidents that include Mount Vernon (Washington), Monticello (Jefferson) and Montpelier (Monroe), and Gunston Hall (Madison). I have also written about the cities of the Civil War and Shenandoah Nation Park featuring Skyline Dive. Being a golfer, I have written about golf courses around the mid-Atlantic region.
Once you start looking at your location as a visitor, you’ll come up with ideas for travel articles you can sell to newspapers, magazines, and online publications.
[Editor’s Note: Learn more about how you can fund your travels and make an extra income with photography, travel writing, blogging, and more in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel. Sign up here today and we’ll send you a new report, Three Fun Ways To Get Paid To Travel: A Quick-Start Guide, completely FREE.]
