Guide: How to Write a Travel Blog

If you love traveling and experiencing different cultures, you likely wholeheartedly agree with this Ibn Battuta quote. But unlike Ibn, who traveled during the medieval period and didn’t have the internet, you have many avenues to share your travel experiences with the world today.

Writing a travel blog is one of the most effective and rewarding ways of sharing your global adventures. But where do you even begin? This piece will teach you how to write a good travel blog and how to get the most reward out of sharing your global adventures.

What’s a Travel Blog and Is Starting a Travel Blog Worth It?

A travel blog is a website dedicated to documenting travel experiences. Travel blogs focus on telling stories from different destinations and sharing tips such as:

• The top locations to tour
• Budgeting tips,
• Where to eat, shop, or lodge

Some top travel bloggers with global acclaim include Kiersten Rich's The Blonde Abroad, Dave Bouskill and Debra Corbeil's The Planet D, and Brian Kelly's The Points Guy. These bloggers have been able to turn their passions into full-blown careers.

Writing a travel blog can be as rewarding as it’s fascinating if you’re passionate and consistent, just as these blogs have been.

If you ask any of these top bloggers, starting their travel blogs was worth all the money and time investment. But they’ll also tell you it’s the passion for travel blogging, not the desire to make money, that got them at the top of the pecking order in the travel blogging world. Money is the outcome of their passionate and organized blogging.  

If you have a burning desire to share your travel encounters with the world, all it takes is learning how to write a travel article skillfully, and you’re good to go. Here’s a travel blog outline to get started.

Travel Blog Outline

A travel blog outline helps you organize all your ideas in a logical sequence that gives your travel article a good flow. It helps prevent you from veering off course. Given the vastness of travel topics, your content ideas can be all over the place if you don’t niche down your talking points before you start writing.

Here’s what your travel blog outline should look like:

Working Title

Under this section, you want to brainstorm several titles for your travel article and settle on one that summarizes your ideas best. Your working title should be specific, include the primary keyword for the article, and spell out the direction your piece will take.

For instance, if you’re writing about popular restaurants in Los Angeles, you may want to classify them by the food type they serve. Your working titles may be:

• Top 10 Chinese Restaurants in Los Angeles
• Top 10 Mexican Restaurants in Los Angeles
• Top 10 BBQ Restaurants in Los Angeles

These titles are all more specific than having a broad one like "Top 10 Restaurants in Los Angeles." Once you settle on a title, you can outline the details in the next section.

Thought Shower Section

This is where you write down all your content ideas as they come. Think about what you want your readers to know about the topic at hand. For instance, if you decided on "Top 10 Chinese Restaurants in Los Angeles" as your working title, you may jot down the following talking points:

• The food prices in each restaurant
• The menus in each restaurant
• Any happy hour food or drink specials
• Reservation requirements and operation hours
• If the restaurants have any lodging options

Let your creative juices flow without worrying about the organization in this section, as you can organize your points in the following one.

Subheads

Derive subheadings from the talking points you created in the thought shower section above. These subheadings will form the body of your travel article and introduce the main themes. Including keywords in your subheadings is good for your travel blog’s search engine optimization (SEO).

For instance, under the title "Top 10 Chinese Restaurants in Los Angeles," you may have the following subheads:

• Most affordable Chinese Restaurants in LA
• Chinese Restaurants with the Longest Happy Hours in LA
• Chinese Restaurants in LA with Reservations

It’s good practice to note links to your data sources under the relevant subheadings so you don’t waste time looking them up again when writing.

Tips on How to Write a Travel Blog That Turns Heads

With your travel blog outline complete, it’s time to bring the article to life. As you get started writing, keep these tips in mind to write a good travel blog that leaves your readers in awe.

Use Real Life Images and Videos

When traveling, take plenty of good-quality photos and videos showcasing your destinations. Attach these photos and videos to your travel article for your readers to view. Add alt attributes with keywords to your images to boost ranking in searches. This also makes your content more accessible to all those visiting your blog.

Interview Local People In the Places You Visit

Even if you vividly share your travel experience, nothing beats a first-hand account from a local who has lived in a place for years. Interviewing a local adds credibility to your travel blog as you may gather lots of unique and never-before-published information and facts about the area.

Craft Captivating and Telling Headings

Create a captivating and exciting title to boost your click-through rate. For travel blogs, personal headlines sell best. Remember, your travel blog audience pictures themselves in your shoes, so don’t hold back.

Infuse a Healthy Dose of Humor

Naturally, people who travel and read travel blogs are fun-spirited. Keep your overall tone relatable and less suit and tie to keep your audience well engaged.

Link To Sites Other Travelers Will Find Useful

If you find a local coffee shop, restaurant, car rental company, club, or lodging with exceptional customer service for traveling customers, link to their website or social media page. Your readers will appreciate the kind gesture. As a bonus, the business may even share your blog link on their social media, helping drive traffic to your site!

When To Outsource Your Travel Blog Writing

Sometimes, your travel itinerary may be so tight that you don’t have time to write. In such cases, utilizing blog writing services will keep your travel blog active, saving you from losing your audience base so you can focus on your global endeavors.

At Compose.ly, we have a rich pool of vetted freelance writers ready to write your travel blog at a short request. Request a travel blog writing sample today and see how we can help you grow your travel blog!