Why travel blog? Well, let me share a story with you. A fellow motorhomer messaged me and asked for the name of a stopover place near Zaragoza, Spain. He was on his way home from Denia to the ferry port in Bilbao. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t remember the answer. I have driven that route, but not for a few years.
So, I went to find my notes to tell him where we stayed. And here’s the thing. I couldn’t find my diary from that particular trip. Panic. I turned the house upside down. After several hours of scrabbling around, I managed to finally locate all the journals I have kept from all the motorhome trips we have done.
But here is my problem: the notes are a complete mess. I have handwritten some and typed others. There is no consistency in how I have logged the journeys. They are scattered in various notebooks. Always with the intention of doing “something” with them. Hence I want to find the best way of organising these random makeshift travel diaries into a useable resource.
And before actually committing to my first post I decided to get a clear idea in my own mind of why I want to write a travel blog. Maybe some, or all, of these are reasons why you might want to start a travel blog too?
1. Organise Your Memories
So this is my main reason for starting this travel blog. I’ve been on so many motorhome adventures over the last few years the memories seem to blur into one. I want to remember where I went on which trip. I’ve recently learned to love Instagram as a place where you can tell the story of your travels visually. But I want something that includes a map, and a log of places as well as photos. Nothing lengthy or too wordy, just an organised ‘aide memoire’ of each trip.
2. Help Other Travellers
I often see posts in motorhome groups and forums about trips people are planning. There are common requests for tips, suggestions, ideas of where to stay, and for feedback on length and ambition of proposed holidays. So I hope that my travel blog will be useful to fellow travellers. Furthermore, when we are on the road we chat to people and share our favourite places with each-other. Who wants to keep a good thing to themselves? So if we have visited a country or town where you haven’t been yet, you might like to see what we did.
3. Match Up Your Journeys With Your Photos
In the digital age it is easy to take thousands of photos. These can form the good basis of your travel stories. But what I want to do is place my best photos in context. Luckily, although my travel diaries are a mess, I have made a reasonable first stab at organising my photos in Adobe Lightroom. This is probably one of the best things I have ever done. In fact if you travel, and you take lots of photos, then I recommend you to buy Adobe Lightroom Software. It is indispensable for tagging and organising your photos. You can get it as a standalone package, or if you also want to use Photoshop you can get it as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan. I think it’s fair to say that Adobe Lightroom has transformed my life (or at least the organisation of my images …)
4. Share Your Experiences
I don’t expect the whole world to be interested in my travels. But many of my family and friends do like to see what we are up to and where we have been. So rather than random acts of facebook posting I want to be able to send them a link to my travel blog so they can easily keep up. But I hope that anyone who likes to travel will find at least some of this useful and interesting.
5. Live and Learn
I hope this travel blog will become a two-way street. I don’t want to just share what I’ve done, I’d love to learn from what you are doing too. One of the best things that happens when you travel is meeting up with other like-minded people. Sharing travel tips, tricks and stories is a great reason to keep on doing it. Plus as you travel you reflect on your own life, and the way others live too. It helps you to appreciate what is important in life.
6. Enjoy Reliving Your Travels
I still have a minor panic when I think I might have lost one of my travel diaries. I really enjoy being able to flick through and remember the great places I have visited. When I’m back at home planning my next trip, I want to be able to see where I have been, and get inspiration for where to go next.
7. Bring Out The Creative You
Once you have mastered the basics of blogging, you can work on your photography, your writing skills, and developing a complete look and feel for your website. It’s a rewarding, satisfying hobby that will encourage you to think creatively and maybe see things from a different angle.
8. Travel Mindfully and Savour The Moments
When you know you are going to write your adventures up in a travel blog you start immersing yourself more fully in your experiences. Savouring moments. Noticing things. The art of blogging can make you more mindful to what is going on around you.
9. Occupy Yourself On The Road
Sometimes the weather is bad. Or you might find yourself having to hang around. Or maybe the day is done in terms of sightseeing and travelling. So writing up your travel blog can be a great way of filling in time in the evening, or any time you are at a loose end. Or sitting on the beach. And because you can easily blog from your tablet, laptop or smartphone, whenever a thought occurs to you, you can make a note.
10. Why Travel Blog Rather Than Use A Travel App?
There are a number of reasons why I would prefer to write my own blog rather than use one of the many travel journal apps. Primarily, if you use a travel journal app then you are giving your data to someone else. And all your effort is going on a platform over which you have no control. If you learn to write your own blog, then you will have total control of your content. And how it looks. I have a head start because I already write a successful recording blog (which is what keeps me on the road …). But trust me. WordPress is a simple yet powerful platform. You can make it as easy or complicated as you want. And the more you do, the more you will learn. So in my opinion getting your own domain name and creating your own blog is definitely the best way forward. Plus WordPress has an app so you can blog from your phone or iPad just as easily as from your laptop.
So, What’s Your Why?
Starting to write a blog on any subject is a bit of a daunting task. That’s why I have started off with a set of reasons to motivate me. My main reason for doing this is so I never need panic again about losing my precious travel notes. But there are a number of other benefits too. So no more procrastinating. Once you know why you are doing something, it becomes easier to get on and do it.
What do you think? Why do you write a travel blog? (Or why do you hope to start) Please add your comments below, I’d love to know more about you!
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