Once you’ve determined your route and studied up on some of the best places to go, you may wonder: how are the kids these days touching base with home, in the digital age? As with everything, it seems that the answer lies on the internet. Personal travel blogs are a great way to stay in touch with friends or relatives on the road. By setting up a travel blog, you can create a site which documents your journey with photos, stories and allows people to comment and share – without spamming your Facebook and social media feeds with holiday snaps.
Many tech travellers look to blogs as a way of recording their journey on a unique web page. The ease of writing and posting articles makes blogging a great support for documenting your travels (in addition to phone calls and emails), and allows family and friends back home to stay up to date with what’s happening on your journey. From the comfort of their own home, your loved ones can keep track of your travel adventures as you make new posts like a virtual diary. As a bonus, being part of an online social community with other travellers is a great way to share advice or ideas on the subject, and really personalise your experience.
Best of all, a vast majority of the main blog platforms are free to use. With a multitude of user-friendly platforms to choose from, blogging is not something that even the most tech-phobic traveller needs to be afraid of. Many of the major sites, such as WordPress and Wix, have intuitively designed navigation with mobile app versions that allow you to post, comment and review on-the-go if you’re not planning on bringing a laptop or tablet along with you.
If starting your own blog sounds like too much hard work (on your well-earned rest), one alternative might be microblogging. This is essentially when you create shorter and snappier posts listed on one page, most commonly embodied in the form of Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. This format is particularly useful for on-the-go blogging, as it’s well suited to mobile formats – read on to discover more about ‘blogging lite’.
Some of the most inspiring travel photography comes from amateur travel bloggers. Having a successful blog can also mean becoming a full-time professional who finds popularity on social media among the droves of hopefuls. If getting paid to travel is something that appeals to you, Expert Vagabond is one such example of a wanderer who claims to earn “six figures annually” from running his blog, and he imparts a little wisdom on how you can do the same on his website.
Wherever travel blogging takes you, don’t forget above all to stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to pack your sunscreen!
