Living in Spain has many advantages, but the one IE students take the most is traveling.
This can be by taking a train from Madrid or a two-hour flight. You can end up almost anywhere across Europe, even northern Africa.
Even traveling inside Spain can offer plenty of destinations worth your money and time. Of course, keeping a record of our trips is a must, and the easiest way is by using social media like TikTok or Instagram.
However, this past week I have been reading a lot about who a travel journal is, and I thought I should share it with you, fellow travelers, or anyone interested in starting to travel and wishing for a way to be able to keep the memories with us even years later.
Travel Journalism can be defined as writing focusing on travel or, overall, the travel industry.
Quite often, newspapers or magazines employ travel journalists, or they might hire a freelance travel journalists for assignments that revolve around writing stories or reports about destinations worldwide for content on their subject.
If this sounds like something you could be interested in doing in the future, you can start by keeping your travel journal or starting your blog to share your trips with an audience.
By reading on the matter, it’s clear there’s no straight road to travel journalism. Everyone starts differently, but I suggest just starting writing for those who wish to keep their travels on paper.
Even if it’s just in the notes on your phone or a small notebook you carried around in your bag, write what you liked and enjoyed about your trip, from the gastronomy to the locals, the music, and the overall scenery around you.
With time your experience will give you confidence, and you will develop an expert’s eye for detail. You’ll be able to find the hidden gems on every trip you decide to take, which most tourists fail to spot but a true traveling journalist can easily find.
And for those who wish for a different way that does not involve grabbing a pen, there are many more methods. Keep photo albums, blog your trips, or even make scrapbooks of your discoveries and thoughts.
That’s how many travel journalists start, including one of the best-known of all time, Dan Eldon.
Dan Eldon was interested in traveling and photography from an early age, having moved from London, England, to Nairobi, Kenya, when he was seven. He then traveled for the rest of his life, having visited 46 countries by his death.
When he was 14, he began personal journals that included collages, photographs, drawings, doodles, and memoribilia. Some of his diaries, like The Journey Is the Destination and The Art of Life, have been published.
Eldon’s work represents what makes travel journalism a unique form of art and expression. He made the world look like art worth hanging in a museum. He looked for new adventures everywhere he went, and he had the resilience to go and search for them and the curious eye to dig deeper than most do in their lifetime.
Another journalist is Georgia Rickard, an award-winning travel journalist from Australia. She is known for being the editor of Australia’s best-selling travel magazine and contributing to magazines and outlets such as BBC, News Limited, and Conde Nast.
There are different layers when it comes to travel journalism, but the one that I found the most interesting is those that focuses on their personal experiences.
What they love about a place will make them return there every chance they can, even if it’s just by looking back at pictures. They go to a place to search for memories worth keeping even years down the line, and it’s the kind of journalism that will suit most IE students the best.
Those that are curious and are searching for new experiences every time they book a flight buy a train or even a bus ticket to head out of town.
Don’t forget to take a picture, don’t forget to record that video, or make that note in your journal. You won’t regret it!
