How to Write Travel Articles - Part 1

Travel articles don't have to be difficult. If you're gifted, perhaps the words will just flow from your fingertips. But sometimes they don't, and trying to start with a blank page and writing an article in final form may seem too daunting. Here's how to make write your travel articles in simple steps, one step at a time, until you have an article you are proud of.

Step 1 - Write about what you know

Plan on writing about something you know about. You already know a million things about your home town or your go-to travel destination, so you can write about that. Or you've gone to a new place for the first time and you're experiencing it with the plan to write about it. One way or the other, you know or will know plenty to work with.

Step 2 - Give yourself a working title

This is a WORKING title, so you don't have to agonize over it. You might keep it, but you're probably going to change it later. This is perhaps the easiest of the steps, but you need a goal in mind, so use something very similar to these suggestions.

Ten Great Historical Sites in Rhode Island

What to do in Nashville

My Favorite Mom and Pop Restaurants in Austin

Eight Places to Visit Before You Die

What to Pack When You Visit Alaska

Amazing Sights on Mount Washington

Notice that these working titles can be answered with a simple list. A generic version of this would be "A list of things I already know".

Step 3 - Make the list that fits the title

With a simple list, you fulfill the promise the title makes and provide yourself guidance on what to do later. Once you have the list, you can ignore all other possibilities and concerns. If you promised the six most amazing hiking trails in the Catskills, you no longer have to worry about number seven, or the hiking trails in the Pokeno Mountains, or restaurants, or anything else.

So working with my idea of ten historical sites in Rhode Island, I get the list:

The Gilded Age mansions in Newport

Beavertail Lighthouse

The Samuel Slater Mill

The gravesite of Mercy Brown

The site of the burning of the Gaspee

The Nine Men's Misery memorial

The Seabee Museum

The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route

The Rhode Island Statehouse

The Blackstone River Canal

Now there is no limit to the number of interesting historical sites in Rhode Island, so I chose ones that I thought would interest a wide range of people, be relatively easy to find, and cover a broad sweep of history. I also kept in mind which locations I also happen to have good photography.

If your title says "The 10 Most Popular... " you have to give the 10 most popular and have numbers to back it up, but if you choose "The 10 Most Interesting..." or "My 10 Favorite...." If you find your title too limiting, feel free to change it. No one says it has to be 10, for instance.

Step 4 - Write a one line introduction

Introduce your list with a single line explaining why this list is important. It doesn't have to be complicated, but give a reason why the list even exists.

For my Rhode Island historical site article, I might go with

"Rhode Island is a place of rich history, so don't miss the chance to visit these historical sites and see where history actually happened."

Need more ideas? How about:

"No trip to Nashville can be complete without making sure that you do these things."

"If you want to experience the real flavor of Austin, you can't go wrong with these mom-and-pop restaurants."

"You'll kick yourself if you forget to pack these items when you make that bucket-list trip to Alaska."

By adding that line, you've actually created a simple list article, suitable for a tiny sidebar or filler.

You might sell a tiny sidebar or filler like this as-is if you are lucky enough to present it to an editor at the same time he is working on a larger article, but you won't get a byline, and it won't meet any minimum word requirements.

For our purposes, we will be expanding this into a feature article that you will be proud of...

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PART 2