People travel to Ireland for many reasons. Some go to unearth their heritage, to experience a glimpse of Irish history, to celebrate the spirit of the Irish people or simply to sample the spirits in the land of Jameson and Guinness. Not me. I went to Ireland to work. I’m a travel writer and my job is to bring the places I visit to life for everyone who reads my articles.
It’s 8.00 a.m. on a Friday morning and I’m in Gouyave, on the west coast of Grenada. The beach is crowded with fishermen at work. Some are fixing their nets and sharing stories. Others are already out in the water in their canoes.
While on a working vacation in France, I decided to take a week-long side-trip to Spain. I had some friends from the Catalonian region in the north of the country and they invited me to visit. I’d never been there before, so I jumped at the chance to see a new part of the world.
The West of Ireland, away from the bustle of Dublin, is a stunning part of the world. On my latest trip, I decided to use Killarney as my travel hub—it put me within reach of must-see locations like the Ring of Kerry, Ross Castle and The Gap of Dunlow. Killarney also comes with bags of small-town charm and friendly locals eager to make visitors feel at home.
The best thing about being a freelance writer is that you can work from anywhere—so I packed up and moved to Costa Rica. It might seem like a brave move, but it was also a sensible one. The cost of living is low here—so paychecks go a long way. Plus, my family gets to experience another culture.
I had been staying in the tranquil Nepalese tourist town of Pokhara for a month when a travel writing assignment came in. It involved researching retirement in Nepal—and I needed to find some expats. As I sat drinking my morning chai at a lakefront breakfast joint, I wondered where all the Westerners were hiding. I had seen only a handful since I arrived, and they all seemed to be just passing through.
I love to travel to exotic destinations—like on my last trip to Panama. I trekked in Cerro Azul in the majestic mountains overlooking Panama City and visited Santa Fe—one of the country’s hilly frontiers. The rugged natural beauty of these places begs to have a camera pointed at it. Bring a camera with you, and you can start making money right away.
I knew very little about Chile—I had an idea of a long, thin country full of lamas, Spanish colonial architecture and Indians dressed in homespun wool. But, I was about to find out a whole lot more about the South American nation—I had just agreed to accompany a friend on a trip there.
It’s always good to have a theme or two in mind before you set off on a photography trip. Take my last visit to Puerto Rico. I had seen a number of articles about the famous lighthouses of Maine and other parts of the East coast in various publications. I was also aware that Puerto Rico happened to have its own string of colonial-era lighthouses along its coastline—but I had never seen anything written about them. Since editors were keen to publish articles and photographs about the Maine lighthouses, I was willing to bet they would go for something similar from Puerto Rico.
My husband Bill and I are avid travelers, a habit formed working for international organizations for many years. When we decided to retire in 2009 and focus on our passion for travel, we looked for a way to stay in touch with friends, make new connections, and—if we could—fund some of our travels by writing about our discoveries. Our blog was born.
Today, my office is a hotel balcony on the Cote d’Azur in southern France. There’s a view of a palm-lined promenade and the glittery Mediterranean—it’s as forget-me-not blue as the sky. Back home in Ireland, my neighbors are enduring unexpected April snow showers.
Zanzibar is one of those places we’ve all heard of, but don’t know where to find on a map. The name conjures up visions of exotic tropical beaches and trading ports that haven’t changed much since the heyday of the spice trade. When my sister accepted a one-year assignment in East Africa, my wife and I booked a trip to see her. It was a great opportunity to visit this fabled island just off Tanzania’s coast.
Not everything is yet labeled “Made in China.” Throughout the world, artisans still produce handcrafted objects of desire that carry serious mark-ups when resold in North America and Europe. And if you like something, chances are other people will like it too.
After dinner one night, Simon and his wife Lisa decided to take on a massive fund-raising expedition—they would ride around the world raising money for charity and taking photographs and documenting their story online as they went. In 2002, they sold their house and all of their possessions—and bought two BMW motorbikes.
I’ve wandered into a spa in Shanghai, China, and managed to arrange a manicure. No English has been spoken. Instead, I relied on the universal sign for a manicure—wiggling my fingers with a smile. Suddenly, my neighbor awakes with a start—he seems surprised to find me here. I’ve come to China to visit a place called Yuanyang.
Getting paid to drink beer in Berlin, Germany—it’s so much fun being a travel writer! The first beer of the night, a sparkling wheat beer called Kristall Weizen, cost a very reasonable €2.10 ($2.79). Around 30 minutes later, I ordered a second. This time, it cost $2.52. Snigger if you must, but it was thrilling to get the timing right and save 27 cents.
For me, with my own company doing project management for large Information Technology infrastructure deployments, my job was a means to an end. I worked to earn money to travel and take photos of interesting and exotic places. But I longed for a job I could do from anywhere, which would permit me to travel as I worked.
I used to work like a sled dog, traipsing around the planet as assistant to a tantrum-prone boss. Believe me, it was far from glamorous. I rarely saw anything of the countries I visited, I lived out of a suitcase and I missed every important family event for years. Then one morning it all changed. I watched the steam rise from a cup of coffee…and decided to photograph it.
I arrived on vacation to Buenos Aires, Argentina and was seduced into staying. You see, I figured out how to hemisphere-hop for free. This way I get two summers a year plus the snowy New England Christmas I couldn’t give up. I’m not a true expat. I’m a cheater. At first I lived off savings, and then pieced together an income from freelance writing and editing.
I’d always wanted to be a writer. It was something I yearned to do for a living. I had worked in banking all my life but in 2008, aged 47, I decided that it was now or never—I would take a chance. So, I quit my job, sold my house, gave away my two cats (to a woman who adored them) and moved lock, stock and barrel with my wife to Malaysia.
I like to travel. I work much of the time from my home in Colorado (where my tax-deductible office is exactly 11 steps from my bedroom and has a million-dollar mountain view). But, I’ve also worked from Vail, Denver, and Leadville… I’ve toted my computer to France, Honduras, Panama, Guatemala, Germany, and the list goes on (and on).
Saturday night in Murcia City, southern Spain. I’m in El Secreto tapas bar, trying to summon up the willpower to eat a sea urchin. It looks absolutely bizarre. And in all honesty, absolutely vile. But as all vacationers need to eat, food stories are a travel writer’s staple.
You probably already take lots of photos when you’re on vacation…or when you’re scouting a second-home location overseas. But did you know you might be able to sell those photos, too? That’s what Dave Morgan did. When he traveled to Asia, he took pictures of the native people, monuments, and scenery.
Four years ago, I worked in a cubicle in a basement office in San Francisco’s financial district. The pay was decent. I worked in sales for a litigation support company. But putting on business-casual garb, schmoozing with paralegals and hitting the phones…sucked. So I did something about it. I sold my belongings. And I gallivanted around South America for 14 months.
I’m not a professional photographer, but for over five years now I’ve used stock photography to supplement my income and help cover travel expenses. One of my favorite trips in recent years was to La Paz, Bolivia.
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