To Improve Your Travel Writing You Must Do This One Thing

During my Travel Writing & Photography Retreats I emphasize one easy and fun way aspiring travel writers can quickly improve their writing.

I recommend you read stories by top shelf travel journalists.

Of course, the aspiring writers immediately ask, “Where do I find good travel writing?”

Great question!

Below is a list of magazines where you’ll find some of the world’s best travel stories. This mix of regional, national, and global publications gives you a wide variety of writing styles and topics.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of the best travel magazines but it’s an excellent cross section. Obviously, you don’t need to read all these magazines!

Here’s My Suggested List Of Magazines

There are plenty of other well-written travel magazines.

• Afar
• ravel + Leisure
• Islands
• Conde Nast Traveler
• Lonely Planet Traveller
• Travel International Magazine
• Global Traveler
• Wanderlust
• Coastal Living
• Geographical
• Maco Destinations
• Backpacker
• Outside
• American Road
• Sidetracked
• Sunset
• Britain
• Cruise Travel
• Cruising World
• Cabin Life
• Caribbean Travel + Life
• Discover Britain
• Food and Travel
• France
• German Life
• Scotland
• Robb Report
• Southern Travel & Lifestyles
• Northwest Travel & Lifestyle
• Vermont Life
• Texas Highways
• Arizona Highways
• Trailer Life
• Travel 50 & Beyond

Here’s How You Do It

Spend quality time at your local bookstore browsing through the travel magazine section for any of the titles listed above (and any other travel magazines that you enjoy reading).

Thumb through your inches-deep stack of magazines for interesting articles. It’ll give you a good excuse to sit down and have a coffee or two.

Then, buy a few of the magazines that resonate with you and carefully place the rest back on the track. Subscribe to a few travel publications that consistently deliver good travel writing.

But, you need to do more than just skim through a bunch of stories. This is not enough to learn how to improve your own travel writing. You need to read the articles actively. Highlight the most descriptive and captivating passages. Study, reread, and take notes. Copy down the sentences that you found most effective and descriptive. What was it about these sentences and paragraphs that appealed to you?

Reading the works of the very best travel writers has an important place in your education and will move your writing along to the next level.

How do you transform your writing from bland “guidebook” descriptions and amateurish, “First I went here and then I went there” narratives?

If your travel writing needs a boost to get to the next level (and really, whose writing couldn’t improve?), reading the best travel writing is a great first step. You can also try reading the following books to help improve your writing.

~Roy