Submit | Print Guidelines | Contest Overview
A good travel piece isn’t just descriptive or logistical. Your article should put the readers feet squarely on the ground in this place and help them to see it through your eyes. We know good travel writing when we read it—in the stories that open our eyes, raise wonder, and compel us to keep turning pages to discover more. A successful travel piece is when the writer makes you want to visit the place or attempt the activity described. But what are the components of quality travel writing? Here’s a list of common elements:
- A great lead: hook readers and keep them
- Sense of time and place: capture the ‘there’ there, pay attention to detail. Vivid descriptions of smells, tastes, colors, conversations, and specific incidents bring destinations alive.
- Unique angles or twists: what’s different about this place from the rest?
- Showing, not telling: write to inform, not to persuade
- People: speaking, in action, exemplifying what the piece is about
- Strong, well-placed quotes
- Active voice: strong verbs, selective adjectives
- Good syncopation: balance long and short sentences for a unique rhythm and flow
- Relative pronouns – who, what, which, where, when
- Metaphor: e.g. red highway lines squiggled like capillaries across my map
- Absolute accuracy: no mistakes
- Meat & potato details: practicalities
- Loyalty to your story: know your piece. What’s the beginning/middle/end?
- Action: keep the pace, but don’t force or fake it
- “Wow” factor: inspire the reader to want to act on or talk about your topic
- Rewarding ending: provide a sense of completion and fullness, don’t leave the reader feeling short-changed in any way.
As you begin to write, remember to ground the reader. Place them firmly on the ground; get the reader and you in the same place: Tell where the article is taking place, show a panorama of the landscape that include details of the story environment, geographical cues, etc. Make sure to tell us why you are visiting this place—or why should anyone visit. Include a variety of perspectives:
- Close ups. Narrow the view. To convey mood, smells, sounds, physical descriptions. Select visuals that richly define your experiences and include a few facts.
- Long shots. Paint in a broader way the history, geography, culture, or other specifics necessary for the story angle you are telling. This provides broader context.
- Wide-panning shots. To show landscape or way of life, include broad-brush description as background for readers.
Make an outline. An article is like a building, and if the foundation isn’t planned out, the construction can run afoul. By crafting an outline, you’ll create a blueprint for your piece that can keep you on track and allow you to venture off to build different parts of your story to build when the time is right.
And the don’ts...
- Don’t be overly general, abstract, gratuitously poetic, or florid.
- Don’t overuse adjectives like amazing, incredible, stunning, breathtaking, or awesome. In fact, don't use those words at all. Instead, carefully select concrete details that convey the incredibly amazing breathtaking wonderfulness.
- Don’t use clichés or too many adjectives. If you “shop till you drop,” visit “bustling” markets, or have a massage in a “sensational” spa, your story will read like advertising copy and will therefore be less believable.
- Don’t lead readers by the hand with elaborate instructions, directions, or too much nitty-gritty logistical information.
- Don’t feel like you have to explain it all. Just chose a few details or images that evoke the essence of the place and why it is important.
For some great sites full of travel writing tips, visit
