Since the advent of the internet, everyone and their uncle has been offering advice on travel writing. Most of this advice is well meaning, but much of it is outdated, ineffective or just misinformed. Therefore, it needs debunking.
Pooling the extensive travel writing knowledge of our writers, we’ve come up with a shortlist of questionable tips that are regurgitated online again and again. So, without further ado, here are four bad tips that are best ignored.
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For more than two years now, we’ve been producing destination travel guides for Expedia, a leading online travel provider. Our in-depth city guides have covered such varied destinations as Livorno in Italy, Kitakyushu in Japan, Istanbul in Turkey and Christchurch in New Zealand. These are just a few in a long list of online vacation guides.
Most recently, one of our expert travel writers produced an online travel guide on the ever-fascinating city of St. Louis. And to give you a taster of what you can expect from St. Louis, you’ll find this destination overview below.
Of course, the full city guide goes into a lot more detail, covering many of St. Louis’ most compelling attractions, including the famous Gateway Arch, as well as the top-notch City Museum and the somewhat surprising Grants Farm. But before you read about all of those here, scroll down to check out the introductory overview below.
In travel writing, endings matter. They are the last words the audience will read and, when done well, they have a tendency to linger. A good ending is the feeling or image that survives, the thing that keeps the story alive and kicking in the reader’s mind long after they’ve finished the article.
In our last writers’ blog, we dealt with the all-important opener. This time round, we’re turning our attention to the equally important conclusion. It may come last, but the ending should never be an afterthought.
Travel writing endings need to not only alert readers to the fact that the story is over, but they also need to reinforce the main points of the article. The chronological end to your experience is usually not the best choice (embarking on a return flight does not make a good finale); you’ll need to come up with something better. Anyone who regularly reads travel content will be aware that the quote has become a fairly standard way of wrapping things up. And although a juicy end quote can be extremely effective, it’s a trick that is fast becoming overused.
With that in mind, here are three other travel writing techniques that can help spice up your finale.
