After reading Airplanes and Avocados blog post, I became inspired to write a similar post about what traveling means to us in our current life path as “Travel Bloggers.” Massive shout out to Emily, as she is doing as much as she can to help push awareness for our environment. She is an ocean conservationist, humanitarian, and is continuing her education in fixing the way humans interact with nature. If you wish to support her efforts, feel free to visit THIS PAGE to help her out (we are not affiliated). We wish her the best of luck! Jumping back to the topic of “how traveling changes when it becomes work“. I realized how relatable it is in our travel/photographer/blogger community but also, how it varies amongst us within the micro-community of bloggers. This is how traveling has changed for us:

The reality of traveling as a blogger can be daunting.

To be honest, traveling can become exhausting if not staggered appropriately. After landing from a trip for a few days just to wash clothes, repack and get a comfortable nap just to board a plane in a few hours can end up weakening the immune system. In Mary’s case, when we travel back to back, she ends up catching a runny nose, sore throat, and sporadic headaches.

Going somewhere every month may sound like a dream but when you need to write and edit photos for two weeks but you only have one week to prepare posts ahead of time, can become stressful if we want to be punctual. By the time we are caught up with our most recent trip, we already have deadlines that need to be published as soon as we land. Deadlines to keep our blog consistent, articles that need to be put up due to contractual obligations and more criteria for our posts need to be done promptly and properly if we want to continue this lifestyle.

Sometimes, being a blogger can ruin an experience.

If we are riding an ATV or invited to a fancy buffet event, we cannot just dive into the drinks or dishes. We have to take pictures. We have to vlog. We have to be focused to make sure our social media outlets are exposing the event correctly which means we are attached to our devices throughout an event. As a writer, I need to remember as many details as possible to be able to put ‘pen to paper’ accurately. Unfortunately, if I do not have a notepad, to thwart forgetting, I bust out my mobile to jot down relevant information which may come off as rude to the hosts. Documenting and Broadcasting our lives during and after the occasion removes us from indulging in the event festivities. Instead of being in the event or activity, we are watching things unfold through our camera lens.

Being a blogger can become costly.

Speaking of cameras, to be relevant, we are constantly looking for upgrades to produce the best quality content and to be frank, it is not like buying new shoes for a new job. A camera itself can begin in the high hundreds while the lens alone can cost thrice as much. Without insurance, a broken camera can create a rift in your travel funds. In some cases, to repair equipment that is covered with insurance may still cost a repair fee although, not as much as a brand new purchase, it can still be detrimental if not prepared. We also have to pay for most of our flights and regular trip expenses can pile up without a consistent paycheck.

Late, sleepless nights and long, debilitating days.

Being attached to our electronics all day means by nighttime, everything needs to recharge and be ready to use the following day. SD cards need to be formatted and media uploaded to our external hard drives. We have to edit, caption, and upload photos. For certain activities, all our batteries must be charged which means if we have multiple batteries, we have to wake up in the middle of the night and alternate the charging. This phase of traveling is a nuisance when there aren’t enough outlets or power outage of the native country does not support our adapters/enough outage.

“You’re living your dream of traveling for work…you ungrateful bastard!

It seems that this is a bunch of complaining and it can be easy to rant on the difficulties travel blogging. However, never do we take the opportunities we see and do for granted. Absolutely 100% agree we are living the dream, but we are the complete opposite of ungrateful. Trips do not always go according to plan, and in those desperate moments, we still find something to be appreciative no matter how difficult it is to smile when being handed a $245 fine or missing an excursion due to inclement weather. We are blessed to have these incredible opportunities that present itself to us. The point of this is to say we do look at things differently now than ordinary vacationers or honeymooners.We also wanted to give you a peek of what it is like traveling for work.

When we were younger, we would not have to retain any information when visiting new areas. We did not have to share or regurgitate any facts to thousands of people; we kept it to ourselves and if we forgot, “oh well.” We are a lot more conscious of what we do, how we do it and are glad to say we have reached a certain balance between it all. We are not as overwhelmed on a trip as before, and in fact, the best part about traveling is how it has made our relationship stronger.

Moreover, that is what having a blog is about – an outlet. We have the opportunity to share our trials and tribulations of traveling for work. Our experiences can be the guiding light to help new bloggers. There’s so much to share, so much we are continuously learning, and by writing up these posts, it helps get it off my chest and out there into the world, with the ultimate goal of influencing at least one of you. In the end, it is so worth it! This post is reflecting what we noticed up to this point – “wow, traveling has changed for us.” – we get to document our travels and share them with the world to encourage their wander, no matter the outcome!

Thank you for your viewership!

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
– Ibn Battuta