How do I plan a vacation so that I can write about it later on?

January 17, 2009 11:20 AM

How do I plan (or not plan) a vacation so that I can write a travel article on my experiences afterwards?

I'm going to be heading to Hawaii's Big Island for two weeks in March with my wife. For a while we've been talking about being a writer/photographer super team and would like to use this vacation as an opportunity to test the waters. We're definitely budget conscious travellers so we'd be gearing the resulting article towards more adventure style audiences.

Does any one have any advice on how best to structure the trip to maximize our potential for authentic spontaneous experiences? Do you have any tips on how to best record/organize the information we gather along the way?

Thanks!

posted by talkingmuffin to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

The Seven Myths of Being a Travel Writer
posted by nitsuj at 11:29 AM on January 17 [2 favorites]

You need to have a pretty good idea how you want to write the article (action/adventure? budget? sports travel? marketing puff piece? ) before you can decide where to spend your time & money.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:57 AM on January 17

Googling "Hawaii vacations" returns 10,800,000 hits.
Googling "Hawaii travel" returns 23,900,000 hits.

You'll be visiting one of the most popular destinations on earth, the subject of volcano-loads of books, articles, and videos.

To command attention of potential publishers, you'd have to:

a) find something wild, breathtaking, fascinating, unusual, scandalous, or funny that very few know about;
b) write about your adventures in a highly-tantalizing style (e.g., first-person maniacally-crazy; third-person dry-dry-dry wit; parodying bombastic travel writers of days past);
c) compose an anti-travel piece, dismantling popular notions about Hawaii;
d) take photos so utterly vibrant that National Geographic's staff cries.

If, though, you wish to write a traditional travel piece about Hawaii, consider doing so as a blog. If readers respond favorably to particular aspects of your trip or story, you can then pitch those elements to publishers.
posted by terranova at 12:27 PM on January 17

I found Warren Costa an excellent guide to the Big Island. He's a native Hawaiian who has worked as a naturalist, archaeologist and park ranger. His pricing is reasonable & he will customize a unique adventure for you - it's not exactly "spontaneous" but he can help put you in the places where spontaneity may find you.
posted by judith at 1:16 PM on January 17

Do something original like a 'walk-about' (circumambulate) the entire coast of the island and journal, photograph and write an article of your experiences. Go live deep in a remote uninhabited Hawaiian valley and live without visible means of support including foraging for all your food. Find an angle like testing ultralight camping gear or living as the ancient Hawaiians did. Planning on 'renting a car' and discovering a secret Hawaii? Probably not going to happen. I've lived here 20 years, written a best selling Hawaiian guide book and have trouble coming up with new angles and secrets (though I occasionally do.) Good luck.
posted by Muirwylde at 5:01 PM on January 18