Comments on: Can travel writers go on holiday?

By: David

David — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:33:47 +0000

Thanks all for these comments, and my apologies for being late in replying to them. I was, of course, on holiday You’ll be pleased to know that I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, although I’d be lying if I said the notepad didn’t come out a couple of times…

Some really interesting viewpoints here – it’s good to know how other people deal with the same problem.

@annie – I totally agree with you; a lot of the best pieces do come when you’re on holiday. Or certainly when you’ve booked everything yourself, and you’ve no commissions in advance/ no PR contact – you can just do what you want.

@matthew – I think I have a very similar mindset to you. I love discovering new places, and I love writing. I’m very bad at just sitting/ lying still, and I think the best approach is to accept that is who I am, then run with it. We may seem a little odd to others, but we’re better off embracing who we are and the seeming inability to put things down that may entail.

By: Cheryl Probst

Cheryl Probst — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:10:56 +0000

Feliz cumpleanos y muchos mas!

Viva Espana!

By: Hal Peat

Hal Peat — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:17:24 +0000

It’s really about boundaries isn’t it? When you don’t have to drive down a highway to get to an office, then going in your pajamas to the next room to start work represents just how conflated personal and professional territories are in the freelance life. A blessing, and also a curse depending on how you’re managing it. I’d say use the periods in your life when things seem most in balance and work is as close to regular as possible to do some self-imposed mini-breaks. When you let yourself lie fallow for a bit like that, you’re also recharging and even reconnecting both with yourself and the things in the world that engage you most deeply.

By: Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:42:46 +0000

I have exactly the same feelings running a travel company. Even if holidaying somewhere that has no obvious link to my own product I’ll get sucked into thinking about their service, marketing, staffing, uniforms, potential margin etc etc etc within 24 hours. Recently had a week at home pottering about locally and it was bliss – first time I’ve closed down the brain properly for years!

By: Annie Bennett

Annie Bennett — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:22:55 +0000

Some of the best pieces emerge from supposedly being ‘on holiday’ (off duty) when you can just let things happen, and you’re not mentally structuring a story with every sip of wine or whatever. I usually end up taking notes too, think I just enjoy it. Switching off (apart from the notes) is easy when staying with friends, but stick me in a hotel room and I’ll start whingeing quicker than they can quote their wifi rates

By: Paul Dymond

Paul Dymond — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:36:47 +0000

I think part of it just comes from the desire to do what we love. Whether it was my job or not, travel photography is what I love to do and I pretty much find it impossible not to lug all my gear with me. Although in Singapore a few weeks ago I did manage to go for a walk to the local markets without my cameras! And in Sapporo last year I managed a three week holiday with only a couple of days of photography. I was impressed even if my family seemed to be pretty nonplussed!

By: David Atkinson

David Atkinson — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:15:25 +0000

I am taking my family away for a few days this week within the UK.

I’ve learnt the hard way that taking the family on work trips often doesn’t work and they need me to a normal person every now and then – not doing interviews, looking at hotel rooms or needing to be somewheer at a certain time.

It is very hard to switch off sometimes, and I always look at things with a ‘work’ eye, but my advice is to leave the laptop this time and experience some time off as the people you write for would.

By: Jeremy head

Jeremy head — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:26:50 +0000

I’m with Matthew. Since I started working for a web and social media company 4 days a week I have found it much easier to just down tools – be that on holiday or just at the weekend… it’s all about money at the end of the day once you get to the old crabby state I am in (ie just hit 40!!!)

By: Matthew Teller

Matthew Teller — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:31:55 +0000

It’s not the travel writer state of mind that’s unavoidable – it’s the freelancer state of mind. The odd day of not working is fine, but not working for more than a long weekend starts to get me twitchy. A week, and I’m positively crabby.

Part of that is money worries – if I don’t work I don’t get paid – but part of it is also that I can’t not write. I want to write. Writing isn’t a job; it’s me. A day without writing is a bit of a waste; a day without thinking about writing just never happens. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to make a living doing something I love; why would I want a holiday from it?

By: Tim Richards

Tim Richards — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:21:10 +0000

I agree this is a problem as a travel writer – I’ve been saying for over a year now that I really need a holiday, ie a trip on which I take no notes, no images, interview no-one, and meet no PR people.

I think the only way to achieve this is to go somewhere that you’ve been before and have no urge to write about. I had a go at doing this last year, choosing Apollo Bay – a nice seaside town on the Great Ocean Road, but somewhere I’d been before. We also agreed to make it a technology-free stay.

Although… I did write about the concept of the “techno detox” holiday later, on my blog:
http://aerohaveno.blogspot.com.....t-all.html

… so I don’t know if that counts as work.