So I blew it. I wanted to develop Travel. Write. Live where I could talk about travel and writing that fell outside of a traditional travel article, something that explored the art of writing and included thoughts about how travel and writing pertained to life, but I blew it.

It was not that I ran out of creativity or topics. Instead, I started worrying about social media and keeping up with the googles. I found myself rushing to get articles done before they were fully fleshed out, because other bloggers were spitting out new content at alarming rates. I found myself spending more time partnering with legions of people trying to keep up with the googles, most of whom ran sites I only felt so-so about, and I strived to be more like them. I worried about competing with large corporations and SEO masters so my little site might be found by the masses, as if I were selling get rich quick schemes or miracle floor-wax. I also became less willing to point out how some of these corporations and organizations are ruining travel, so I might play “the game” with them. Travel. Write. Live. became more like a banal video game than a useful site, or, at least, a site I could be proud of writing. It all became a huge mistake on my part.

Once I figured out the mistake. I stopped maintaining Travel. Write. Live. I needed to step back and regroup, think about what I hoped to accomplish. I have done that. I have some clarity of vision. It has taken eight months to finally write this little article.

During this time I thought about what I wanted to do, how I wanted to rededicate myself to travel writings and life. The answers were easy.

1. Never again publish a story that is not completely baked. This might mean fewer stories in the beginning.
2. Let knowledgeable experts chime in and help us become better at traveling, writing, and even leading a better life.
3. Promote travel, but not always. I love travel, but there are plenty of companies that make the process of doing it terrible. Expect to hear a rant about the TSA in the future.
4. Criticize, when necessary.
5. Because I intend to explore social issues as it relates to travel, writing and leading a better life, TWL will now become “the No BS Blog about life.”

I know, maybe it does not seem like much, and do not get me wrong; there are still a number of stories that I am proud of presenting on TWL. I just am not willing to publish duds to keep up with the googles. I will take a few more chances.

Welcome to the new thoughts on travel, writing and life on Travel Write Live.

A few months back I made a list of my top-ten list of countries I want to visit. The tiny green country of Bhutan did not make the list. Moreover, on ITKT, there are some 5000 stories with exactly ½ story about Bhutan (a single blog entry, sans photo).

For those who have never heard of Bhutan, the country is nothing more than a forested green dot smushed between neighboring super-powers, China and India. Yesterday, I had little information about the place. I could find Bhutan on a map and that the national sport is archer. I also thought it was a complicated and an expensive hassle to visit.

However, tonight changed everything as Bhutan Tourism made its way to Los Angeles on its first leg of a U.S. road show. This means Bhutan Tourism is meeting with the press and travel industry folks across the U.S. (only three stops, so it could be considered more of a mini road show).

During their stop in Los Angeles, I was fortunate enough to trap a couple of Bhutanese dignitaries for some Q and A about tourism and their country. While there are a lot of misconceptions, I found out that the number one foreign visitors to Bhutan come from the US. I also discovered that visa can be applied for online and they are only 20 bucks. There are 40 different cultural festivals held throughout the year. Most visitors leave for the countryside where they will find Matahama Buddhism, traditional culture thriving and 100% English speaking.

The only curious information I came away with is that visitors cannot just show up rent a car and bounce around the Bhutanese countryside on their own and must have a local tour operator confirming a traveler’s stay (although home stays and free time to explore are part of a typical Bhutan visit). If I were to make an educated guess, I would say travel restrictions have to do with maintaining Bhutan’s GNH (Gross National Happiness), strong national identity, unique culture and spiritual outlook on life.

However there are over 100 tour operators in the country and put together packages for interested travelers. I now need to update my top ten list.

For now, it looks like Bhutan will be courting travel agents and tour operators in Los Angeles and New York. So while I was happy to be one of the few journalists attending in Los Angeles, it is unlikely I will get an invite to share thoughts on Bhutan firsthand. Still gears in my head are grinding thinking about making my way to Bhutan one of these days.

For more about Bhutan.

Thoughts about Better Travel Writing

Earlier in the year, I wrote a series of posts about avoiding travel writing rejection. My reasons for doing this were two-fold. First was my sincere desire to help other writers get published more often. I believe that we always need more people travel writing, and writing well. The second reason is more personal. As the editor of a large travel site that publishes travel stories, I receive many submissions that could use a lot of help. While, the first series of posts helped. There is still a ways to go. The following is a cartoonish example of the type of writing In The Know Traveler receives:

“I went to this okay place on the advice of a friend. It was just okay. I do not have own a thesaurus, but I can attest that my nameless friend is correct. It was just okay. Then we went to dinner at this restaurant, near the okay place, and it was so-so. I ate lots of food, which was not bad and the service was not memorable because I am not describing it. I was with my boyfriend Larry. He does not do much but he was with me at dinner and thought I should include him in this story. Actually, I am not doing or thinking much here either, so there are no valuable insights about the okay place or the so-so restaurant. Everything is just okay. Welcome to my trip.”

While I go over the top with my example of nothing happening in a travel story, you might be surprised at what shows up in my inbox from writers that are not interested by their own stories. As a rule of thumb, I ask myself, why am I travel writing this story? If you had a so-so time, why do you think a reader needs to be aware of uninteresting places.

Interesting Travel Writing

There are a ton of bloggers want to guide you to “be remarkable” but few say anything about the subject or how to improve your travel writing. Here is my secret, I do not write travel articles. I pretend that the reader is my friend. When I tell a story to my friends, there is nothing too embarrassing to talk about. My best friends get all the dirt. In fact, they revel in the ridiculousness of the moment with me. So I try to give the reader the details. I want to read every horrifying, disgusting, salacious, incriminating, outrageous detail available. It is here, with all the details out in the open, that I can offer the reader a chance to identify with my experience through my travel writing.

Travel Writing on the America’s Cup

I recently went sailing on one of the “America’s Cup” boats. Because I am not a winner in the water, I ate a sack of Dramamine and threw caution to the wind. Yes, there was some seasick anyway. There were dry heaves and introspective moments that attempted to quell the feelings of wretch that crept up my spine and sat on my tonsils and kicked at the that weird hanging thing in the back of my throat. I held ice cubes to the back of my neck and wished I had made up a huge excuse for not getting on the boat in the first place.

Still, my nausea did not stop the captain from asking me to steer the ship. I allowed him to pull me toward the wheel, which helped me focus on the horizon. While I steered, the crew began spinning those bicycle-like spinning hand cranks in unison that helped raise the sails and ignite the meager wind. I never barfed. The fifty-million dollar boat never caught a breeze and never sailed more than a couple of knots of speed (about as fast as an old lady walking the plank). I gripped the wheel tightly for fear of loosing my balance and my lunch. And for one small moment between the quesy and un-easy, the chilly wind filled my lungs and I felt what it must be like to love boating. Just because I am in a far off place, does not make the place or me being in it all that interesting. I have to make you understand through my travel writing.

From my last article, I probably left the impression that the better cultural experience is likely found by staying at a two-star hotel, rather than in fancy five-star digs. This is reasonable assumption for a reader since I bashed the new Westin in Santa Fe in Mexico City (I had my reasons) and did not counter with a better five-star examples. Trust me, there a loads of great five-star places worth considering.

The way I look at it, travel falls into one of two categories, traveling and vacationing. Traveling is more about a place or a culture and the hotel may make little difference to the traveler. A traveler is not going to cancel his or her trip to Paris because a favorite resort or hotel is booked solid.

Vacationing is different. I just returned from a five-star place Fiesta Americana in Los Cabos whose staff went out of its way to provide superior service and creatively invented memorable dining experiences. For four days, I was completely content and stuffed to the gills with incredible food without having to leave the property. However, had I wanted to leave I would have had to take a cab twenty or thirty minutes to get anywhere, and walking was not an option.

The reason most resorts and major chain hotels frequently attempt to become the destination unto themselves rather than just a place to sleep is about money. If a visitor stays several days and never leaves the resort all the money spent at the resort will remain at the resort. In all fairness the hotel or resort spends tons of money on aesthetics, convenience and luxury.  This is not bad within itself, it is just a different type of experience. Less culture and more luxury and amenities, versus more culture and less amenities and luxury.

However, I can have both. My days of youth hostels are over. Not only have I stopped being young, I also grew tired of the three German guys that seemed to be at every youth hostel I visited. The three would not stop drinking, screaming, running about, fighting and always came equipped with their own bad techno music. This means I have more work to do in planning my trip. To find a little luxury in my culturally based travel.

I stay in the center of town whenever possible. I ask myself, are there local bars restaurants, attractions within walking distance. As an example, on my last trip to Santa Fe, it would have been much more worthwhile to stay in the Zocalo area of Mexico City than in an area with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Location means not having to source long rides to be where I want.

A few great, ideally located hotels that come to mind are the swanky Opus Hotels of Montreal and Vancouver that have great food and beautiful hipsters but are situated in greats areas of town leaving me to explore on my own. The San Juan Marriott is on a gorgeous beach, has a casino, spa, fine dining and is a twenty minute walk to Old San Juan. Of course, these are only a couple of examples of thousands of great options. How can you find these places when looking for a travel/vacation combo?

Work with a travel agent

Most good agents have a geographic specialty. A place that the agent has personally been to numerous times and will have solid suggestions to neighborhoods and attractions worthy of your time. As an example, I know several agents who have been working in Mexico City and know numerous places to stay that would have been more charming and practical in making my trip memorable.

Phone a friend

Some hotels really do put their customers first. The most reliable information I get is from friends who have stayed at the hotel before and can offer an unvarnished opinion.

Call the hotel

Find out directly from a hotel concierge what is in walking distance including: bus stops, restaurants, Internet cafes, museums pharmacies, and markets. Ask them to get specific, then plan accordingly.

For the record, I always prefer travel. It was the natural progression of things when I took a rucksack out into a foreign land with not a lot of money. I had to stay downtown, near train stations, and walked a lot. However, as I wrote more professional travel articles, I learned to appreciate the vacationing aspect as something meaningful by experiencing both the good and the bad of luxury travel. I found the places that created experiences, which is, for me, what travel is all about.

The Five-Star, Two-Star Conundrum, part one

I recently visited two travel shows south of the border. One event was located in Mexico City for the newly created FITA, which invites tourism professionals from around the globe to showcase their products, services and destinations to other tourism professionals and the general public. The other conference was in Antigua, Guatemala for the more established, but smaller, CATM, which services the seven nations that make up Central America. I was glad to help promote both events and genuinely enjoyed both cities. There were also a few differences, mainly in accommodations.

In Mexico, I stayed in the Westin, a well-established hotel brand in Santa Fe (known as the financial district), an area in Mexico City. The hotel had black marble and a highly polished corporate appeal with numerous options for just about anything a traveler could possibly want. The staff at the Westin was bi-lingual and stylishly sleek. They were also very nice. My room door magically opened when my thin plastic key card waved before my door’s sensor pad.

In Antigua, Guatemala, I stayed at Posado Don Rodrigo, which had wagon wheel décor and thick Guatemalan ladies milling about that spoke only Spanish, but were also very nice. My room key was a clumsy skeleton key with a giant phallic fob that, when sitting in my pocket, suggested to all who noticed that I was “happy to see” them.

Both hotels were memorable, but for different reasons. One was a schwanky five-star place with layers of amenities and a sharp, efficient staff. The other was a creaky two-star (maybe three-star) hotel with a performing ten-man xylophone team (with a drummer) and fairly reliable Internet.

This is the part where I guess I am supposed to tell you about the value of five-star treatment and getting what you pay for. I discovered how true this was when I asked for an aspirin at the front desk of the Westin.

For my headache (likely due to Mexico City’s altitude), I was given Westin’s corporate policy of not offering medicine of any kind, but that they could offer pharmacy service in about an hour or so, but this would be at an additional expense. They could not give me an idea how expensive it would be. There was no gift shop to buy my own aspirin and it was recommended that I not walk to the pharmacy on my own. Later, I asked about Internet and was invited to use the business center for 190 pesos (about $15.50US) an hour.

I ventured out on my own anyway; I never found the pharmacy. I found mostly other huge hotels and construction sites for future hotels with bi-lingual staff and more corporate policies. I could not find a market, a restaurant, a mall or anything to do. I walked alone. Santa Fe did not even look (or sound) like Mexico. For a moment, I wondered if I was in Mexico. I still had a headache.

That night, I returned to my room to discover a carefully typed note letting me know that the breakfast coupons I had be given by the Westin would not be honored for undisclosed reasons. Instead I was invited to their $25 a day breakfast for the final three days of my visit at my expense (I eventually discovered that the Westin was arguing my host company over money. The Westin thought better of their decision the following day after some discussion). I knew I was just a writer on assignment and should be grateful for staying in such lavish accommodations, but I only felt like a means to turn a profit for a big company.

The Entrance at Don Rodrigo

By the time I left the Westin, I felt dejected and my main purpose as a guest was to tip and present reasons to be charged more. I left the Posada at Don Rodrigo feeling like I hoped to return and bring my family one day.

In the world of star listings, the Westin remains a popular five-star hotel with rooms filled with $6 Snickers bars, $9 bottled waters, Internet costing 190 pesos an hour through their business center and numerous costly luxuries waiting to be sold. The Posada Don Rodrigo does not carry the same airs, but is smack in the middle of town, affordable and far and away a better, more interesting value and experience.

The point of my article is not to trash the Westin, although the experience was not a good one. The enclave of five-star luxury drowned out all the things I like about Mexico: food, people, and rapidly spoken Spanish. My Westin experience was about not having choices and a corporate policy to ensure safety, and it drained the culture. In the end, it is about choice. It is fine to be offered an overpriced Snickers bar when there are other choices available. It is this type of experience that makes me think about how important a hotel and its location can be toward making a trip good — or bad.

How a choose a hotel? The Five-Star, Two-Star Conundrum, part two

Before the business of travel blogging begins, I wanted to share my latest performance of Cuando Calienta el Sol. There are times that a simple memory will make me cringe, produce an involuntary shudder. The embarrassments continued in Honduras as I do my darnedest to completely destroy Cuando, again (Here is the previous video of me singing in Spanish. So, it is a little over the top. I make mean singing faces and also “pump up the jam” to inspire a party atmosphere. This time I sing in a resort in La Ceiba, Honduras. Please note the colossally disinterested on-lookers as I attempt to ham it up to the point of unnecessary toward the end of the video. Still it was a lot of fun, but Luis Miguel does it better.

And just in case you want to give it a try…

As for the business of blogging, I have been slowly making changes to the site to make the experience better for the reader. I am also implementing new features that will hopefully drive a few more bucks through ITKT. Yes, making money online is still a complicated system as advertising dollars hide in deeper holes.

Newsletter

After some feedback from new and regular readers alike, I realize that updates twice a week is simply too many emails. I am now moving back twice a month. And still have to work out the problems with the cosmetics of the current template. I am still debating returning to the old school newsletter. It is more work, but the most well-received newsletter so far.

Making Money

I have a new game plan that hopes to focus on my success with social networking out into the corporate side of the travel industry.

“…I want to make a living at travel writing (writing, selling, markets etc.). I am ready to go TODAY!…”

I cannot blame him for his enthusiasm. Sadly, this is not a simple transition for most writers. Here is my answer on how to get started. Please note, I have changed some of the language to be a little more generic to help all newbie travel writers. Otherwise this letter is almost the same as the one I sent this morning.

I recommend reading magazines that pay, like the ones found at the local news stand. These likely represent the creme of the crop in paying opportunities for travel writers. Become familiar with their style and form, word counts and subject matter. Take a long look at the mast head to see who should be contacted regarding submission. Then explore these magazine’s individual web sites for specific “submission guidelines” (as an example here are In The Know Traveler’s Submission Guidelines). Also do this with the knowledge that most established magazines have already developed relationships with writers and may not be particularly open to receiving queries from new ones. However, this does not mean you should not send in a query. Remember, someone’s story has to get picked — it might as well be you.

Please note that while I completely understand the sincere desire to get paid (which is also a very reasonable desire), writers are competing with numerous other writers who write for the love of travel and may not care about getting paid. Stiff competition doesn’t mean writers should not try to get paid, but it means that publishing has changed and that there are a ton of well-trained, experienced writers looking for work. Also many good smaller magazines have folded, while others have fewer editorial pages or have stopped using freelancers altogether. This is a grim prospect for a new travel writer.

Most magazines online do not pay at all, including the many premiere sites who claim exposure is somehow worth as much as real money. ITKT has been listed as a paying site (by a variety of online sources), but my pay is only token. So recommend taking a mental note at how dramatically publishing has changed over the last several years.

The bottom line is that you have to be willing to hustle to find paying venues to place your writing. Submit. Submit. Submit. Keep trying. And while I often offer advice on requests like this, most editors do not have the time. So if you receive no answer or a short rejection to submitted work, do not be surprised. I can tell say from experience, it is nothing personal.

The minimum a writer needs to know:

1. Follow any submission guidelines exactly
I routinely trash 1200-words articles without reading them because a writer ignored my guidelines of 500-750 words. Only in the most rare occasion (a well-developed, long-standing relationship with a writer) will I consider writing outside of the scope of my submission guidelines.

2. Know the editor’s name and spell it correctly
When the first words of a query are “Dear Sir/Madam”, “Hey There” or “Hi Mike”, I know the writer has put little effort and has set a tone for the rest of the query.

3. Only submit your best work
Otherwise what is the point.

4. Know that you will be edited
A professional editor will edit every story before it gets published. Moreover, arguing over edits made by the editor will guarantee your will never work with that editor again. I know that sounds harsh, but I have had many conversations about this with many editors, and it is the truth. I have also received names and email addresses from other editors warning me about abusive writers. No one wants to be named on that list.

* I would also recommend reading the series, “Avoid Travel Writing Rejection.”

And of course, keep traveling and writing.

Without a doubt, my favorite photos, from any trip, is always of the local people. After my recent trip to CATM 2010 in Antigua, Guatemala, I came home with the difficult decision of which photos to share. At some point, it becomes a guessing game (due to my lack of the learned photographic eye) as to what photos are “best.” But until a expert rolls along here are my current favorites from Guatemala, including Antigua, Guatemala City, Tikal and numerous stops along the way. Hope you enjoy my photos enough to inspire your own trip to Central America,

Whether it be the speed bump riddled ride to Copan Ruinas, Honduras; the winding roads to Languin, Guatemala; or simply being trapped o a two-lane road for hours of stopped traffic due to chicken bus that got stuck in the mud — and the ride continues. So does travel and travel writing.

During the last 10 days, I have spent far more time on a bus that at an attraction, or even one city. So, while I am not always thrilled with the meandering roads in Central America, but I have learned that there are an endless amount of good photos and even mini relationships to be had just outside the van’s window. This above photo is only one of many examples I have seen over the last couple of weeks.

And now the coming week…

Writing

I return from Central America on Tuesday and have numerous stories that range from outline to final edit. With so many ideas about traveling Guatemala and Honduras fresh in my mind, I have had small epiphany about how much the Internet has changed the quality of my writing (and the writing of many others). This may maove my focus away from Central America slightly. However, I have some changes I will be implementing in the coming weeks dealing with the negative results from writing quickly to compete with “breaking news” on the Internet. Of course this is only a beginning of a larger focus at both TWL and ITKT. Don’t worry, I have plenty to share about Honduras and Guatemala.

Email

Yes, email. I am about 1500 behind.

It has been a long week of traveling with a series of highs and lows. While lingering on the lows briefly feels good, the highs are what I always take home. Still, I want to share one low. I broke my camera lens (in two pieces) 10 minutes before arriving at Tikal. I moved from my seat on the bus and felt a snag. I choose to yank rather than investigate — an expensive mistake. These photos were taken by my low-res video camera.

I know I am due for a story and have a number of notes and outlines, 12 outlines to be exact, but no time on this trip to do any writing. I plan on locking myself in a small room and play catch up when I return.

For those who do not know, Tikal was a Maya stronghold for several centuries before coming what it is today, a park preserving a dynamic culture. And now on to Tikal…