What is a travelogue? 

A travelogue is a piece of travel writing that is essentially about giving readers a sense of place in a way that is engaging, unique, hopefully humorous and ideally, inspiring. It’s a useful way of capturing details and observations of your own travels for your own memories or to share with others. 

How do you write one? 

A travelogue is like other non-fiction writing in that it uses fact, but unlike writing journalistic pieces for newspapers, for example, it relies on literary devices to make it more attractive to its readers. It can also involve and challenge your powers of observation in a different way to other forms of article or feature writing. Being aware of small details is often the way into a gripping travel article. 

What goes into writing a travelogue?

Your aim as a writer is to transport the reader to that place you visited using enriching language and descriptive detail, characters, dialogue and anecdotes to convey a sense of the author’s experience on that trip. So, if you want to learn how to do that, check out the top tips in our ultimate guide below: 

1. Do Your Research 

If you work as a content writer, you may not actually go on a trip, but you need to ensure your research in writing about a place is excellent. If you are going on a trip, and plan to write about it, doing your research is important because, when you go on the trip, a lot happens that might be out-of-the-box and you’ll be in a better place to say “Yes” to something unusual that you didn’t come across in your research and therefore, might be a rare gem. Good research adds to your credibility and makes your narrative more engaging. 

{Read our interesting blog post by a teenager on Why Fiction matters}

2. Keep A Journal

Some writers walk around with a tiny booklet in their pocket or a diary in their handbag where they can jot down quick notes. This can be distracting and take away from actually enjoying your travel tour, but you can steal a few moments at the end of the day to jot down your notes. However, do note that the longer you leave it to make your notes and capture your observations, the more likely it is that you will forget and lose vital details and observations. 

3. Travelogue Structure

Your travelogue will have a beginning or introduction, a middle and an end. These are the basic building blocks of any kind of a story, including a travel story.  The beginning should introduce readers clearly to what you’re going to be talking about, also known as the ‘hook’ or angle of the piece. The middle includes all the content you want to talk about with respect to your travels. This is where you will employ a successful narrative strategy that establishes the pace, style, voice, tone and atmosphere of your story. You may choose a chronological timeline and include characters and dialogue to bring your story alive to the reader. The ending should slowly bring readers to a sense of closure and you mustn’t forget to mention the ‘hook’ again. Tell readers what you’re going to tell them, tell them and then tell them what you told them. This is also known as the Aristotelian triptych and should be your mantra for how to structure a travelogue 

4. How To Introduce Your Story

An eye-grabbing title, is a good start. Ensure the title matches the content of your piece and doesn’t feel forced or is just click-bait so that you get more views online. Begin your story by creating a compelling hook and writing an attention-grabbing introduction. Don’t start your travelogue with boring and unnecessary details. The reader doesn’t need to know when and where you booked your flight unless your article is about where to book cheap flights or get top deals for example. Instead, plunge us directly into your experience keeping in mind that it doesn’t have to be chronological, as long as it’s engaging. 

5. Choose Your POV Wisely

The point of view you choose for your travelogue will affect the way readers respond emotionally to your writing, your characters and their actions. Your choice of point of view will also influence other elements of your travel piece such as the tone of the story. Travelogue is most commonly written either in the first person point of view (POV) or the third person POV. The advantage of writing it in the first person is that you bring the reader much closer to the story you’re telling. They can almost experience everything you are experiencing. The third person POV creates a bit more distance between you as the storyteller and therefore, the reader, and the story being told. 

{Looking to brush up your skills? Here is a list of Top writing courses in India.}

6. Personalise It

Along with using the first person point of view, infusing your narrative with some deeply personal insight, whether this is a personal anecdote or something nostalgic from your past, can really help a reader connect more deeply with your writing. For example, you might write a story about eating croissants in Paris, but if you relate that to your first childhood trip to France and your first experience of taking in the scent of French bakeries, your readers will be more likely to keep reading and search for more of your writing online or on the shop shelves. 

7. About You

Locating yourself as the writer can be another useful way of getting the reader to engage with your writing. For example, dropping in a line or two telling us that it’s your first time skiing and that’s why your trip to a ski resort was particularly exciting for you, makes for interesting reading. Similarly, telling us why your favourite place (that you’re visiting and writing about) is your favourite can draw us in to want to read more. 

8. Consistent Tenses

Even the most established writers make the mistake of switching tenses in the middle of their sentences and paragraphs. They might begin in the past tense and then suddenly switch to present tense or vice-versa. This really disrupts narrative flow so ensure that you are consistent with your tenses to make it easier for the reader to follow your story.  People use the present tense when they want to bring the experience or trip that they’re describing more alive to the reader. This sort of writing gained popularity with a lot of travel blogging over the internet, for example. Writing in the past tense is much more liberating, however, as you get to write about the trip after events happened and it’s easier for you to relate what happened, albeit in the most engaging way possible. Whichever tense you choose, make sure it’s consistent. 

9. Conjure up an atmosphere

Your choice of words and style will set the tone for your piece. For example, writing about the five most haunted villages in Croatia, for example, could be more engaging if you slip in words like jagged, misty, sharp-edged, mysterious or shadowy. Choosing language carefully and focusing on your settings and backgrounds as you unravel your travelogue, can really increase the interest of the reader, if you get the balance right. 

{It is never too late to start writing. Here is a list of Authors who debuted late in life to inspire you.}

10.  Drop the Cliches

It’s important to read other authors who write in the genre you want to write in because you’ll soon spot the words and phrases people use repeatedly to the point where their power dissipates on the page. For example, everybody uses ‘quaint’ or ‘cosy’ to describe a warm, small and welcoming environment. Writing that something is a ‘best-kept secret’ is also pretty common. Cliches have a way of creeping into our writing. It’s challenging, after all, to look for a fresh way of saying the same thing. When editing, look out for cliched language and ask yourself if there’s a better way of expressing what you want to say. Try to make your words and descriptions your own. 

11. Include Characters

One of the most common mistakes writers make is ignoring people from their travelogues. Characters can really illuminate a place and enliven a story. If you aren’t meeting or interacting with people during your travels, then not only are you not enjoying a full travel experience, but you’re also going to have a very boring piece of writing on the page.  Your interactions with people can provide relevant anecdotes to add a lot of colour to your stories. Travel isn’t just about the sights around you, it’s just as much about the people who are a vital part of the culture you are experiencing when you travel. Your readers want to experience the place through your eyes and what better way than through your interactions with the people living there? 

12. Integrate Dialogue

Dialogue can really bring a story to life and humanise it. Injecting characters into your travelogue can bring warmth and resonance to your narrative and really draw the reader in more effectively. Everyone is looking for that bit of human contact and the inclusion of characters can do this. Including relevant conversations, quotable quotes and snippets of conversation can really liven up a relatively flat piece of writing just through integrating your exchanges in the form of dialogue in the narrative. When you’re reviewing your piece, if it feels a bit flat, you may find that what it needs is just a bit of dialogue to spruce it up.

13.  Show, don’t Tell

Every writing class covers this little maxim. If you’ve ever heard it and wondered what it means, it’s a reminder not to tell us what you or your characters are feeling, but show it. Don’t just relate to us what is happening in a long, dry monotone, but show us through illumination by dialogue exchanges or interactions. Let the reader draw the conclusions. For example, if you want to convey that a character in your travel story was angry, don’t tell us, but show us what the character was doing in anger. Similarly, don’t tell us you were moved by a landscape, but show us and let us be moved by it through your descriptions instead. Dialogue can be a great way of ‘showing’ through verbal exchanges, by the way. 

14.  Engage the Senses 

You’ll notice that most travel writers lean heavily on visual descriptions to attract readers. They forget that there are four other senses they can use to immediately elevate their writing. A quick way of getting readers to connect with your writing is to engage at least two or three of their senses through your writing. The five senses you have to work with are Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste and Touch. Use them. For example, instead of saying, ‘The flowers were blooming,’ you could say, ‘The wine-red roses were blooming and their intoxicating scent was in every corner of the shop.’ You’ve activated two of the readers senses here: Sight and Smell. One top tip is to not use all senses too close together otherwise they will overwhelm the reader. The trick is to spread them out and create a nice balance. 

{Are you an author looking to get reviews for your book on amazon? Read this article first The story behind Amazon Reviews in India}

15.  Specificity works

The more specific you are about something in your description, the better it is. Instead of saying, ‘The bird on the tree,’ it’s stronger if you say ‘The jet-black crow on the tree.’ Instead of saying, ‘It is a pretty bouquet of flowers,’ it’s stronger if you say, ‘It is a pretty bouquet of roses.’ Instead of saying ‘He walked over the footpath’ you could say ‘ He walked over the laterite stone footpath. This sharpens the visual descriptions in people’s minds and makes them want to read more. Similarly, refrain from using blanket adjectives like saying the sea was amazing, or the beach was beautiful or the sunset was mesmerizing. Drill down one more level and say what was amazing, beautiful or mesmering about these things. 

16.  Inject Humour

Humour isn’t everyone’s forte, so don’t force it if it isn’t yours either. But, touches of humour, here and there can really enliven your story, especially if you include humorous pieces of dialogue, anecdotes or amusing characters, events or exchanges during your journey. The way you present a miserable experience, if done with appropriate humour, could nevertheless stir up a giggle or two in your reader and lighten the moment. 

17.  Spice up your narrative 

Using innovative things like journal entries, photographic images, captions from interesting signage, quirky exchanges or dropping in references to popular culture can really make your writing pop on the page, if handled well. 

18.  Accuracy

Always include practical advice and tips which travellers will find interesting. If you do your research correctly, you’ll know what tid-bits to include to really get them engaged with your writing. Don’t skimp on research and accuracy. There’s nothing that turns off readers like inaccuracy if they discover it. You want to come across as credible and be known for your accuracy, as well as your writing style and voice. You may even become their go-to for practical and useful travel tips before every journey. 

19.  Pacing 

What kind of pace do you want your writing to have? Do you want it to appear rushed and breathless? Or, slow and measured? The pace should fit the tone of your piece and, as the author, remember that you have control over the pacing. You might be describing a visit to a horse race-track and describe details that happen quickly, but slowing down the pace before the moment the starter gun goes off, and after the horses cross the finish line will create more balance in your story. Pacing is controlled through your choice of words and how quickly or gradually you transition from one visual description or sentence to another. 

{We have a few tips for you on Writing Feature Articles}

20.  Voice for your Travelogue

Make your travel piece sound like a reflection of your personality. Making it sound human and not clinical or harsh or sterile, can really make your piece more readable. You want your reader to connect with you as a human, so sounding warm and gentle can draw readers in more than a jarring, critical sounding voice. Your voice can sound adventurous, welcoming, humorous, joyous or playful, reflecting aspects of your own personality. 

21.  Don’t overwhelm

One of the biggest mistakes beginner writers make is thinking that they have to use fancy language and big words to write impressive articles and draw in the readers. The truth is that if you write using langauge you don’t normally use or aren’t very familiar with, the reader will feel your discomfort on the page and it might turn them off. Handling simple language in fresh, innovative ways is more effective, in that instance. Also, don’t use overflowery language or gush. That can be off-putting too. For example, just say ,’The profusion of bougainvillea pouring over the boundary wall made me think of home,’ instead of saying, ‘The overabundance of magenta and fuschia blossoms with their tender green tendrils pouring over the white-washed, ancient boundary wall made me feel nostalgic for that familiar place where I live with my pater and mater.’ The second sentence is more dense and some brief editing will quicken the pace up as well, making for lighter narrative that nevertheless gives readers a good picture of what’s being described and, in this instance, remove any trace of pretentiousness. 

22.  Edit, edit, edit 

Always consider whatever you’ve written as a first draft. It’s only in the refining that you’ll uncover gold. The best writing always reads effortlessly, that’s how you know a lot of craft and editing went into it, to make it appear seamless. My top tip for editing would be for you to voice-record yourself reading your writing, and then playing it back. You’ll hear the errors and sticking points that require edits. Also, avoid repetition of words, phrases and ideas too close together. A thesaurus is your best friend in cases like this. 

{Check out this blogpost on Using analogies: Metaphor and Similes in Indian writing to make your writing stand out.}

So, there you have it. These are some top tips to take your readers on the journey of a lifetime with you. Happy writing!

Jessica Faleiro has an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University, UK.  She is an alumna of the University of East Anglia International Creative Writing Workshop (2020) and the Helter Skelter Writing Residency (2021).

Jessica’s travel writing has been published in the Times of India, Forbes magazine, Skyscanner, Coldnoon, the Joao Roque Literary Journal and others. She lives in Goa, where she also runs writing workshops. 

Jessica Faleiro’s work has been published in various anthologies, journals and magazines including Asia Literary Review, Indian Quarterly, Himal Southasian, Bengaluru Review and Mascara Literary Review.  Her debut novel Afterlife: Ghost stories from Goa (2012) was followed by The Delicate Balance of Little Lives (2018). Jessica was the Commissioning editor for the Joao Roque Literary Journal for three years.

Insta handle : @jessica.faleiro76