It Took 20 Years: How I Became a Travel Blogger
- Updated: 06/27/2024
- Janice
It all started with the travel buzz—the jolt of joy I feel when travel and discovery, beauty, and adventure meet.
The first time I felt it while visiting Mendocino, California, with my then boyfriend, and now husband, Jordan. We were perched high on a cliff sitting next to each other on an oversize driftwood bench facing the Pacific watching the rollers come in. The wind whipped my hair. His, not so much—a close crop made for less drama.
We were only six months into dating, and it was our first trip—of what we did not know at the time would be a lifetime worth of trips. The noise of the crashing surf made it hard to hear each other, so we sat in a golden, sea-sprayed silence and watched. I felt joy course through me.
The second time I felt the travel buzz was a year later. I was with Jordan again. This time we were visiting Lake Louise in Canada, hiking its aquamarine shores en route to a civilized snack at a historic tea house. As we made our way to tea and scones, we savored the view—unreal gem-colored water framed by snow-capped mountains above it.
By the third time I felt the buzz, I decided to do something about it.
Jordan and I were traveling again. This time in southern France. We were on a self-guided hiking trip that routed us through lavender fields and picturesque Provencal villages. Surrounded by the scent of lavender while feeling the warmth of the southern Mediterranean sun on my shoulders, I realized I wanted more of these moments in my life. I had to find a way to make them happen more than just once or twice a year.
Later that day, while drinking one euro beers, Jordan and I imagined the possibility of taking a gap year. While we both had traveled some and even met gap year travelers on extended trips, we never thought we could take a similar plunge, especially considering our jobs and stage in life. Jordan was a physician-in-training and had just begun his ER residency. I worked marathon days in corporate retail during the height of the dot-com boom.
Living in NYC, Then Carving a New Path
By all accounts, we were thriving in our non-travel lives. We had promising careers in New York City. We were living well in the Upper East Side, splitting the distance between where I worked in Midtown—and the Bronx, where Jordan trained.
We had a great group of friends. We could walk to Central Park and even had pizza by the slice available 24-hours-a-day right under our apartment. The idea of leaving it all for backpacks and hostel stays seemed like a crazy idea—one that continued to nudge me.
So, I took action with the one route I knew best— travel research. To learn more about taking a gap year trip, I joined online round-the-world-travel groups, read books, and consumed magazine articles. I took notes and shared them with Jordan. Before long, I pieced together an understanding of how to make a year-long trip work financially and careerwise. Once I saw how to do it, I was all-in on trying to make it happen.
With enthusiastic buy-in from Jordan, we began a three-year plan of saving and itinerary building. Given my conscientious personality, it was no surprise I found this planning process, with all of its discovery and organization, to be a pleasure.
Our Adventures Begin: A Round-the-World Backpacking Trip
Eventually, it was time to stop planning and hit the road. We quit our jobs, said our farewells, hoisted our rucksacks on our backs, and headed off on our around-the-world trip. Spanning 13 unforgettable and life-changing months, crossing four continents, and visiting 26 countries, I felt the magic of the buzz often.
It accompanied me while watching sunsets in Sihanoukville, hanging out in havelis in Rajasthan, trekking the trails of the Drakensberg, and in countless other places.
After a year-plus of traveling, Jordan and I landed in Chicago. Once settled, we continued to grab our passports and backpacks whenever we could to visit India, the San Juan Islands, Morocco, and more.
Then the inevitable happened, and life caught up with us: our parents got grandkids. We traded one adventure for another, changing out plane tickets for pacifiers. Who knew there could be so much laundry?!
When we did travel as a family, everything was different. Oversize packs and exotic destinations gave way to loaded strollers and all-inclusive resorts with babysitting clubs. Our travel priorities became rest and relaxation, with the occasional wander down the beach being the most adventure we could handle.
A New Era: Family Travel
With time, our children grew and kept growing. And before long, we felt ready to leave the beach chairs behind and test the travel waters with the kids. Once off, we realized two important things about traveling as a family.
First, the best way to ensure our kids were enthusiastic and comfortable on a trip was to have them learn about a place ahead of time. Taking the age-old adage, “Happy kids, happy travels” to heart, I made searching for stories about a place a regular part of my trip prep. The stories entertained us and hooked the kids, connecting them to our destination before we even got there.
Unlock your travel toolkit! Join my monthly newsletter for 5 free templates to plan, pack, and budget like a pro.
For example, before a trip to Boston, we listened to the audiobook Dark Tide, about the great Boston molasses flood of 1919. Wanting to learn more about the incident, we looked up an old map of the flood site and discovered our reserved Airbnb was located only two blocks away and in the historic flood zone.
Although we could not visit the site because it was under construction, just knowing a 25-foot wall of molasses once rushed down the same streets we crisscrossed during our Boston stay was pretty cool for the kids. It created such a vivid mental image that we all sniffed the air repeatedly in an attempt to catch a scent of its sticky sweetness (spoiler: no molasses smell).
And before a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we listened to Bear In The Backseat, a collection of ranger stories about bear and wildlife encounters in the park to get the kids excited. Though we, unfortunately (fortunately?) never saw a bear in the Smokies, the kids were all in—we had a great time.
The second important thing we realized when traveling as a family was the benefit of working with local tour guides.
Instead of boring our kids to death by reading aloud snippets from self-guided walks found in books, we opted to schedule tours and hire guides. Not only did the kids behave better with the tour guides (they were too embarrassed to misbehave in front of a stranger), our guides shared all the things that made their place special much better than our monotonous reading ever could.
The best guides spun fantastic stories about places, like on our Mostly Medieval Family Walking Tour of Dublin, where Ruth—one of our favorite guides—recounted stories about Vikings, conquests, and plagues.
Guides also showed us things we could never see on our own, like while on a spooky night hike with Marco in a Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica, where he pointed out hidden sloths, snakes, and spiders. The best part is that the genuinely good guides for kids are excellent for adults too.
Birth of A Blog
Just like everything else in our lives changed once we had kids, the way I experience the “buzz” changed too. The travel and the “buzz” I get from it still gives me joy, though it is a different kind. It stays with me longer and goes deeper. And it now includes the joy of seeing the kids discover, learn from, and love a place.
It also includes moments of family contentment—the times that the complaining stops and the laughter starts. It is when despite the odds, Jordan and I realize we have done something right.
While vast information about travel is available across the internet (I know because I often feel like I have searched to the end of it), I struggle to find one resource that helps fulfill my geekiest planning and travel-learning tendencies.
I keep looking for a site that will help me find the most comprehensive planning resources, the perfect pre-trip books, or best on-the-trip learning experiences for families, and I cannot find it. So, I decided to create my own. Welcome to Gather and Go Travel.
My goal? To create a trusted resource where travelers can find what they need to plan the most memorable and impactful parts of their trips. I hope to give every travel lover a chance to enjoy and learn from exploring as much as we have through every stage of our travel lives. Thank you for joining us on this adventure.
To follow along and get my latest updates, how-tos, and trip ideas, sign up for my monthly Discovery Newsletter.
Unlock your travel toolkit! Join my monthly newsletter for 5 free templates to plan, pack, and budget like a pro. Sign up here.
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I only recommend products and companies I use. And the income goes to keeping the site community-supported and ads minimal.
Welcome to Gather and Go Travel, a blog inspiring families, adult friends, and couples to explore US and international destinations and to get outdoors. I am Janice, a world traveler to 50+ countries, a travel writer/blogger, and a book lover. Learn more about me, read our story, and how to work with me. Get my latest updates, how-tos, and trip ideas in my monthly Discovery Newsletter.
Instagram...
Unlock your travel toolkit! Join my monthly newsletter for 5 free templates to plan, pack, and budget like a pro.
11 Responses
Thank you!
very informative and insightful content people
Alex, thank you so much for reading it and the kind comment, much appreciated! My best, Janice
Love this ❤️ It’s so great!!! I enjoy reading how it all came about and evolved throughout your life, and I can appreciate all the work you’ve put into it.
Alex S
I have been traveling for a long time now and really wanted to blog. Thank you for this informative blog.
Thank you so much! This has helped me greatly in my step toward being a travel blogger.
Thanks for this informative blog
Thank you for taking the time to read it.
Thanks a lot for this informative article. I was looking for a blog like this.
You are welcome, thanks for reading.
Thanks for this, We are planning a travel blog now that we can travel overseas again! Happy trails