Travel Blogging: Not Always as Glamorous as It Looks Like
Travel blogging may seem glamorous, but in reality it’s far from a relaxing holiday, as it involves hard work and long hours.
As I was flying home on Qatar Airways after a trip to Casablanca in Morocco, I was reminded just how tiring and unglamorous life as a travel blogger sometimes can be.
What you see
When you follow a travel blog – whether it’s a website like mine, a YouTube vlogger, or someone who exclusively posts on social media – you often only see the glamorous side of travel.
Of course, posts and vlogs about exotic destinations, luxurious hotels, and fancy business class seats on the world’s best airlines do breathe glamour.
However, glamorous snapshots can be far from the reality of travel blogging, as they are, after all, just snapshots.
Travel blogging is absolutely not the same as taking a holiday, as it often involves hard work and tiring schedules.
What you don’t see
There is a lot of work behind the amazing holiday pictures, compelling texts, and all the background information you read on a travel blog.
Needless to say, a lot of research is involved in travel blogging, with time being spent on this both before, during, and after the trip.
Writing up all impressions in a coherent article is another time-consuming task.
The same counts for photography (or filming for YouTubers), as you not only need to spend time to take the best possible shots, but you also need to edit all pictures afterwards.
Whether I’m writing a destination guide or a review of an airline or a certain train, a lot of effort is required.
When I write an article about a specific destination, I can’t simply relax and laze around for half a day, as I would typically do on a holiday.
Travel blogging is different, as you actually need to learn at least the basics behind the culture and history of a certain place, explore all the sights, talk to the local people, and research the best places in town to eat, drink, and what might otherwise be noteworthy to do.
Work required behind travel blogs
Writing a review of an airline, airport lounge, hotel, or train, is pretty much the same.
If I ride a train like the Bernina Express, I can’t just relax and take in the scenery, as I need to be on the tip of my toes to ensure I document and photograph all sights along the railway line, and every little detail about the train itself.
When I visit a business lounge at an airport, like the Al Mourjan Business Lounge at Doha Airport during this trip, I need to try out all the lounge facilities personally in order to write a comprehensive review.
Heck, when I arrived at that lounge, I was already absolutely knackered and completely full from all the food and drinks I enjoyed during my flight.
However, I had to press on and try out the dining offer in the lounge and take pictures of everything, even though I much preferred to take a nap in a quiet corner!
Sure, you don’t *have* to do all of this as a travel blogger, but if you want to produce engaging content that is actually useful for the reader, it’s an absolute must.
Without doing so, the chances of your travel blog becoming successful will decrease significantly.
I really like doing all of the above as otherwise I wouldn’t have started a travel blog, but the reality is that it isn’t akin to taking a holiday, but rather some highly tiring but fun work!
Full-time travel bloggers vs aspiring travel bloggers
The last aspect worth addressing here is the difference between full-time travel bloggers and vloggers, and those who aspire to become professional travel bloggers.
The great majority of full-time travel bloggers only reached their level of success because of their dedication and the hard work they put in over many, many years.
Their life isn’t always glamorous either, as they still need to put in a lot of time and some hard work to stay on top, but at least they are in full control.
Full-time travel bloggers generally are financially independent, and therefore have much more flexibility and less budget constraints, making their work easier as they can more or less set their own schedule.
This makes life on the road so much more relaxing, as these travel bloggers can dedicate as much time as they want to blogging, but also take moments to rest and recuperate, given that a significant part of their earnings will likely come from passive income.
Life of a part-time travel blogger
Life is different for part-time travel bloggers like me, for whom blogging is purely a hobby or side hustle next to their normal job.
Although we may aspire to reach the level of earning a full income from a blog or YouTube channel, it’s quite difficult to achieve that.
It’s a typical Catch-22 situation, as even though we would like to spend more time on travel blogging and publish more stories to reach such heights, we can’t because we wouldn’t make enough money to pay for the rent, utilities, and groceries, and also wouldn’t earn enough to fund new travels and research.
The basic reality for aspiring travel bloggers is that we still need to prioritise our full-time jobs, and can only dedicate our free time to our blogs, YouTube channels, and social media pages.
A full-time travel blogger might work from 9am until 3pm on their website and take the rest of the day off, whereas part-timers like us work our regular job from 9am until 5pm and then dedicate the entire evening until well after midnight to our blogs.
It’s a bit easier for me, given that I can more or less set my own schedule and work fully remotely as a freelancer, but I still need to dedicate some significant time each day to my work outside of travel blogging.
Budgeting
Of course, just like there are time constraints, part-time travel bloggers also have to deal with financial constraints.
Unlike full-time travel bloggers who often have the financial means and thus full freedom, I can’t just randomly decide what airline or train I want to review, or which destination I want to visit.
This travel blog does generate some income through ads and commission from affiliate links, but it pales in comparison to the money (and time!) I invest in doing all the required research on the ground.
In this aspect, travel blogging is still pretty much a hobby for me.
I don’t mind spending a bit more to review a particularly interesting airline or train, but when I simply need to get somewhere, price is still the foremost determining factor in how I travel.
Full-time travel bloggers, on the other hand, can opt for the best connection in the most comfortable travel class.
When I make my travel plans, budgeting is a big part of the work, as I try to find out how I can stretch my limited budget the most in order to do research for as many destination guides and reviews as possible.
If that means staying at a budget hotel instead of the Four Seasons, or having to sleep on the airport floor during an 8-hour overnight layover instead of taking an expensive direct flight or shelling out $300 for an airport hotel, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make (and often do make!) in order to travel this much.
Flying home
The reason I’m writing all of this has to do with my journey home.
Given that I don’t often get to fly Qatar Airways business class (I got this opportunity through a status match, in which I received some free credits to upgrade my flight to business class), I was really looking forward to my final Doha-Bucharest flight on an Airbus A320.
Not only would I be in for a fun flight with some delicious food and champagne, but it would also make for a valuable review.
However, there would be no such opportunity.
Since I lacked the funds for an expensive hotel and the time for a prolonged Doha stopover, I opted to spend the night attempting to rest in the Al Mourjan Business Lounge before catching my connecting flight in the morning.
Sadly, I could barely manage to get any sleep, and I felt utterly exhausted as I boarded the bus from the departure gate to my Qatar Airways Airbus A320, which was parked in a distant corner of the apron.
When the flight attendant asked if I wanted something to eat or drink immediately after take-off, I replied that I would probably fall asleep as soon as we were airborne, which indeed happened.
I slept through the entire flight, only waking up when we were on our final descent towards Bucharest Otopeni Airport.
Needless to say, this meant that I had to abandon my idea of writing a flight review.
Of course, travel bloggers know this is not the end of the world as these things happen, whether due to unforeseen circumstances, tiredness, or simply not having enough good material in order to write a story.
Still, I was slightly annoyed by it, as it reminded me that even though everything looked so glamorous the previous day, travel blogging reality had set in today.
Conclusion
Although travel blogging life may appear glamorous, the reality is that it is not comparable to a relaxing holiday, as it entails a great deal of exhausting work.
There is a stark difference between the snapshots you might see on social media or in blogs and the reality of how such content is actually produced by travel bloggers.
Travel blogging is great fun and can be a fantastic hobby, but producing valuable content requires hard work and dedication.
As I flew home from my Morocco trip, I was reminded of this, as my journey home in Qatar Airways business class started so glamorously, but ended up being utterly exhausting.
Still, I’m grateful of each and every opportunity I have to travel and to share my trips with the wider world!
End of the trip report
The Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Bucharest marked the end of my Qatar Airways trip to Casablanca.
If you missed any of the previous chapters of this trip report, you can find the trip report index below.
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Trip report index
This article is part of the ‘Qatar Airways Qsuites Adventure to Casablanca‘ trip report, which consists of the following chapters:
1. A Stopover Walk Through Barcelona
2. Review: Joan Miró VIP Lounge Barcelona Airport
3. Review: Royal Air Maroc Economy Class Barcelona to Casablanca
4. Taking the Casablanca Airport Train: The Cheap Way Into the City
5. Review: Ibis Casa Voyageurs Hotel, Casablanca
6. Casablanca: Is Morocco’s Biggest City Worth a Visit?
7. Review: Royal Air Maroc Zenith VIP Lounge Casablanca Airport
8. Review: Qatar Airways Business Class Boeing 777 Qsuites
9. Review: Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge
10. Travel Blogging: Not Always as Glamorous as It Looks Like (current chapter)
IMO, you have, for years written one of the best travel blogs Koen going back to when you used to post on FlyerTalk and to date, unlike so many, you have journalistic skill and it shows and it also shows that you are a fair and objective writer.
As someone who is now past the best years of travel, you bring places alive that I’ve been and paint a good picture of places I haven’t been and now probably will never go. Keep going!
I’m struggling to feel sorry for you though 😉
Ha thanks lhrpete! Not so much active anymore these days on Flyertalk, apart from the AF/KL and TK boards to keep up to date with the latest updates in my two primary frequent flyer programmes (although I might jump back to A3 at some point as my main Star Alliance FFP with the huge devaluations going on at TK, and start using that forum more too).
And no need to feel sorry for me – part of the reason why I was absolutely knackered was the overindulging on the previous Qsuites flight and perhaps a glass of champagne too much in the lounge!! Add in the overnight layover on my itinerary which I purposely booked instead of a more comfortable proper 24-hour stopover in Doha, and I’m entirely to blame for it..
This post offers such a great behind-the-scenes look at travel blogging! It’s refreshing to see the balance between the glamorous and the real aspects of this lifestyle. Thanks for sharing your honest perspective!