For me, the rewards far outweigh the drawbacks, though. Every time I’m landing somewhere new, I have a little internal “yipee!”. And I still can’t believe that this gets to be how I make my living. If I ever stopped feeling that way,and if traveling ever got to be a big drag, I would stop doing it.

This is why many travel writers create guidelines for themselves about how much time they spend away versus how much time they spend at home. (This is something we’ll talk about in my travel writing workshop, by the way!) For myself, I try to stick to not more than 10 days away a month, which means I’m with my husband and friends and my at-home life two-thirds of the time. This also gives me time at home to process and do my best writing. (I write on the road too, but I can really focus the best when I’m home.) I am not always successful at keeping to that limit, but I find my life works best that way.

As for the question of whether you can “dabble”, as Diana’s comment indicates, absolutely, many writers incorporate travel stories into their mix of stories. (There’s a whole fascinating semantic distinction between “travel writers” and “writers who travel”…too much for me to get into in this little comment, maybe I’ll do a post on that next.)

The only cautionary note I’d sound here is that people who haven’t traveled much (for writing or vacation or otherwise) can lack a certain perspective on what they’re seeing. It’s a weakness that one can certainly work around, through careful research. But I have to say, for calibrating that all- important internal bullshit detector, there’s no substitute for direct experience.

I also find that I gain a lot of insight into places I’ve been when I travel somewhere new. For example, I found new ways of thinking about Buenos Aires when I was in Cape Town (both considered the most European cities on their respective continents), and new insights into the time I spent in Hong Kong last March, when I was in Bombay last week.

So what I’m saying is that there are cumulative benefits to writers who can spend a lot of time on the road, but it’s not a deal breaker if you can’t.

Tell me the truth: does travel writing ever get tiring? I have friends who are destination wedding photographers and they started out thinking it was going to be “so cool” to get to travel to a lot of exotic locations on someone else’s dime….but the reality of flight schedules, lost luggage, time zone changes and being constantly away from home soon kicked in and travel suddenly didn’t look so swell after all.

Secondly, is travel writing something you have to specialize in, or is it a field that could be dabbled in on occasion? I’ve always been fascinated by different peoples and places, but (see above) I’m not sure it is something I could commit to doing non-stop.

This reminds me of when my hubby and I were living in The Netherlands for 6 months and we drove a rental car to Paris. Our car was towed — on a Saturday when the impound lot was closed for the weekend, and I needed to get back to work on Monday. At first, we thought the car had been stolen, because the police had no record of the towing. I got to practice my French — I know how to say, “Parking was not forbidden there!” — and it makes a great story.