Tim Neville

Tim Nevillehttps://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/about/contributors/tim-nevilleTim Nevillehttps://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/travel-wiser/survival/what-to-do-if-you-get-lost-in-the-wildYour pleasant outing turns into a nightmare – you’re lost and have no way to navigate. Tim Neville reports on what you should do if you’re stuck without a map or compass, and how to get yourself found.2024-03-19T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/travel-wiser/survival/what-to-do-if-you-get-lost-in-the-wildhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>Full disclosure: If you’re ever truly lost and needing directions, I’m the last person you want to ask. I can get off the highway to refuel and get lost trying to get back on. There is a 100 percent chance that I will turn the wrong way coming out of a hotel elevator.</p> <p>The one place I never get lost, though, is in the wild. I’m too paranoid not to bring maps, a GPS, and an emergency satellite communicator. Bad things can happen when you’re not prepared, even if you aren’t in the back of beyond. Rescuers routinely save people who wandered off looking for mushrooms. You ditch your pack to find a tree to pee but get turned around on your way back. No compass. No map. It happens.</p> <p>What do you do then? Travis Johnson knows. As the owner of the Northwest Survival School in Washington state, he has trained government agents, soldiers, and executives in the skills they need to get found (or at least un-lost) the quickest. Here are some tips to consider if you ever need to find your way back.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#lost">You’re lost. Now what?</a></li> <li><a href="#move">Move with purpose</a></li> <li><a href="#direction">How to tell direction without a compass</a></li> <li><a href="#source">Use more than one source to get your bearings</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="lost">You’re lost. Now what?</h2> <p>It’s an awful feeling. You’re lost and you know it. The panic sets in. The best thing you can do right away, Johnson says, is nothing.</p> <p>“You’re already lost and if you go wandering around, you’re going to make yourself really lost,” he says. You also don’t want to hurt yourself aimlessly roaming. Instead, Johnson says take a knee, collect yourself and look around. Maybe something will pop out.</p> <p>“Maybe you’ll remember that big stump over there,” he says. Maybe you won’t recognize a thing.</p> <p>Next, after you’ve calmed down and have a sense of your immediate surroundings, you’ll want to broaden your knowledge of what Johnson calls your perimeter – an imaginary area around you from which you can always find your way back. You do this to get a sense of what the land’s doing around you. This is <a href="/travel-wiser/practical">practical</a> as well as mentally beneficial. “The more you explore, the more you know about the area and the more secure you’ll feel,” he says. “Then you can create a goal to keep in mind, like: ‘Go head up that hill to see if you can see a roof or a chimney.’ ”</p> <h2 id="move">Move with purpose</h2> <p>You don’t want to set off willy-nilly into the forest because that’ll get you more lost. Instead, you need to do a couple of things.</p> <p><strong>Mark your path.</strong> As you explore, take the time to mark trees or disturb vegetation in a way that makes it obvious to would-be rescuers which way you’re traveling. Johnson always carries a few survival items on his person and not in his pack, and that includes a knife that he can use to “blaze” his path on trees. Every so often, he removes a small swatch of bark to expose the eye-catching pale wood beneath it, on both sides of a tree, so he can find his way in reverse if needed. No knife? Break branches that all point in the direction you’re going.</p> <p><strong>Understand how you walk.</strong> A big reason people get lost in the first place is they assume they moved off-trail through the forest in a straight line. This is never the case, Johnson says. Instead, we tend to drift in a large circle.</p> <p>“You have a dominant foot that will try to push you around things in a certain way,” he says, and that puts a bend in your path. “Break that cycle by forcing yourself to go left around a tree, right around a tree, left around a tree, right around a tree,” he says. That will hold you in a straighter line.</p> <p><strong>Stay focused.</strong> It’s easy to let your mind wander as you live this nightmare but it’s critical to keep your thoughts focused. Stay active, Johnson says. “The feeling of actively trying to rescue yourself is much better than that feeling of helplessness.”</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/travel-wiser/lost-blaze-getty.jpg" alt="A woman uses a knife to cut a trail marker in the bark of a tree." /> <figcaption>A woman cuts a "blaze" into the bark of a tree. Image credit: Getty Images / schankz</figcaption></figure> <h2 id="direction">How to tell direction without a compass</h2> <p>Hopefully you have some sort of map in your mind thanks to the research you did before you got lost (you did research it, right?). Knowing how to find north, south, east, and west without a compass will help you navigate that imaginary map.</p> <p>Finding directions during the day can begin with finding east and west, even if you didn’t see where the sun rose (which is in the east of course). Take a stick, stand it upright in the earth, and place a rock in the dirt at the tip of the shadow cast by the stick. Do that a few more times every ten minutes, and the line of rocks will run west to east. Knowing that will give you north and south, too.</p> <p>If you have a watch with hands on it, you can use it to find south. Holding your watch flat, point the hour hand at the sun. (For our purposes, pretend it’s 10:23 a.m., so the 10 would be pointing at the sun). Find the point on the clock that’s halfway between 12 o’clock and the hour hand, and that way will be dead south. (In this case, 11 o’clock.) If you have a digital watch, use a flat stone or some similar object to help you imagine a clock face. If you have no watch at all, you can get a rough estimate of the time by holding your four fingers parallel to the horizon and counting how many hands the sun is off the horizon. That’s roughly how many hours it’s been since sunrise. Each finger is about another 15 minutes.</p> <p>Johnson suggests never moving at night unless you have to. It’s just too easy to get hurt. Create a path to your loo and stomp it down well so you can tell by feel if you step off it at night. Use the darkness to find Polaris, the north star in the Northern Hemisphere (Google it before you leave for your adventure, if you don’t already know how).</p> <h2 id="source">Use more than one source to get your bearings</h2> <p>It’s best never to rely on just one method either. Instead, Johnson will piece together clues as a way to fact-check his work. You can tell a lot by looking at the trees, he says. For that, you don’t even need the sun.</p> <p>All plants will follow the light, as we know, which means limbs on trees will tend to be more robust on the southern side (in the Northern Hemisphere) where the sun would track. It can be a subtle thing to spot, he says, so try to find a tree in a clearing that would get lots of light.</p> <p>“And I say southern and not south,” he says. “That tree might get more morning light than afternoon light.” And that would skew the limbs. The old adage that moss only grows on the north side of a tree isn’t really true, either. Moss will grow where there’s little light.</p> <p>“The idea is to do everything you can to help yourself get found,” Johnson says. “And remember a lot of this could have been avoided if you just paid attention.”</p>Getty Images / Muriel de Seze 1601368739 Getty Images A lone hiker stares up at a forest of identical trees.

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/travel-wiser/practical/how-to-look-after-car-when-on-driving-holidayThese simple car-maintenance skills will keep your trip, and your car, on the right track.2023-09-04T10:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/travel-wiser/practical/how-to-look-after-car-when-on-driving-holidayhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>Buying a cheap, used car and heading off into the sunset is as American as Ford. Before you commit, get the vehicle inspected by a mechanic to make sure it has no major issues. Here are some simple skills you should learn to keep you rolling.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#1">How to change a tire</a></li> <li><a href="#2">How to jump-start a car</a></li> <li><a href="#3">How to check the fluids</a></li> <li><a href="#4">How to put on snow chains</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="1"><strong>How to change a tire</strong></h2> <p>In many ways, changing a tire is one of the most dangerous things you can do. Watch out for traffic.</p> <p>Get off the road as much as possible, while keeping the car on a level, firm surface. Never change a tire on a hill or slope. Place the car in park and engage the emergency brake. Ideally, you’ll have some emergency triangles like<span><a href="https://a.co/d/hxovDcF"> <span>these</span></a></span> to warn other motorists.  </p> <p>Most cars come with a jack stored somewhere in the rear near the spare tire. A jack typically has two, detachable parts, a crank and the jack itself. The crank may have a socket on one end or the socket may be a third, separate tool. It may also have a flat end for prying off the hubcap if needed.</p> <p>Check the car’s manual to see where the jack needs to contact the frame. No manual? Google it. Get it wrong and you risk having the jack fail. </p> <p>Chock the tires you aren’t changing with rocks to prevent the vehicle from rolling. Use the socket to “break” the tension (loosen) on the lug nuts on the damaged tire, but do not remove them. Do this before you jack the car up.  </p> <p>Raise the jack until the damaged tire can spin freely. Use the socket to remove the lug nuts entirely. </p> <p>Remove the bad tire. Place the spare onto the bolts and tighten the nuts by hand. Use the socket to fully tighten them in a star pattern. Tighten a nut, then the one opposite that nut, moving around until they’re all tight. That keeps the wheel properly aligned. </p> <p>Your spare is likely a flimsy “donut” that cannot handle highway speeds. Get the damaged tire fixed pronto. </p> <h2 id="2"><strong>How to jump-start a car</strong></h2> <p>A dead battery is the worst but it’s easy to fix. Keep an eye on it, though. A depleted battery could be a sign of a failing alternator or a failing battery. Take your vehicle to an auto parts store like O’Reilly’s or Napa. They’ll test it for free.</p> <ul> <li>Never let the jumper cable clamps touch each other</li> <li>Never bridge a battery’s terminal posts. </li> </ul> <p>Here are the steps:</p> <ul> <li>Make sure all battery posts are free of corrosion. A wire brush works best  </li> <li>Turn the good car off and connect the positive clamp (generally red or not black) to the positive post on the good car’s battery. Make sure the negative clamps (always black) aren’t touching any metal</li> <li>Connect the positive clamp to the positive post on the bad battery </li> <li>Connect the negative clamp to the negative post on the good battery</li> <li>Connect the negative clamp to a bare piece of metal on the dead car. The owner’s manual may suggest the best spot for this.</li> <li>Turn the good car on and let it run for five minutes</li> <li>Try to start the dead car. No luck? Make sure the clamps are securely connected</li> <li>Once the dead car starts, remove the clamps in reverse order, being careful to not let them touch. </li> </ul> <p>If you plan to be far from other vehicles, carry a portable battery like<span><a href="https://a.co/d/aB4lH8F"> <span>this one</span></a></span> designed specifically for jumping car batteries.</p> <h2 id="3"><strong>Check the car’s fluids</strong></h2> <p>Vehicles, like us, need to stay hydrated. It’s a good idea to check the oil and coolant frequently, especially if you’re driving an older vehicle. </p> <h3><strong>Oil</strong></h3> <p>Release the car’s hood. A latch on the hood itself keeps it from opening all the way. Reach under the hood to release that latch and open the hood completely. </p> <p>Find the dipstick. It’s usually yellow or orange and will have an oil symbol on it or nearby.</p> <p>Pull the dipstick all the way out. Wipe it clean with a rag and reinsert the dipstick into the sheath. </p> <p>Remove it again and note how far up the dipstick the oil reaches. The dipstick should have two lines. If it’s below the bottom line, add a quart of oil through the oil port. That port should be labeled and have an oil can symbol. Use the weight of oil recommended in the manual, typically something like 10w40. </p> <p>Check the dipstick again after several minutes. The oil does not need to reach the top mark but be between the two marks. </p> <p>Do not overfill! </p> <h3><strong>Coolant</strong> </h3> <p>Ever seen a <a href="/travel-safety/north-america/canada/guide-to-driving-in-canada">car </a>on the side of the road with steam coming out from under the hood? Don’t be that person. Check your coolant. </p> <p>Make sure the engine is completely cool. Open the hood and look for the coolant reservoir. It will most likely be clear with a maximum fill line.</p> <p>Check your manual to see the type of coolant you should use, typically a 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze. Fill the reservoir to the fill line. Don’t overfill. </p> <p>If the coolant has particles in it and looks oily or rusty, get it checked by a mechanic. </p> <h2 id="4"><strong>How to fit snow chains</strong></h2> <p>In many states, if you’re traveling over <a href="/explore/oceania/new-zealand/mountain-biking-in-nz">mountain</a> passes in <a href="/explore/travel-the-winter-collection">winter </a>you must carry chains by law. Putting them on your vehicle is a hassle but not as bad as getting stuck or in a wreck. </p> <p>It’s critical you get chains that fit your tires. An auto parts store or tire salesperson can help. </p> <p>If your vehicle is front-wheel drive, put the chains on the front wheels. Rear wheel? Put them on the rear. For all-wheel-drive vehicles, check your owner’s manual and do what’s recommended. </p> <p>Chains always come with instructions so follow yours. The first step: make sure your chains are not twisted but hang freely.</p> <p>Lay the chains out behind the tire under the car.</p> <p>Bring both ends of the chain up to the top of the tire and clip them together.</p> <p>Arrange the chains so the center falls across the middle of the tire. A hook on the chain should connect to a link opposite the hook to secure the chain across the outside of the tire.</p> <p>The bottom of the chains typically has a tightener denoted by a different color chain, often red. To tighten, thread one end of the red chain through a guiding mechanism and pull it tight. Thread the loose end of the red chain through a loop opposite the guide and pull it tight. Fasten the loose end of the red chain to a link along the side of the tire.</p> <p>Repeat this on the other side. </p> <p>Drive forward a short distance, retighten the chains and drive off, slowly. If you hear the chains smacking your vehicle, stop and tighten them. </p> <p> </p>Getty Images/Thomas Barwick 11299125390 Getty Images Laughing young woman preparing for backpacking trip with sisters

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/travel-writing/pitching-for-onlineHave an epic travel tale or know the best spots in France for brunch? Here’s how to get your work online so you can share what you know.2023-04-03T10:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/travel-writing/pitching-for-onlinehttps://www.worldnomads.com<ul> <li><a href="#basics">Master the basics of pitching</a></li> <li><a href="#website">Find the right website</a></li> <li><a href="#editor">Find the right editor</a></li> <li><a href="#content"> Notice the kind of content that your favorite websites publish </a></li> <li><a href="#skills">What other skills do you need?</a></li> </ul> <p><span>When I was first starting out as a travel writer at <em>Outside</em> magazine more than 20 years ago, print media outlets were still rather baffled by the internet. Were websites a place to post old, print stories? New stories? Short stories? Long stories? One thing was clear. An online-only story was inferior to a print story, because, as we all wondered back then, who would ever read anything online?</span></p> <p>How quaint the predicaments of yesteryear now seem. We read entire books on our phones. Some newspaper travel sections now exist only online. Attitudes have long since changed, too. In 2000, you could hear the disappointment when you told a source the story would only appear online. Today, “will this be online?” is often the first question interview partners ask. And we all know why. Print-only stories end up in the recycling. Online stories live forever.</p> <p>This is great news for new writers. The odds remain significantly higher for an online commission versus one in print. There’s simply much more real estate in the virtual world. In 2000, there were a mere 17 million websites. Today there are nearly 2 billion.</p> <p>So, how do you pitch a story you hope will appear online? I spoke to four writers and editors working online today to get their tips. Here they are along with a few of my own.</p> <h2 id="basics">Master the basics of pitching</h2> <p>Don’t be fooled. Despite the internet’s limitless hunger for content, it is <em>not</em> a space for stories that aren’t good enough for print, says Alison Osius, a travel editor at <em>Outside</em>. “Most online stories do tend to be shorter,” she says, “but the quality is evening out.” In other words, you still need a strong story no matter what. (To see the difference between an idea and a story, see my <a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide">travel writing guide</a>, available here.)</p> <p>That means you need to have:</p> <ul> <li><strong><span>A hook</span></strong><span> – the reason for doing a particular story now. A new kayaking tour is opening up; it’s the 100th anniversary of something; the World Cup is coming to town. </span></li> <li><strong><span>A mission</span></strong><span> – how are you going to report this story or have you done it already? Will you hike up to 8 hours a day over high mountain passes to get to this new backcountry lodge? Did you spend three days in Sapporo checking out sake distilleries? Do you have three examples of new things happening in a neighborhood that make the area more interesting to travelers?</span></li> <li><strong><span>A reason</span></strong><span> – why are you the best writer for this job? Have you published stories on other websites? Did you win the <a href="https://www.worldnomads.com/create/scholarships">World Nomads Travel Writing Scholarship</a>? Have you traveled extensively in Argentina? Speak Mandarin? Let the editor know.</span></li> </ul> <p>Osius says even if you know your editor, it’s still worth including your bio anyway. “I forward pitches on to other editors all the time who might not know the writer,” she says.</p> <h2 id="website">Find the right website</h2> <p><span>Before you even <a href="/create/learn/writing/the-perfect-travel-story-pitch">pitch</a>, find the right website for your story and make sure they haven’t covered your topic before, says Cameron </span>Vigliotta<span>, an editor at <em>Forbes</em>. You’re not going to have any luck pitching a story about backpacking through Laos on $5 a day to a magazine such as <em>Robb Report</em> that focuses on the ultra-wealthy. If a website has already covered<a href="/travel-safety/worldwide/safe-scuba-diving"> scuba diving</a> in an odd location like Arizona, the editor probably isn’t going to assign another odd scuba-diving story.</span></p> <p>That said, don’t be afraid to adjust your idea to fit a website that might not seem obvious at first. Once, I really wanted to write about a “fondue king” in Switzerland. I could have pitched it to a food outlet but instead, I went straight to a skiing publication. What goes great with skiing? Melted cheese, of course! The editor agreed and off I went.</p> <h2 id="editor">Find the right editor</h2> <p>Be sure you know <em>who</em> you’re pitching as well, says Kathleen Rellihan, a former travel editor at <em>Newsweek</em> and now a freelancer for <em>National Geographic, Travel + Leisure</em> and more. That means finding the masthead to get names of editors, going online to look at their social media accounts and surfing around on LinkedIn to gather other bits of intel that will tell you who assigns what. You don’t want your pitch about learning to hunt to land in the inbox of the person who edits fashion stories. “It shows your reporting skills,” she says. “If you can’t find the name of the right person to pitch, then you probably don’t have the skills you need for the story.”</p> <h2 id="content">Notice the kind of content that your favorite websites publish</h2> <p>Most online articles tend to be more “service” oriented, meaning they’re less of a tale and more of a <a href="https://www.worldnomads.com/explore">mini guide</a> pointing you to the best beaches, the weirdest restaurants or how to spend 36 hours in a city. There’s a lot of news out there, too. But unless you’re the first person to break a story, it’s probably best to find another way into it. If a popular national park is limiting the number of visitors this season, maybe you pitch a piece about “five other parks that don’t have limits.”</p> <p>A lot of magazines will have editorial calendars available online that will give you an idea of what they’ll be working on, which means the doors for writing online are opening, too. Pitch your story about riding around Ireland on an electric bike for the “Green” issue and you’ll look like a pro.</p> <h2 id="skills">What other skills do you need?</h2> <p>You don’t really need to know much about SEO or any back-end web development to pitch an online story, but Paulette Perhach, a writer who offers workshops and software for managing freelance assignments, adds you might want to add to your pitch some subheads you might use. Most online articles use them. (Notice how this article uses them). They give online readers a good point of entry.</p> <p>It also helps if you’re good at <a href="/create/learn/landscape-photography">taking photos</a> or shooting short video clips, so say that if you can. Some sites don’t care so much about this but for others, not being able to provide “art” can be a dealbreaker. Even today at <em>Outside,</em> which has a budget to buy professional photos and videos, editors often want their writers to capture multimedia “assets” to augment whatever else they can find.</p> <p>Lastly, keep your pitch short. Vigliotta says he wants no more than two paragraphs while Osius says no more than a page. “Editors are really, really busy,” Vigliotta says. “You’ll still hear 'no' a lot.” But keep after it. Good ideas are gold no matter where they land. </p>Getty Images / Westend61 0 Man writes notes in a cavern

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/travel-wiser/practical/the-5-knots-every-traveler-should-knowA correctly tied knot can be a lifesaver when you’re traveling. These are the five best knots to know, whether it’s keeping your luggage lashed to the roof rack or preventing your kayak from drifting away.2024-11-26T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/travel-wiser/practical/the-5-knots-every-traveler-should-knowhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>You know how speaking even just a bit of the local language can really save the day at times? Well, there’s another skill that’s even more useful when you really need it. It’s called learning to tie a few simple knots. C’est le truth.</p> <p>Haven’t you ever been <a href="/explore/south-america/peru/peru-transport-how-to-get-get-around-safely-a-quickguide">bouncing along in a bus in, say, Peru</a>, wondering if <a href="/travel-insurance/whats-covered/baggage">your bag is still lashed to the roof</a>? How nice would it be to secure a tarp over your tent at a rainy music festival? From stringing up a hammock to pulling a dear friend out of, say, a pit of quicksand, knowing the right knot can give you peace of mind and keep you going.</p> <p>You don’t need to be a Boy Scout or salt-ravaged sailor to master these knots, either. In fact, once you know these, you’ll wonder how you ever got on without them. You’re welcome.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#language">The language of knots </a></li> <li><a href="#bowline">How to tie a bowline knot</a></li> <li><a href="#clove">Clove hitch / Munter hitch</a></li> <li><a href="#truckers">How to tie a trucker’s hitch</a></li> <li><a href="#surgeons">Fisherman's knot / Double surgeon’s knot</a></li> <li><a href="#prusik">How to tie a prusik knot</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="language">The language of knots</h2> <p><strong>Knots vs. hitches</strong></p> <p>Why are some of these called “knots” and others “hitches”? Technicalities, really, but there is a difference. A knot doesn’t need anything other than itself to hold its shape while a hitch only holds its shape if it’s tied around or onto something. Without a stick or ring or even another rope to latch onto, a hitch falls apart.</p> <p><strong>Other useful terminology</strong></p> <p>When you tie a knot you’re generally working with two pieces of rope, be they from the same rope or from different ropes. The <strong>tag end</strong> or <strong>working end</strong> is the short, loose end of a rope that is often the “active” piece that you’re twisting, pulling, running through, whatever, to form your knot or hitch. The other end is called the <strong>standing end</strong>. That is generally the longer, more static part of a rope that’s being wrapped, twisted, or otherwise being acted upon by the working end. In some knots, like the fisherman’s knot, you can have multiple working and standing ends.</p> <p>Not all bends in a rope are the same, either. A <strong>bight</strong> is like a horseshoe where the rope does not cross over itself. A <strong>loop</strong> is a closed circle where the pieces do cross over each other. When making loops, be sure to do them exactly as shown. Does the working end go over or under the standing end? A knot works because of the details.</p> <p>After you’ve tied your knot, you need to <strong>dress</strong> it. Simply put, fiddle with your knot until the pieces line up properly and everything is nice and snug. Dressing a knot often improves its strength. And for the final step, consider tying a <strong>safety knot</strong> (aka a <strong>stopper knot</strong>) on the tag end. These are often simple overhand knots that help keep the tag end from pulling back through the knot.</p> <h2 id="bowline">How to tie a bowline knot</h2> <p>The bowline is perhaps the world's most useful knot, and makes a fixed loop at the end of a rope that can be undone easily. That loop won’t cinch or collapse under weight, which makes it great for tying a rope to, say, the bow of a boat (how it gets its name) or when lashing your bag to a roof rack. It’s also the knot of choice in rescue situations, where you need to lift or lower a person without a harness. Here's how to tie a bowline:</p> <ol> <li>Thread one end of the rope through or around the object you’d like to fasten the bowline to. If you’re not attaching the knot to anything, just make a bight at one end of the rope. One hand holds the tag end; one hand holds the standing end.</li> <li>Without letting go of either end, use your thumb and forefinger on your tag end hand to twist the standing end back toward you (or, more specifically, in the direction in which the tag end points) to create a loop on the standing end. The loop must be inside the bight and the standing end must cross over itself — not under itself — on its journey to becoming the tag end. This is key. This is an easy step to mess up.</li> <li>Thread the tag end up through the loop you just made. Be sure to pull through plenty of rope to give yourself enough tag for the rest of the knot.</li> <li>Wrap the tag end behind the standing end.</li> <li>Thread the tag end back down through the loop.</li> <li>Dress the knot by pulling it tight and even. Tie a safety knot in the tag end. If you have done it correctly you’ll have a tidy knot that looks something like a horseshoe with a halo. The tag end will be inside the loop.</li> </ol> <div style="padding: 56.25% 0 0 0; position: relative;"><iframe width="300" height="150" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1032882124?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write" title="WN_KnotTying_V1 (1)"></iframe></div> <script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script> <p><em>Tip: people sometimes remember the steps to this knot this way: “The rabbit comes up out of the hole, goes behind the tree and back down into the hole.” The trick is making sure you’ve made the hole correctly.</em></p> <h2 id="clove">Clove hitch / Munter hitch</h2> <h3>Clove hitch</h3> <p>The clove hitch can latch onto almost anything – a stick, a rock, a grocery bag, whatever – making it one of the easiest and most versatile “knots” out there. You can even tighten and loosen it without having to undo it. That’s critical in sports such as rock climbing but these days I mostly use a clove hitch for quickly tying up my whitewater raft to shore or to get a cord strung over high branches for hanging food away from critters and bears while <a href="/travel-insurance/activities/camping-travel-insurance">camping in the backcountry</a>. The uses for the clove hitch are endless.</p> <p>For this one, you don’t need to worry about tag ends and standing ends. You can tie it anywhere along the rope.</p> <ol> <li>Pinch a length of rope between your thumbs and forefingers on each hand about half your shoulder width apart and hold the rope up in front of you so it is parallel to the ground.</li> <li>Make a loop of rope by bringing your right hand to your left hand. Be sure to keep your right hand slightly on top of your left hand. Pinch the loop together with your left thumb and left forefinger to hold the loop in your left hand.</li> <li>Slide your right hand back to about the same length as you did before and make another loop of rope the exact same way – right hand on top of left hand – but this time pinch the second loop closed with your right thumb and right forefinger and hold the loop in your right hand. You should have two identical loops, side by side on the rope with very little rope between them.</li> <li>Take the right loop, the one you just made, and bring it behind the first loop you made in your left hand. Do not twist it. You should have two loops stacked atop each other.</li> <li>Stick whatever you're tying this onto into the negative space created by the two loops. Pull the ends tight to dress the knot. You’re done.</li> </ol> <p>If you’ve done it correctly, you should have two loops with an X below them. You can adjust the length of the rope by moving the hitch either way.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/travelsmarter/knots/clove-hitch-new.jpg" alt="A clove hitch knot wrapped around a stick." /> <figcaption>Clove hitch. Image credit: Getty Images / Sami Sarkis</figcaption></figure> <h3>The Munter hitch</h3> <p>This is very similar to a clove hitch but functions more as a “friction knot” that allows you to tighten or loosen a rope in a controlled manner. You can use it to lower heavy objects—including yourself. Old-school climbers used this knot to rappel down cliffs. You can also use it to pull the slack out of a rope to keep it taut. These days, I mostly use a Munter on horizontal forces like when I need to hang a hammock or a tarp or even a clothesline, all of which need a tight line strung between two fixed points.</p> <ol> <li>Follow steps 1-3 above.</li> <li>Instead of passing the second loop behind the first loop, bring the two loops together as if you are closing a book. The loops will “face” each other. You can clip a carabiner through the space created by the two loops. The knot will rotate around the carabiner depending on which end you pull.</li> </ol> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/travelsmarter/knots/the-munter-hitch.jpg" alt="The Munter hitch knot with a carabiner clipped through the loops." /> <figcaption>Munter hitch. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p>This is a very easy hitch to tie around a tree, allowing you to tighten the rope to whatever tension you need. Obviously, you can’t stick an entire tree through the loop so you must form the hitch around the tree. To do that, wrap the rope around a tree to make a loop around it with the tag end passing over the standing end. Pull the rope as tight as you need. Without losing that tension, bring the tag end under the taut standing end and wrap it back around the tree in the opposite direction all the way around the tree until the tag runs back along the standing end. Tie two or three stopper knots along the standing end to maintain the tension.</p> <h2 id="truckers">How to tie a trucker’s hitch</h2> <p>The trucker’s hitch creates a mechanical leverage – a 3-to-1 Z-drag system, if you must – that lets you really crank down hard on a rope to make it very taut. This is my knot of choice when guying out a tent fly in preparation for an approaching storm or especially for lashing objects like a backpack or a canoe to a roof rack when you don’t have straps.</p> <p>However, the trucker’s is not a great knot for creating tight lines that will then bear a lot of weight, like for hammocks, because it creates too much friction and force and can wear out your rope. You can’t use a trucker’s hitch alone, either, obviously, because the rope needs to be already anchored at one end. Bowlines work great for creating that first anchor point.</p> <ol> <li>Take the tag end and form a bight around your second anchor point, like a roof rack or a tent stake so that the bight’s open space faces away from you. Pull the slack out of the line but keep it pretty loose.</li> <li>Create a loop in the standing end by twisting a piece of the standing line back toward you three times.</li> <li>Fold the loop you just created back down onto the standing line that runs between the loop and the second anchor point, and pull a bight of the standing line up through the loop you made with the twists. Dress the knot so that you now have a loop in the standing line. Let’s call this a pulley loop. Where you place this pulley loop takes some practice. You’ll see why in the next few steps.</li> <li>Run the tag end of your rope from your second anchor point through the pulley loop, and bring the tag end back toward your second anchor point. You should now see a Z-like pulley system.</li> <li>Pulling the tag end tightens the standing line with a lot of force – for every unit of effort you pull, you’ll exert three efforts’ worth on the other end (but not really since friction will eat up a lot of your gains). If you’ve placed your pulley knot too close to your anchor point, you may not be able to pull the standing line as taut as you like. If you’ve placed the pulley knot too close to the load, you may not have enough tag end to thread through your pulley knot.</li> <li>To secure the tension, use your thumb and forefinger to pinch the pulley knot where it rubs the tag end. Tie stopper knots against the pulley loop to hold it in place.</li> <li>To undo the knot, untie the stopper knots and release the tension. Pull the ends of the pulley loop apart and the loop should come easily undone.</li> </ol> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/travelsmarter/knots/truckers-hitch-new.jpg " alt="A trucker's hitch knot." /> <figcaption>Trucker's hitch. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p><em>Planning an outdoor adventure? Find out <a href="/travel-insurance">how travel insurance can cover</a> activities, lost or stolen gear, medical emergencies, and more.</em></p> <h2 id="surgeons">Fisherman's knot / Double surgeon’s knot</h2> <h3>Fisherman’s knot</h3> <p>A fisherman’s knot can be used to tie opposite ends of the same rope together to make a circle. Compared to the double surgeon's knot (below), the fisherman’s is the better knot to use when joining two long ropes where you don’t want to be pulling through endless yards of working ends like the surgeon’s requires. I used this knot to make simple necklaces from which I could dangle seashells or other charms I found cool a billion years ago. Once a fisherman’s knot is heavily loaded or gets wet and dries it will be next to impossible to undo.</p> <ol> <li>Lay your two pieces of rope parallel to each other, end to end, so that the tag ends overlap each other and face in opposite directions. Be sure to give yourself plenty of tag.</li> <li>Wrap one tag end, say, the right one, around the other rope, making each wrap walk back in the opposite direction, so toward the left in this case. Do this twice and keep them loose. You should have a pigtail-like curly cue wrapped loosely around the other rope.</li> <li>Thread the tag end you were just using back through the center of the curly cue you made with the wraps.</li> <li>Pull the knot tight and dress it if necessary. You should have one rope knotted around the other rope.</li> <li>Repeat the process with the other tag end, the left one in this case, wrapping it back around the other rope toward the right, twice, loosely, creating the curly cue.</li> <li>Thread the tag end back through the second curly cue and pull it tight, dressing it if necessary</li> <li>Grab the two standing ends on opposite sides of your two knots and pull. The two knots should slide together until they abut one another and can no longer slide.</li> </ol> <div style="padding: 56.25% 0 0 0; position: relative;"><iframe width="300" height="150" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1035401134?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write" title="Fishermans Knot"></iframe></div> <script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script> <h3><br />Double surgeon’s knot</h3> <p>Anytime you need to tie a shorter rope to a longer rope to make it longer still, this is a great knot to use. Both of the ropes need to be similar in diameter and if your “short” rope is still really long – say 10ft / 3 m or more – you’ll want to use a fisherman’s knot instead. Most fisherfolk I know actually use the double surgeon knot more readily than a fisherman’s knot for tying on a few extra feet of fishing line because the double surgeon’s is much easier to do with a very thin line or cord.</p> <ol> <li>Lay your two pieces of rope or line parallel to each other, end to end, so that the ends overlap each other and point in opposite directions. You may only need a few inches of overlap. You may need a whole foot. It all depends on the thickness of the ropes you’re attaching.</li> <li>Grasping both ropes, tie an overhand knot along the overlap by making a loop and pulling the tag end of the long rope and the rest of the short rope through the loop. Do not tighten it.</li> <li>Take the same pair of working ends you just used and do it again, bringing both the tag end of the long rope and the rest of the short rope through the loop one more. You should have what looks like a circle, with a pair of ropes twisted around each other forming one half and a pair of ropes not twisted around each other forming the second half.</li> <li>Tighten and dress.</li> </ol> <div style="padding: 56.25% 0 0 0; position: relative;"><iframe width="300" height="150" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1035400907?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write" title="Double Surgeons"></iframe></div> <h2 id="prusik"><br />How to tie a prusik knot</h2> <p>A prusik is another type of friction knot typically used to grasp other ropes and it works best when the prusik rope is smaller diameter in diameter than the rope it is grasping. A prusik slides freely when unloaded but seizes up under weight to grasp whatever the prusik has been wrapped around. It’s a critical knot in almost any rescue situation but it’s also an ingenious way to hang up camp lights and to reposition or tension tarps. It is especially cool because you can use it in combination with any number of other knots and hitches to create compound systems for complex tasks. You need to know the fisherman’s knot to make a prusik. A carabiner comes in handy, too.</p> <ol> <li>Take your rope and make a loop out of it by tying a fisherman’s knot at both ends.</li> <li>Drape your loop of rope over the second rope and wrap one end of the loop around the rope and back up through the other half of your loop. Don’t pull it tight. This is called a half-hitch.</li> <li>Do the same thing again, making a half hitch within a half hitch. To do that, take the same end you were just using, wrap it around the rope again, and pass it back up through your loop.</li> <li>You should start to see circles of rope stacked up along the other rope. Make sure each of your wraps is stacked neatly and not crossed or bunched up. You want each wrap to be touching as much of the other rope as possible.</li> <li>You can stop here or you may need to make more wraps. A prusik that uses rope that’s much thinner than the standing rope will cinch up with fewer wraps than ropes with equal diameters, which may require many wraps to get enough friction to work. A standing rope that’s thinner than the prusik won’t work.</li> <li>Clip a carabiner to the loop in the prusik that dangles below your wraps. You can slide the prusik along the rope freely but as soon as you load the loop, the wraps will seize the rope and grasp it. Release the load and the prusik will move freely again. Ingenious, really.</li> </ol> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/travelsmarter/knots/prusik-knot.jpg" alt="A prusik knot." /> <figcaption>Prusik knot. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure>Getty Images / Maskot 1881186802 Getty Images A woman ties up a boat on the shore of a lake.

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/explore/north-america/united-states/3-of-the-best-food-trails-in-oregonShowcasing locally produced food, beer, and wine, these trails are ideal for replenishing after a hike or bike ride, or just for a fun, delicious day out.2022-04-28T10:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/explore/north-america/united-states/3-of-the-best-food-trails-in-oregonhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>It’s been a big day of play in the high Cascades of central Oregon and my friends and I are famished. For the past six hours or so we’ve been hiking around a dormant volcano called Black Crater that rises about 7,251ft (2,210m) over the charming town of Sisters, about 150mi (240km) southeast of Portland. More volcanoes rise around us, their piebald summits looking like half-melted scoops of ice cream. Within an hour, we’re back in town tearing into dinner.</p> <p>It’s easy to burn calories here in the Pacific Northwest, with so many paths to hike and trails to bike, but it’s also easy to replenish them with delicious meals that highlight Oregon’s culinary bounty. The soil under our feet bursts with wild mushrooms and edible greens such as oxalis and miner’s lettuce. You can find fresh steelhead caught in regional waters on brew-pub menus where the beers reek of local hops. One of the best pies in the world comes packed with marionberries, a type of blackberry “invented” here.</p> <p>It’s little wonder then that over the past few years Oregon has exploded with new “<a href="https://traveloregon.com/things-to-do/eat-drink/oregon-food-trails/">food trails</a>” that highlight chefs and shops dedicated to showcasing local ingredients. These aren’t actual footpaths but a series of stops on self-guided road-tripping (or cycling) routes where you can play hard in nature and then taste a chunk of it, too.</p> <p>You can find these all over the country. There’s the <a href="https://missouriwine.org/sites/default/files/Rhineland_Tour.pdf">Missouri Rhineland</a> with its focus on wine and German food, and the <a href="https://www.lacajunbayou.com/foodtrail">Cajun Bayou Food Trail</a> in Louisiana. One day, I’ll make it out to Pennsylvania for the <a href="https://www.visitcumberlandvalley.com/blog/post/cumberland-valleys-coffee-chocolate-trail/">Cumberland Valley Coffee and Chocolate Trail</a>. Each stop typically focuses on ingredients special to that area. Here in Oregon, we have the <a href="https://www.eugenecascadescoast.org/restaurants/tasting-trails/south-willamette-valley-food-trail/">South Willamette</a> (pronounced “will-AM-ette”) Valley Food Trail with its artisanal cocktails made with local honey and herbs, and the <a href="https://eastgorgefoodtrail.com/">East Gorge Food Trail</a> where cherries reign. The <a href="https://northcoastfoodtrail.com/">North Coast Food Trail</a> offers thick bowls of clam chowder.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/usa/oregon-food-trails/preserves-l-and-s-farm-and-garden.jpg" alt="Several shelves lined with homemade preserves at L & S Farm and Garden in central Oregon." /> <figcaption>Homemade pickles and preserves at L & S Farm and Garden in Prineville, Oregon, a stop on the High Desert Food Trail. Image credit: Amanda Photographic / L & S Farm and Garden</figcaption></figure> <p>“The bounty and the amount of the ingredients we have is so large,” says Jami Flatt, a chef at Amaterra, a new winery that opened in Portland this year with a farm-to-table-style restaurant. “And it’s all right in our backyard.”</p> <h2>High Desert Food Trail</h2> <p>One of the most recent additions to the state’s food trail scene loops within a few short miles of our hike off the eastern side of McKenzie Pass, down in Sisters, population 3,060, a town in the transition zone between the snowy mountains and the yawning deserts to the east. We pull up to a place called <a href="https://www.thebarninsisters.com/">The Barn</a>, where local food trucks park around a central common area with fire pits, a stage, and, yes, a barn, that serves beer from local breweries like <a href="https://www.threecreeksbrewing.com/">Three Creeks Brewing</a> just down the road.</p> <p>We find a table near one of the fires and order up a “red pie” from <a href="https://www.facebook.com/boonedogpizza/">Boone Dog Pizza</a>, one of the newer eateries on the food trail. The chef, Daniel St. Lawrence, had started a popular bakery in the mountain town of Bend about 21mi (34km) southeast of Sisters and turned to wood-fired pizzas as a literal platform for local ingredients. “Pizza is kind of the perfect marriage of seasonal, local food, veggies, grains, all on bread, which is my passion,” he tells me.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/usa/oregon-food-trails/boone-dog-pizza.jpg" alt="Wood-fired pizzas made from locally grown ingredients at Boone Dog Pizza in central Oregon." /> <figcaption>Two wood-fired pies from Boone Dog Pizza. Image credit: Amanda Photographic / Boone Dog Pizza</figcaption></figure> <p>The pizza comes with tomato sauce, Calabrian chiles, parmigiana, extra virgin olive oil, and sea salt, nearly all of it from farms located around the Pacific Northwest and Central Oregon. The meats, for example, come from an animal welfare-certified farm in Corvallis, a college town on the west slope of the Cascades.</p> <p>In all, the <a href="https://hdffa.org/portfolio-posts/hdft/">High Desert Food Trail </a>covers 42 stops from La Pine in the south to Madras in the north, a span of 72mi (116 km). You can paddle along Suttle Lake near Camp Sherman and then get huckleberry ice cream at <a href="https://thesuttlelodge.com/the-boathouse/">The Boathouse</a>. After <a href="/explore/north-america/united-states/4-of-the-best-places-for-mountain-biking#bend">mountain biking in Bend</a> you can swing by <a href="https://thealeapothecary.com/">The Ale Apothecary</a> for beers made with wild yeasts cultivated from the air around town. And up in Warm Springs, a community of Native Americans from the Warm Springs, Wasco, and Paiute tribes, you can raft through the volcanic canyons of the Deschutes River and then swing by the non-profit <a href="https://traveloregon.com/things-to-do/twisted-teepee-food-cart/">Twisted Teepee</a> for a bowl of traditional <em>lucka’meen</em>, a salmon stew. A message from the cook says it all: “Tribal food sovereignty at its finest.”</p> <h2>Wild Rivers Coast Food Trail</h2> <p>Other food trails around the state have caught my attention over the years, especially the ones that line the Oregon Coast. This western fringe of North America is by far one of the state’s biggest natural attractions, a 360mi (580km) stretch of beaches with towering dunes, bays lined with craggy sea stacks, and rocky reefs piled with sea lions. And every last inch of it is publicly owned. With a fat bike, you can ride for more than a hundred miles (160 km) on the sand – maybe even more if the tide is right.</p> <p>The community of Coos Bay, which is actually three towns about 210mi (340km) south of Portland, is easily my favorite for its awesome tide pools, surf fishing, expanding mountain bike scene, and <a href="/explore/north-america/united-states/where-to-hike-in-the-usa-year-round#march">hiking around state parks like Cape Arago</a>, a stop on the <a href="https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm?do=v.page&id=95">Oregon Coast Trail</a> (an actual trail). In the winter, the storm-watching at Shore Acres State Park will leave you breathless – but never hungry. Coos is a hub on <a href="https://www.wrcfoodtrail.com/">Wild River Coast Food Trail</a>, which, as you might expect, includes lots of delicious seafood.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/usa/oregon-food-trails/freshly-caught-dungeness-crab-coos-bay.jpg" alt="A net filled with freshly caught Dungeness crab in Coos Bay, Oregon." /> <figcaption>Freshly caught Dungeness crab in Coos Bay, Oregon. Photo credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p>The <a href="http://www.sharkbites.cafe/home">Shark Bites Cafe</a> in downtown Coos Bay sits across from one of the last Egyptian theaters in the United States but it’s the fish tacos that keep me coming back. You can get local oysters or a salad with Dungeness crab cakes. Farther south in Port Orford, where you can snorkel with the anemones and forage for edible seaweeds, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thenestcafe04/">The Nest Cafe</a> serves awesome berry smoothies. I’ve yet to try the “Oregon Burger,” a monster with Oregon bleu cheese and kale.</p> <p>All in all, there are more than 100 stops on this food trail — including places (ok, bogs) where you can get fresh cranberries – and I’m doing my best to hit them all. Mostly, though, I can never seem to pry myself away from the tide pools at Sunset Bay State Park, where I’ll gather my (legally permitted) limit of mussels and then roast them right there on the beach.</p> <h2>Hood River Fruit Loop</h2> <p>Most people know Hood River for one thing – wind – as this town in the Columbia River Gorge 67mi (108km) east of Portland is a paradise for <a href="/travel-insurance/activities/surfing">windsurfers and kite boarders</a> who come for the steady breezes. But in the spring, and particularly the fall, my family and I will make the trip up from our home in Bend to bask in the region’s other major attraction, fruit.</p> <p>The <a href="https://hoodriverfruitloop.com/">Hood River Fruit Loop</a> covers about 35mi (56km) of scenic byways that roll past nearly 15,000 acres of orchards and farms, and that you could easily bike. In the spring, those fruit trees turn on a spectacular show with delicate flowers that light up the valley under the watchful gaze of Oregon’s highest peak, Mount Hood, at 11,240ft (3,426m). You can ski up there, even in the summertime, but the hiking’s great too. The <a href="https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guide/Timberline_Trail_around_Mount_Hood_Hike">Timberline Trail</a> runs for 41mi (66km) around the entire peak. It’s best to start and end your hike at the classic Timberline Lodge, a sprawling historic hotel built in 1937 and featured in the opening scene of <em>The Shining</em>.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/usa/oregon-food-trails/lavender-farm-hood-river.jpg" alt="Lavender fields in Hood River, Oregon, with Mount Hood in the background." /> <figcaption>Lavender fields in Hood River, Oregon, with Mount Hood in the background. Image credit: Getty Images / Cindy Kassab</figcaption></figure> <p>But fall is our time to go and we home in on apples. The <a href="https://kiyokawafamilyorchards.com/">Kiyokawa Family Orchards</a> in Parkdale, a small farming community, is typically our first stop. The family has strong Japanese roots after the family’s patriarch emigrated to Oregon in 1905. I’ll put my daughter on my shoulders so she can grab the highest fruit. The Asian pears and Hokotui apples are always a hit.</p> <p>You can easily spend a weekend up here and next time we will. We’ll hit the <a href="https://foxtailcider.com/">Fox-Tail Cider and Distillery</a> and swing by <a href="http://www.hoperanchlavender.com/">Hope Ranch Lavender</a> for its fragrant bottles of massage oils. The wineries almost outnumber the farm stands, but I’ll save that trail for another time.</p>Tim Neville 0

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/travel-wiser/survival/travel-survival-skills-world-nomadsIf you're lost in the woods or wilderness, learning these expert skills could keep you alive until rescue comes.2022-02-22T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/travel-wiser/survival/travel-survival-skills-world-nomadshttps://www.worldnomads.com<ul> <li><a href="#fire"> How to start a fire</a></li> <li><a href="#shelter"> How to build a shelter </a></li> <li><a href="#cook"> How to cook what you catch </a></li> <li><a href="#carry"> What to carry with you</a> </li> </ul> <p><span>Maybe it’s the zombie apocalypse. Maybe you’re just curious about what it would take to <a href="https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/north-america/canada/canadas-brimming-adventure-buffet">survive</a> in the woods. If there were one person you’d want to help you with either, it’s Joel Van Der Loon, a South African-born master of bushcraft and former participant in the reality TV series <em>Alone</em>. The 36-year-old survival specialist, who learned his first skills from the Maasai as a boy, now lives in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, where he passes his knowledge on to others with <a href="http://bushsurvivaltraining.com">online courses</a>. Here he takes us through three key things you need to know to make it through your own worst-case scenario.</span></p> <h2 id="fire">How to start a fire</h2> <p>So much depends on a good fire, and not just for warmth. The flames keep predators away and kill parasites in water and meat. The smoke from burning lots of green leaves and pine boughs can also help you get rescued (if that’s your thing).</p> <p>You often need fire most when conditions are the worst, and if you haven’t tried rubbing sticks together in a non-survival situation — the <a href="https://youtu.be/m0bEoVhxFJ8"><span>friction fire method using a bow drill</span></a> — chances are good you’re going to burn precious calories trying and still end up cold.</p> <p><span>Instead, you need a fire-starting device, such as lighter or waterproof matches. “If I had to pick one way to make fire,” Van Der Loon says, “it would be with a </span>ferrocerium rod<span> and synthetic tinder.”</span></p> <p>“Ferro rods” are small metal rods that produce a shower of sparks as hot as 3,000 ºF / 1,650 ºC when struck with a striker or the back of a knife. The rods are indestructible, last for thousands of strikes, and can get wet and still work.</p> <p>First, gather up wood in a range of sizes for your fire – from small kindling up to larger diameter sticks and logs. You’ll also need dry tinder, such as a bunch of dead grasses, the layer of wood between the bark and a live tree, or enough very fine wood shavings from branches to fill your palm. Place the tinder on a flat rock. Cotton balls slathered in petroleum jelly are ideal since they’ll catch quickly and burn for several minutes once ignited. Make them at home before you are shipwrecked.</p> <p>To direct the sparks into your tinder, do the opposite of what you think you should do. Instead of holding the rod still and striking it with a striker or your knife, put the rod against the rock and into your tinder and hold the striker still as you pull the rod away. When you need a lot of sparks, hold the rod firmly against the rock in your tender and rub the striker back and forth to generate sparks on both the push and pull strokes.</p> <p>Once you have a flame, add your kindling in a teepee or asterisk shape, gradually adding bigger pieces of wood until you have an established fire. Using your knife to create fine, hair-like curlicues in the wood of larger sticks increases the surface area and will help them ignite.</p> <h2 id="shelter">How to build a shelter</h2> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/travelsmarter/shelter-building-new.jpg" alt="A man builds a makeshift shelter out of large sticks." /> <figcaption> Never make a shelter too big or it’ll be too hard to keep warm. Photo credit: Getty Images / Cristi Croitoru </figcaption></figure> <p>Van der Loon says the most critical consideration when building a shelter is the same as when buying a home: location, location, location. To avoid a mistake, “pay attention to the Ws,” he says.</p> <ul> <li><span><a href="/travel-safety/worldwide/bottled-vs-filtered-water">Water</a>: you want it to be close but not too close where, say, a flash flood might happen. And, by water, we mean fresh water.</span></li> <li><span>Wood: you need this nearby for building fires as well as your shelter.</span></li> <li><span>Widow-makers: these are dead or unhealthy trees that could fall on you during a windstorm. Stay away. </span></li> <li><span>Wind: find a spot that’s protected from it. </span></li> <li><span>Wigglies: as in insects. “You don’t want to be building your shelter on top of an ant nest,” he says. “Absolutely miserable.” </span></li> </ul> <p>In general, you want to build the smallest shelter possible, too. “A shelter works just like clothing,” he says. Make it too big and it’ll be too hard to keep it warm.</p> <p><span>A “debris hut,” also called an A-frame, is an ideal structure. It requires no tools and should you be unsuccessful at making a fire, it’s small enough to keep you warm(er), too.</span></p> <p><span>Start off by finding two Y-shaped branches that you can interlock to create an entrance that’s wider than your shoulders. Find another branch that’s longer than you are tall and strong. This will be your ridge pole that runs from the intersection of the interlocking Y branches to the ground to form a sloping tripod. You can raise the ridgepole slightly off the ground by placing it on another log.</span></p> <p><span>Before you enclose the sides, gather up pine needles, leaves, grasses, and anything you can find to create a nest inside at least three inches thick when you lay on it. This will insulate you from the earth. “Your body warmth will never warm up the ground,” Van der Loon says. “It’ll keep sucking your body heat from you.” </span></p> <p><span>Use sticks to form the ribs of your shelter, alternating their placements – left side, right side, left, right, etc. – keeping them as close as possible and at a 45-degree angle to the ridge pole to shed water. The tops should only extend a few inches above the ridge pole. Lay other sticks across the ribs in a cross-hatch pattern to fill as many gaps as you can.</span></p> <p><span>Gather up more grasses, leaves, pine needles, or whatever you can find to pile onto your stick structure to act as insulation. Add the layers from the bottom toward the top, making sure each layer overlaps the previous one. Finish the structure off with a layer of tree bark to help keep water out. Looking up from the inside, you should see no light coming through the roof. Ideally, you’d have a jacket or more grasses to help close off the doorway and seal in your heat.</span></p> <h2 id="cook">How to cook what you catch</h2> <p><a href="/explore/north-america/canada/iceberg-hunting">Hunting</a> and trapping are skills that take lots of practice and instruction – even with modern weapons and tools – and Van der Loon teaches students how to build snares and “deadfall traps” used by Native Americans. Hopefully, you have <a href="/stories/discovery/fishing-with-dolphins-in-laguna-brazil">fishing</a> lines and hooks because catching fish can be the easiest way to eat.</p> <p>But let’s assume you got yourself a ground squirrel. Now what?</p> <p>With any sort of ground rodent, fleas are a big concern. “They carry the plague,” Van der Loon notes. To save yourself that fate, however small, build a fire and singe all the fur off your critter, dispatching with the nasties in the process.</p> <p>How to skin:</p> <ul> <li><span>Take your knife and slice off the head and the feet. Claws and teeth aren’t edible</span></li> <li><span>Make a slice across the middle of the back of the animal, perpendicular to the spine – not along it</span></li> <li><span>Tuck a figure into each side of your slice so that one digit is facing the neck and the other facing the tail</span></li> <li><span>Work your fingers in there enough so that you can grab flaps of skin on either side of the incision</span></li> <li><span> Pull your left hand left, and your right hand right, and the skin should come off like a glove</span></li> <li><span>Once your animal is skinless, slice the belly open from throat to crotch and remove the guts</span></li> <li><span>Separate the stomach and intestines from the rest and inspect the liver. It shouldn’t have any discoloration or spots, which means the animal might be diseased</span></li> <li><span>Save the heart, the liver, the lungs, and the kidneys. That’s all good eatin’, with minerals and fat – the stuff that will keep you alive.</span></li> </ul> <p><span>To cook your quarry, you have two options: skewer the animal and roast it over the fire or boil it. Boiling is by far the better method, but it assumes you have a pot. Roasting allows precious fat to drip off into the fire whereas boiling preserves every last calorie and you can drink the broth, too.</span></p> <h2 id="carry">What to carry with you</h2> <p>So, now you know. But what would Van der Loon bring to make all of this <a href="https://www.worldnomads.com/travel-safety/worldwide/essential-hiking-safety-kit">much easier</a>?</p> <ul> <li><span>Ferro rod with cotton balls greased in petroleum jelly</span></li> <li><span>Knife</span></li> <li><a href="/travel-safety/worldwide/first-aid-kit">First aid kit</a></li> <li><span>Emergency space blanket</span></li> <li><span>Water purification tablets</span></li> <li><span>A signal mirror and a whistle</span></li> <li><span>Small flashlight</span></li> <li><span>High-calorie energy bar or a jar of peanut butter</span></li> <li><span>Fishing line and fishing hooks</span></li> <li><span>A container, such as a pot for boiling water and cooking.</span></li> </ul> <p><span>Good luck out there.</span></p>Getty Images/ Anton Petrus 1 Getty Images A campfire at night in the forest

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/travel-wiser/practical/campfire-story-tipsTim Neville asks storytelling experts how to keep your audience interested until the end.2022-01-27T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/travel-wiser/practical/campfire-story-tipshttps://www.worldnomads.com<ul> <li><a href="#thesetup"> The set up </a></li> <li><a href="#incident"> The inciting incident </a></li> <li><a href="#moving"> Keeping it moving</a></li> <li><a href="#details"> Remember your details </a></li> <li><a href="#conclusion"> A good conclusion</a></li> </ul> <p>For as long as we’ve had campfires<span>,</span> there have been people around them willing to <span>spin a tale</span>. But not all stories are equal, of course. While the flames can set the mood and attract a captive audience, a campfire offers no license to blather.</p> <p>“No one likes a blowhard,” shrugs <a href="https://singingcowboy.com"><span>Gary McMahan</span></a>, a celebrated cowboy poet who’s spun countless tales around campfires in the American West. “That's what you want to avoid.”</p> <p>So<span>,</span> what separates a great tale from a vomitus one? The tricks are <span>like</span> those used to write a great story but with a few key differences. Here, McMahan and Kymberlee Weil, a professional <span>storytelling </span>coach and founder of the <a href="http://www.storytellingschool.com"><span>Storytelling School</span></a>, offer up some tips on how to turn your own stories into campfire masterpieces.</p> <h2 id="thesetup">The set up</h2> <p>The<a href="/create/learn/travelstorytelling/travel-survival-skills-world-nomads"> fire’s</a> crackling. The dishes are <span>done,</span> and the conversation has found a natural lull. Here’s your shot, buckaroo. Time to tell a<a href="/create/learn"> story</a>.</p> <p>McMahan says you should introduce your story in a way that gets people’s attention right away. That helps shift the focus. “Your introduction should be brief and to the point,” he says, and it doesn’t necessarily even have to be <em>your </em>story you’re setting up. In fact, teasing a tale in a somewhat ambiguous manner can really perk up the ears.</p> <p>“Here’s a true story for you,” he says, offering an example of how he sets up one of his most popular tales. “Now, I didn't see this<span>,</span> but I heard about it for years, and I know the guy that did it, and I know his relatives who saw it.”<br /><br />A set-up like that creates some natural tension and within seconds he has primed your imagination before the story even starts.</p> <h2 id="incident">The inciting incident</h2> <p>You have about five minutes to tell your story before your audience starts to get annoyed. If they like what they hear, they’ll give you five more, and then maybe five more still, but you must earn each segment, McMahan says.</p> <p>Weil agrees. “We don't want to hear that huge, long story that your uncle might tell,” says Weil, who coaches TED Talk speakers, entrepreneurs looking for funding<span>,</span> and other leaders in need of “high-stakes” storytelling help. Instead, she says, start with a specific moment in time, the one that storytellers call the “inciting incident.”</p> <p>“If you think about any movie that you've seen, you are instantly taken into a world and pretty soon, something happens,” she says. A tornado whisks Dorothy to Oz. Army spies tell Indiana Jones the Nazis are close to finding the Ark of the Covenant. If you want to tell a story about the time you forgot your passport on an Indian train, don’t start with what you had for breakfast.</p> <p>“Start with what happened just before, and build out what happened from there,” Weil says. You panic, you gather your wits, and your quest to get yourself out of a pickle begins. Get to the good stuff fast, then slow down and explain what's at stake and how you feel about that. You want the audience to care about you.</p> <h2 id="moving">Keeping it moving</h2> <p>Conflict sits at the heart of all good storytelling as our innate thirst for closure pulls most stories along. One thing must lead to the next and the next, so skip the side stories</p> <p>The best tales often pile on multiple conflicts, a technique that Weil calls “double dipping.” If the embassy sets you up with a new passport quickly, that’s great but a mediocre story. But if the guard mistakes you for an outlaw and throws you in jail, the plot has really thickened.</p> <p>Not everything has to be super dramatic to make for a good yarn, though. McMahan turns simple events into captivating tales by triple or even quadruple dipping.</p> <p>That true story he said he didn’t see himself but had heard about it for years? It involved a cowboy who found a lost cat that curled up on the saddle with him for the ride back home. Then a dog wanted to chase the cat off that saddle. The cowboy threw his hat at the dog, but that exposed the cowboy’s bald head, which gave the cat a place to climb on to get away from the dog. That hurt, but the cowboy couldn’t do anything about it because the commotion spooked the horse that then threatened to buck him off.</p> <h2>Remember your details</h2> <p>As with any <a href="/stories">story</a>, you can keep your audience<span>’</span>s imaginations firing with strong details and verbs. McMahan didn’t just say “cat” but “tabby cat” and the dog didn’t “bark” but “snarled and snapped.”</p> <p>Weil says this is key. If you’re nervous, don’t<span> simply</span> say <span>that</span>. Instead, mention your sweaty hands and racing heart.</p> <p><span>“Your words need to elicit a feeling of w</span>onder<span>, of curiosity, of fear, of hope of, you know, anything,” she says. This is where pacing can help, too. If there’s a tense moment right before the embassy guard handcuffs you, use short sentences. He looks at me. I look at him. He makes a call. Three more guards show up.</span></p> <p>And use the present tense. “That makes your audience a character in the story with you,” she says.</p> <h2 id="conclusion">A good conclusion</h2> <p>“Coaches will tell athletes before a big game ‘We start strong; we finish strong,’” Weil says. “A strong ending is everything.”<br /><br />The classic storytelling formula says endings must resolve the conflicts and show the main character transformed by the journey. Campfire stories don’t need to be so mythic<span>al,</span> but a little reflecting can go a long way. Try circling back to your hook or something memorable that happened and play with it.</p> <p>To conclude the cowboy-cat story, McMahan wraps the tension up quickly and playfully. The horse bucks the cowboy with the cat on his head from the saddle, but then everything stops. The cat’s fine. The dog’s fine. The horse’s fine. Only the cowboy is bruised and bloody.</p> <p>The reflecting comes very subtly right before the end: The cowboy’s convinced the animals conspired against him “but the truth is he just got in nature’s way,” McMahan says. His last line uses a pun like a punchline to gracefully shut the door on the story: “Like I said, there are memories you never leave behind, like when that cowboy came up the road with a cat on his mind.” </p> <p>And remember, a good story told well can really tighten up your group. “We as humans think in story, we absorb story, and so we can use that power to connect to each other,” Weil says. “Storytelling is the fastest way to build trust, period.” </p>Getty Images/ Анна Андреева 0 A group gather around a campfire at sunset

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/explore/europe/switzerland/affordable-winter-adventuresJust outside the famous (and famously expensive) Swiss Alps ski resorts are a host of much more affordable and equally memorable adventures. Tim Neville shares his favorite winter experiences.2025-09-10T10:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/explore/europe/switzerland/affordable-winter-adventureshttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>Even if you’ve never been to Switzerland, chances are you know a few things about it. They make great chocolate and cheese. The Matterhorn is amazing. The place is super expensive.</p> <p>That last one isn’t a cliché – one winter I was having coffee with a friend on Zurich’s hoity-toity Bahnhofstrasse when I suddenly realized I might not be able to afford my espresso. I’d only brought 10 Swiss francs, about US $11 to me, and it was barely enough to cover the bill.</p> <p>Switzerland continues to be one of the world’s most expensive places to live. In Mercer’s 2024 Cost of Living City Ranking, four Swiss cities—Zurich, Geneva, Basel, and Bern—secure places in the global top 10, holding the 3rd through 6th spots among the world’s priciest destinations. But that doesn’t mean the impecunious can’t enjoy Swiss riches, too. Here are four of my favorite, cheaper alternatives to the splashier winter attractions that won’t leave you begging for your beverages.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#zermatt">Budget alternative to Zermatt </a></li> <li><a href="#grindelwald">Budget alternative to Grindelwald</a></li> <li><a href="#fondue">Sledding and fondue </a></li> <li><a href="#gstaad">Budget alternative to Gstaad</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="zermatt">Budget alternative to Zermatt</h2> <p>After high school, I took a gap year to live with a Swiss family outside of Geneva who would go to Zermatt every year to ski. When they took me along, I was predictably blown away. With its storybook village of snow-capped chalets, the tidy warrens of alleyways, and, of course, the Matterhorn looming over it all like a fang, Zermatt is world famous for a reason.</p> <p>There’s no way could I have afforded to repeat that trip on my own, so a few weeks later I went with a friend to Bettmeralp, a much lesser-known ski area that sits about 45 minutes from Zermatt on the northside of canton Valais. The area is a collection of ski areas – Riederalp, Bettmeralp and Fiesch Eggishorn – that together form the Aletsch Arena. The 23km/14mile-long Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps and a World Heritage Site, runs right behind the ridge. Like Zermatt, all three areas have car-free villages. Unlike Zermatt, you’re never below the tree line.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/switzerland/bettmeralp-tim-neville.jpg" alt="Skiers ride a T-bar at Bettmeralp, Switzerland." /> <figcaption> Skiers at Bettmeralp. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p>The <a href="/travel-insurance/activities/ski-snowboard-travel-insurance">skiing</a> here is spectacular, with panoramas of Switzerland’s 13,100ft (4,000m) mountains filling your goggles, including the Matterhorn. You can fly down wide-open faces and tool through villages on skis, stopping for fondue and coffee, before clicking back in and completing your run. From the top of the 9,603ft (2,927m) Eggishorn over the village of Fiescheralp, you can hike a short distance for unforgettable views of the Aletsch Glacier.</p> <p>Your money goes further here than Zermatt in just about every category (food, lodging, activities, etc.). You also can find a wide range of accommodations to suit most budgets.</p> <h2 id="grindelwald">Budget alternative to Grindelwald</h2> <p>Years after my exchange student days concluded, I moved my family back to Switzerland, where I worked as a journalist. Being based in Bern, the capital, meant we could easily take day trips to places such as Interlaken and Grindelwald. It didn’t take us long to discover a little secret – if you go one valley over, you can avoid the crowds and cut your expenses by a lot.</p> <p>Lauterbrunnental is a glacier-cut trough of earth dotted with villages squeezed by towering rock walls that weep with no fewer than 72 waterfalls. Seriously. The area is so fantastically gorgeous that <em>Lord of the Rings</em> author J.R.R. Tolkien modeled Rivendell after it. The poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, found inspiration there, too.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/switzerland/lauterbrunnen-marcobottigelli.jpg" alt="A man sits gazing at the Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen, set in a scenic valley." /> <figcaption>The impossibly scenic Lauterbrunnental. Image credit: Getty Images/MarcoBottigelli</figcaption></figure> <p>Sitting on the valley floor, the town of Lauterbrunnen doesn’t have the expansive mountain views that Grindelwald does, but instead sits below 974ft (297m) Staubbach Falls, a wonder in its own right. From the town you can catch a train up to Wengen, a ski village at 4,180 ft (1,274m) that links directly to Grindelwald to the north thanks to a gondola. You can also continue on the train all the way up to the Kleine Scheidegg, a pass at 6,762 ft (2,061m), for unparalleled views of the Eiger.</p> <p>The whole region is a winter paradise, with skiing and sledding and winter walks. We’d make a loop out of it, leaving Lauterbrunnen in the morning, skiing down to Grindelwald, and then taking the train back to Lauterbrunnen.</p> <p>You can find hotels close to the falls for under $300 USD/night.</p> <h2 id="fondue">Sledding and fondue</h2> <p>A few winters ago, a magazine editor sent me on a dream assignment: go to Switzerland, buy cheese, and learn how to make fondue from a Swiss master. Soon, I was running around western Switzerland, the French-speaking part, where I happened to stumble upon something totally unexpected – awesome sledding.</p> <p>There are literally dozens of mountain towns across the country where you can rent a wooden sled, ride a chairlift or cable car, and come zooming down the mountain just like in the ol’ timey times. You’ll find one of the longest sledding runs at Les Diablerets, where a trail slips for 4.2mi (7km) down the Meilleret ski area. Twenty minutes west, Leysin offers a full-on toboggan park with banked curves created anew each winter by a Swiss Olympian. If cross-country skiing is your thing, the Jura Mountains that border France have 600mi (1,000 km) of trails across 17 areas.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/switzerland/fondue.jpg" alt="A man twirls Swiss fondue on a long fork." /> <figcaption>Swiss Fondue – a meal worth trekking for. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p>But my favorite sledding experienced happened near a place I’d never heard of before: Les Paccots, a small mom-and-pop ski area (cheap!) near Châtel-Saint-Denis in canton Fribourg that a cheesemonger told me about in passing. This area of the country is littered with <em>buvettes</em>, or farming huts, high on alpine meadows that double as restaurants. The only way to reach them in winter is <a href="/travel-insurance/activities/hiking-travel-insurance">on foot</a>.</p> <p>Buvette Le Vipuy, which has since appeared on Google Maps, sits at 4,850ft (1,478m) and takes about an hour or so to reach from a parking area called Le Radsy, following a trail marked by signs in the shape of fondue pots. Once there, you can order a fondue and then bomb back down to the road on a sled they’ll rent you. Bring a headlamp and dress warmly!</p> <h2 id="gstaad">Budget alternative to Gstaad</h2> <p>If there’s a place tonier than Zermatt, it’s Gstaad, a picturesque little German-speaking village 50mi (80km) south of Bern that’s long been popular among the furred and the fabulous. Madonna and Anne Hathaway have partied there, as have countless other movie stars. And the prices reflect that. Three nights at The Alpina Gstaad could cost you nearly $10,000 USD!</p> <p>But literally 10 minutes west you enter another world, where the people speak French, the vibe’s deeply authentic, and the skiing and winter attractions are just as lovely – if not more so – but come at a fraction of the cost. Welcome to Rougemont, another of my favorite winter Swiss gems hidden in plain sight.</p> <p>The skiing here is wonderful, with a gondola that takes you up to La Videmanette at 7,060ft (2,151m) where you can make your way all the way over to Gstaad if you like. Cross-country ski trails line the valley floor and in January you’ll find Chateau d’Oeux (pronounced “day”) and the international hot air balloon festival, a short 4.6mi (7.5 km) to the west.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/switzerland/rougemont.jpg " alt="Snow falls in front of colorful chalets in the village of Rougemont, Switzerland." /> <figcaption>Rougemont – all the charm at a fraction of the cost. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p>Rougemont itself is super charming, with your classic smattering of chalets and churches, but look closely and you’ll notice delightful artwork hanging in windows made from intricate paper cut-outs. The artist Louis Saugy, born in 1871, hailed from here and his cutouts showcase the valley and culture. A self-guided, 1mi (1.5km) walking tour around the village takes you to his home, where Winston Churchill and the Spanish royal family came to watch him work.</p> <p>Rougemont has its own cheese, the lovely <em>tomme fleurette</em>, but my favorite cheese of all time would have to be L’Étivaz, from the town of L’Étivaz, 9mi (15km) southwest. Make a visit to the Maison de l’Etivaz to see the cellars where this cheese is aged after being made in copper vats from the milk of cows that graze on wildflowers at around 6,600ft (2,000m).</p>Getty Images / AscentXmedia 01311827460 Getty Images A man and woman ride toboggans down an alpine sledding run in Switzerland.

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/explore/europe/switzerland/3-epic-summer-adventures-in-switzerlandThe Swiss Alps may be famous for skiing, but it’s also a glorious summertime playground. Tim Neville shares his favorite places to swim, hike, and bike.2021-04-13T10:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/explore/europe/switzerland/3-epic-summer-adventures-in-switzerlandhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>If I could pick any place in the world to while away a warm, sunny day, it will almost always be Switzerland. Specifically, I’d be high on a fuzzy alpine meadow, snoozing in the lupine with legs heavy from the hike it took to get there. And then, I’d add in all the other places I’d go and all the other things I’d do on other days. With awesome water to float, huge mountains to wander, and more bike paths to ride than any country this size should rightfully have, Switzerland in the summertime is <em>mein</em> happy <em>platz</em>. Here are the highlights of my decades-long love affair.</p> <ul> <ul> <li><a href="#aare"> Swimming the Aare River in Bern</a></li> <li><a href="#hiking">Hiking the Abula Alps near St. Moritz</a></li> <li><a href="#biking">Biking the Alpine Panorama Route</a></li> </ul> </ul> <h2 id="aare">Swimming the Aare River in Bern</h2> <p>For a few years in the late aughts, I moved back to Switzerland for the second time – this time with my family – to Bern, Switzerland's de facto capital in the west-central part of the country, where I quickly discovered one of the greatest urban rituals anywhere.</p> <p>Summers there can get hot for Switzerland (32ºC / 90ºF) with a punishing sun that seems to gather off the buildings and the distant Alps to triple roast you alive. On real scorchers, hundreds of us working <em>volk</em> would make our way down the cobblestone streets to our salvation: the brawny River Aare that runs cool and green through the center of the city. It’s not famous like the Rhine or the Rhône, but the Aare belongs only to the Swiss, a 180mi (290km) tributary of the High Rhine that begins and ends entirely within the country. The slice that wraps around Bern may be its most beautiful, a horseshoe of fairy-green water cupping a UNESCO-listed warren of medieval streets and buildings with geraniums piped around the balconies. On some stretches you’ll see nothing but forest along the Aare’s banks. On others, you’re right under Parliament.</p> <p>On those days, I’d ride my bike down to the river and lash it to a low-slung footbridge called the Schönausteg that crosses the Aare near the zoo. I’d trade my sweaty work clothes for swimming shorts and fall in line with the bare-footed masses. We’d pad our way upstream along a sun-warmed footpath to a broad grassy park with big trees called Eichholz. There, I’d ease into the shoulders of the current, feel my skin clinch in the cold, and let the city scroll by with scores of other bobbing heads.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/switzerland/summer-river.jpg" alt="Swimmers float the River Aare in Bern, Switzerland." /> <figcaption>Swimmers float the River Aare under the Schönausteg bridge in Bern on a hot summer day. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p>The two-kilometer float down to a public swimming pool called the Marzilibad goes by fast, but it’s tiring, since you must tread water in a very stiff current that makes strong swimming skills a must. Still, there are no rapids like on the River Inn, in far eastern Switzerland, where I once bounced <a href="/travel-insurance/activities/kayaking-or-rafting">in a raft</a> through class III and IV waves pinched between rugged canyon walls. For no current at all, I’d go south to Lake Geneva, where pockets of stony beaches in places such as Lausanne and Geneva’s <em>Bains des Pâquis</em> twinkle in the sunlight under shimmering peaks and vineyards.</p> <p>But the Aare was always my warm-weather favorite. I’d check sites like <a href="https://aare.guru/#bern">aareguru.ch</a> for the water temperature and current (hilariously measured in glasses of beer flowing by per second). I’d float my way down to the Marzilibad, where some long steps with red handrails line the banks. I’d either grab one and get out, or, feeling lazy, I’d float a few feet farther to a concrete canal, specifically built for river swimmers, that feeds them from the Aare into the riverside pool without ever having to get out.</p> <p>Then I’d walk upstream and do it again.</p> <h2 id="hiking">Hiking the Abula Alps near St. Moritz</h2> <p>For about two and a half years, I worked as a journalist for a Swiss news agency in Bern, but still did freelance travel writing on the side. One summer, I got a request to head out to Sils Maria, a small town sandwiched in the Engadin Valley in far eastern Switzerland<span> </span>to check out a hulking, century-old hotel called the Waldhaus. It sits above the valley floor like a fortress and remains suitably opulent, but for my family and me, the real riches came with <a href="/travel-insurance/activities/hiking-travel-insurance">all the hiking</a> nearby.</p> <p>More than 360mi (580km) of trails wend around this valley, which is so picture-perfect it almost looks fake. It’s U-shape appears too U, the sky and the grass too saturated with color. Lakes dot the bottomlands like pearls in a necklace, while the Albula Alps scratch 13,200ft (4,023m) into the troposphere. To frolic among it all, there’s little need to sweat. Cable cars, chair lifts, and trains whisk you high into the alpine, where your legs can wander more easily through the best views.</p> <p>Our favorite hike was no secret, a 5mi (8km) one-way stroll high over the Val Bernina, a valley that crashes into the Engadin Valley from the south. Artist Giovanni Segantini would come up here to paint his 19<sup>th</sup>-century pastoral masterpieces. To get there, we took a funicular up to a highpoint called Muottas Muragl where there’s a restaurant serving schnapps and soups at about 8,000ft (2,438m). We didn’t stay, but instead, picked our way south along a rocky trail that hugged the contours of the open hillside to reach another hut, the Segantini. We took seats on the warm patio and drank cold beers while staring straight up the Roseg Valley across the way, which looks even faker, frankly. From there it’s only a few more clicks over to Alp Languard, where a cable car spares the knees from the long descent back to earth.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/switzerland/summer-mountain-hut.jpg" alt="Hikers enjoy a beer at the Segantini Hut while gazing up the Val Roseg near St. Moritz, Switzerland.." /> <figcaption>Taking a break at the Segantini Hut while gazing up the Val Roseg near St. Moritz. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p>In truth, you can’t go wrong picking almost any hike in Switzerland, and websites such as <a href="https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/">schweizmobil.ch</a> and <a href="https://map.wanderland.ch/">map.wanderland.ch</a> detail hundreds of routes in the country. Hikes above Wengen and along the north face of the Eiger (both in south-central Switzerland) will leave you gasping in awe. I’ve also wandered between small tasting rooms in the terraced vineyards of the Lavaux, alongside Lake Geneva. For the hard-core, there’s a new 140mi (225km) hut-to-hut route called the <a href="https://elevation.alpsinsight.com/via-valais/">Via Valais</a> that’s a favorite among trail runners, but no reason a hiker couldn’t tackle the shorter sections, too.</p> <p>I’d go back to that Segantini Hut in a flash, though. This time I might order some cheese and a heavy sausage, and maybe another beer, too, especially if taken on that sun-drenched deck. There’s a great meadow for snoozing it off, just around the bend.</p> <h2 id="biking">Biking the Alpine Panorama Route</h2> <p>The Swiss take <a href="https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/summer.html">alternative transportation</a> super seriously, and it reflects not just in the quality of their trains, but also in their bike paths, which often have their own traffic lights. You can rent bikes from train stations by the hour, including electric bikes. On weekends, I’d head out on my own bike for long rides around the Mittelland before loading the bike up onto the train for the easy way home. Then, one day, I discovered <a href="https://www.schweizmobil.ch/en/cycling-in-switzerland/route/etappe-0875.html">National Route. No. 4</a>.</p> <p>Also dubbed the Alpine Panorama Route, National Route No. 4 is one of nine official bike touring routes that crisscrosses Switzerland from border to border, while dozens of other regional routes flesh out a network that includes more than a whopping 5,000mi (8,045km) of dedicated paths.</p> <p>Even so, No. 4 stands out. It runs for almost 300mi (475km) from the village of St. Margrethen on Lake Constance in the northeast to the town of Aigle, near Lake Geneva, in the southwest, taking in some of the most dramatic scenery in Switzerland. You roll along country byways, through lonely larch forests and across pastures on paths much too narrow for cars, with immense views of high scrappy peaks at almost every turn. You pay for those views, of course, with 30,500-vertical-feet (9,300m) of climbing across the entire route, which you could do in about a week. The great thing is that if you get too tired, you can simply toss your bike into a public bus or train and zip ahead to the next segment.</p> <p>Of course, you’re never too far from a village with a pastry and a warm bed if you stick it out. The highlight for me was the 90mi (145km) stretch between Appenzell and Flüelen, which included a grind up the airy 6,390ft (1,948m) Klausenpass. I pedaled breathlessly under towering rock walls and up into a hanging valley lined with snow, stopping for a much-needed rest at the top. The ride down was one of the most exhilarating roller coasters ever, with sharp turns hugging sheer cliffs that encourage you to use your brakes.</p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/explore/switzerland/summer-village.jpg" alt="A cyclist pedals through the village of Linthal, Switzerland, on National Route No. 4." /> <figcaption>The calm before the pain: Chris Solomon rolling through the village of Linthal in canton Glarus before winding up the Klausen Pass, a spectacular mountain road with 136 curves and one of the highlights of cycling National Route No. 4, the Alpine Panorama Route. Image credit: Tim Neville</figcaption></figure> <p>Friends tell me about mountain biking in the Jura along the French border, like on the 22mi (35km) <a href="https://www.komoot.com/guide/34748/mtb-trails-in-the-jura-mountains">Flowiger Trail</a> or the entire <a href="https://bikepacking.com/routes/jura-traverse/">Jura Traverse</a>, a challenging 260mi (419km) route that follows the crest of the range. The <a href="https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/experiences/route/heart-route/">Heart Route</a> runs for 400mi (644km) through the middle of the country and is <a href="/explore/worldwide/our-best-hikes-and-cycling-routes">perfect for electric bikes</a>, with places to change and charge batteries along the way. But No. 4 kept calling me back.</p> <p>I split the ride over the Klausenpass into two days, and spent the night in Linthal, not far from where zealots executed Anna Göldi, “Europe’s last witch,” in 1782. Back down in Flüelen, I did what I always did at the end of a ride – eat 16 cheese pies and plot my next ride.</p>Tim Neville 0

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/5-tips-to-writing-a-winning-travel-storyIn this video, New York Times contributor and World Nomads scholarship mentor Tim Neville shares his expert advice for aspiring travel writers.2020-01-22T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/5-tips-to-writing-a-winning-travel-storyhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>Watch this video to get Tim Neville's advice on:</p> <ol> <li>Working out what you want to write about</li> <li>Finding a unique angle and drawing from your own experiences</li> <li>Honing your eye for detail</li> <li>Refining your pacing and tone</li> <li>Using every word wisely</li> </ol> <p>Follow these tips and you're already on your way to becoming a better storyteller.</p>Mackenzie Wilson 0

Songs That Connect Centuries | Georgia Travel Storyhttps://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/stories/connection/songs-that-connect-centuriesSongs That Connect Centuries | Georgia Travel StoryThu, 09 Jan 2020 01:12:37 GMThttps://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/stories/connection/songs-that-connect-centurieshttps://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/the-realities-freelance-writingTravel writing may sound like the dream job, but the business of freelancing also takes discipline and determination, advises New York Times writer Tim Neville.2019-12-31T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/the-realities-freelance-writinghttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>The first question people often want to ask travel writers is about the fun things they’ve been up to for work. The next question is generally how; how do you get so lucky to have a career like that? What does that path look like? </p> <ul> <li><a href="#free"> Free but not free </a></li> <li><a href="#easy"> Go easy </a></li> <li><a href="#job"> Get a job </a></li> <li><a href="#gauge"> Gauge your responsibilities </a></li> <li><a href="#stay"> Stay disciplined </a></li> <li><a href="#freelancing"> Freelancing 101 </a></li> <li><a href="#guide"> Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide </a></li> </ul> <h2 id="free">Free but not free</h2> <p>Luck is always welcome, of course, especially in a career like this. Jay Heinrichs, a longtime editor at <em>Outside</em> and the Rodale suite of magazines, once hosted a workshop in New Mexico with a group of aspiring writers who wanted to know the steps they needed to take to become <a href="/create/learn/writing/become-a-freelance-travel-writer" target="_blank" title="3 Ways to Become a Freelance Travel Writer">successful freelancers</a>. His answer was disheartening but true: there is no path.</p> <p>That’s precisely what makes deciding to embark on a freelance writing career such a big, scary step. While you can learn to write, you can’t really go to school to learn how to freelance, and, once you’re freelancing, you don’t get a paycheck based on the hours you work. The model is totally whacked. With freelancing, you’re trading stability for some freedom but you’re never really free. Writing is a business and that means working it and, ultimately, putting a lot of skin in the game.</p> <h2 id="easy">Go easy</h2> <p>Of all the ways to go down this no-one-path path, quitting your day job that keeps the family afloat to “give freelancing a whirl” is probably not the best way to do it. Neither is saving up a cushion of money to live off of while you try. With both, you’re exposing yourself to too much do-or-die risk that will potentially ruin your financial health at worst or leave you suffering through a lot of sleepless nights at best. Play it smart and ease into the game.</p> <p>That can mean a lot of different things but primarily it all boils down to having a steady income on the side that the freelancing work can supplement. Ideally, you want to <a href="/create/learn/writing/grow-your-travel-writing-income" target="_blank" title="How to Grow Your Travel Writing Income">build up your freelancing work</a> to the point where the real job has to go. It sounds easy and obvious until you try it. Having a “real” job naturally means having to stick to a schedule, which makes jetting off on assignments tricky. So start small. Pitch the service ideas and interviews you can do from home or be willing to take vacation time to work on your freelancing. Combining holiday time with freelancing can be ideal if your travel companions don’t mind you doing a little work along the way. Keep track of your receipts too. If you do end up selling a story, you may be able to write off part of the profit come tax time.</p> <h2 id="job">Get a job</h2> <p>Frankly, the best job to have when building up to a freelance <a href="/create/learn/writing">travel writing </a>career is one where you get to work with freelance travel writers. Interning at a magazine, a newspaper or a website, even at a brand or destination marketing organization that’s hungry for content, will let you see how the game is played from the inside. Any income helps so don’t feel like you have to embark on this massive career change overnight. Test the waters a bit first.</p> <h2 id="gauge">Gauge your responsibilities</h2> <p>There’s no getting around the fact that this all goes down a bit more easily when you’re young with fewer responsibilities. At 29, when I first started freelancing full-time, one $500 assignment from <em>Backpacker</em> meant I could pay rent, eat, and put gas in my car for the next month. My business met my needs, which grew, which meant the business had to grow, too. But if you start out when you’re older, and more settled in another career, don’t shut all the doors on your freelance dreams either. It just means you’ll have to plot your move methodically since chances are good you’ll be making less writing than what you’re making at your real job. If this is you, the best career may be the one that allows you some flexibility to freelance here and there but not full-time.</p> <h2 id="stay">Stay disciplined</h2> <p>No matter your approach, the pitfalls are real. It takes some real discipline to get enough assignments together each month to survive and even more discipline to manage your cash flow through the feast-or-famine nature of the beast. In the end, though, you should always be focused on improving your writing and that means writing a lot.</p> <p>Start a blog, write for a blog, fill up a journal if you must. Books like <em>Welcome to the Writer’s Life</em> by Paulette Perhach (Sasquatch Books, 2018), can offer great practical advice to keep the words coming. Without those, you’ve got nothing to sell.</p> <h2 id="freelancing">Freelancing 101</h2> <p>Freelancing can feel like you’re only as good as your last job, and in some ways you are. Don’t ever take any assignment for granted and always strive to be <a href="/create/learn/writing/how-to-work-with-an-editor-to-your-advantage" target="_blank" title="How to Work With an Editor to Your Advantage">easy to work with</a>: hit your deadlines, follow instructions and rewrite graciously. Editors won’t forget the time you bombed but they remember when you deliver, too. Keep the momentum going by pitching good ideas immediately after handing in good work.</p> <h2 id="guide">Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide</h2> <p><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide">Get your free guide</a></p> <figure><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide"><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/writing/writing-guide-content-widget.jpg" alt="Travel writing guide cover photo" /></a></figure>Getty Images / Westend61 11023296456 Getty Images

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/what-makes-a-good-travel-articleYou may think you have the greatest story idea ever, but chances are you’re going about it all wrong, says New York Times contributor Tim Neville.2019-12-30T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/what-makes-a-good-travel-articlehttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>Let’s say you’re traveling through Italy when you stumble upon the best bakery you’ve ever been to. The place is truly exceptional, not just for the flaky, unusual pastries on offer but for the baker himself. He’s a filmmaker working on a documentary about his family, who’s lived in the apartment upstairs for 150 years. Pretty cool, right? Good story. Meh. Maybe.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#Needs"> Needs vs wants </a></li> <li><a href="#Stepping"> Stepping stones </a></li> <li><a href="#real"> Getting real </a></li> <li><a href="#guide"> Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide </a></li> </ul> <h2 id="Needs">Needs vs wants</h2> <p>No doubt it’s intriguing. Almost as critical as knowing the elements that make for a good story, however, is knowing how an editor could use that story. Not all travel writing is the same, naturally, and neither are the needs of the publications that run it. Within each magazine, newspaper or even website, you’ll find different “departments” looking for different kinds of work. Your Italian baker filmmaker guy might be a 4,500-word profile or a 25-word hit in a breakout. It all depends on the idea, your experience and, above all, what the editor needs and when.</p> <h2 id="Stepping">Stepping stones</h2> <p>When most new writers talk about trying to break into a magazine, they mean into the “front of the book.” That’s the first few pages where the articles tend to be short and less about telling a story than sharing tips, news and reviews. When your article’s mission is to tell readers about “the best”, or to show them how to do something better – Portugal’s best fado joints; Stockholm’s coolest hostels; Things not to miss at Burning Man – editors call this service writing. The front of the book is filled with service writing, which makes it an easier place to break in.</p> <p>Assigning these shorter articles is far less risky for editors working with a new writer because if you really mess it up, they can just rewrite the 50 words and not miss any production deadlines. Blow a many-thousand-word feature, though, and you’re leaving the editor with a huge hole to fill. Longer essays might be the hardest to land and pitching ideas for those might be the only situation where I think sending in a draft with the pitch is probably the way to go.</p> <p>Fortunately, service ideas are needed everywhere, and publications of any format are constantly hungry for them, be it by pointing out a trend or digging around to find entertaining details. A new hotel opening up in your town might not be unusual or significant enough to warrant a story. But if three new sustainable lodges are opening up in a region known for excellent cross-country skiing, and winter is coming up, that could be good service.</p> <p>That’s not to say travel editors don’t think smaller, too. Sometimes they need snappy reviews and critical looks at a single newsworthy topic. Keep your eye on those “events” but always be looking to connect the dots. Trend stories tend to run longer since they require some set-up and examples and they serve as a great stepping stone to bigger pieces. With all of these, an editor is going to be looking for <a href="/create/learn/writing/importance-of-details" target="_blank" title="The Importance of Details in Travel Writing">details</a> that show you can report. Prove that, and you’ll be on your way to bigger, more complicated assignments.</p> <h2 id="real">Getting real</h2> <p>So, back to your Italian baker filmmaker guy. Of course, you could see this being a big story, right? But unless you’re 100 percent confident you have all the elements for a feature, the better play might be to <a href="/create/learn/writing/how-to-sell-your-story-idea-to-a-travel-editor" target="_blank" title="How to Sell Your Travel Story Idea to an Editor">pitch</a> it as service, especially if you’ve never worked with an editor before or have few clips. Pitch his story as a way to list the top five pastry festivals in Italy. Or do an interview with him and cast it as a Q&A. Rewriting the interview as an “as told to”, where it sounds like the baker is talking directly to readers, could work, too. It all depends. No matter which way you go, be sure to research the magazine or website so you have a good idea of the kinds of stories they run and, especially, how those stories are presented.</p> <p>This isn’t to say you can’t shoot for the stars and pitch the baker guy as a longer feature profile, and by all means keep thinking big like that. But a lot of writers do <a href="/create/learn/writing/grow-your-travel-writing-income" target="_blank" title="How to Grow Your Travel Writing Income">make good money</a> off writing almost entirely service. The format isn’t the big, glorious fun of a feature but it is fast and rewarding and requires enough skill that not just anyone can do it. Get it right, though, and it’ll kick start the cashflow and open doors to gigs that will take you on the road.</p> <h2 id="guide">Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide</h2> <p><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide">Get your free guide</a></p> <figure><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide"><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/writing/writing-guide-content-widget.jpg" alt="Travel writing guide cover photo" /></a></figure>Getty Images / Kaveh Kazemi 11094574704 Getty Images

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/wanderlust-to-fuel-future-of-travel-writingTravel writers have been inspiring us to journey to new and exciting destinations for centuries, and we're as hungry as ever to read about where we could go next ... and what to do when we get there.2019-12-30T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/wanderlust-to-fuel-future-of-travel-writinghttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>For as long as any human can recall, we’ve been curious about what lies around the bend. No matter the means or motivation, casting off to go answer that question might be the simplest definition of travel. The desire to explore tugs from within, and so does the need to talk about it.   </p> <ul> <li><a href="#Origins"> The origins of travel writing </a></li> <li><a href="#Exotic"> Exotic missives </a></li> <li><a href="#Golden"> Golden Era</a></li> <li><a href="#Narratives"> Narratives </a></li> <li><a href="#guide"> Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide </a></li> </ul> <h2 id="Origins">The origins of travel writing</h2> <p>In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t take us that long to figure out how to make money by giving ourselves what we wanted, and <a href="/create/learn/writing">travel writing</a> was born. The Greek geographer Pausanias in the 2nd century A.D. wandered around Greece marveling at the temples, art and customs and published a 10-part book series based on his travels. More than a thousand years later, an Italian romance writer named Rusticiano helped Marco Polo synthesize his 13th-century travels through Asia into four books. The travel genre morphed and stretched over the centuries but it’s all linked. Today’s travel writers all stand on yesterday’s giants.</p> <h2 id="exotic">Exotic missives</h2> <p>The earliest travel works were indeed books but the rise of the newspaper called for missives a reader could digest in a single sitting. At first, reviews of upcoming travel books filled out the travel sections, but soon correspondents, ex-pats, diplomats and merchants all sent letters about their adventures overseas to editors who eagerly ran this “exotic” content. An essay by Marius Warholm Haugen in <em>Traveling Chronicles</em>, a scholarly work published by Brill in 2018, notes how travel dispatches in newspapers of the mid-1700s “acquired one great part of their merit from being new.” That is very true today. <br /><br />The race to tap into this new kind of news was on and in the late 1700s, the <em>Gazette de France</em> created one of the earliest “live coverage” series of an expedition, though “live” was of course relative. Reporters sent back dispatches as a French naval officer and explorer named Jean-François de Galaup La Pérouse set out to repeat Cook’s circumnavigation of the earth. A high-seas adventure travel tale at its finest until La Pérouse and his crew went missing.  </p> <h2 id="Golden">Golden era</h2> <p>Travel writing in the 1800s begins to flourish, perhaps as a by-product of industrialization that generated wealth and leisure. A Londoner could hop on a train and be breathing the fresh mountain air around Chamonix in days instead of weeks thanks to the railroad. During this time, women like Ida Pfeiffer, the daughter of a wealthy Austrian businessman, took off to travel twice around the planet sailing oceans, trekking through jungles and climbing mountains and writing about her adventures for journals that became instant bestsellers in seven languages. <br /><br />Other aristocrats set off on the Grand Tour of the Middle East, sending back dispatches to newspapers that readers consumed gleefully. Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain, did such a tour aboard a ship called <i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Quaker City </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">and his articles later formed the backbone of what is arguably the first modern travel book in English,</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> The Innocents Abroad.</span></i></p> <h2 id="Narratives">Narratives</h2> <p>The New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s had a huge impact on how non-fiction <a href="https://www.worldnomads.com/stories">stories</a> work today, including travel stories. Instead of filing “just-the-facts” newspaper dispatches, writers like Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese applied techniques used in fiction to look for “truth”. They used their reporting to recreate characters, dialog and mood to build scenes. Non-fiction stories read more like novels.</p> <p>Narrative, long-form non-fiction makes for some of the most engaging travel writing today because it places a heavy emphasis on experience. Magazines, with their long production cycles, are the perfect place for developing rich travel content. But the demand for material of all kinds reaches into every nook and cranny of the travel writing world. That, in turn, has created the need for all manner of <a href="/create/learn/writing/make-the-most-of-your-time-on-the-road" target="_blank" title="On Assignment: Make the Most of Your Time on the Road">freelancers</a>. From local experts who can dish on their city’s best restaurants to people who specialize in ski resorts, writers can now build their own followings that exist outside of traditional channels. Writers now can be brands.</p> <p>Despite this, <a href="/create/learn/writing/the-dirty-subject-of-money" target="_blank" title="Travel Writing: The Dirty Subject of Money">the business of being a freelancer</a> hasn’t gotten cushy. Publishers who buy content still struggle with ways to monetize it. Magazines are cutting back on issues. Meanwhile, newspapers are increasingly turning back to foreign correspondents for travel stories slipped between their news reports.</p> <p>Even so, our curiosity about the world remains too great, our need for a story ever unyielding. In that way, the future of <a href="/create/learn/writing/become-a-freelance-travel-writer" target="_blank" title="3 Ways to Become a Freelance Travel Writer">travel writing</a> is as certain as it ever was. There will always be another bend.</p> <h3>5 modern travel books worth a read</h3> <ul> <li><em>Video Night in Kathmandu </em>by Pico Iyer. A meticulously reported book that uses travel to explore how American culture has influenced societies abroad.</li> <li><em>The Places in Between</em> by Rory Stewart. A nearly unbelievable tale of how travel and curiosity can disarm even avowed enemies.</li> <li><em>Jaguars Ripped My Flesh </em>by <strong><span style="font-weight: 400;">Tim Cahill<i>. </i></span></strong>A collection of travel essays pulled from the author’s magazine work that helped broaden the reach of the modern adventure tale.</li> <li><em>Balkan Ghosts</em> by Robert D. Kaplan. A moody, dense read that uses travel to frame a big, ambitious question about Balkan identity.</li> <li><em>Into the Heart of Borneo</em> by Redmond O’Hanlan. Eurocentric, yes, but also a riot on every page.</li> </ul>Getty Images / Sasipa Muennuch 1539288446 Getty Images

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/the-dirty-subject-of-moneyNavigate travel writing earnings and expenses with the expert guidance of New York Times contributor Tim Neville.2019-12-27T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/the-dirty-subject-of-moneyhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>At some point in the <a href="/create/learn/writing/how-to-sell-your-story-idea-to-a-travel-editor" target="_blank" title="How to Sell Your Story Idea to a Travel Editor">pitching process</a>, if all goes well, your assigning editor is going to bring up the question of payment.</p> <p>When you’re starting out and need to publish your work, some websites may run your copy “in exchange for exposure”. This is great if you’re an #influencer or <a href="/create/learn/writing/travel-writing-tips-how-to-monetize-your-blog">blogger</a> whose income relates directly to any traffic that this exposure might boost to your own site, but for writers who need to get paid, this is disastrous. You can’t pay your bills with a URL. Even if you don’t need money, please insist on getting paid or just go travel and forget writing altogether. The craft, your time – and the time of every other writer trying to make a go of it – is worth something.  </p> <ul> <li><a href="#rates"> Negotiating rates </a></li> <li><a href="#earnings"> Earnings vs. expenses </a></li> <li><a href="#press"> Press trips </a></li> <li><a href="#costs"> Covering your costs </a></li> <li><a href="#falls"> When a job falls apart</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="rates">Negotiating rates</h2> <p>Each publication sets its own rates, with national print magazines generally paying much more than websites, even if those websites are for national magazines. For print in North America, editors typically pay by the word but it’s really a flat rate. “400 words at $1 a word” means “$400 for a story that’s right around 400 words.” Websites generally work with flat rates. In every situation, you should always ask for a contract and understand the rights you’re selling, exactly.  </p> <h2 id="earnings">Earnings vs. expenses</h2> <p>If you’re lucky and your career takes off, your editor, upon considering a pitch, will ask for a budget breakdown – X for flights, Y for hotels, Z for food. An expense account is really just an agreement for a publication to reimburse you retroactively up to a certain amount for out-of-pocket spending incurred doing the job. I try to put everything for an assignment on a credit card that earns me frequent flyer miles.  </p> <p>The unfortunate truth is that many publications simply don’t have expense money for you at all. If that’s the case, you’ll have to do some math to figure out how much you stand to lose (or earn). At first, taking a hit will just be part of breaking in but the idea is to make a profit quickly.</p> <p>If your story does require some travel, ask your editor right away about how to cover those costs. Usually, you’ll have to pay for everything yourself but sometimes you may get a little extra to cover meals or other expenses. Media outlets generally include the maximum amount in their contracts and spell out what you need to do to get reimbursed. Typically this means you’ll pay for everything upfront, submit a report on it, and then they’ll pay you back. Getting an “advance” isn’t very common so be sure to save your receipts.</p> <p>If you’re pitching a story about something you’ve already done, it’s generally poor form to ask for retroactive reimbursement. But do keep track of how many nights you’re out of the country, where, and what you spend on lodging and transportation, no matter what. That data may help limit what you owe come tax time. In the US, reimbursed expenses to a freelance writer technically counts as income, so offsetting that with what you spent is critical.  </p> <h2 id="press">Press trips</h2> <p>The most common trick for keeping expenses down is also ethically the ickiest. Travel professionals know that having their hotel, their beach, and their country covered by a real writer on assignment is the kind of marketing that money cannot buy. They call this “earned media” and it’s highly coveted. The bang for the buck is so great, in fact, that often it’s in a marketing department’s best interest to just cover all of your expenses for you. Free flights! Free five-star hotel! Free gourmet meals!</p> <p>No doubt that sounds dreamy and plenty of <a href="/create/learn/writing">travel writers</a> need these “press trips” or “fam trips” (short for “familiarization”) to make their careers work. Public relations agencies and tourism boards find writers and influencers to invite on trips simply by monitoring the media to see who’s writing or posting about what. Many publications rely on press trips, too, since they may have legitimate reasons for covering a place, but no budget to send a writer.</p> <p>If a magazine wants your story but can’t pay your expenses, you first need to know its policy on writers accepting “assistance” from people who stand to benefit from any article. If it’s no issue, then it might be worth getting a “letter of assignment” from your editor to present to those tourism boards or PR firms when asking for help.  </p> <p>Often, though, it is an issue. Press trips can be win-win situations but they come with one major caveat: many of the most respected publications out there have a problem with <a href="/create/learn/writing/the-realities-freelance-writing">writers</a> accepting freebies. It calls into question the publication’s independence and authority if businesses and people who stand to benefit from coverage are allowed to give a writer perks, that no anonymous paying guest might get. Fortunately, publications with strict no-free-stuff policies generally offer decent expense accounts. </p> <h2 id="costs">Covering your costs</h2> <p>In worst-case scenarios, a publication <a href="/create/learn/writing/what-editors-are-really-looking-for" target="_blank" title="What Editors Are Really Looking For">wants your story</a> but has no money for expenses and has a policy against accepting freebies. In cases like those you basically have a choice: do the story on your own (you’re going there anyway!) and hope the fee gets you closer to breaking even, or try to find several stories to do while you’re there. The latter is obviously better.  </p> <p>If you can line up three assignments in, say, France, then you have drastically tilted the expenses-to-income scale toward income. Even better, you also now have a shot at getting at least some things covered. It’s easier to eke $200 in expenses out of an editor by saying you’ll be in France anyway than to request $2,000 for everything including international flights. </p> <h2 id="falls">When a job falls apart</h2> <p>It happens. For whatever reason, an assigned article never runs. Editors kill or “spike” finished work as a last resort, usually because something drastic has changed that undercuts the article’s appeal. Maybe a natural disaster has struck or, gulp, maybe, after multiple tries, the writer just couldn’t produce what the editor needed. Often when things fall apart writers who have already filed a draft can ask to be paid a kill fee. Rates vary but around 25 percent of the full fee seems about right. From there, it’s like a divorce and the writer can try to sell the same article elsewhere. Contracts usually spell out the specifics; be sure to read them carefully or ask to have the terms included. </p> <h2 id="guide"></h2> <figure></figure>Getty Images / Suhaimi Abdullah 1511282032 Getty Images

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/what-editors-are-really-looking-forFreelance travel writing is a whole lot easier when you can pitch and deliver articles editors actually want, advises NY Times writer Tim Neville.2019-12-24T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/what-editors-are-really-looking-forhttps://www.worldnomads.com<div class="scholarships-assignment-intro segment-margin-break"> <p>Knowing what to pitch, how, and when is key to your success. Let’s say you’re traveling through Italy when you stumble upon the best bakery you’ve ever been to. The place is truly exceptional, not just for the flaky, unusual pastries on offer but for the baker himself. He’s a filmmaker working on a documentary about his family, who’s lived in the apartment upstairs for 150 years. Pretty cool, right? Good story. But is this really what an editor is looking for?</p> <ul> <li><a href="#fresh"> Fresh content </a></li> <li><a href="#ideas"> Developing ideas </a></li> <li><a href="#layers"> Adding layers </a></li> <li><a href="#finished"> From first draft to finished </a></li> <li><a href="#guide"> Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide </a></li> </ul> <h2 id="fresh">Fresh content</h2> <p>Many new travel writers make the mistake of confusing an idea with a story. Knowing that distinction will mean the difference between a $50 hit, if anything at all, and a $1,500 feature. We see this mix-up play out all the time in the essays for the <a href="https://www.worldnomads.com/create/scholarships/" target="_blank" title="World Nomads Creative Travel Scholarships">Travel Writing Scholarship</a> program. The writer meets someone, they go somewhere, they do something but then that’s it. The piece ends up feeling more like a personal diary entry than sellable travel writing.</p> <p>Make no mistake. That’s really what you’re going for here. To make a living writing you need to sell the <a href="https://www.worldnomads.com/create/learn/writing/ingredients-of-a-great-travel-story" target="_blank" title="The Ingredients of a Great Travel Story">stories that editors want</a>, plain and simple, and that means knowing how to think like they do. This does not mean you should pitch “click bait” but rather stories with “purpose<span>”</span>.</p> <p>Almost every magazine, newspaper and website that publishes travel stories exists for one reason and that is to keep an audience. They do that by informing or entertaining and no publication can do either with stale, boring material. It sounds obvious but editors need fresh content.  </p> <h2 id="ideas">Developing ideas</h2> <p>The baker guy idea may or may not achieve that purpose. He may never have been <a href="/create/learn/writing/5-tips-to-writing-a-winning-travel-story">written</a> about before in any other outlet, but the story itself – a multi-talented person doing multiple cool things – isn’t super compelling on its own. But if what he’s doing is new, includes a superlative in some way, or has some timely aspect, then maybe you have a shot at taking it beyond just an idea.</p> <p>In short, ideas are topics you find interesting or fun that don’t really go beyond a simple statement. “Food” is an idea. “Running with the bulls” is an idea. “I want to go to <a href="/explore/guides/india-insiders-guide">India</a>” is also just an idea. You will never sell ideas. Stories in their truest sense go beyond this to introduce quests and conflicts and characters, but even smaller service pieces must go further. As Aaron Sorkin, the Hollywood screenwriter puts it, you don’t have a story until you can lay out your idea and then say “but” or “and then<span>”</span>. This applies to simple service pieces, too</p> </div> <h2 id="layers">Adding layers</h2> <p>To sell articles as a complete beginner, you may first want to look for your “buts” and “and thens” in service ideas that involve the freshest of fresh content: things or events that are new. But don’t stop there. Think: what does this new thing happening really do? Does it grant better access to a place? And beyond just “new”, can I add a superlative (best, least, only) or a time hook (why should we write about this now)? </p> <p>For example, a new hotel is an idea. A new hotel opening up in March adds a time layer. A new hotel in March in one of the best stretches of the North American coast to watch whales adds a superlative. Six new hotels opening up<span> in March in some of the best areas around the world to watch big mammals migrate gives your idea a bigger, more global appeal. That’s the story you should pitch. You may only come across one of those hotels at first but go after the bigger sell by finding more examples that would appeal to a publication’s audience. </span></p> <p>Baker guy begins to go from idea to story, but it needs that extra layer of complexity to push it over the edge. It could be part of a simple service piece on the best bakeries in Rome if you can pack enough superlatives and timeliness around it. To be a bigger feature story, like the one you’re probably hoping to do, you’d need to look for those elements, too, but then you’d add in a bigger picture that gives the story a meatier feel. Pitch an editor a story about how in Italy bakeries are disappearing at an alarming rate and how there’s this one guy out there trying to save the industry and you’re already thinking like a pro. </p> <p>Be nimble and willing to recast your ideas into the form that works. And remember, if a hotel is opening in March, magazines will want to hear about it no later than October or November. Websites, of course, don’t require such big lead times but get it on their radar early. </p> <h2 id="finished">From first draft to finished</h2> <p>Rewriting is part of the process. Think for a moment about those big, narrative travel articles you see in glossy magazines or on the cover of the travel section in a national newspaper. It’s possible, but doubtful, that those finished versions look exactly like the version the writer sent in.</p> <p>Commonly, <a href="https://www.worldnomads.com/create/learn/travel-writing/pitching-for-online" target="_blank" title="How to Work With an Editor to Your Advantage">editors</a> take a writer’s draft, read it over and over and then go back asking for new details. They’ll cut certain scenes and ask you to add others, all while minding your word count. The rewriting process can feel like a blow to your ego but it’s not. This is where an article goes from passable to award-winning. It’s where you go from a smart amateur to a real pro.</p> <p>Publications with fast turnaround times, like websites and newspapers, may not have the staff to work one-on-one with you on your precious article but you should still always ask to see the edit before it goes live or to press.</p> <p>Have your fact-check report ready to go and plug in any changes. Making a stink over what stays in and what your editor says should go is risky but discussing it isn’t. Normally you won’t be asked to do more than one major rewrite, though it does happen. Take the task seriously. If an editor can’t get your story into shape, she might just kill it.</p> <h2 id="guide">Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide</h2> <p><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide">Get your free guide</a></p> <figure><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide"><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/writing/writing-guide-content-widget.jpg" alt="Travel writing guide cover photo" /></a></figure>Getty Images / Yifan Li / EyeEm 11049497556 Getty Images Man with binoculars in mountains at sunset

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/make-the-most-of-your-time-on-the-roadIt's not all fun and freebies. Working hard during a travel writing trip is essential for professionals wanting their stories to stand out.2019-12-16T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/make-the-most-of-your-time-on-the-roadhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>You’re not traveling now – you’re working – so make the most of it.</p> <p>No matter how many assignments I zip off on, I’m always anxious and a little overwhelmed during those first few days. It all feels so daunting. One of the biggest mistakes I see aspiring travel writers make is failing to respect the work. They don’t ask questions. They don’t get names. They don’t take any notes whatsoever.</p> <p>If you’re doing it right, an assignment can be fun but exhausting. As Tracy Ross, an award-winning national magazine writer, puts it (only half-jokingly): “Unless you are feeling depressed about your reporting the entire time you're on a story, you're not getting it.”</p> <p>Here, some tips for doing a professional job that will get you the best shot landing another job.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#preparations"> Pre-trip preparations </a></li> <li><a href="#fix"> To fix or no? </a></li> <li><a href="#packing"> Packing essentials </a></li> <li><a href="#guide"> Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide </a></li> </ul> <h2 id="preparations">Pre-trip preparations</h2> <p>The work begins before you even go with some pre-trip research. If you did your <a href="/create/learn/writing/how-to-sell-your-story-idea-to-a-travel-editor" target="_blank" title="How to Sell Your Story to a Travel Editor">pitch</a> correctly, you’ve already made some good contacts and have some good facts at your fingertips. Now is the time to dig in.</p> <ul> <li>Read more about the place you’re going and not just from guide books. Find a great novel about Istanbul? Try to interview the author.</li> <li>Set up a Google alert with keywords relevant to your story to keep abreast of what’s happening</li> <li>Get a map, a real one, and trace your finger around your route, looking for mountains, rivers and bays with fun names that might come in handy later.</li> <li>Study the culture. Is the place famous for any poets, artists or musicians? Find their work and mine it for any good quotes.</li> </ul> <h2 id="fix">To fix or no?</h2> <p>For complicated articles with language barriers or in places where you simply can’t waste a moment figuring out the local bus system, it may be worth your while to hire a “fixer". These are folks who act as translators and quasi-guides who can help you work more efficiently. Assignments to <a href="/explore/guides/china-travel-safety-guide" target="_blank" title="China: The Travel Safety Guide">China</a> almost always involve my hiring a fixer. Typically, you can find a college student or ask one of your local contacts for help finding someone. Rates vary of course. Visitor information areas often have a list of local guides who would be thrilled to take on a client doing interesting work instead of just another tourist.</p> <h2 id="packing">Packing essentials</h2> <p>I try to travel with only carry-on if I can to avoid waiting for lost luggage. I love Eagle Creek’s Pack-It system for condensing soft goods like clothes and organizing chargers, adapters and batteries. Cotopaxi makes a great day pack that stuffs into its own sack. If you have a lot of electronic equipment, consider bringing along a power strip with multiple ports that can handle enough volts from the destination sockets to charge many things at once.</p> <h3>Must-pack items</h3> <ul> <li>Notebook: the paper kind because you should try to take real notes with real pens that capture your thoughts as well as the facts. I like smaller Moleskine knock-offs that fit in my pocket and include a paper pouch in the back for stashing business cards. I give each notebook a name and take a picture of it that I stash in a digital file so I can remember months afterward what assignment went in which notebook.</li> <li>Digital voice recorder: I'm a fan of the Sony UX560 (about $100) for doing more serious interviews or for times when taking notes isn’t easy (like when riding in a bumpy jeep). I upload interviews to Temi.com, which charges $0.10 a minute for transcriptions that come back in minutes with time stamps. I use the Olympus TP-8 telephone pick-up microphone (about $20) for recording calls. (Local laws vary on the legality of this, so know them!)</li> <li>Camera. Fortunately most of the outlets I work for hire professionals to take photos or use stock images from an agency. I do take lots of pictures though. An editor might need a shot of something specifically mentioned or a library may ask me to give a talk. I like micro 4/3 cameras and GoPros for shooting wide-angle stills around water. Otherwise, I use my <a href="/create/learn/photography/the-ultimate-mobile-phone-photography-guide" target="_blank" title="Ultimate Mobile Phone Photography Guide">smart phone's camera</a> like a notebook, snapping pictures of menus and people so I can remember them later.</li> <li>Laptop: I bought the smallest, lightest, least fancy MacBook Air for taking on trips, and I often leave it at home.</li> <li>Apps like Evernote help me keep everything in one place: text files, pictures of menus and signs, web clippings, business cards, my flights, contracts, everything. This becomes super useful during fact check. I download Google maps of the area I’ll be visiting before going.</li> <li>Expense tracking apps. I like the free version of Expensify for tracking what I spend on the assignment.</li> </ul> <h2 id="guide">Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide</h2> <p><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide">Get your free guide</a></p> <figure><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/writing/writing-guide-content-widget.jpg" alt="Travel writing guide cover photo" /></figure>Getty Images/electravk 1 949100582 Getty Images Man writing in notebook in Japan

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/how-to-work-with-an-editor-to-your-advantagePut your ego aside and deliver the travel story an editor wants – your career may well depend on it, says NY Times writer Tim Neville.2019-12-16T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/how-to-work-with-an-editor-to-your-advantagehttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>You’re not in charge, editors are, so do what they ask if you want your travel writing career to take off.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#give"> Give and take </a></li> <li><a href="#rookie"> Rookie move </a></li> <li><a href="#aim"> Aim to please </a></li> <li><a href="#listen"> Listen to Tim</a></li> <li><a href="#guide"> Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide </a></li> </ul> <h2 id="give">Give and take</h2> <p>At some point, if you haven’t already, you’re going to work with an editor. Their job is to <a href="/create/learn/writing/ingredients-of-a-great-travel-story" target="_blank" title="Ingredients of a great travel story">make your story the best it can be</a> within the space and angle they’ve given it. At the big magazines, you might report back after the trip to lay out how you think the story could go before you even begin writing. Otherwise, you jump in and file a draft.</p> <p>The editor reads it and then sends you some critiques in a rewrite memo. Maybe you just need to add a paragraph here and there or tighten this or that. Or maybe your structure isn’t working at all and you should rewrite the whole thing.</p> <p>For new writers, this process of working with an editor can be exhilarating or frustrating. A good editor will guide you through the rewrite like a director, prodding you into new material but stepping back to let you do your thing. It’s OK to go back and forth but, in the end, the editor has the final say. Learn to pick your battles.</p> <h2 id="rookie">Rookie move</h2> <p>That’s easier said than done. I’d worked with editors at a couple of newspapers before I began my internship at <em>Outside</em>, but that didn’t stop me from making a total rookie move with an editor there that could have ended my career before it even took off.</p> <p>The travel editor took a <a href="/create/learn/writing/how-to-sell-your-story-idea-to-a-travel-editor" target="_blank" title="How to sell your story">pitch</a> I’d sent her, about kayaking around the deserted islands of America’s Chesapeake Bay, and gave me 1,000 words for it.  I got so far ahead of myself thinking about my national narrative debut that I didn’t think hard enough about the work. The article I filed was a story.</p> <p>The editor didn’t hate it, but she didn’t love it, either. The bigger problem was worse. It wasn’t what she needed.</p> <h2 id="aim">Aim to please</h2> <p>Instead of a story – with characters and dialog – she wanted me to <a href="/create/learn/writing/interview-with-travel-writer-julian-hoffman" target="_blank" title="Travel writing interview">introduce readers to the area</a>, tell them where to paddle and what to eat. She didn’t need a narrative, she needed service.</p> <p>Crestfallen, I rewrote the piece, sulked a bit, and learned a valuable lesson. She was right. The piece was better like that, even if it wasn’t the one I wanted to write. I quickly learned to leave my ego at the door.</p> <h2 id="listen">Listen to Tim Neville</h2> <p>Tim talks about what he thinks makes good travel writing in this episode of The World Nomads Travel Podcast in which we announced the winner of the 2019 travel writing scholarship.</p> <iframe width="100%" height="190" src="https://webplayer.whooshkaa.com/episode/365444?theme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay"></iframe> <p></p> <h2 id="guide">Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide</h2> <p><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide">Get your free guide</a></p> <figure><a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide" target="_blank" title="Download the guide"><img src="https://media.worldnomads.com/learn/writing/writing-guide-content-widget.jpg" alt="Travel writing guide cover photo" /></a></figure>Getty Images/coastalpics 1466106102 Getty Images Kayaking on a Quiet Cove on the Chesapeake Bay

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/how-to-sell-your-story-idea-to-a-travel-editorPitch your idea to an editor and lock in a travel writing commission with a little help from our expert, New York Times writer Tim Neville.2019-12-13T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/how-to-sell-your-story-idea-to-a-travel-editorhttps://www.worldnomads.com<p>One of the biggest questions people ask about travel writing has to do with the order of things. Do you go on a trip first and then sell the article or do you get an assignment to go first?</p> <p>For years, I believed you should pitch an idea and let an editor tell you how many words he or she wanted. Why write 2,000 words on a sailing trip in advance when an editor might want 400 words on “how the sea changed your life”? But other writers I know say it was only by sending in a completed piece they got published in the first place. Try both. Try to get an assignment so you can work efficiently and, ideally, with an expense account. No bites? Try sending in a completed draft.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#split"> Split it into three </a></li> <li><a href="#hook"> What's your hook? </a></li> <li><a href="#plan"> What's your plan? </a></li> <li><a href="#sell"> Sell yourself </a></li> <li><a href="#person"> Find the right person to pitch to </a></li> <li><a href="#listen"> Listen to Tim</a></li> <li><a href="#guide"> Download our How to Make a Living as a Travel Writer guide </a></li> </ul> <h2 id="split">Split it into three</h2> <p>Almost every <a href="/create/learn/travel-writing/pitching-for-online">article</a> that gets assigned has a reason or “hook” that makes the subject relevant now. The bigger features will also have at least one dynamic character on a “quest", which could be you. The setting needs to be intriguing or superlative in some way. Your pitch needs to capture all of this. Remember, sell your idea, not your voice, so really flex those literary muscles later.</p> <p>Think of a pitch in three main parts: the idea itself, how you’ll do it, and who you are. You want to do all of this in about 700 words or so. Longer articles need longer pitches, of course, but in general, keeping it short increases your chances of getting it read.</p> <h2 id="hook">What's your hook?</h2> <p>For the idea itself, trot out any superlatives and your hook. “In July, the largest gathering of hobo-style train-riding fans in the world kicks off, complete with one-can-meal cook-offs and boxcar bars.” Perhaps you want to backpack through the second-most glaciated peaks in <a href="/travel-insurance/destinations/europe">Europe</a> after the Alps. In any case, your hook needs to be crystal clear. Of all the stories in the universe, why should we do this one now? Hint: it’s new, it’s changing, it’s the biggest/smallest/loudest/least known.</p> <h2 id="plan">What's your plan?</h2> <p>How will you report the article? If you’re pitching, say, 10 foods to try in Philadelphia, mention some of your sources. If it’s a narrative, spell out your “mission”: I’ll hike for a week through the mountains, crossing alpine passes and camping in valleys, maybe learning how to make stinky cheese along the way.</p> <h2 id="sell">Sell yourself</h2> <p>Who are you? (The bringer of great ideas who’s familiar with your magazine.)</p> <p>If you’re pitching an editor you’ve never worked with, you need to show you understand what the magazine is about and that it hasn’t already covered your idea. In my first pitch to <em>Departures</em>, for an Antarctica story, I found the magazine had only mentioned <a href="/explore/antarctica">Antarctica</a> very briefly in a round-up a few years earlier, which left the door open to a bigger feature. I used that mention to my advantage by stating how my idea, going on a tiny four-cabin sailboat, was different from how other companies do it, including the one in the round-up. Translation: I’m familiar with the magazine; my way is better.</p> <p>Finally, you should explain who you are and offer up some samples of your work. A simple, “As for me, I’m a writer based in <a href="/explore/north-america/united-states/3-of-the-best-food-trails-in-oregon">Oregon</a> who hikes as much as possible and has stories published in X, Y and Z” should do. I usually include a link to my website.</p> <h2 id="person">Find the right person to pitch to</h2> <p>Many magazines and newspapers have this (perhaps) unspoken policy that if you can’t dig up an editor’s name and email address then you probably aren’t far along enough in your career to warrant a serious read of your pitch. The best way to get in is to have another writer introduce you.</p> <p>If you’re just starting out and don’t know any other writers, look at the publication’s masthead, see who works there, then Google those names. Sometimes you can find email formulas in press releases. And you can always pick up the phone and call. Just keep it quick. “Hey, I’m a writer in Christchurch and have an idea I’d love to send you. Would you mind if I sent you a pitch?”.</p>Getty Images/Marco Duci/EyeEm 11134731925 Getty Images Man fishing by a lake in Italy

https://public-web-wn.uat.wng.me/create/learn/writing/become-a-freelance-travel-writerNew to travel writing? NY Times writer Tim Neville reveals how to make a name for yourself as a freelancer and get published where it counts.2019-12-12T11:00:00Z https://wng-kosmos-wn-cms-uat.kaos.nibit.com.au:443/create/learn/writing/become-a-freelance-travel-writerhttps://www.worldnomads.com<div class="scholarships-assignment-intro segment-margin-break"> <p>All the traveling and all the writing isn’t worth diddly if you don’t have anyone to sell it to. When you’re on the outside looking in, the publishing world can seem big and nebulous with no obvious way inside. There are some ways you can pick your way through it sensibly, however.</p> <ul> <li><a href="#build"> Build your portfolio </a></li> <li><a href="#network"> Network your way in </a></li> <li><a href="#work"> Work from the inside</a></li> </ul> <h2 id="build">Build your portfolio</h2> <p>To <a href="/explore/guides/how-to-make-a-living-as-a-travel-writer-guide">sell your writing</a>, you need to start by growing your network and getting some clips. That’s industry-speak for being able to show work you’ve had published even if you don’t literally have to cut your work out of paper publications and put it into a physical portfolio any longer. Without clips, it can be hard to network, so let’s talk about that first. Getting a clip used to be such a Catch-22, where it was tough to write for a publication if you couldn’t show you had written for a publication.</p> <p>Getting a byline has become a lot easier thanks to the web’s bottomless hunger for content, but think beyond the web; don’t stop there. Consider trying to write for your local weekly or city magazine, too.</p> <p>Ideally, you want to have a clip from a story you did working with an editor, and it doesn’t matter if it’s online or in print. Such a clip is like a secret handshake that tells other editors you can play the professional game.</p> <p>If you don’t have any clips, try to write for anyone who will publish your work, even if they can’t pay you.</p> <p>This is the only time in your career when working for free is OK, otherwise, it’s a terrible business decision. But in the beginning, you need to show people your writing so that you will be able to <a href="/create/learn/writing/grow-your-travel-writing-income" target="_blank" title="How to Grow Your Travel Writing Income">write for people more</a>.</p> <h2 id="network">Network your way in</h2> <p>The biggest disadvantage beginners have in this realm – beyond sending in amateur pitches on flimsy ideas – is that after finally coming up with an idea, you must <a href="/create/learn/writing/how-to-sell-your-story-idea-to-a-travel-editor" target="_blank" title="How to Sell Your Travel Story Idea to an Editor">pitch it cold</a>. You get an editor’s name and email, sent off a pitch and then wait weeks wondering if it all just went to spam. For a growing business like yours, that’s pretty dispiriting.</p> <p>Don’t give up, because it does get easier. Ideally, you want to get to the point where you can send a quick email to an editor, laying out the very basics of an idea, and that one email can be the start of a conversation that becomes your pitch. You can only get away with that if the editor knows both you and your work well.</p> <p>‘Knowing you’ is the key phrase there and that’s what you must work on. Editors don’t exist in a vacuum. They have offices and go to conferences, which means you should try to visit them in those places, too. But not every story is right for every <a href="/create/learn/writing">writer</a> and the more an editor knows about you and your work, the tighter that <a href="/create/learn/writing/how-to-work-with-an-editor-to-your-advantage" target="_blank" title="How to Work With an Editor to Your Advantage">relationship</a> will become.</p> <p>Facetime still feels like the only way to really cement that. So sign up for writing conferences and go to trade shows looking to grow your network as well as to find ideas. Have some pitches ready to go in case you run into an editor. Stories I wrote for <em>Outside</em>, <em>The New York Times</em> and <em>Men’s Journal</em> came about, in part, because I pitched editors I’d met in person at conferences and workshops. </p> </div> <h2 id="work">Work from the inside</h2> <p>Of course, the easiest way to build these relationships is to get on staff at a publication, perhaps as an intern. Working a “real” job in the publishing world before going freelance can be a real boon to your career. Most of the writers I know today, who are making a go of it with interesting work, were once on staff. You can’t get deeper into the business than by being on staff at a place that’s doing the business every day.</p> <p>Not everyone can afford to up and work on an intern’s salary, of course, but everyone does need to network and get to know various people and their publications. Sending in an idea that would never work in a particular magazine shows you aren’t taking this seriously.</p> <p>So as you start, be willing to put as much as 90 percent of your effort into networking – getting yourself a website, going to workshops, and reading the stories published in the places you want to work. The rest will be split evenly between pitching and (hopefully) writing. Do it right and soon those numbers will flip.</p>World Nomads / Rebecca Day 0 Woman writing in journal outdoors