How do you write a travel blog when you can’t travel?

When I wrote about occasional blogging back in May 2019 (The pros and cons of being an occasional blogger), and commented on how long it was since I’d last blogged (a month or two), I really had no idea what constituted ‘long’ – try over a year! I can’t even blame COVID entirely, as my last post was in December 2019, three months before lockdown hit and my travel plans were disrupted. I remember thinking about blogging at the beginning of lockdown – how maybe I’d have a bit more time to devote to it, given that I’d spent the last few months working and not blogging. Of course, that was a little short-sighted – why exactly did I think I’d have more time?! Sure, if I was furloughed it would have been a different case. But as I work from home anyway, things didn’t really change in that respect. Work continued as normal, daily chores still needed doing. Sure I’ve spent some of the last year not needing to do the school run or take the kids to their various activities, and my social life has taken a definite dive. But that has been replaced with the kids spending much of the past year at home, meaning time spent helping them with homeschooling – plus extra tidying. I’ve also upped my exercise in the hope of making up for being stuck at home and in an attempt to counteract the effects of my daily Tunnocks Teacakes (yes, that was a deliberate plural). So, all in all, I’ve had no extra time – possibly less than before, in fact.

Of course, time isn’t the only – or even the main – reason why I haven’t blogged for over a year. It’s pretty hard to write a holiday blog when you can’t go on holiday! Who wants to read me wittering on about all the holidays I’d like to go on but can’t?! The frequency of my Twitter and Instagram posts has also much reduced too, as I have very little new to say or post. It’s not like I haven’t still got old holidays I could blog about, mind you – I think only one of five holidays in 2019 actually made it onto the blog after all, so it’s not like I haven’t got the ‘material’. But I’ve also lost enthusiasm – rehashing old holidays is no fun when you have no idea when you’ll be able to go on another one. I’m also not convinced that people would want to read a holiday blog right now either. I know I don’t much enjoy vicarious travel unless I can use it as inspiration for planning future trips. Writing about holidays feels a bit like rubbing people’s noses in it, even if I’m not going on any either.

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This got me thinking about ‘proper’ travel bloggers – those who earn a living (or at least part of one) from blogging about travel. The past year must have been really difficult for them, when their ability to travel has been either greatly reduced or stopped altogether, depending on where they’re based and what risks they’re willing to take. It’s not even like restaurants or days out have been available for a large chunk of the past year! I doubt that hotels or tour companies will have been keen on sponsorship, as they’re likely to have had to cut costs. And I suspect that readership will also have reduced – travel blogs will get much of their traffic from people planning trips, and not many people are doing that right now. The travel industry has been hit very hard by the pandemic, and the travel blog community will have been one of many casualties. It’s certainly made me feel very lucky to have a regular income and a job that hasn’t been affected by the virus, and relieved that holiday blogging has only ever been an occasional hobby for me.

But of course one of my main hobbies is actually going on holiday – and that hobby has taken a major hit. Early 2020 saw the postponement of a trip to Center Parcs in the Netherlands at Easter, although we held on desperately, hoping that things would magically get better. They didn’t, of course, and it’s now looking likely that this Easter’s rebooked Center Parcs trip will have to be postponed yet again. We held out hope for our camping trip in Dorset for May half-term – after all, no planes, ferries or other public transport, no hotel room, no shared inside area – just us in our own tent, cooking our own food and keeping to ourselves. Of course, we were still in lockdown by the time half-term came, and that was another holiday postponed until 2021. We started thinking about our October holiday in Mexico. Surely everything would be okay by then?! But what if we were still having to take precautions? What if we had to wear masks for the whole 12-hour flight? What if the hotel buffets were closed? What if we had to wear masks on the beach? What if not all the promised activities were offered? What if attractions like Chichen Itza were closed or you had to wear masks? (The obsession with masks comes from being an asthmatic who struggles in humidity – breathing while wearing a mask in hot weather is hard enough, without attempting to move at the same time.) We decided that the safest thing would be to postpone Mexico until October 2021. Even if we were ‘allowed’ to go, we didn’t want to pay all that money and go all that way for a ‘once in a lifetime’ trip where we couldn’t do and see everything that we wanted to, and which would be ‘once in a lifetime’ for all the wrong reasons. [Sidenote: A hurricane actually hit the resort in October 2020, so we were kind of glad we’d postponed!] We weren’t sure what to do about Corfu in August though. Would we be able to go? Would it be safe to go? Would we want to go? And if we didn’t, would we get our money back? By August, things were a little up in the air. We were allowed to travel abroad but the situation was constantly changing. There was a strong possibility that we’d need to isolate for two weeks on return, which would have been impossible as the kids were due back at school. We were concerned about what would happen if we caught COVID while on holiday. We didn’t feel very confident about the idea of being confined on a plane with other people who may have the virus. And, actually, our apartment complex had decided not to even open, which made our decision a little easier! Our holiday company eventually officially cancelled and refunded us, and bang went our final scheduled holiday for 2020. We had thought earlier in the year about booking something for the Christmas markets, as we felt sure that it would all be over by then. Thank goodness we didn’t!

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Suffice to say that 2020 was a pretty disappointing year! Of course, cancelled holidays was the least of our worries in the big scheme of things, and was trivial compared to what 2020 brought to many people. As a self-confessed holiday obsessive, cancelling holidays was upsetting, as was not being able to do so many of the other things I love, like going out to eat, catching up with friends and pub quizzes in an actual pub. Still, I kept reminding myself, it could be worse. I could have COVID. I could have lost someone to COVID. I could have lost my job or my business, be furloughed or facing an otherwise uncertain work or financial future. I could have been in a job where I had to go out to work every day and put myself and my family at risk. I could have been one of those NHS workers on the frontline, caring for people with COVID, watching them die without their loved ones, putting in stupid hours without adequate PPE and coming home exhausted, all the while knowing that my own risk of catching the virus is high. That said, I’ve never been a fan of the whole ‘it could be worse’ comparison scenario when trying to feel better about something. After all, knowing that you could have two broken legs and a fractured wrist doesn’t make the pain of one broken leg any better. And knowing that things could be worse doesn’t necessarily reduce the disappointment or misery of putting your life on hold; in fact, it probably makes it worse, as then you’re adding guilt into the mix, feeling like you have no right to be disappointed by a cancelled holiday or sad not to have seen your best friend for a few months when there are people out there literally putting their lives on the line. But I think it’s important to allow ourselves to feel sadness and disappointment, even about the little things. Most people have found the last year difficult for a whole host of reasons – that’s only to be expected, and pretending that everything’s fine or feeling guilty about down days only opens the door to mental health issues. BUT I do think it’s really important at times like these to also be grateful for what you do have and make the most of the opportunities that you have got.

I’m grateful to be working from home already and that my husband is able to work from home. I’m grateful to be financially secure and not have been impacted too much by COVID. I’m grateful that our house is big enough that we all have our own space to work and that we have enough tech for the kids to be able to do school work at the same time as my husband and I are working. I’m grateful that my kids are old enough to be able to ‘school’ themselves while we get on with work. I’m grateful that we have a garden, giving us an extra room in the summer months and providing somewhere to sit and enjoy the warmer weather. I’m grateful to live in a lovely village with the countryside on our doorstep, with abundant opportunities for beautiful walks plus plenty of local facilities. I’m grateful that I’m not only physically able to walk but that I actually like walking, as does my husband – I may be restricted but at least one of my favourite things is still doable. I’m grateful to be able to keep in touch with friends and family via social media and Zoom, if not in person. I’m grateful to have stayed physically healthy and about as mentally healthy as it’s possible to be in these confusing and worrying times, and grateful that my kids are generally coping well. When I’m feeling down or anxious (and, I confess, that’s pretty regularly), I think really hard about these things. Compared to so many people I am REALLY lucky, and I think that’s an important reality check right now.

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I’m also really grateful to have managed to go on not one but THREE holidays in 2020 (and that’s not including a mini-break in February before everything stopped). Of course, none of those holidays were the ones we had originally planned. None of them were abroad. They were all self-catering, as we didn’t feel comfortable staying in a hotel. And we were fairly restricted with what we did, partly down to COVID rules and partly down to our own levels of comfort and safety. Our activities were almost exclusively outside (not that easy, as we had some shocking weather) – mostly walking, and certainly no swimming, cinema, bowling or the other things we might normally do on holiday. We mostly cooked, with the occasional take-away, and lunches were generally eaten in the garden of cafes and restaurants, as we didn’t feel safe spending large amounts of time inside. The holidays weren’t as relaxing as they normally would be, for obvious reasons, nor as warm and dry as if we’d made it to Corfu or Mexico. But my goodness, it was wonderful just to see some different sights. To sleep in a different bed. To spend evenings on a different sofa. To go for walks somewhere we’d never been. And, of course, to take some time away from work and day-to-day chores, which is extra difficult when you’re all working at home. They may not have been the holidays we’d had planned, but I’m so grateful that we did manage to get away and very aware that many people weren’t that lucky.

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We’ve also done our best to make the best of the opportunities we have had, especially the beautiful weather at the beginning of the first lockdown. You can probably guess that we went – and still go – for lots of walks: short walks, long walks, lunchtime walks, walks after work, daytime walks with a picnic… We’ve walked every footpath in our local area and found places we didn’t know about. We’ve watched the seasons changing and seen woods full of bluebells and fields of poppies. We’ve seen newborn lambs, butterflies, squirrels and birds. We’ve really tried to take notice of what’s around us, things we usually take for granted. We’ve walked further afield, in woods, on cliffs, up hills, along rivers and around towns. We’ve also done other ‘outdoor’ day trips – beaches, picnics, castles, crazy golf and so on. We’ve explored our local cafes and eaten in their gardens. We’ve met up with friends and family outside, keeping our distance. Basically, we’ve refused to stay at home when there has been a safe option to get out. Sure, the weather has scuppered our plans on a few occasions, and it’s proving a lot harder in a winter lockdown, but we’ve done our best to ‘make memories’, to use a cliché.

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So, to go back to my title question, my personal answer for the past year has clearly been ‘you don’t’. But those ‘proper’ travel bloggers I mentioned earlier have done – they’ve had to! So what have they done? They’ve written about old adventures and previous holidays. They’ve gone on walks and day trips and written about those. They’ve taken ‘staycations’ when they were allowed to and got as much materials as possible from them. Some have taken advantage of the lower virus numbers over the summer and gone on some of those trips abroad that they had planned – or perhaps different ones. They’ve written opinion posts or blogs giving general travel advice. They’ve written about travel in a pandemic. They’ve updated old blog posts. They’ve taken advantage of what’s around them more locally. They may have adapted their blogs to include non-travel-related subjects. They’ve possibly posted less than they would normally and maybe, like me, some of them kind of lost their mojo. I’d guess it must be even harder to blog about travel you can’t do when you know that the blog really counts. But travel blogs are still out there and still going strong – and with the vaccine currently being rolled out across the world and our hopes for travelling again becoming a little more concrete (Boris said recently that he is ‘optimistic’ about summer holiday prospects!), it’s likely that our appetite for travel blogs will start to grow again. We’ll be thinking about where we might be able to go this summer. Which countries will let us in? Where could we go in the UK if going abroad is not an option? Where could we go at Christmas? I’m trying to be optimistic that some of our rebooked holidays will be going ahead this year, and if they can’t then I’ll be busy planning exactly what we can do. And so, with a tiny but growing hope for holidays and a lull in work, I’m starting to get my blogging mojo back. I have three UK destinations from last year that could make it into future blog posts. I have hosts of old holidays from which I can dredge up destination guides, advice and disaster stories – hopefully without feeling sad about the holidays I’ve missed. 2021 will be my year of holidays – and if not, 2022 will be. I’ll get there eventually. But maybe, at least, 2021 will be my year of holiday blogging.

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