The economics of being a full-time travel writer are tough. Even the biggest publications seldom pay their writers enough to cover all the expenses of a thoroughly researched trip. To make ends meet, therefore, many professional travel writers rely on press trips (sometimes called hosted trips) that partially or completely cover the cost of their travels. This brings a whole host of complications, of course; how do you write authentically and originally when you rely on someone with a PR agenda?

Sucheta Rawal is a highly experienced and prolific travel writer with bylines in the likes of Travel + Leisure, National Geographic, TIME, Condé Nast Traveler, AFAR, CNN, Fodor’s and Food & Wine. Across a 20+ year career, she has visited or reported from well over 100 countries. In today's episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, she takes us behind the scenes of the life of a full-time travel writer.

Learn more about Sucheta at her website, https://suchetarawal.com. Discover her children's book series, Beato Goes To, at https://beatogoesto.com/

In 2021, a budding travel writer called Anna Richards submitted a couple of stories to Intrepid Times; she wrote about penguins in Chile, and as well as a frightening mugging. This was around the time Anna had moved to Lyon, France, fulfilling a generational family dream. Building her travel writing career from the ground up, one clipping at a time, she eventually landed the role as the Telegraph's official Corsica travel expert; a coveted job that lets her travel France in pursuit of stories ranging from French beach towns to undiscovered fine dining.

On this week's episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, Anna talks about how she established herself as a travel writer, the pros and cons of being a 'domestic' travel writer i.e one who is based permanently in the place they write about, her recent highly praised piece for The Guardian on how resident's in an unusual building have endured Europe's heatwave, and much more beside.

Learn more about Anna at her website: https://www.annahrichards.com/

And follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annahrichards_/?hl=en

Writer's block is the demon writers point to as the reason they can't get words on a page. But what if writer's block doesn't actually exist? What if the reason you're not writing isn't the fear, the doubt, the mess, but simply the way you relate to these emotions? Dr Vincent Fogliati is a psychologist with a speciality in ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy). Alongside veteran writer Roger Joyce, they have put together a new book Your Writer's Block is Bullsh*t which may finally be the answer that gets you back to the desk, and allows that blank page to finally fill up with the words you have always been meaning to write. Today, they share the truth about writer's block, and practical strategies you can use today to stop fighting it, and start writing it.

Your Writer's Block is Bullsh*t is published by Exisle Publishing in September 2026. I worked closely on this book with my publisher's hat on, and am so excited to see it finally enter the world. 

Pre-order your copy and unlock access to a private online workshop with the authors:  https://exislepublishing.com/your-writers-block-is-bullsht-pre-order-campaign/

Every day when submissions are open, dozens of travel stories or pitches land in the Intrepid Times inbox. While the quality of course varies, most of these submissions are from sincere, legitimate writers who have a story to get across. However, an increasing number are entirely or partially AI-generated.

Early on, it was quite easy to tell what was AI and what wasn't. Now, as AI tools become more sophisticated and people become increasingly dependent on them, it gets harder and harder to parse the human from the artificial. We are determined at Intrepid Times that not one sentence of AI-confabulated prose will ever be published on this platform, but holding the line has never been harder.

Today, Thom Brown, associate editor at Intrepid Times and an award-winning travel writer, takes listeners behind the scenes on our war against AI in travel writing.

Learn more about Thom Brown: https://www.thombrown.co.uk/

And read his articles at Intrepid Times: https://intrepidtimes.com/author/thombrown/

Read Intrepid Times's AI travel writing policy: https://intrepidtimes.com/ai/

Paul Theroux called Thomas Swick 'the ideal travel writer,' but he's the first to admit he hasn't always been the ideal traveler. He moved to Poland in the late 1970s as a young aspiring travel writer in love with a local woman, whom he would eventually marry. As he learned the (formidably challenging - I should know!) Polish language and gained his first published clippings, he also spent much of his travels in a state of high, anxious alert.

Shouldn't a travel writer be cooler and less fazed by the ordeals of a journey? As Thomas would come to realize, no, one shouldn't. In fact, it's this very hyper-alertness that causes the travel writer to notice and be sensitive to things more relaxed travelers may miss.

Thomas Swick joined the travel writing podcast to talk about his extraordinary career, sharing his top tips for travel writers, and discussing his immensely readable and instructive memoir, Falling Into Place - A story of love, Poland, and the making of a travel writer, which features a foreword by Pico Iyer.

Dubai is associated variously with dizzying luxury, superficial excess, and, recently, geopolitical disruption. According to Paris Norriss, who has lived in the city for a decade and stars in the TV show "Guy in Dubai," none of these stereotypes capture the full truth of a deeply layered and complex city.

Paris Norriss is a self-made media figure who created a name for himself through hard work and charisma. He is summoned to stages internationally to speak on the subject of grit, a concept larger than perseverance or hard work, and one which all writers, travel or otherwise, can benefit from on long journeys and through the grind of getting published and building a name as creators and communicators.

Paris joined the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about his career, what the labels miss about Dubai, and how he forged his own name as an independent travel creator.

Learn more about Paris Norriss:

https://www.parisnorriss.com

https://www.instagram.com/parisnorriss

https://www.instagram.com/guyindubai/?hl=en

Some view travel as a competitive sport, tallying up countries like points on a board. James Merriman began his travel life like this, relentlessly collecting passport stamps for years. He had fantastic adventures from Afghanistan to Venezuela, and almost everywhere in between. At the same time, he gradually came to realize that his approach may not have been giving him the best of what travel has to offer.

As James pivoted to learning travel writing, graduating from the Intrepid Times Craft of Travel Writing Certificate and beginning his forays into publication, his attitude to travel started to evolve. He continues to visit difficult-to-reach places, but his focus is more on the people there than on the stamp in his passport.

Learn more about James at his website: https://www.jamesmerriman.co.uk/

By the time she was a teenager, Katherine Parker-Magyar had explored the Arctic Circle and visited every one of the United States. As time went by, her travels never slowed down. She has now traveled to over 100 countries, often on paid assignments, and has shared the resulting stories with publications as diverse as the Daily Beast and Architectural Digest to Forbes and National Geographic Traveler.

Katherine's focus on human connection and culture insulates her, she feels, against competition from the likes of ChatGPT. Only a human can meet a stranger, look them in the eye, and gradually tease out the kind of story that will endure. Between her time driving husky sleds in Lapland, sailing the Brazilian Amazon, and tracking rhinos in Kenya or Tigers in Nepal, she is based in New York City. Katherine joined the travel writing podcast to share her passion and energy, and provide a well-needed moment of uplift and optimism for those of us chipping away at this craft and art form that we love so much.

Follow Katherine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherineparkermagyar/?hl=en

Discover more on her website: https://www.katherineparkermagyar.com/about

Sports journalist Neil Squires was used to rubbing shoulders with athletes at the top of their game. He ghostwrote the memoir of England rugby legend Johnny Wilkinson (for our American listeners, that's like being the personal writer of Tom Brady) and covered sport for the national papers. Yet Neil never expected to be a famous athlete himself, and certainly did not imagine becoming one in middle age... until a WhatsApp message out of the blue changed that.

Laid off from his journalism job, Neil and a group of friends traveled 5500 miles to Hokkaido, Japan, to participate in a bizarre yet strangely compelling sport: Mölkky, also known as Finnish skittles. Neil and his teammates represented Britain and became unlikely media celebrities in Japan. The result of this odyssey is the endearing and charming book The Fall and Rise of the Mölkky Bar Kids: A Sporting Underdog Story, which is out now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fall-Rise-M%C3%B6lkky-Bar-Kids/dp/1837733163

Victoria Watts Kennedy's family travel blog, Bridges and Balloons, has twice won her prestigious awards. Last year, she picked up the Travel Blogger of the Year Trophy from the British Guild of Travel Writers, and just this week, she was named 2026 Travel Blogger of the Year at the TravMedia Awards in London. This success comes at a tumultuous time for bloggers as AI upends the playbook for how blog articles are not only discovered through search engines, but also how they are written. Victoria joined the Travel Writing Podcast to talk about her writing and blogging career, the joys and challenges of travel with kids, and how some bloggers, like her, are managing to ride through the AI storm with their audiences intact.

Learn more about Victoria:

https://www.instagram.com/bridgesandballoons

https://bridgesandballoons.com

https://www.victoriawattskennedy.com