Hey Guys!
So as I have begun to unpack from my most recent trip to Spain and Portugal while beginning the process of packing for my upcoming trip to Asia, I’ve been thinking about what I means to travel as a blogger/instagrammer/vlogger. I personally had this expectation of travelling for #thegram as being so glamours, easy, and simple… it’s not. Let’s just get this out there, it 100% isn’t. I have no idea how people travel full time as travel bloggers/vloggers/instagrammers because wow. This isn’t to complain about it, because it’s a blessing to do this but I wanted to have a bit of a moment of realness.
Let’s talk about the very basics of why it’s super difficult. Wifi is not always a thing, finding time to edit and upload is another, and packing.
As someone who works on the internet, having access to the internet is kinda 99.9% of my job… like without internet I can’t access my platforms, upload, share images etc. so that’s always a stressful moment when you are dealing with incredibly slow hotel wifi, Starbucks wifi or potentially being in a place where there is no wifi at all. While people will be down on this reality, if you need to upload a sponsored post at a certain time on a certain day you NEED internet. No you can’t stop and “enjoy life” when you are contractually obligated to get that sucker up… There is also an obligation to your followers to post regularly and consistently… they are the reason why we get these opportunities, and without them we wouldn’t be where we are.
Editing is another difficulty because it requires you sit down at your computer for an extended period of time, that extended period of time could be 15 minutes if you shot a photo in perfect conditions OR hours if you are editing a Video for YouTube. It’s something that you 100% need to factor into your day and if you do everything in house aka. don’t have someone on staff who does this editing for you then you really need to figure it out. Honestly, it’d be super nice to have someone who edits my videos for me…
And finally packing, you need a new outfit for each day at a minimum… or else you will get very nasty DM’s about how you are disgusting for wearing the same clothes and really as a Fashion blogger it is my job to show you the latest trends. It’s difficult to fit all that in though… and also it’s not cost effective at all to buy a new wardrobe for each trip you go on.
Beyond the basic logistical problems, unless you are travelling with a photographer you end up asking the people who are travelling with you to take photos of you all the time… which can genuinely get annoying or awkward. When travelling you know you are going to be out, eating, seeing things and finding cool places which arguably you’d document in your hometown so why not document it while you are away? For me personally, when I’m away or even when I’m in Toronto I try to shoot as much content as possible so I get a good “ROI” lol… I sound like a business school kid (I’m not). What I mean by this is you’ve usually spent something on your trip, be it a Go-Train Ticket, a Plane ticket, Hotel Room etc. and what you get out of that trip is the content you take from it. So maximizing your content creation, to me is to be constantly shooting either video, photos, IG stories etc.
With all the on trip stuff talked about, let’s talk a little bit about the prep. So there is A LOT of prep that goes into travel when you are working an office job or as a real estate agent etc. There is your non blog life to sort out in addition to your blog life. The prep work is potentially super daunting, you need to create any scheduled content for when you are going to be away as well as organize any sponsored content that you are taking with you.
Honestly, with all of this said, it’s still an amazing opportunity to be able to travel and have things sponsored etc. BUT I did want to share this little insight into what it’s like being a blogger!
I hope you guys enjoyed!
xoxo Steph
