PW asked five emerging and veteran guidebook authors about their inspiration, their dream projects, and how they’ve weathered two years of diminished travel.
Vivian Chung, a Vancouver native, creates destination guides and covers food, drink, and culture for outlets including the Fodor’s Travel website.
What’s changed for you about travel writing since Covid?
My focus has shifted: I used to write a lot of destination guides, fun listicles, roundups—the best places to get street food, where to go if you want to relax by a lake. Since the pandemic, my stories now focus on how to travel from home. It could be learning to cook a dish in your own kitchen, or taking advantage of a museum or art gallery’s virtual tours. A lot of cat cafés in Japan were broadcasting live—cat fans could make themselves coffee at home, fire up the YouTube stream, and hang out with Japanese cats.
Jason Cochran is editor-in-chief of the Frommer’s website and the author of the recently released Frommer’s EasyGuide to Disney World, Universal and Orlando. Prior to travel writing, he worked in entertainment journalism.
What’s your dream guidebook to write?
I’d love to do some Australian road trip guides—the Stuart Highway [which runs from Darwin in the north to Port Augusta in the south], the northwest coast to Ningaloo, long-distance trips where you get away from everyone. Maybe post-Covid this will be of interest! I like directing people to mom-and-pop places, and there’s plenty of opportunity to recommend them on road trips.
John F. Garry, who lives in Brooklyn and grew up in the Catskills in upstate New York, is a contributing author for Lonely Planet’s new Experience series.
Do you have advice for first-time travelers to New York?
Go off the beaten path. It’s easy to get stuck in Manhattan when you visit New York City. Get out in the boroughs—the Bronx, Queens—for a more authentic New York experience. It’s been so exciting writing about New York City, but I’d love to write about the Catskills, upstate, where I’m from. I have a complicated relationship with my hometown—love/hate, like a lot of people. I’d dig into getting rid of my prejudice about what my hometown was like years ago, and really get into what it’s like today.
Carolyn B. Heller, a writer and photographer living in Vancouver, specializes in cultural, culinary, and experiential travel.
How have the past few years affected your work?
It’s been challenging—in 2020 when things really flared up for the first time, I had assignments canceled, editors laid off, projects delayed. The first few months were quite uncertain. Editors did start looking for content again; I was able to do a lot more things that are local, regional. I’ve always done a lot of work that wasn’t just straight-up travel stories—about food, culture, etc. I covered the ways that people were pivoting during Covid, to keep their business, art, or whatever alive.
Jessica Nabongo is a travel influencer (204,000 Instagram followers) and the first Black woman known to have documented her travel to every country in the world. National Geographic Books will publish her travelog The Catch Me If You Can in June.
What drew you to travel writing?
I moved from the U.S. to Japan in 2008 to teach English; it was my first time living abroad, and I started blogging about my travels. I wanted to encourage people to think about others, to remind them to be good human beings and responsible travelers. When people say they’re afraid to travel alone or abroad, it’s often because they’re afraid of other humans. We have a tendency to exoticize locals living in the places we’re visiting, and that tendency is othering. At this point [in the pandemic] I don’t necessarily want to be seen as promoting travel—it wouldn’t be appropriate. When we do get back out here, we have to be good people.—L.S.
