I love blogging and to me, one of life’s greatest joys is also traveling. Put them together and you have the best job in the world (aside from being a mom): travel blogging. Travel blogging is a wonderful thing and everyone wants to be a successful travel blogger, but do you know what it really takes to become one? Most think those travel bloggers just get to explore the world, eat a lot of great food, and just post about it on Instagram, or to their blogs, but it is actually a lot of hard work and most do not even know the start of it. I could go on and on, but here are the top six reasons why travel blogging is not for the faint of heart:

Behind the scenes

Yes, I travel. Yes, I eat cool food. Yes, a blog takes a lot of behind the scenes work. Creating one blog post can take a few hours in itself. You have to arrange your visit, take notes during your visit, take the perfect pictures during your visit (so stressful!), write about your visit, edit your post, edit your pictures, optimize your post, create optimized images for your social shares, and then promote the post. That is all for one blog post. In addition, having a website, in general, takes some upkeep, as well. I won’t even go into that side of things in this post!  

Pressure to see everything

When you are a travel blogger and you go to a specific city (let’s say, San Francisco, since I recently visited), you are required to see and know everything about the city once you return. As soon as you blog about the city, you will have questions to answer, so you have to know the correct answers. On the other side of things, if you are working with a city, you are expected to visit as many places in the city as you possibly can to report about it all. Most of the time, you only have a few days (sometimes even a few hours) in a city and it is just really hard to see it all in a few hours or days.

Working long hours

I do not work a traditional 9-5 schedule when it comes to travel blogging. Like I mentioned, their is pressure to see it all, so you have to be out and about early and you usually go to bed late. Lighting is best in the morning and pictures to come out better where there are not many people in them, so most travel bloggers like to try and beat the crowd and get up and going right around sunrise. Then, when you come home to your hotel in the evening, it is time to write and/or edit pictures. You never truly get a vacation – no matter how peaceful something sounds, it is alway work (although great work!) for a travel blogger.

Family time is limited

The part that most travel bloggers hate is the lack of family time. Because of the traveling and long work hours, it is very hard to spend quality time with your families. This is why I make it a priority and I try to travel with them as much as possible. There are ways to work around it, but it is just another challenge that a lot of travel bloggers face.

Being in the moment

I cannot stress this one enough – it is so hard being in the moment as a travel blogger. We are constantly trying to write notes down, take pictures and video, and focus on Instagram Stories or another quick update from our followers that are living through us. How are you supposed to do all of that AND live in the moment? It is truly hard and takes a lot of work to manage your time, but it is possible. It just takes a lot of practice. One thing that I always suggest is to put your phone down and only use your camera. Update your followers at the beginning and/or end of a tour and focus on being in the moment and taking some pictures every now and then. If you are in the moment, you won’t have to write much down because you are actually taking it all in!

Stress on your body

As much as I love it, travel is just really stressful on your body and it is easy to get aches and pains after a long travel weekend. Thankfully, there are solutions out there to limit your stress, aches, and pains. AllCure Spine & Sports Medicine believes that “Pain isn’t something you should have to live with anymore.” Owner, Dr. Anthony Alfieri has a Doctorate in Chiropractic and a Master’s Degree in Clinical Nutrition and strongly believes in an integrated approach to physical rehabilitation and pain management. AllCure Spine & Sports Medicine has four different type of doctors under one roof, which allows for fast and effective outcomes when it comes to feeling better and living your best life! If you are in need of Chiropractic care, acupuncture, massage therapy, physical therapy, or pain management physiatry, check them out in Monroe, NJ.

Please do not get me wrong – being able to write about travel is a huge privilege and it is one of my favorite things to do.  I’m forever grateful for the unique opportunities travel blogging presents to me and my family.  I’m happy to help others get started with traveling and/or blogging so feel free to email me or leave a  comment below. Happy Travels, everyone!