As travel goes, I’ve been pretty slack the past couple of years. I did Hamburg, Copenhagen and Stockholm over 8 days in February 2019, and then I did Porto in May 2019, mostly because I’d already booked and paid for it before I started seeing my ex. But due to prioritising seeing him, and paying for everything he needed, over myself and my love of travel, I didn’t go anywhere else last year. Then the relationship ended in November and I decided to throw myself into travel in 2020. I booked two trips; Bucharest for March and then Prague, Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest for June. COVID had other ideas. I wanted to talk about what happens when a travel blogger can’t travel, or how it is for me anyway.
I chose to cancel Bucharest as I was worried we’d get locked down. We did, although two weeks later so I could’ve made it there after all. June’s flights got cancelled, so I spent that week of time off sat at home, as we all did. I had a week off in September and decided to try and get somewhere, whilst following the correct quarantine rules. That ruled out Bratislava and Budapest, and Bucharest would have just been a city on its own, so I booked Prague and Vienna. And then I planned to do another trip in October and November, which isn’t looking likely now.
When a travel blogger can’t travel it’s incredibly frustrating. I technically could, as planes are still flying, but I am following the rules to avoid putting people at risk, and so I’m grounded for now. I so badly wanted to push forward with Inside Laura’s Head in 2020 and that hasn’t happened, and trying to write content when you’re going nowhere is HARD. I’m inspired by a new city, people watching over a cup of tea or a cocktail, trying new food and hearing a new language. Somehow my own four walls aren’t as appealing and, with the Coronavirus situation looking unlikely to be resolved any time soon, I need to figure out a way forward for Inside Laura’s Head until I can travel again.
My aim now is to spend the rest of 2020 getting ahead with content as well as rewriting previous travel content to make it more useful for my readers. I’m going to look ay my past trips to see what else I could add as new content-maybe I could review an attraction I visited, tell a funny story about something that happened or do a street art photo diary, for example. I’m going to do some roundup posts where I recommend other travel bloggers you should read or share destination guides for cities I’ve visited that have been written by other bloggers, and I’m going to share future travel plans. I’m going to write packing tips, planning tips, a gift guide for travel lovers, and I’m going to do as many UK day trips, safely and within the rules, for new content too.
What would you do if you were (or are?) a travel blogger who can’t travel?
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