Advice for Travelers:
Using the Internet to Share Your Adventure
During Your Adventure
Women travelers, or motorcycle travelers, or whatever kind of travelers: there are a number of reasons to share information online during your travels:
- Family and friends want to know where you are and what you are doing.
- It's a great way to capture information for you to enjoy after your trip is over
- Depending on how you use it, you can meet fellow travelers (this is great for motorcyclists in or going to remote locations)
- It's really helpful to other travelers - consider it a part of transire benefaciendo: to travel along while doing good.
But a word of caution: don't take so much time up sharing your photos and stories during your trip that you are taking time away from seeing sights, meeting people and enjoying the moment. Keep it simple while on the road. Just a little information goes a long way. Sharing the bulk of your photos and information after your trip allows you to relieve your trip. Going through photos AFTER a trip and writing my travelogue AFTER a trip helps me not get depressed after a trip - I feel like I'm retaking it as I write.
Be sure you post links to that followers can find more information about travelers. For instance, I have a friend that went around the world on a bicycle, and he would post messages like "Crossed border, took 3 hours. Had a puncture. Camping tonight." No info on what country he was in, what city he was near, etc. Even going through all of his posts didn't always tell me where he was. What would have been a better post? "Crossed border from Turkey to Romania... Had a puncture outside of such-and-such town... " and then a link to his blog when has the map of his trip.
Photos
I love the photo-sharing site Flickr. It is absolutely my favorite photo-sharing site. I'm not only sharing my photos, I'm also backing them up! Even if I share photos via Facebook, I don't upload the photos there - I link to them. A lot of people prefer Instagram, and it's okay, but it allows you to share only via your smart phone and that makes it hard to share much information about a photo. I do use Instragram, but for just one or two photos a day while on a trip - or just once a week.
Whatever you choose, you can set your account up such that you can decide how much you want to share: with anyone, or just people you have connected with on the account, or with only some other select group.
If your photos are public, you absolutely should tag them so that they can be more easily found by anyone and reach an even larger audience.
You do not have to share everything while on a trip; just pick 1 - 5 photos to share each day, or every other day - even once a week, depending on how long you are traveling. Upload the rest of your photos after your trip, or on a "down" day on your trip of many months.
You can create a blog or web site only for your travels, or a section of a web site you already have. Your blog or web site is the central space where all other online activities during your travels lead to and from.
You don't have to write long essays/blogs (as I do); what's most important is that this blog or web site is updated frequently.
Pace yourself if you want to blog every day or every week, such that it doesn't take too much time away from your travels, from seeing and experiencing the trip.
Mastodon
I loved Twitter - but it is no more (what has taken its place is a porn / MAGA / Nazi hellscape). So I switched to Mastodon. What I love about microblogging sites such as this:
- it's much easier for your followers to share your information with their friends (via reposting)
- messages can be focused just on your followers, or they can be focused on your followers plus people who are interested in a certain topic (hence why people use tags in their posts, like writing #Cambodia in a message instead of just Cambodia, without the hashtag)
- it's easier to reach people who have similar interests to you
- sending an update takes just seconds
Good things to manually-tweet to your followers:
-
Where you are ("We just crossed the border from #Hungary to
#Romania")
Where you are going ("We will be at the Western gate for #Yellowstone in two hours!")
What you are doing ("We're at Crater Lake in #Oregon! See this photo:" - and with a link to the photo you've just uploaded to Flickr)
There's just one reason to keep using Twitter: if a company messes up your travel - an airline loses your luggage, a hotel doesn't respond to a complaint, a tourist site doesn't provide good customer service - Tweet about it, and if the company has a Twitter account, mention it in your Tweet. Don't be surprised if you get contacted by the company, offering to make amends.
Remember
Again: don't take so much time up sharing your photos and stories during your trip that you are taking time away from seeing sights, meeting people and enjoying the moment. I see far too many people taking hours out of their day to blog, share photos and follow Twitter, and thereby missing out on even more incredible experiences while traveling. Keep it simple. Just a little information goes a long way!
Also see:
Accessing
essential information while traveling
Advice on things you should do before you leave on a trip, to
ensure you can access information via any computer or your
feature phone or smart phone that you might need while traveling
Disclaimer
Any activity incurs risk. The author assumes no responsibility
for the use of information contained within this document.
Comments are welcomed, and motivate me to keep writing -- without comments, I start to think I'm talking to cyberair. I would welcome your support for my work as well.
Affirmation that this web site is created & managed by a human.
Quick Links
Index of resources for women travelers (how to get started, health & safety considerations, packing suggestions, transportation options, etc.
Advice for camping with your dogs in the USA
Saving Money with Park Passes in the USA
Advice for women motorcycle riders and travelers
transire benefaciendo: "to travel along while doing good." advice for those wanting to make their travel more than sight-seeing and shopping.
Suggestions for Women Aid Workers where the culture is more conservative/restrictive regarding women than most other countries.
Where I've been
A list of all of the states in the USA and all of the countries I have lived in or traveled in, the farthest North I've been by land, the nearest I've been to the equator, various other stats.
This includes all of the places I have traveled to and through via motorcycle.
Some of my favorite photos from my travels. Very hard to pick favorites.
Advice for Hotels, Hostels & Campgrounds in Transitional & Developing Countries: the Qualities of Great, Cheap Accommodations
Disclaimer: Any activity incurs risk. The author assumes no responsibility for the use of information contained within this document.
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by Jayne Cravens, all rights reserved
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The personal opinions expressed on this page are solely those of Ms. Cravens, unless otherwise noted.