Travel Writer's Guidelines for Paid Article Submissions

Transitions Abroad has long been known as an travel publication and online information source. We aim to create inspirational yet practical planning guides for cultural travel, work, study, living, volunteering abroad and much more.

We were founded by a lifelong traveler as part of a family of multilingual travelers with wide-ranging experience, a trained and experienced journalist, professor of modern literature, and award-winning study abroad advisor and visionary Dr. Clay Hubbs in 1977 to provide practical information and inspiration relating to educational and cultural travel abroad.

Transitions Abroad was a magazine ahead of its time and has been cited as a source of inspiration for many other websites, blogs, and other print media since.

TransitionsAbroad.com is a leading site for travelers of all ages who want to extend their time abroad through all forms of work, study, volunteering, living, or cultural travel.

Our name suggests the fundamental changes to your perspective that result from immersion in another culture in a manner sensitive to your hosts, land, and their culture.

Our community of expert travel writers and talented freelance writers provide both the inspiration and the details that readers need to make their own plans. We seek out thoughtful and perceptive writers to provide stories and practical information that inspire others to seek and engage in travel experiences in a respectful manner while visiting, studying, volunteering, working, or living in host countries.

Millions of visitors have come to our website over the years in search of a wide variety of information, so your contributions will change lives for the better, and will be seen and valued by curious, passionate, educated, motivated, and sophisticated travelers globally.

This section focuses on interaction with local people and cultures and the avoidance of superficial tourist routines. Articles may involve such activities as a finding a home stay or a rural bed and breakfast, a 1- or 2-week language program, or pursuing a special interest or activity like cooking, music, dancing, visual arts, writing, photography, hiking or biking. Travelers of all ages are invited to share their experiences, as the passion for travel and the desire to learn has no age limits. Striking a balance between practical and inspirational travel writing is preferred.

Submissions by travel writers in the Cultural Travel section should describe (and provide supporting information for) travel that involves some active participation in the life of the host community:

• Cultural Immersion Travel
  A form of travel that includes interaction with the people of the host community. It goes beyond conventional tourism to the deeper experience that makes travel exciting, enriching, and educational... travel that includes immersion in another culture by living, working, studying (or playing!) alongside your hosts.
  
  
• Slow Travel
  The Slow Food®, born in Italy, its influence is spreading globally as one of many aspects of the Slow Movement of which Slow Travel is also a part. The Slow Travel Movement demonstrates the intrinsic connection between ethics and aesthetics, responsibility, and pleasure. In the realm of Slow Food, for example, eating slow often just feels right in this age of frenzied materialistic consumption, fast food, and fast living.
  We wish to explore and expand upon these aspects of Slow Movement while keeping respectful interaction with the host community and appreciation of their culture to the forefront.
  
  
• Community-Based Travel
  Travel that profits the host community and does as little as possible to disrupt the local culture and ecosystem.
  If an organized tour, we believe that the organization and guides should be, whenever possible, from the host community, or at the least that the tours should profit the host community in some significant way.
  
  These three complementary principles of cultural travel are the primary basis of our editorial preferences for the following subsections featured on TransitionsAbroad.com.

Examples of the types of the types of travel submissions we are seeking are listed here in alphabetical order:

• Adventure Travel
  First-hand accounts or overviews of adventure travel experiences ranging from rafting to cycling to motorcycling to mountain climbing, from independent adventure travel to participation in small group tours.
  See the Adventure Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Budget Travel
  A section which provides current information on best-value-for-money travel opportunities. Frequently travel bargains also are a form of immersion travel since spending less often means being closer to the local culture and people. Be specific about websites, dates, contacts, etc. either in the body of the text or in accompanying sidebars.
  See the Budget Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Cultural Travel and Alternative Tours (Cooking, Art, Dance, Music, Writing, Massage, Yoga, Meditation, Immersion, etc.)
  Cultural travel provides a chance to combine travel with educational activities that enliven all the senses.
  You can learn from established native cooks, artists, writers, or live with local hosts, admire local lands where the food is grown, hear and speak the local language, taste local produce, and many other forms allowing immersion in the culture.
  While our focus is on independent travel, we recognize that there are also many occasions when locally-organized tours are the least intrusive, safest (e.g. Safari), or most efficient ways to see the local sights.
  We seek details of tours or independent travel that share your experience such that others may be inspired and perhaps even follow your footsteps. 
  See our Cultural Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Educational Travel: Lifelong Learning
  First-hand reports on a travel-to-learn or study abroad experiences or programs relating to cultural history, musical studies, archeology, or Eco-friendly safari tours. The section may include cultural immersion experiences that travelers would find difficult to organize or learn on their own.
  See the Educational Travel and Language Learning sections for examples.
  
  
• Family Travel
  Vacation overseas with the kids? Short- and long-term family travel can be inexpensive and enriching, and is increasingly practiced. Submissions can focus on local family tour operators, home stays, vacation rentals, camping, and independently planned itineraries with an emphasis on cultural and community-based travel.
  See the Family Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Independent Travel
  Detailed itineraries that take independent and solo travelers off the tourist trail — whether to the less-visited areas of Europe or to remote regions of the rest of the world.
  See the Independent and Solo Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Long-Term Vacation Home Travel
  Whether renting a home or apartment for the long- or short-term, or staying in an Italian agriturismo, there is no better way to immerse oneself in the country being visited. Instead of being a tourist reliant on food and lodging from ubiquitous "tourist traps," you can shop and cook your own food, take daily trips at a leisurely pace, read or daydream, and invite locals or other visitors to join you.  Detailed descriptions of experiences seeking, renting, and living in vacation homes and how this helped immerse you in the local community at your own pace are welcome.
  See the Vacation Home Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Responsible Travel, Responsible Travel, and Creative Alternatives to Overtourism
  We welcome informative articles on how local communities abroad organize and profit from ecotourism, plus first-hand experiences with responsible ecotourism operators. Topics may also include a discussion of the ways in which you may have given back to the people in the countries where you have traveled, ways you have attempted to limit the impact of your presence on the often-limited resources of host environment, and any other ways you have may integrated into a local community that welcomes your presence. We do not seek or espouse a "holier-than-thou" attitude, but rather encourage stories of respect and good-faith attempts at sensitive integration into the homelands and culture of local people in whose homes you are staying.
  
  Overtourism: Recently, particularly in Europe, but also worldwide, cities and monuments such as Venice, Florence, Siena, Barcelona, Prague, Rome, Machu Picchu, the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, and more have been absolutely swarmed by tourists, often descending from cruise ships and tourist buses. The consequences are often horrific for locals and ruin the experience for sensitive travelers wishing to gain a sense of place. Very often, locations outside these cities and other equally interesting monuments nearby are readily available and often empty, with hosts who are very welcoming needing money for the local economy, and visiting off-season is also an option. We have always sought to explore such locations and strategies, as this article on Prague illustrates.
  See the Responsible Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Senior Travel
  Among the most noticeable features about current global travel trends are both the age and the sheer numbers of mature men and women taking active, adventurous vacations with a healthy learning and service focus. Whether short-term vacations or retirement sojourns, Senior Travel Editor Alison Gardner is looking for 50 to 80-year-olds to write about ecological, educational, cultural, and volunteer travel. Topics may include home stays and hospitality exchanges, international tours with substance, educational programs, and service-learning.
  See the Senior Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Solo and Group Woman Travel
  More and more women are traveling solo or with other women. Submissions should emphasize the many advantages of solo and group travel along with precautions regarding health and safety, or other issues.
  See the Women Travel section for examples.
  
  
• Student Travel: High School, Gap Year, and College
  The first exposure to travel is often as a teen and college student, and an experience overseas is therefore often all the more intense and transformational. We seek practical yet inspirational articles which describe summer, semester, or longer-term travel abroad which have resulted in a change in the perception of others and of yourselves through immersion in the culture you have visited. All such travel is inherently educational.
  See the Teen Travel and Study and Student-to-Student sections for examples.
  
  
• Travel to Eat and Drink: Culinary Travel
  Culinary vacations are growing in popularity. Movements such as Slow Food® highlight how food provides a connection to the land from which it is produced. Details of culinary travels and off-the-beaten-track discoveries of local food are welcome. Since wines are being cultivated in more and more regions of the world, wine tours — whether in small groups or solo — have long been one of the most relaxing ways to travel. Detailed itineraries describing wine tours, including references to the people, land, and foods which accompany the experience are ideal.
  See the Travel to Eat section for examples.

The working abroad section deals with the many ways travelers choose to support themselves while living abroad for an extended period abroad. For many, the work is not an end-in-itself, but provides the possibility for a more deeply rewarding experience through immersion in a foreign culture. For others, international employment is a great way to build a global resume.

Articles in this section should provide the practical information necessary to prepare for and to find work abroad of both a long- and short-term nature. A discussion of the process by which work permits are applied for and obtained for each of the following types of jobs — if such is not covered in a program you have participated in — is much appreciated and is of great use to those who are looking for work abroad in a new country.

Writers are encouraged to include an evocation of the particular culture or the experience of cultural immersion or culture shock within the context of an information-based article. Articles which discuss working within the context of living abroad are of great interest, as many who take jobs overseas do so in order to experience another culture in the everyday basis where interaction with locals is constant.

As always, the inclusion of annotated links and resources useful for others are greatly appreciated and increase the likelihood of publication.

• Teaching English Abroad
  As the world rushes to acquire English, the new lingua franca of international commerce, diplomacy, and higher education, the bulk of job opportunities abroad are for English teachers. In many cases, your credential is simply being a native speaker of the English language. Increasingly, however, a college degree and a TEFL Certificate obtained onsite or online from a reputable organization is necessary to find the most desirable jobs and receive the best pay.
  In this section, we seek various practical articles and Participant stories, which ideally take the form of mini-guides recounting your experiences teaching or relating to specific issues about teaching English abroad.
  Here are some sample questions you might wish to consider depending on what you feel will be most valuable to share with others seeking to learn TEFL and to work (and live) as a teacher abroad:
  • How did you prepare to become an English teacher? Did you obtain a certificate to teach English? If so which organization provided the training and what was the type of the certificate? Was your certificate obtained onsite abroad or online? Did the program help you with job placement and visas?
  • What were your experience(s) teaching and living in a country overseas either through an consulting firm, TEFL training program with job placement, or as a freelancer?
  • What motivated you to want to teach English?
  • How did you research and find your position?
  • Was your experience a positive one?
  • What were your experiences regarding cultural immersion? Did you ever fully adapt to your new home abroad as you taught? Was the host country hospitable to you? Do you have advice for others on adaptation?
  • Had you already visited the country, or did you learn to appreciate it while in there?
  • How did you fund your training or trip abroad?
  • Can you provide anecdotes relating to your experience abroad which will offer insight to others who wish to follow your footsteps?
  • If you are still in teaching overseas, have you found other options to develop a career in the host country through networking and your presence?
  • If you have returned to your home, did the experience help you in developing your career?
  • Tell us what you think are the top countries to teach English, provided you have worked in more than one.
  • What were the most positive (and sometimes negative) aspects of teaching in a given country or to the people you were teaching?
    See the Teaching English Abroad section for featured writing examples.
    
    
• Volunteer Work Abroad
  A popular and rewarding way to extend a trip abroad is to exchange work for free room and board. In many cases, volunteer programs may be quite comprehensive — including language learning, internships, excursions, etc. — and the cost is correspondingly higher. Many volunteer programs are excellent ways to combine or extend your travels with participation in a useful service, which some refer to as volunteer vacations or voluntourism. Some volunteer service is best served by well-trained individuals, such as long-term care for children, while other activities require less training and are a source of learning to help you in future volunteering activities. Articles by participants in the Peace Corps or issue-related articles by other dedicated long-term volunteer veterans are welcome. We seek:
  • First-hand practical reports relating to your experience in a country overseas, including the research methods you used to find the program or organization you chose. Would you choose different methods or tools to find a program now if you were to volunteer again?
  • The top countries in which to volunteer, meaning where you feel you can make the most difference.
  • The top organizations you would recommend for a given country, region, or worldwide.
  • How to find the most responsible and effective programs.
  • Any theme or country-related theme you think would be valuable to others who wish to volunteer overseas.
  • Has volunteering abroad resulted in a learning experience which changed your life in general and in your current life? Do you continue to volunteer even when back at "home?"
  • Discussions about issues such as volunteer vacations, and how they impacted you and the host community in a meaningful manner.
    See the Volunteer Abroad section for featured writing examples.
    
    
• Internships Abroad
  The best time to seek work abroad and to prepare for an international career is while you are a student or soon after graduation (though some internships also exist for those seeking a career change.) Please tell us why you sought an internship abroad:
  • For the adventure of learning, working, and living abroad?
  • As a chance to gain in-depth knowledge of another culture and yourself through immersion?
  • As an inexpensive way to improve foreign language proficiency?
  • As preparation for an international career?
  • First-hand reports on how to do this and more are welcome, as are thematic articles by interns.
    See the Internships Abroad section for featured writing examples.
    
    
• Short-Term Work (Student/Summer/Seasonal Jobs)
  Your experience in finding and maintaining a short-term job abroad is of great interest to our readers, especially as a way to extend your stay. You should include resources and practical information on how readers can find a similar work experience.
  • First-hand articles about your experience on jobs ranging from crewing a yacht to leading an adventure tour to freelance travel writing and publishing to working abroad as a journalist
  • What you consider the top short-term, seasonal or summer jobs?.
  • The pros and cons of particular jobs around the world.
  • Tips on how to make the most of your job to combine work with travel and pleasure.
  • How to find a short-term job in a country which will be meaningful.
  • Opportunities for creating your own work as a freelancer or entrepreneur.
  • Any other ideas or tips you may have regarding short-term, seasonal, and summer jobs abroad.
    See the Short-Term Work section for featured writing examples.
    
    
• Teaching K-12 and University
  Travelers with K-12 certification have a broad range of options for teaching abroad. Articles in this section include work in private international schools, Department of Defense schools, teacher exchange programs, and volunteer organizations. Topics of interest include:
  • First-hand evaluations of your experiences while teaching.
  • Tips for those who wish to find such teaching jobs.
  • Issues regarding teaching overseas in K-12 and University settings.
    See the Teaching Abroad section for featured writing examples.
    
    
• International Careers
  In many cases, international careers are sought and found as a result of previous travel, study or short-term work abroad. Submissions should focus on your experience securing long-term jobs abroad and discussing ways to prepare for a successful overseas career.
  • What inspired your choice for an international career?
  • How did your travels, study, or any previous experience living abroad prepare you for an international career?
  • Did your international career start from the U.S.? Emphasize practical information and insights based on experience (which may include international work in the U.S.)
  • What do you see as trends in international careers, e.g. the movement towards freelancing abroad or working as an entrepreneur?
  • Issues relating to getting your international career going.
  • Are international careers possible while living in your home country as the global economy expands?
    See the International Careers for featured writing examples.

The best way to learn about a country and its culture is to live there (or short of that to travel like a local). For longer stays, nothing beats exchanging your home for a comparable home abroad or renting or buying a vacation home. Often you may extend your stay by working or studying in the host country as well, so living, working, and studying abroad are often inextricable.

Making a move to live abroad is for many the ultimate transition — often the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, in other cases the result of chance and circumstance. We are seeking inspiring articles which also provide in-depth practical descriptions of your experience moving and living abroad, including discussions of immigration and necessary visas, personal and family life abroad, housing, work, social interactions with the natives, food, culture, study, language learning, and potential prejudices encountered.

Apart from practical considerations what were the most significant physical, psychological, and social adjustments necessary to integrate into the local communities? Feel free to include anecdotes about locals who may have aided in your adjustment to the physical conditions and social mores of the host community, as well as the role of other expatriates in providing information and support.

A listing or reference to the most relevant websites, publications, and other resources which have aided you in the cultural adjustment process or enhanced your current life abroad is necessary to help others who may find themselves in similar situations or even similar locations. Such sidebars should include supporting details and resources that are not in the body of the article.

As always, we do not seek pure narratives, novels, or highly personalized blogs, but your own perspective in which the host country and people remain the primary focus, such that the culture stays in the foreground.

See the Living Abroad section for many examples. Please write on this subject if you have experience.

TransitionsAbroad.com’s student section deals specifically with learning and studying abroad for pre-college, college, and graduate students, as well as living, working, and volunteering abroad for this same audience of 17 to 25-year-olds. Articles should be 750-2,000 words. All student-written articles are eligible for consideration in the annual Transitions Abroad Student Writers Contest with a grand prize of $500 (please make a note if you wish for your submission to be considered in the contest).

To see a collection of articles recently published by Transitions Abroad go to the Study Abroad section of our site or see our annual Student Travel Writing Contest winners.

Well-researched supporting material and annotated web links in sidebars significantly increases the likelihood of publication; we cannot emphasize enough the importance of providing others practical information which they can use.

Articles should focus on practical, usable information based on personal experience. Think about what you were looking for when you were planning to travel and study abroad. The general guidelines for articles in this section are the same as for our Student Travel Writing Contest (with a grand prize of $500 and other cash prizes of $150/$100/$50) a page on which you can see some excellent examples of winners.

One of the most important considerations in travel overseas is learning the local language(s) through immersion. The section consists of first-hand reports on language-learning vacations or study for credit. Such experience often include home stays and other cultural immersion activities that travelers might find difficult to organize on their own.

See Language Learning sections of our site for college-age and above examples. Please write on this subject if you have experience.

Teen high school years are critical in the development of global experience. We publish articles on group programs and some independent travel, summer programs and camps, language classes, adventure programs, volunteer programs, and teen high school study abroad, along with exchange programs. Recently, taking a gap year is gaining wide acceptance and popularity by some of the top academic institutions in the country as a way to prepare high school graduates to get the most out of their college and university experience. We seek writing reflective of your experience, research, and recommendations of programs that have provided you changes in perspective and expanded your view of the world.

See the Teen High School Study Abroad section for examples of both expert advice and first-hand accounts — both of which are invaluable to our audience. Please write on this subject if you have experience.

Articles

Documents should be addressed to webeditorial@transitionsabroad.com. Please attach only Microsoft Word or link to Google documents and Cloud-hosted images. Your contact information, including your name, address, phone number, and email address should appear on the first page of the document. Please attach a headshot. Please do not paste the article text to the body of an email.

Photos to Illustrate Articles

Please include a minimum of 3-5 high-resolution photos, preferably more, in an age where images are considered a critical component necessary to draw readers into an article.

Please provide a link to your high-definition photos you have uploaded and stored in secure Cloud storage sites such as Google Drive, etc. with the appropriate permissions so that we may have view and download access.

Important Submission Considerations

We purchase First World Electronic Rights; rights to the unedited content revert to writers six months after publication. However, we reserve the right to reprint published articles in part or whole on our website or in our newsletter.

• Please read our Writer's Guidelines carefully and browse through some of our featured articles for examples of style and content.
  
  
• Our experience is that in-depth articles are currently preferred by our audience. Please be concise and fact-driven, but do elaborate enough to tell a story, while ideally incorporating practical "boxouts." There has been a superabundance of travel content produced in the past few years, so articles that go in-depth are now being recognized and rewarded. (1250-3000+ total words often work best, with high-resolution photos, infographics, and even videos if you have them.)
  
  
• Please check that your submission allows the story to tell itself as would a journalist, inclusive of as many links to relevant and useful information as possible.
  
  
• Initial response time to manuscripts is usually about 1-2 weeks if your piece is a good fit for our current requirements (due to the large volume of submissions we receive). If we do not respond within two weeks, we likely have no space for the piece and you should submit it to other publications. Please do not take this personally in any way, as we receive far too many submissions to publish. Feel free to send another pitch in the future if you think it is in-line with an important gap in our coverage.
  
  
• Please do NOT submit to us previously published travel writing and material; we are looking for first-time rights for original articles and will conduct an automated web search to verify originality.
  
  
• Please include a biographical note at the end of each submission. You may include a head-shot photo of yourself and a link to your blog/website or your primary social media account.
  
  
• Please include your name and email address on at least the first page of your manuscript.
  
  
• In these times, social media marketing knowledge and experience is more important than ever for exposure. Please try to ensure that you, as a paid travel writer, do your part marketing your published work, just as we will.

Our team of talented contributors consist of professional travel writers, freelance travel writers, and passionate travelers with practical information and inspirational ideas to share; we are interested in useful and inspirational first-hand information, and certainly appreciate engaging writing that requires minimal editing.

• We are always looking for experienced published writers to become regular columnists or contributing editors. Payment to regular columnists or contributing editors with extensive experience is by agreement and negotiable.
  
  Experienced and widely published writers may submit specific queries along with a link to their writing portfolio.
  
  
• Experienced freelancers are welcome to send submissions "on spec" after carefully reading some of our featured articles to understand our editorial preferences and ensure you are not writing an article on content previously covered.
  
  Unlike many other websites that do not offer payment at all, or minimal payment, Transitions Abroad will pay a fee for each submission. Transitions Abroad has a long history of being a springboard for up-and-coming travel writers. We will offer guidance, if requested, as part of the concept to editing to publication to the marketing process.
  
  Please send us a link to your portfolio of articles, relevant posts, or even your blog so we can see examples of your work. A portfolio site is essential both to help you market yourselves as travel writers and for all publishers evaluating your work, and will increase your chances of publication since your work can be seen at a glance.
  
  
• All first-time submissions are considered "on spec."
  (If you an experienced travel writer, you may send us a detailed query and a link to your writing portfolio before proceeding to write a piece based on mutual agreement.)

Payment for website articles is made promptly after our acceptance and your signed agreement.
Payment is made via PayPal.
We never publish an article prior to your compensation.