70+ content templates for your travel-writing assignment

Don’t be lost for ideas

Who doesn’t want to travel the world, chronicle their adventures, and get paid for it? Just like how PiKu aspires to in my book PiKu & ViRu? (Buy/download, read, and review it here—it’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited!)

Such a role is truly the best job on Earth, straight out of a dream. But as Uncle Ben said in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. If you set out for your trip without a content plan, you’ll never know what to look out for that you can write about.

What you need is a handy content list you can use for your research and create a travel plan with before you leave. While, of course, we all want that stroke of serendipity to shine upon us, I’ve realised it doesn’t really show up if you don’t have a strategy at the ready. Moreover, besides travelogues, why not also help readers with short, snappy articles comprising accessible and approachable information? Especially by giving your own unique spin to the same old templates? Even SEO will agree.

Here are all the topics you can cover. Feel free to pick whatever is applicable based on the destination, your itinerary, trip duration, and budget:

1. Good ol’ travelogue

2. Destination guides

3. Airport guides

4. Itineraries (incl. for stopovers)

5. What to see & do (usual + offbeat)

6. What to see & do with kids

7. What to see & do for solo travellers

8. What to see & do for couples

9. What to see & do for LGBTQ+ travellers

10. What to see & do for free

11. What to see & do at a place during a particular season (e.g. flowers in spring, skiing in winter, fall colours)

12. Highlights of a particular museum or art gallery (for time-starved travellers)

13. Must-dos for adventure lovers

14. Fitness regimes for specific experiences (e.g. a particular trek, marathon, altitude)

15. Side & day trips

16. Newly opened attractions

17. Best stays

18. Best budget stays (or within a particular price range)

19. Best luxury stays

20. Best homestays

21. Best serviced apartments

22. Best hostels

23. Best Airbnbs

24. Best stays for business travellers

25. Romantic stays

26. Best kid-friendly stays

27. Best pet-friendly stays

28. Best stays for LGBTQ+ travellers

29. Best eco-friendly stays

30. Best newly opened stays

31. Rooms with a view

32. Hotel comparison table

33. Hotel reviews/previews

34. What to eat & drink

35. Where to eat & drink

36. Best new restaurants/bars/cafés

37. Where to eat & drink in a particular area of a destination (e.g. Chandni Chowk, Bandra, Indiranagar)

38. What to eat & drink in a particular area of a destination

39. Veg, vegan, and Jain food

40. Best farm-to-table/eco-friendly meal experiences

41. Where to have a particular local food/beverage (e.g. where to eat the best biryani in Hyderabad, Mumbai’s tastiest vada pavs, best hot chocolate in Switzerland)

42. Best breakfasts

43. Best street food

44. Best tea/coffee experiences

45. Best rooftop restaurants/bars/cafés

46. Meals with a view

47. Profiling a particular local food/drink/ingredient

48. Where to find Indian food in a particular destination

49. Best home meals

50. Recipes of local foods

51. Best swimming pools (incl. those with a view)

52. What to shop and bring back as souvenirs

53. Where to shop

54. Best spas and wellness resorts

55. Where to party

56. Local transport modes—best road trips, best boat rides, best train journeys

57. Phrases to know

58. What to pack

59. Local etiquette + dos and don’ts (can be extended to experiences such as Japanese tea ceremonies, Russian vodka drinking, English afternoon tea)

60. Travel tips by local insiders

61. Explainers to local aspects (e.g. what is foie gras, what is thangka, why are the Egyptian Pyramids triangular in shape and not any other)

62. Photo essay

63. Photography tips (esp. for phenomena such as Northern Lights, sunsets, Great Wildebeest Migration)

64. Personal experiment (e.g. I’m scared of heights and I went skydiving in New Zealand; this is what happened)

65. Confessions and ‘Overheard at’

66. Quirks & oddities

67. Local people who everyone should know about

68. Local festivals and events calendar

69. Local folklore, tales & myths

70. Local typography, signboards, truck messages, typos & bloopers

71. Life lessons from your trip

72. Fun facts (like ‘Things you didn’t know’)

73. Travel quizzes

74. A destination, area, or hotel in ‘numbers’

75. Books to read before going to a particular destination

76. Movies shot at a particular destination