Having reported from 120 countries on 7 continents, Robin’s stories and photography have appeared in over a dozen major publications including The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, The Melbourne Age and National Geographic. A former columnist for Canada’s Globe and Mail, MSN, and Vancouver Sun, Robin is the creator and co-host of Word Travels, a 40-part TV series syndicated on National Geographic and Travel Channel International worldwide. He is the international bestselling author of six books, including The Great Global Bucket List, The Great Canadian Bucket List, and The Great Australian Bucket List. Robin has delivered keynotes at hundreds of events, and his TEDx travel talk has over 1.1 million views. Robin won a Lowell Thomas Gold Medal Award for Best Blog, adding to several writing awards from the SATW and TMAC. He is currently a Contributing Editor, Travel Ambassador and bi-weekly Columnist for Canadian Geographic, where he focuses on unique experiences, exotic family travel, and bucket list adventures.
How did you get started traveling?
I’d backpacked a fair amount in my 20s, but things only really kicked off in 2005, when a car drove through a stop sign at a Vancouver intersection and smashed into my bike. I was very lucky to hobble away with just a broken kneecap. Later that year, I received an insurance settlement for $20,000 – not $2 million, or $200K, but life changing money doesn’t have to have nearly as many zeroes as you think. The accident was a wake-up call to act on my dreams, and the settlement was just enough for me to go backpacking around the world for a year. I returned home 12 months and 24 countries later, broke, but addicted to travelling and writing about my adventures. Two decades later, I’ve now been to 120 countries on 7 continents, and built a career in travel media that nobody expected, least of all me.
How did you get started writing?
One of the biggest gifts in life is to figure out what you’re good at early. I started reading early and quickly figured out I could write my thoughts better than I could think them.
I went to university for journalism, and got published as a student, but fell into the exciting world of digital media straight out of school, building media websites in the late 1990s dot-com boom. I did some writing here and there, and worked in the music industry for a few years, doing communications for some major acts and working in artist development. My professional writing career only took off when I went on my big round-the-world adventure and decided to record it with weekly long-form posts. Today we’d call it a blog, although blogs were rare back then, and even today don’t usually consist of 5000-word posts. I wrote prolifically because there was so much to write about.
What do you consider your first “break” as a writer?
I pitched the travel editor at the Vancouver Sun newspaper the idea of a column that would follow my backpacking adventure around the world. It was a cold email, and a very lucky break when she replied to my query, asked for examples of my writing, loved what she saw, and ultimately said yes. I’ve since learned that lucky breaks are aligned with timing, opportunity, hard work and perseverance. And, occasionally, unlicensed drivers.
As a traveler and fact/story gatherer, what is your biggest challenge on the road?
Explaining to people both inside and outside the tourism industry that I’m doing a job and not a permanent holiday. It might look like I’m on holiday, and I definitely enjoy myself, but I’m mentally working all the time, recording observations, facts and ideas, and taking a lot of images and video. There are deadlines, and I’m usually on someone else’s schedule. We’re essentially business travelers, it’s just that our business happens to be leisure.
What is your biggest challenge in the research and writing process?
Finding stories that work for my schedule and editorial needs. It’s not as easy as one would think, especially juggling other projects, deadlines, and domestic life with two kids. I get pitched a lot of stuff that doesn’t work, and not nearly enough of the stuff that does.
What is your biggest challenge from a business standpoint?
I struggle a lot with gratuities. I appreciate service folks depend on tips for their livelihoods, but since tips on assignment are seldom covered, the expectation to constantly tip is awkward because it often adds up to more than what I earn on a story. I did a luxury cruise story recently where the suggested gratuity was 5x what I got paid for my work. When I tipped what I could, wiping out all revenue for the story, the staff still gave me funny looks. I’ve yet to get a receive gratuities from an editor or reader (and I hope it never comes to that). To keep everyone happy, I strongly feel DMOs and PR firms should cover tips for writers on assignment.
Have you ever done other work to make ends meet?
From Day One. Having written for top national newspapers, magazines and online portals, I’ve yet to see a syndicated Canadian column cover the bills. Travel writers today have to wear a lot of hats: social media, consulting, broadcasting, content creation, marketing, speaking, sponsorship. The writing part is easy, it’s the hustle of everything else that’s a lot of work.
What travel authors or books might you recommend and/or have influenced you?
There were definitely few books that planted the bug. Tom Robbins hit me like an inspirational freight train in my early 20s. His stories are all journeys of personal discovery, and often feature descriptions of places so vivid you can live in them. Years later I was fortunate to have Robbins mentor me for my own novel (yet to be published). I discovered Graham Hancock in the mid 1990s, and his earlier work inspired my curiosity to travel, learn and explore. There’s Bill Bryson, of course, for the everyman humor, and Hunter S. Thompson – the godfather of journalism grads – who recalibrated the genre to put writers into the story. My first column and website was called Modern Gonzo, and I still mostly write in first-person.
What advice and/or warnings would you give to someone who is considering going into travel writing?
It’s not a living, it’s a lifestyle. Low-paying, hyper competitive, full of personal sacrifices, and yet you can’t fault the perks. Don’t get sucked into the idea that you’re going to be on a permanent holiday. It’s a ton of work and uncertainty. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of folks come in hot and burn out fast. Beyond the writing and the travel, you’ve got to keep sticky fingers in a lot of warm pies. Get used to rejection, and when you start taking things for granted – the fantastic service, meals and hotels – you should probably find something else to do.
What is the biggest reward of life as a travel writer?
I’ve done everything I’ve ever wanted to do, about four times over. My biggest reward is inspiring a largely anonymous audience to embrace and discover the world with a positive perspective. There’s a lot of negative, bad news out there, it’s baked into the media business model. But here we are, fighting the good fight, sharing our tales to show the world is a lot friendlier, safer and more beautiful than people think. If just one person is inspired to go on a journey because of something I wrote, it will positively ripple through their human experience, the people they touch, and the economy in so many ways. Not far behind all this is the opportunity to show the world to my kids, which I hope inspires a life of curiosity, open-mindedness, adventure, connection, and wisdom.