Update Note: I originally wrote this blog post in 2023, after my first paid travel piece was published in 2022. Then Roadtrippers updated the piece in 2024.
One of the first things I did after finishing my 2022 road trip was to search for magazines that pay for travel stories. I landed on Roadtrippers, which is a magazine for people ready to hit the road and set out on their next adventure.
My pitch landed (super exciting!) and I published my first piece in Roadtrippers last year, chronicling my month-long minivan road trip.
The main reason I pitched Roadtrippers is because they weren’t looking for sophisticated personal essays or long literary pieces. Nope, Roadtrippers simply wants “real stories from real road trips” for their Voices from the Road column. And they pay $200 for these stories.
In other words, you don’t have to be a writer to get published in Roadtrippers. You just need a road trip story…and I bet you have one of those!
How to Pitch Your Travel Story to Roadtrippers
To get published in Roadtrippers, you first have to send Roadtrippers an email with your pitch for the Voices from the Road column. This may sound intimidating…but writing a pitch email is not as hard as it seems. Just click here to read the Roadtrippers pitch guidelines, and follow the instructions to the letter.
The important thing to keep in mind is to have a solid structure for your story first and write the pitch second.
Below is the actual email pitch I sent Roadtrippers for my story. This is NOT an amazing pitch you should use as a template (I was like 19 when I wrote it), but it serves as a good example if you aren’t familiar with pitching stories. Notice how I kept the pitch email simple and straight to the point, while still conveying personality. The numbered points and frequent spaces make it easy to read. Plus, you can see that I presented a solid structure for my article, not just a vague idea for the topic.
When writing your pitch try to include a brief overview of your road trip, an outline for your piece, samples of your writing, and a sentence or two about you personally.
Hi!
This summer I spent a month traveling from coast-to-coast in a minivan. My friend and I traveled over 8,000 miles, visited several National Parks, toured several cities, and did a lot of hiking. (Without any car accidents, amazingly.) After browsing through your magazine, I think my personal road trip story would be a good fit for Voices from the Road.
Suggested Title: A Month and a Minivan: My Trip Across the U.S. and Back
Suggested Basic Outline:
1. Intro - why I started on this trip
2. Our itinerary - overview of our road trip plan & stops
3. Minivan life - what it is like to live out of a minivan, sleep in the back, and have everything you need in your vehicle
4. Finding places to stay - where we stayed & camped during our road trip
5. Trip highlights - places I would absolutely love to go back to & would suggest as top destinations
Here are a couple links to blog posts I've written:
I am a freelance content writer and social media marketer, but lately I've been branching out more into travel writing. I enjoy long road trips, writing, and drinking too much coffee. I can't wait to hear back from you!
Thank you :)
Cassandra
What You Need to Include With Your Story
If your travel story gets accepted to Voices from the Road, you will be prompted to fill out a form. Make sure you fill out all of the details—especially the itinerary and images—so your story can be published without any issues.
Your full trip itinerary
In addition to the online magazine, Roadtrippers has an app for mapping out road trips. With each story you submit, they want you to write out your full list of destinations so they can map out your journey on the app and include it at the bottom of the article.
2. Pics from your trip
Yup, make sure you send in several pics from your trip highlights! It’s also helpful to make notes with each picture, indicating where each photo was taken. Otherwise, your photos might end up randomly-placed in the article, without matching the text. (Of course, I marked mine and they still randomly placed them.)
Tips for Writing About Your Road Trip
If you’ve never written a story about one of your road trips, it can be daunting to get started. I suggest you go to Voices from the Road and read several of the stories so you can get a feel for the writing style. As you’re writing your piece, try to stick to these 4 guidelines:
Give a basic overview of your trip. Since you’re writing to an audience that knows nothing about your trip, it’s always a good idea to write about your itinerary. You can do this a couple different ways. For example, if your piece is written as a story in chronological order, you may touch on each destination throughout the story. But if your story is structured more like an article with a main topic, you may want to cover your itinerary in a brief section at the beginning. It’s up to you and your story!
Have a main takeaway. Ok, but you can’t JUST talk about your itinerary. That would be boring! You also need a main topic or plot to unify your piece and give it value. For example, the main topic of my article was minivan camping. I talked about my experience living the minivan life for a month.
Keep it casual. You don’t have to write anything fancy. Casual language sprinkled with some humor is best. Write with personality to keep your readers engaged, and try to use strong imagery so your readers can picture all of the wonderful places you visited on your trip.
Focus on your personal experience. You are NOT writing a road trip guide. There are already tons of road trip guides on the internet, and you’re not trying to write another one. Instead, you’re just sharing your personal experience with other roadtrippers who are interested in where you went, what you did, and how it impacted you. So, relax and just be yourself!