If you find yourself afflicted with a serious case of wanderlust, we have a solution. Find out how you can become a travel vlogger without leaving your homeland!

As off-putting as the term sounds, having itchy feet is nothing to feel bad about. However, getting away has become pretty difficult since our friend Covid reared its ugly head.

What can you do if you’re someone who hates staying in one place too long? We all need to do our bit to keep each other safe, and a big part of that has been avoiding foreign travel. We’re beginning to see the return of live music events, and mixing on a broader scale is back as well.

But, depending on where you live, where you can travel to is still very limited.

If you love content creation and travel, you can still combine the two. You may have dreamed of documenting a lengthy railway trip across Europe, or filming footsteps across powdery white sand. Sure, the kind of content you make may be a bit different, but you can have some amazing adventures close to home!

Get the Gear

This goes for vlogging of any kind, in any place. You need to be prepared and have the right equipment to enable you to do your thing.

Some must-haves for any travel vlogger include a compass, a pith helmet, lucky rabbit’s foot… No, I’m being silly.

You could take those things, but most importantly you’ll need a decent camera. After all, the V in vlog stands for video. With lots of options out there, it can be difficult to know which is best for you.

A key thing to consider is the size and weight of any gear you take with you. If you’re planning a big hike across the fells, you’ll want to keep your pack light. Fortunately, cameras get smarter whilst simultaneously getting smaller.

Check out this video from GRRRLTRAVELER | Christine Kaaloa, breaking down her best camera gear for travelling.

Go Your Own Way

Like so many areas of the internet, travel vlogging is a very saturated market. There are tonnes of people doing the same thing. As a newbie, you’re going to struggle taking on a long-established vlogger and take their audience from them.

Finding your niche is vital when starting out, as you can carve out your journey right from the beginning.

Choosing to document travels closer to home, without heading to popular foreign tourist destinations, is already a strong start. But try adding in another element that will narrow down your niche further. If you’re a passionate rock climber, basing your trips around exciting climbing trips in your home country could be a good shout.

Or, perhaps you’re a serious wild camper (I’m talking no tent, foraging for dinner), and you want to show off your skills on some local adventures.

If you pick something you truly love, your passion will translate in your videos. Audiences enjoy watching people doing what makes them happy. So, just do whatever makes your heart sing, and you can’t go far wrong.

Think Small

If you’re a dreamer, you’re probably used to being told to “think big”. But, if you plan on travelling without crossing any major borders, you should take time to narrow your horizons. I know this sounds like the antithesis of the traveller’s ethos, but hear me out.

One important thing to consider if you want to become a travel vlogger is consistency. If you’re vlogging from Tokyo one week, and then a tiny seaside village in Cornwall the next, you’re going to struggle to nail down an audience.

Think about what things make where you live wonderful, and just how detailed you want to get with that. If you want to highlight everything the cities in your state has to offer, go for it. Or if you want to tour every single country pub in Wales, that’s great too!

There’s beauty to be found everywhere. You could even set yourself the challenge of only vlogging within a 20 miles radius. That’s niche and thinking very small, so it’s bound to intrigue people.

Redefine Travel

Now that you’ve started thinking small, you should try to redefine what travel means to you. Whenever someone says they went travelling, our minds instantly leap to India, Australia, trekking in the Andes.

But, the truth is, to travel is to go from one place to another. You travel to work, to the shops.

Don’t be put off becoming a travel vlogger because you think you need to hop on a plane to be legit. Equally, travelling doesn’t need to imply long stretches of time. A weekend, or even a night, away from home could still make an exciting, enjoyable video.

Grab your camera and just start filming. The more you do this, the more natural it will become, and you’ll be a pro in no time. Next time you head out on a one night camping trip just down the road, don’t forget to film it!

Check Out Other Vloggers

Standing on the shoulders of giants is something every successful person does. Even the most innovative and creative thinker has been influenced and inspired by someone who came before.

By keeping up to date with other travel vloggers, you can get a taste for what works and what audiences enjoy. You will benefit from even watching travel vloggers very different from you. Keeping an open mind often sparks fun ideas and lets creativity flow.

Beware though, if something is popular and being well-received, don’t be tempted to copy it completely. There’s no use reinventing the wheel. This point links back to going your own way. You could take a similar trip, you could even go to the exact same place, but remember to put your own spin on it.

One thing that all travel vlogs need, be they globe-trotting or walking distance, is good music.

Check out Synchedin, and start exploring a huge library of awesome royalty free music. All tracks have the sync license covered, meaning no copyright issues down the line. Filtering by mood and genre means finding the right track to fit your content is a breeze.

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