Today, I’m going to mix things up a bit and bring you something different. We’re going to move to the world of travel blogging, where I’ve got a great interview from a well known travel blogger from London, named Chris Sharpe. Chris specializes in visiting locales from around the world to bring his readers perspective on local culture, bars and clubs as well as his travel highlights. It’s a life many dream of and Chris is doing it.
Chris, thanks for taking the time to participate in this interview and best of luck to you with all your future travels. I hope to read about your adventures long into the future!
If you’d like to find out more about Chris, you can visit his blog, Make New Tracks, or follow him on Twitter.
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1. Can you please tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I’m a travel blogger with a serious passion for craft beer, adventure and photography. I first realised I wanted to write about travel when I went on a post-university gap year around Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and fell in love with the idea of being a long-term backpacker. Fast forward a few years and I may not be a full time blogger yet, but I travel more than I ever have and run a blog called Make New Tracks, where I share travel stories, tips and advice about world travel and London life to help inspire and inform my readers.
2. Where do you call home?
I’ve settled in London for the moment, due to its perfect proximity to Europe. Being in the city allows me to have a full time job and still plan plenty of long trips and weekend city breaks frequently throughout the year; the best of both worlds in my opinion!
3. When did you first realize that you wanted to get into travel blogging and how long have you been involved with it?
Like I mentioned previously, I came up with the idea on my gap year. I would tell people I met that I was a wannabe novelist, after which they would question why I didn’t have a blog. I sorted that situation pretty quickly and fell in with the awesome travel blogging community in London, where I gradually improved my blog with great advice from friends and blogging experts. I’ve been blogging for about two years now, but Make New Tracks in its current form is probably only around a year old.
4. What is your favorite part of heading out to a new location?
I’m actually not huge on planning – ask my girlfriend – but my favourite thing to do in a new place is both to get to the highest vantage point in the city, and also to enjoy a local beer. It helps break me in to a new destination and get a, literal, taste of what the area is like.
5. From reading through your website, I see that you’ve been to a number of locales. Which would you say is your favorite and why?
It’s always hard to choose a favourite, but one of my most treasured recent trips was when I visited Malta with my girlfriend earlier this year. It’s one of those places with a reputation for being a package holiday spot for Brits who want to tan, but it’s so much more than that. Besides boasting some of the oldest Megalithic temples in the world, the island is bursting with incredible architecture, some of the most amazing food I’ve ever tasted and jaw droppingly beautiful beaches.
6. Which is the worst place you’ve ever visited and why?
I once visited Paris when I was much younger and I was massively disappointed with the experience. I found the city very dirty and the people quite rude. I’ve been thinking about heading back to see if my opinion of the city can be changed, as I think every destination can be enjoyed and deserves a second chance.
7. To date, which of your posts has been the most popular?
At the moment, my most popular post is my guide to Tallinn. I visited the city earlier this year when the snow was on the ground and the whole city was virtually empty. Estonia is one of those destinations that is often overlooked, and I hope that my readers enjoyed the post because it showed that there are plenty of places in eastern Europe that are just as beautiful as Rome and Barcelona.
8. How do you stay motivated to keep writing about your travels?
I love to write. It’s something I do every day of my life and being able to share something I am so passionate about is something I find very rewarding. It can certainly be hard to juggle blogging with a full time job, but if you surround yourself with inspiring people, it pushes you to do your best.
9. What advice could you offer someone who would like to break into the world of travel blogging?
There is absolutely no fast results with travel blogging. The ones who last in the industry are those who stick to their set targets, whether you’re publishing once a day or once a month. Definitely invest in yourself, getting a logo, or website designed is your first step to being considered a professional, and travel companies will take you more seriously. Overall, the most important thing to remember is why you started blogging in the first place – to have fun and share stories.
10. Are there any areas of the world that you’d still like to visit and write about?
There are many, many places I still have on my list I’ve yet to visit! I have yet to step foot in Africa and America, where I feel South Africa and Machu Picchu calling, and I have a huge thing for Eastern Europe at the moment. I love to write about Asia because it’s so fantastically diverse and such an exciting, alive place to visit, so I know I won’t be able to keep away for long. For now however, I am exploring the best home-grown locations in the UK, European city breaks and bringing my readers some cool London tips.
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