Travel is the most popular way how the protagonist’s path is usually described in fiction literature. To write an essay that your teacher will love, describe your travel as an adventure story.
Follow the structure used by famous authors in their journey novels for your travel experience essay. If you read “Eat, pray, love” by Elizabeth Gilbert, “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the ring” by J.R.R. Tolkien or watch any episode of “Doctor Who” by BBC you will see that these masterpieces have much in common.
The starting point
They all begin with a description of the main character, how comfortable or uncomfortable he or she is now and what makes him or her think of the journey. To copy this structure, choose yourself as a protagonist and describe your travel as an adventure. Did you have any expectations concerning your journey? What were the initial terms for your trip?
You can start with something like “This must have become a plain summer vacation in our family house but it turned out to be a life-changing trip” to grab the attention of your reader.
The trial
Traveling is not comfortable. The true journey should take you out of your comfort zone. Like Anthony, Boudain used to say: “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
Tell how you’ve lost 10 pounds and had the brightest dreams in your life while sick with Malaria in Angola. Write on how you were deadly afraid of insects but managed to overcome your phobia while living in a jungle guest-house with a roof made of straws and leaves. Describe how you’ve been lost in India’s village with no Internet, and a local family slightly speaking English agreed to have you in their house. Tell how your vision of person’s rights has crossed with Turkish local traditions. Depict how you’ve spent a week in your van near the Bedouin tribe which was selling guns and drugs on the border of Egypt. Explain, how you had troubles with Israel police because of your stupid jokes. Or how you’ve broken your arm in the Thailand mountains as you decided to ride the bike in Bangkok without proper practice.
Let your essay on travel become a story about a trip that has changed your life.
Your conclusions
This is the main part of your essay about travel experience. Could watching Bangladesh people suffer from poverty made you an eco-activist who is against fast fashion? Did an on-your-own trip make you feel more in love with your friends and family than ever? Maybe, you saw how nice a belief in reincarnation might be on the example of Thai roads and the way drivers there respect each other? Could you’ve been startled with the fact that millions of people are living simultaneously when your airplane was in the night’s sky of Istanbul?
Every journey you take should make an impact on your soul. Take off the headphones from your ears, raise your eyes from your smartphone, try new food in the cafes for the locals, speak to strangers, and take every opportunity to dive deeper into the country’s culture, history, and traditions. Even visiting your aunt in Texas can have an enormous effect on your life. As you might suddenly understand how crucial a proper diet is and turn your academic path from management to nutrition.
What to read to get inspired for your essay about travel?
- “Around the world in 80 days” by Jules Verne
- “The painted veil” by Somerset Maugham
- “Ten days that shook the world” by John Reed
- “Gulliver’s travels” by Jonathan Swift
- “The end of eternity” by Isaac Asimov
- “Wild: a journey from lost to found” by Cheryl Strayed
- “On the road” by Jack Kerouac
- “Odyssey” by Homer
Along with multiple books and articles about various countries that will boost your imagination and make your brain create the brightest pictures, you can always go an easier path and watch some films and shows on traveling.
See the connection between food and travel in any show by Anthony Bourdain. Check out, how people differ from each other in various countries with Michael Palin’s shows. Explore the world and get astonished with the people’s challenging nature with Ewan McGregor and his “Long way round and long way down.”
And don’t forget that it is always better to see something for yourself rather than watching or reading others’ stories.
