Travelers advise travelers
New travelogues are always welcome
Off The Beaten Track is always looking for new travelogues, no matter how many we already have published about a country. The Off The Beaten Track concept is: a free and accessible system of information, through which travelers who avoid the beaten tracks of mass tourism help each other in preparing trips or looking for new travel destinations. Also, see: About. Thus our motto: "travelers advise travelers."
All travelogues in this magazine are written by travelers like you and me. We are convinced that this yields the fairest and most honest as well as independent information. Information that is at least as good as anything you can find in the traditional media. Because nobody can experience a trip and a destination like the traveler him- or herself.
Moreover, we feel that these travelogues deserve as much (editiorial) attention as articles in the traditional media. Would you like to write a travelogue? We'll be happy to send you our Conditions of acceptance
Professional care
If you've ever surfed the net looking for travelogues about a certain destination, you know how hard and frustrating that can be. Much information is hardly accessible. And if you find it at all, it turns out to be the electronic equivalent of a series of picture postcards, with very personal information which reveals a lot about the travelers, but hardly anything about the destination. Or, alternately, after a paragraph it occurs to you that you're reading a disguised ad. In both cases, you haven't found out a lot about your travel destination.
Internet is a grown-up medium: surfers are looking for information of the same (or better) quality as that in other media. That is why Off The Beaten Track is not the umptieth site that turns out to be nothing more than a collection of links. We're more ambitious than that. We collect the best travelogues and give them the professional care they deserve before we publish them on our site.
Because we select only the best stories, because we have professional and meticulous editors, because our photo editors and web designers are professionals, travelogues published by Off The Beaten Track have all the qualities you'd like to see in stories about travelling: they are extremely readable travelogues, packed with information, written and edited with care. And the focus is always on the destination. We do not publish auto-biographies.
Our approach appears to fill a need: Off The Beaten Track is the fastest growing independent travel site. We're always looking forward to reading newly submitted travelogues. It also may be a nice thought that your own experience is helping other, like-minded people to prepare their trips.
Focus on the destination
Off The Beaten Track is looking for travelogues - with photos! - which focus on the destination and what you have seen and experienced there. Their focus could be on atmosphere and local color, but they could just as well be more like detailed route descriptions.
You don't have to be a literary writer to submit a travelogue. For a good travelogue it is much more important that you're a good observer and have an eye for what is specific and unique in your destination. You also have to provide a little context when you describe what you have seen and experienced. So, actually, everyone who travels well prepared and with an open eye and mind can write a good travelogue.
The length of published stories is between 2000 and 3000 words. It is not a problem if we have to reduce the size of the article. We'd rather have too much than too little information. The more information, the better the eventual travelogue. Keep in mind that we can shorten and edit a story, but we unfortunately can't duplicate your trip to add more experiences and observations. Of course, we will e-mail you your edited travelogue to get your consent for publishing the story.
We'll be happy to send you the Conditions of acceptance. A travelogue needs pictures, so we'll send you the instructions for submitting photos as well.
Important: If we already have a travelogue about your destination, that doesn't mean we're not interested in another. Don't hesitate to write your own travelogue: it will add to the rich spectrum of views that we want to present. No two people ever make the same trip, because every experience is unique and everyone is interested in different aspects of a place. It is exactly this diversity in stories and experiences that helps you form an adequate image of the place you want to visit.