You’re Always Writing About Someone’s Home: Travel Writing, Press Trips and the Reality of Freelance with Rosie Bell

Send us Fan MailThe travel stories you love rarely come from “perfect” trips. They come from patience, ethics, and a lot of unseen work. We sit down with Rosie Bell, an award-winning travel writer, editor, and educator whose bylines span BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveler, Wired, Forbes Travel Guide, Lonely Planet, and more. Rosie shares how she stumbled into travel journalism after moving to Panama, then turned one paid essay into a career built across Latin America and beyond.We talk about the rule that guides her reporting: you’re always writing about someone’s home. That one idea changes how you interview people, describe places, and decide what not to include. Rosie also opens up about the less glamorous side of being a freelance travel writer: pitching without pay, working alone, managing admin, and staying resilient as the travel media landscape shifts with layoffs, smaller budgets, and fewer outlets buying freelance stories.Then we get practical about press trips and travel PR. Rosie explains why she built Press Trip Pros, a matchmaking platform designed to align publicists, brands, and tourism boards with journalists and creators who are actually a fit. You’ll hear what makes a press trip great, why writers turn invitations down, how group trips compare to solo trips for deeper storytelling, and what a PR pitch needs to earn a real reply.If you care about travel writing, travel journalism, press trips, pitching, and the future of freelance work, this conversation delivers clear takeaways you can use right away. Subscribe, share this with a friend in media or PR, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.Rosie’s portfolio siteRosieBell.netPress Trip ProsPressTripPros.comInstagram@thebeachbellRosie’s booksEscape to SelfThe Art and Business of Travel Writing