10 Publications That Pay You for Travel Writing

Get paid for your travel writing! Fund your adventure, literally, writing about what you love doing the most. If you are already a travel blogger, you’ll be used to writing just for the fun of it. We do it because we love blogging, creating content, and every blog post we write can support a career we believe in.

If you love writing about travel, you can also get paid for it. These are real travel writing opportunities, the magazines and websites that pay freelance writers, with what each one wants, who they serve, how much they pay, and how to pitch them, based on their latest public guidance. Writing is just one of the many ways to fund your travels and work from anywhere.

This is a list for writers looking for paid work. If you are looking to hire a travel writer, this is not that page.

Checked 1 August 2026: every outlet below was re-checked against its own submissions page. Two had changed status since the last update and one had moved its pitch page, all corrected below. Rates and terms change, so always confirm before submitting.

What travel writing actually pays

Rates run from about $30 a piece to $1,000, and the gap is mostly about how much reporting the outlet expects. The quick version:

Outlet	What it pays	Best for
Hidden Compass	$550 a story, $1,000 for photo features, plus 50% of patronage proceeds	Reported literary features
Horizon Guides	From £200 for features, from £400 for guides	In-destination expertise
Listverse	$100 per accepted list	Researched listicles
Transitions Abroad	$75 to $150 (currently closed)	Practical how-to from abroad
Go World Travel	$30 to $40	Building your first clips
International Living	One-time rate, not published	Living and retiring overseas
Matador Network	Commissioned, rate set by brief	Stories with a strong angle
Verge Magazine	Small flat fee, not published	Purposeful travel
Intrepid Times	Pays all accepted writers, rate not published	Narrative travel writing
Wander With Wonder	Varies, paid within 30 days of publication	Destinations, food and drink

Two things worth knowing before you read on. The outlets that pay the most want reporting, not a trip diary. And the ones paying $30 to $100 are worth doing early, because a published clip is what gets the next editor to reply.

1) International Living

Focus
Living and retiring overseas. Practical, first person advice and insider guidance on places to move, cost of living, healthcare, visas, property, and day-to-day life.

Best for
Writers with on-the-ground experience. Profiles of people who have moved, actionable how-to advice, practical solutions, and healthcare stories grounded in real use.

What to pitch

• Magazine features that help readers live better for less abroad.
• “Solutions” pieces that answer specific questions with steps readers can act on.
• Profiles with strong quotes and a clear takeaway.
• Website pieces such as expat advice, listicles, itineraries, and step-by-step guides.
• US or Canadian expats abroad sharing a vivid slice of life.

Pay and rights
Payment is upon publication. The magazine buys all rights. If a photo of yours is used, they pay one-time use while you retain photo rights. Website and Postcards pay a one-time rate based on word count.

How to pitch

• Magazine: submissions@internationalliving.com
• Daily Postcards: postcards@internationalliving.com
• Website: digitaleditor@internationalliving.com
• Pitch page: https://internationalliving.com/about-il/write-for-il/

Quick tips
They are not a general travel magazine. Avoid broad sightseeing pieces. Be original, opinionated, and useful. Start with the most interesting moment, pack in actionable detail, and use direct quotes in profiles. Proofread before sending.

2. Verge Magazine

Focus
Purposeful travel. Living, working, studying, or volunteering abroad. Stories that help socially aware readers make meaningful choices overseas.

Best for
Writers with experience in international education, volunteering, work abroad, or community projects, and photographers with documentary sensibility.

What to pitch
Service pieces, features with a clear purpose angle, and reported guides that inform decisions. They also recruit “Bloggers in the Field” to document time abroad.

Pay and rights
They pay a small flat fee for accepted contributions. Exact rates are not listed on their public page.

How to pitch

• Read the contributor guidelines, then email contributing@vergemagazine.com
• Pitch page: https://www.vergemagazine.com/about/contributing.html

Quick tips
Pitch a focused idea with a defined reader outcome. Avoid self promotion and single organisation advertorial angles.

3. Horizon Guides

Focus
Extraordinary, experience led travel. Two main commission types: in depth activity guides and reported features for The Journal.

Best for
In destination experts, veteran travel journalists, and writers with several years of recent experience in a place or niche activity.

What to pitch

• Guides: Exhaustive, definitive coverage of a single activity within a destination, with concrete routes, places, logistics, and practical detail
• Journal features: Reported stories with people, stakes, and payoff. Not straight first person travelogues

Pay and rights

Guideline rates start at £200+ for features and £400+ for guides, adjusted by brief. Payment up to 30 days after acceptance.

How to pitch

• Email the editor with pitch headline and destination in the subject line
• Include your background and links to previous work
• Pitch page: https://horizonguides.com/journalists

Quick tips
Check what they have already covered. Bring a contrarian or under reported angle. Make the place or issue the protagonist, not you.

4. Go World Travel

Focus
Destination features and richly described stories that help readers experience a place. Also evergreen trend and tips reporting with an international perspective.

Best for
Clear, descriptive writers who can move beyond “how to get there” and into the smells, tastes, people, and local customs that define a destination.

What to pitch
Completed submissions in first person with professional tone. New angles on popular places, lesser known destinations, or unique adventures.

Pay and rights
Non exclusive online rights. Payment of 30 to 40 US dollars per accepted story or photo essay, on publication.

How to pitch

• submissions@goworldtravel.com
  with story title and destination in the subject
• Include your name, address, email, short bio, and links to previous work
• Pitch page: https://www.goworldtravel.com/submissions/

Quick tips
Avoid laundry list itineraries. Aim for vivid description, lively anecdotes, and straightforward language with curiosity.

5. Matador Network

Focus
Stories with a strong, specific angle across Travel, Culture, Outdoor, Food and Drink, Lifestyle, and Entertainment. Serviceable information readers can use, plus distinctive features with a clear why now.

Best for
Writers with original, specific ideas, and experience based pieces that deliver planning value or a new way of seeing a topic.

What to pitch
Pitch stories, not places. Each pitch should have a tight headline, audience relevance, and an angle that is not widely covered elsewhere. Current editorial needs are posted on the Matador Creators page.

Not seeking
Photo essays unless requested, profiles, bloggy or promotional copy, family travel, hotel roundups, destination guides done in house, pre trip pitches, or diary style narratives without broader takeaway.

Pay and rights
They commission paid editorial pieces. Rates vary by brief and are handled through the editorial team. Press trip disclosures are required.

How to pitch

• Use the pitch form or Matador Creators portal
• Pitch page: https://creators.matadornetwork.com/matador-network-pitch-guide/

Quick tips
Make the reader the focus. Include actionable elements that let readers experience what you wrote about. Disclose any conflicts and press trips.

6. Listverse

Focus
Listicles on unusual or fascinating topics. Offbeat, novel angles, hidden knowledge, misconceptions, unsolved mysteries, and surprising general knowledge.

Best for
Writers who can research and write tight, engaging entries with reliable sources. Native level English is required.

What to pitch
A completed list with a minimum of 10 items. Each item is one or two paragraphs and must include reputable sources.

Pay and rights
100 US dollars per accepted list, paid via PayPal only.

How to pitch

Submit via their online form: https://listverse.com/submit/

Worth knowing
They only accept submissions from writers in the US, UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Australia and South Africa, unless you have been published by them before. Lists run 1,500 to 2,000 words including the introduction, with at least 10 items.

Editor tips
Originality is essential.

7. Intrepid Times

Focus
Narrative travel writing with heart. Authentic, human stories that capture the essence of a place, moment, or journey. They publish both veteran and first time authors.

Best for
Writers who can tell a crafted literary story grounded in real experience, with scene, reflection, and a clear emotional arc.

What to pitch
A complete narrative travel story that feels personal yet resonates beyond the writer. Submissions are open to subscribers of their free newsletter.

Pay and rights
They pay all accepted writers. Specific rates are not listed publicly.

How to pitch

• Subscribe to their free travel writing newsletter, then submit per their instructions
• Pitch page: https://intrepidtimes.com/get-published/

Quick tips
Read recent pieces to calibrate tone and pacing. They try to respond to sincere submissions, but volume can affect response times.

8. Transitions Abroad (currently closed)

Focus
Meaningful, immersive travel: working, studying, living, and volunteering abroad. Practical, planning-focused articles rather than pure sightseeing.

Best for
Writers with genuine first-hand experience of work, study, volunteering, or living overseas who can turn it into actionable advice.

What to pitch
Practical how-to features on work, study, volunteer, and expat life abroad, packed with specific, usable detail. They also run annual writing contests worth entering.

Status
Their submissions page currently states they are not accepting submissions of any kind until a site revision has been rolled out. It reads as a pause rather than a closure, so it is worth checking back, but do not pitch them today.

Pay and rights
When open, 75 to 150 US dollars for articles in the 1,250 to 3,000+ word range, paid on acceptance.

How to pitch

• Read the writer’s guidelines, then email the editor with your idea
• Pitch page: https://www.transitionsabroad.com/information/writers/writers.shtml

Quick tips
Lead with practical value. They favour detailed, experience-based how-to over narrative, so show the reader exactly how to do what you did.

9. Wander With Wonder

Focus
Destination coverage, food and drink, and RV travel, written by contributors with first-hand knowledge of the places they cover.

Best for
Writers who can turn a trip into a useful, well-structured article and supply their own photos.

What to pitch
Travel, Destinations, Eat & Drink and RV Lifestyle pieces. Articles run roughly 1,200 to 3,000 words, with the exact length set on assignment. They do not want product reviews or shopping articles.

Pay and rights
Payment varies by assignment and is made within 30 days of publication. Every article carries your byline, photo, short bio, website and social links.

How to pitch

• Email a short pitch to editorial@wanderwithwonder.com with the subject line WANDER PITCH: [TOPIC]
• Put your proposed opening paragraph and the article concept in the body, no attachments and no finished manuscripts
• Link to published work and photo samples rather than attaching them
• Pitch page: https://www.wanderwithwonder.com/writer-guidelines/

Quick tips
Allow about 15 days for a reply. Leading with the opening paragraph is doing you a favour: it shows an editor your voice before they have to imagine it.

10. Hidden Compass

Focus
Literary travel journalism. True, deeply reported stories that dig into the spirit, culture, history, ecology, or people of a place.

Best for
Writers who can combine genuine literary storytelling with real research and reporting.

What to pitch
Narrative features and department pieces with a strong central story and the reporting to back it up. Not listicles, service pieces, or promotional copy.

Pay and rights
550 US dollars for a story and 1,000 for a photo feature, plus 50% of the proceeds from a 90-day reader patronage campaign after publication. Photos other than photo features are 75 dollars an image, and commissioned artwork is 450. The best-paying outlet on this list.

How to pitch

• Read the contributor guidelines closely, then pitch per their process
• Pitch page: https://hiddencompass.net/contributor-guidelines/

Quick tips
Read a few recent features first. They want literary craft, but the reporting and research have to be there too.

Note: Last checked 1 August 2026, against each outlet’s own submissions page rather than other people’s lists. GoNOMAD came off this list because it has stopped publishing new travel stories, and Transitions Abroad is flagged above because its submissions are paused. If you find one of these has changed, tell me and I will fix it.

Pre-pitch checklist

• Read three recent posts from the websites above, make sure their theme is right for you.
• Define a single angle.
• Note any section fit and typical length.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Pitching just place, not telling a story.
• Sending diary entries without reader value.
• Ignoring previously covered angles.
• Missing basic facts that a quick check would fix.

Travel writing jobs FAQ

How much do travel writers make?

Per piece, the outlets on this list run from about $30 to $1,000. Hidden Compass pays $550 a story and $1,000 for a photo feature. Horizon Guides starts at £200 for a feature and £400 for a guide. Listverse pays $100 a list. Go World Travel pays $30 to $40. Rates depend far more on how much reporting the outlet expects than on your experience, so a beginner who can genuinely report will out-earn a veteran filing trip diaries.

Can you make a full-time living from freelance travel writing?

From per-piece fees alone it is hard, because you are paid once per article and then start again. Most people who do this full time combine commissions with something that keeps paying: their own site, affiliate income, photography, or client work. That is the honest shape of it, and it is why the last section of this post exists.

Do you need experience or clips to get published?

Not for all of them. Go World Travel and Listverse both take completed submissions from writers with no track record, which is exactly why they are worth doing early. Horizon Guides and Hidden Compass want to see previous work. The usual route is to earn two or three clips at the lower rates, then use them to get a reply from the outlets that pay properly.

What is the difference between a pitch and a submission?

A pitch is an idea you send before writing, and the editor commissions it. A submission is a finished piece you send on spec, and they either take it or they do not. Horizon Guides, Matador and Hidden Compass want pitches. Go World Travel and Listverse want the finished thing. Sending the wrong one is the fastest way to be ignored.

How long should you wait before following up?

Most of these outlets publish a response window, and Wander With Wonder asks for about 15 days. If an outlet has not stated one, two weeks is reasonable before a single polite follow-up. Editors are not ignoring you on purpose, they are just buried.

Which outlets pay the most for travel writing?

On this list, Hidden Compass, then Horizon Guides. Both want reported work with a real story in it rather than a personal travelogue, which is the trade: the money is in the reporting.

If you would rather not pitch at all

Pitching editors is a skill, and it is also a queue. The alternative is publishing the same writing yourself and earning from it directly, which means affiliate income rather than a fee per piece. It pays nothing at first and then compounds, which is roughly the opposite shape to freelancing.

Awin is the network I have used longest for that, and it is where most of the travel brands worth working with actually sit. I go through how it fits together in my quick-start guide to affiliate marketing.

Neither route is better. Pitching pays sooner, publishing pays longer, and there is no reason not to do both.

Words aren’t the only thing editors pay for. If you shoot as well as write, here are websites that pay you for your travel photography so you can get paid for your content twice over.