From grammar and accuracy to description and emotion, this is what the editors are looking for.
Do you live to travel and want to inspire other travelers to do the same?
At World Nomads, travel is in our blood. It’s in our DNA. We believe adventurous travel is an essential part of our lives, and our goal is to inspire fellow nomads to explore their boundaries, travel informed, and do it as part of a connected global travel community.
Our Explore content inspires travelers to discover their next adventure with local insights on activities and experiences around the world. It should feel like advice from a knowledgeable, well-traveled friend.
Research is great (and getting the details right is important), but what we’re really looking for is your first-hand expertise and experiences, and we like our copy to be submitted in a first-person voice.
While sunsets, mountain vistas, and the sound of surf crashing on a white sand beaches are all important aspects of travel, we want your content to convey how that experience affected you. World Nomads content needs to have an element of travel “magic.”
And don’t forget, travel is a very sensory experience. It helps if your content also addresses sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, time, pain/pleasure, balance, temperature (to name a few).
When writing for World Nomads, please keep in mind the following: describe what you see and experience – what local people live there, what wildlife can be seen, tell us about the geography and scenery, what is the temperature, the weather, what does it feel like to be there. Bring the place to life for the reader as much as possible. Assume they know nothing.
If we are recommending our travelers visit a destination, we need to explain why – where is it, what is it, what’s there, what makes it an interesting place to travel? If it isn’t worth going to, don’t mention it.
We don’t just want a list of places to take a great selfie – we want you to report on and inspire authentic travel, the local connections that changed the way you view the world. Was there an opportunity to give back to a place you liked, what changed in you from what you saw and did?
Think of it like this: an ordinary traveler posts a photo of a mountain and talks about how majestic it is, how tall it is, where it is. A Nomad posts a photo of a mountain and talks about how being there made them feel, about the people they met, what they learned, and how having visited it has changed their life.
Our Travel Safety content informs travelers and helps them to stay safe while traveling. From common scams and crime concerns to strange laws and transport safety, these articles are written with an authoritative voice – but in a conversational tone, similar to the way you'd chat to your friends at the pub.
Before you submit any photos please download and read our photography guidelines. These guidelines aim to establish a consistent look and feel for photography used across World Nomads.
For the digital nomads out there connected to unstable Wi-Fi, here is a smaller version of the photography guidelines PDF.
Simplicity is key, but speak with authority – we are a wealth of knowledge, but we don’t waffle on. We get straight to the point, and speak with an understated, charismatic authority.
We are adventurous, not irresponsible – we love pushing the boundaries, and encouraging Nomads to go off the beaten track. However, our writing should encourage people to be responsible and respectful, and our advice should never impact the lives of locals, wildlife, or the environment.
Positive, with a dose of healthy cynicism – we should be aware that not everything in the world is shiny and happy. We’re realists who always question things. Our writing should encourage people to be respectful and take responsibility for their own actions, in a positive way.
Confident, not conceited – we’re worldly and we’ve seen lots of things, but we don’t act like conceited know-it-alls. When we do take a stand, we’ll do our best to inform without preaching, and encourage discussion.
Curious by nature – everything we write should encourage and stimulate curiosity, unleash passion, inform the reader, and drive a desire to know more.
Honest and authentic but not try-hard – everything we write should be honest and genuine. It should reflect the opinions of the author, not be driven by third party motivations, and this is made easier when we find contributors with the same voice as us.
We are storytellers.
Once you’ve finished writing, go back and check – your copy should feel distinctly like World Nomads: real, authentic, and even a little rugged.
Accuracy is key – if we say it’s the oldest, tallest, third largest, World Heritage-listed, make sure it is.
Check that names of places and people are spelled correctly, and that sentences are punctuated properly.
Our largest audience is the US. Please write to Americanized spelling. If you’re unsure use Grammarly, which will help point out any incorrectly spelt words.
The Assignments section is where we give you the brief. However, we also take pitches for our Stories section where we feature personal, inspiring, and engaging narratives that get to the heart of why we travel. Find out what it takes to be a Stories contributor.