Elaine Masters is an award-winning essayist, travel journalist, and food writer based in San Diego, California. Her blog, Tripwellgal.com, focuses on humane, ethical journeys and ocean adventures. With bylines in Hidden Compass, Travel Awaits, Matador Travel, Edible Magazine, Big Blend Magazines, and more — and a contribution to the National Geographic Traveler's Atlas of the World — Elaine has earned recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists, Travelers' Tales, and American Women in Radio and TV. She is currently at work on her spiritual travel memoir, Where Wonder Leads. Follow her storytelling on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at @tripwellgal.

WATCH BIG BLEND RADIO’S “GETTING TO KNOW YOU” CONVERSATION WITH ELAINE MASTERS:

What led you to a career as a travel writer and author?

After several different careers, I finally realized that the one thing that checked all my boxes was travel writing. It incorporated my love of travel, a long-held love of words, and an obsession with storytelling.

Becoming good at it was truly "ten thousand steps towards mastery," as the saying somewhat goes. I began my blog when I published Drivetime Yoga and then Flytime Yoga in 2007, as part of my author's platform. I quickly learned that although I was a certified yoga teacher, I had no talent as a therapist. The blog became Tripwellgal.com. Through years of weekly posts, photography, travels, conferences, achieving a Memoir Writing Certificate, and continuing critique groups, I've built a self-made advanced degree in writing and gained confidence in my voice as a writer.

However, I didn't dedicate myself to travel writing until, at 55, I began traveling with my partner, underwater photographer and sea urchin diver Dave Rudie. Our combined love for adventure and diving led my blog into tips and stories to help and inspire travelers.

What attributes do you need to juggle life as a travel writer and author?

Keep your day job! It was never easy to become a full-time journalist or travel writer. I became an Airbnb Superhost before the pandemic, renting out the upper floor of my home as an independent unit. With an on-call manager, I have more financial flexibility to travel and more time to commit to writing.

It's harder now to be a travel writer with the way AI has gobbled up content and is spitting it out in instantaneous but fallible itineraries. Travel writers have to become more reliable storytellers than ever before. AI sends everyone to the same places, but it can't relate to sensory experiences — the fall of light in an ancient temple, or how it feels to encounter a manta ray off a Tahitian reef.

Who or what inspires you?

Books and writers, mostly. Anthony Bourdain won my heart when I started watching No Reservations — his words, his delivery, and his irreverent perspectives. He was the whole package: the tell-all breakthrough book, the different series, the speaking. He's inspired me to keep going and to incorporate unexpected and difficult travel experiences as opportunities for stories.

As a writer, I'm also inspired by memoirs and historical fiction about the places I visit. It was thrilling to read Rodney Castleden's book about Knossos, Crete as a necropolis while walking the grounds and entertaining his alternative viewpoint. I read The Empress of the Nile by Lynne Olson on a solo journey through Egypt — the thrilling story of French archaeologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, an intrepid woman who guided the preservation of several Egyptian temples that would have been submerged when the Aswan Dam was built. Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts — a novel based on his prison escape and reinvention as a doctor in the slums of Bombay — was so helpful in preparing for my first visit to India. I knew the crowding, poverty, and struggle would tug at my heart, and his story helped me see community and pride in belonging, no matter how difficult life there can be.

Describe your ideal audience.

My work resonates with flexible travelers who are comfortable sometimes traveling luxuriously and other times on a budget. I've learned to embrace both over the years, especially on family trips and as I've gotten older. In Tahiti, Dave and I explored an outer island while staying in a modest cottage on a family's property, then moved to an all-inclusive resort when his adult son and family arrived. Both were wonderful. I get a far better sense of a people and their culture as a budget traveler — not just through curated experiences. Armchair travelers are always welcome along for the ride too.

What personal changes have you had to make to build your career?

Writing takes time and space. Sometimes carving that out while traveling with others requires fierce determination. Would I rather go to the fire ceremony or stay in to meet a deadline? Not always an easy decision.

I've also become much more introverted at home — which has been surprising, since I'm definitely more extroverted out in the world. As my son says, "You can talk to anyone!" And I do.

What challenges do travel writers face that readers may not know about?

It's far too easy to lose touch with family and friends who assume you're always off traveling somewhere and don't have anything else to talk about except the next trip. I have to work harder to dedicate time and attention to the people I love and spend real time together. There's also FOMO — life keeps going on in the neighborhood and town, and I miss events, music, plays, and holidays when I'm away. Now that my partner has grandchildren living nearby, we cherish our time with them and feel the absence keenly when we're traveling. Childhood passes quickly, and those relationships can't be patched up easily later.

If you could invite three people — alive or passed on — to a dinner party, who would they be?

I'd love to talk about running a Kenyan coffee plantation while sipping espresso with Isak Dinesen, author of Out of Africa. She was intrepid and passionate, and as a woman, her writing has inspired so many to explore the world. Of course, having Anthony Bourdain at the table would be great fun. And this may be blasphemous, but since you asked — as my travel memoir incorporates spiritual pursuits, I'd love to sit with the Virgin of Guadalupe, an incarnation of Mary who appeared to a poor shepherd on a hill outside of Mexico City. I felt her power standing before the tilma — the cloak she gifted — and while visiting the people's chapel not far from the Basilica. I'd love to discuss the symbolism of her image, what she meant to convey when she appeared, and her messages for today's world.

If you could switch careers for a day, what would you choose?

A day wouldn't cut it. I'd be a producer for This American Life — using skills from my years in public radio to dive into the stories of some of the unique people I've met.

What three destinations or experiences are on your bucket list for the next 3–5 years?

I'm traveling to Greece and then Egypt with my partner later this spring. It will be the second time in Egypt for each of us, but our first time there together. This trip we're visiting Abu Simbel, the enormous temple that was relocated up the mountain to avoid being submerged in the Nile.

I had a psychic reading decades ago that spoke of meeting my now-partner. In a past life on Crete, he was a fisherman lost at sea. I was told he followed me in a few years after I was born — and he showed up in my fifties! It's one of the reasons we're going to Crete together soon. Who knows what will unfold.

I also plan to drive the length of Baja, Mexico with friends next fall — something of a safari through the arid landscape with scuba diving along the way. I've always loved that potent land and the Sea of Cortez.

And the overarching experience I most look forward to: publishing my memoir, Where Wonder Leads, in the next few years.

What is the most important tip you would pass along to someone just getting started in travel writing?

Keep learning. Take opportunities for podcasts, critiques, workshops, and conferences. Then train yourself to work in different environments — with or without WiFi, in noise, or in difficult temperatures. Keep writing and sharing.

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