13 minute read
Meet the Low Season Travellers
Bella Falk is an award-winning travel writer, photographer, and documentary director based in London. She also creates the travel and photography blog passportandpixels.com. With published works in National Geographic Traveller, BBC Travel, Lonely Planet, and Travel Africa, as well as a catalogue of documentaries covering history, archaeology and science, Bella has a wealth of experience in creating authentic content whilst travelling. In this interview, I catch up with Bella about the media industry, developing an early love for travel and photography, and how low seasons have helped to shape her travel experiences.
Ryan: What are some of your earliest travel memories?
Bella: My dad used to travel a lot for work, and he would come back from his trips with photographs and little souvenir gifts, so I saw travel as something that was normal. I’m very lucky that I come from a family where my parents could afford to take us on holiday. We’d go every year to Aldeburgh in Suffolk, as well as camping in the south of France, but mostly I just remember fighting with my siblings on endless car journeys!
After I finished school, I had a volunteering placement in Chile, where I first learnt Spanish whilst living with a host family. After that I travelled up through South America with a couple of girls that I’d met. I had an amazing time and realised I just didn’t want to ever get a ‘proper’ job! So I studied languages at University, partly because I knew that doing language would give me a year abroad, which I spent in Paris for six months and then for six months in Granada.
After university, I thought that I would most likely be heading into the world of journalism or broadcasting, and so I found another volunteering placement in Ghana where I worked with a TV and radio station. I had never been to Africa before, and the culture shock was crazy! For the first month I was just completely bewildered as this was before you could do tons of research online before leaving; all I had was the Bradt Guide to Ghana and then I just had to turn up and figure the rest out!
Ryan: Where did your love of photography start?
Bella: I’ve loved photography ever since I was a child, and I used to take a point-and-shoot camera to school before later enrolling in photography clubs and learning darkroom techniques. My parents bought me my first entry-level SLR camera for my 19th birthday present, which I took with me when I went to study Spanish at the University of Granada.
I remember very clearly being sat on the famous viewpoint overlooking the Alhambra Palace in Granada and taking the same photo over and over again with different apertures and shutter speeds to see how the settings changed the final photo. Of course this was before digital, and when the prints came back I had no idea which photos had which settings, so it wasn’t a terribly great way to learn!
Ryan: How did you get into the media industry and how did this allow you to travel?
Bella: After I came back from Ghana, I did a post-graduate degree in broadcast journalism. I went to work at the BBC and started working on documentaries, but it wasn’t travel-related and the work was mainly domestic current affairs. I knew that I had always wanted to travel, and I was looking at opportunities to make the step across. I was offered a job on the Holiday programme, but it was only an 8-week contract, whereas I had also been offered a contract on Crimewatch for a whole year, so I decided to take that even though it didn’t involve travel.
That job was a bit of a sliding doors moment and meant that I got pigeon-holed in the current affairs genre, and it took me a long time to sidestep back into roles where I could travel. I started working on science programmes and ended up on archaeology and palaeontology films, which allowed me to travel more to tell these historical stories.
I also spent some time working for Lonely Planet on video production. I asked my boss at the time how to start travel writing and photography for Lonely Planet, and I was told to start a blog. So I started Passport & Pixels initially as a hobby blog, and I had no idea what I was doing! But I connected with other bloggers and attended social events and learnt a lot about the industry, and ended up winning awards. It’s only over the past 2-3 years that I have started spending more time working on travel opportunities, using time between TV contracts to go on press trips, create content, and pitch for work.
Ryan: What have been some of your favourite experiences when travelling for work?
Bella: One of the most joyous days of my life was filming in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. We had been stuck at home for such a long time; this was the summer of 2020 after the first lockdown. I was tasked with making a film about Hierapolis, a Roman city in Turkey. Hierapolis is famous for its white travertine terraces at Pamukkale, a thermal spring spa town with a beautiful archaeological site.
We were also filming at Gordian, where King Midas, the king with the golden touch, is said to have ruled. These two films were part of a series about archaeological sites. We had to plan the entire shoot via Zoom during the lockdown. When we were finally allowed to travel, I remember arriving in Istanbul, checking into the hotel in the afternoon, and going out for dinner with the team as the sun was setting. We heard the call to prayer, and I was just so giddy with delight to be out of lockdown and travelling again.
Before Christmas, I also had back-to-back trips to Canada, Kenya, and Botswana. Most people only get to visit one of those places in a year (if at all!), and I was incredibly lucky to experience them all within three months. In Canada, I visited Nova Scotia and Jasper. I love wildlife, so being on safari in Kenya was incredible. Although I had been to Nairobi for a conference, this was my first safari in the Maasai Mara, which is teeming with diverse wildlife. On our first day, we saw five jackal puppies and a cheetah with two cubs making a kill, all in one drive. It was amazing.
Antarctica was also absolutely sensational and South Georgia Island, which we also visited, was overwhelming. Our first landing was in a place with around a million penguins. I was almost paralysed by the choice of where to point the camera. It was a truly bonkers experience.
I really want to go back, but I fear no trip will ever top that one. Travelling to Antarctica is tricky because I am conscious of my carbon footprint and the impact of tourism. While many places benefit from tourism and rely on it to support communities and fund conservation, Antarctica has no local population, and the wildlife isn’t under the same threat from poaching or habitat destruction as in other regions. Promoting Antarctica travel is challenging because it is a pristine environment, and the fewer people there, the better it would be for the region.
Ryan: Seasonality must have an effect on how and when you travel for both business and pleasure. How do you think low season travel differs from peak-season?
Bella: For me, low season travel has always been my preference. I don’t have kids, I don’t particularly like crowds, and I generally prefer to avoid hot weather. Being from Britain, I find temperatures above 30 degrees unbearable. So, travelling during the low season, when it’s cooler and less crowded, suits me perfectly.
For example, I recently went to Cyprus in early April. It’s incredibly popular in the summer, but when we visited, there were hardly any tourists. The weather was perfect for hiking, with temperatures around 20 degrees. I’m not one for lying on a beach as I get bored and burn easily, so cooler, low season weather is ideal for me to explore and take photos.
Low season travel is also cheaper, which is a big plus. The only real downside for me is that certain peak seasons are tied to amazing wildlife experiences. For instance, the Great Migration in Africa is something I’ll probably never see because it generates high-demand which leads to crowds and higher prices. Similarly, I’ve just been to Churchill, Manitoba, on a press trip to see polar bears. The peak time for bear sightings is late autumn when they congregate waiting for the sea ice to form. In the summer, they are more spread out and so they were much harder to find - we did manage to see three, but from very far away.
As a travel writer, I often travel during the low season because that’s when hosted trips are more likely to be offered. While this means I might miss out on some peak-season events, there are unique experiences in the low season that people often overlook. For example, in Kenya outside of peak seasons you will encounter far fewer safari vehicles, allowing for a more intimate and enjoyable wildlife experience.
So, while low season travel might mean missing out on some specific events or wildlife migrations, the benefits of fewer crowds, cooler weather, and lower costs outweigh these drawbacks for me.
Ryan: What are some of the key ways to tell an authentic travel story either through photography/videography or in a written piece?
Bella: For me, authenticity in travel storytelling comes from being honest and genuine. I don’t have a filter and I find it hard to lie, so I just share my true experiences. This can be tricky from a journalism perspective because there can sometimes be tension between honesty and the fact that PR sends you to a destination hoping for a positive story.
When something doesn’t go right or isn’t to my taste, I still try to convey the truth in a balanced way. For example, I was recently in the Seychelles, and while it was incredibly beautiful, it was also very humid and sweaty. I made sure to mention the humidity in my story, while also highlighting the beauty of the place. It’s important to remember that mine is just one viewpoint and other people may have different preferences, or travel at a different time and have a different experience.
As a photographer, I obviously want to share beautiful, genuine photos. I often travel during the low season or get up at dawn to capture scenes without crowds and with lovely lighting. However, I don’t edit out crowds; instead, I try to shoot around them or embrace the reality of the situation. For instance, in India, the main sites were so busy with people taking selfies, so I started capturing those moments and found it really interesting.
Ryan: What have been some of your favourite/surprising destinations to visit in the low season?
Bella: I often travel during the low season because it’s cheaper and I can avoid the school holidays. Two trips that come to mind are Cyprus in spring and Jasper, Canada in the fall. In Cyprus, the spring flowers were in full bloom, creating a stunning landscape, while Jasper’s autumn colours were simply breathtaking.
One surprising low season destination was Botswana in December. I visited a lodge located on the route of the zebra migration, where they have a waterhole where thousands of zebras congregate during the dry season. The lodge owner warned me that by December, the rains would have started, and the zebras would have dispersed. However, I was fortunate that the rains were late last year. When I arrived, the area was teeming with zebras for two days, until the rain finally came and they all disappeared overnight.
The rainy season in Botswana has been nicknamed the ‘green season’, and though it isn’t as popular with tourists, it’s a fantastic time to visit. Everything springs to life, and it’s the season when animals have their babies. During my visit, I saw baby warthogs, vervet monkeys and loads of young impalas. So there are so many things that people get to see in the low seasons that are equally as amazing as the peak season experiences that are more popular.
Ryan: As an award-winning travel writer, photographer and filmmaker, what advice would you give to someone starting out in the travel industry?
Bella: It’s such a hard question nowadays because the industry is constantly evolving, especially with the impact of AI and changes in how content is consumed. I would never want to discourage anyone from following their dreams, but it’s important to be realistic. Very few people, if any, make a full-time living solely from travel writing.
You have to diversify. For instance, while I do make some money from my blog Passport & Pixels, and travel writing, I also have TV projects that contribute to my income. It’s important to have a backup plan and a variety of income sources.
Starting a blog or social media page can be a great way to demonstrate your enthusiasm, creativity, and talent. Whether it’s through Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or a blog, you have to show what you can do, as nobody is going to just give you a job without seeing your work first. The barriers to entry are much lower now than when I started; today you can easily set up your own platform, learn from online tutorials and practice with affordable equipmentnone of which existed when I started 20 years ago.
Networking is crucial. Passport & Pixels really took off when I started attending events, meetups, and joining online groups, learning from others and building connections in the industry.
Investing in your blog or platform is also really important. It can be hard to justify spending money on something that doesn’t yet make money, but a good website, fast hosting, and quality tools can make a significant difference. Research which courses are worth the investment, as not all of them are equally valuable.
My advice would be to manage your expectations, prove your capabilities, get out there and create content, network extensively, and invest in your platform. While it’s important to be realistic about the challenges, it’s also crucial to stay positive and adaptable.
