March was a busy month – I spent more than 2/3 of it traveling!
Busy months like this are exciting, but I always struggle to get work done when I'm on the road. I've never really perfected the whole “work while traveling” thing – mostly because I don't really travel for long stretches of time at once, and therefore want to spend every moment doing and seeing things rather than working.
This does mean that I have a HUGE list of things I want to write about in the next couple months, though, so look forward to lots more content in April!
March: The month in travel
I began in Morocco (finishing up my Intrepid Travel tour), then spent 10 days traveling around Portugal on my own. Once I got back to the US, Elliot and I took a long-weekend trip to Nashville, which is much more spring-like than Ohio currently is!
- Countries visited: 3 – Portugal, Morocco, USA
- Cities visited: Ait-Ben-Haddou, Marrakech, and Essaouira in Morocco; Lisbon, Obidos, Sintra, Porto, and Braga in Portugal; Nashville, Tennessee
- Flights taken: 5
- Trains taken: 6
- Pasteis de Nata eaten: Too many to count
The fanciest thing I did: On my last tour day in Marrakech, I talked a couple other girls in my group into going for afternoon tea at the Royal Mansour, one of the fanciest hotels in Morocco (it's owned by the King). Staying overnight at this 5-star property wasn't really in my budget, but I knew you could go have afternoon for about $35 per person – this is something I love doing when I travel, as it allows you to visit incredible hotels even if you can't stay in them. The Roayl Mansour was beautiful, and the afternoon tea was so lovely!
My favorite place I stayed: After my Morocco tour ended, I stayed an extra two nights in Marrakech, opting for a room at a highly Instagrammable riad called Riad BE. It was gorgeous, and served up my favorite breakfast in Morocco. Runner-up goes to the hotel I stayed at in Porto: Pestana Porto – A Brasileira. This hotel was right in the heart of the city, and my room even came with a smartphone that you could use for free in Porto.
The most interesting thing I ate: I already mentioned the pasteis de nata (custard tarts), which I ate a TON of in Portugal. But I think the item that really belongs here is port wine! I don't drink very much at home, but I knew I couldn't go to northern Portugal and not try its famous port wine. I didn't love the tawny and ruby ports, but I really enjoyed the rose and white ports (which I didn't even know existed until I tried some in Porto)!
March travel highlights
Imagining dragons at Ait-Ben-Haddou – Much of Morocco totally took me by surprised; the country is much more diverse than I realized. But when we got to Ait-Ben-Haddou (a fortified city along the old caravan route between the Sahara and Marrakech), I finally thought to myself that THIS was what I had been expecting to find in Morocco. This ancient town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I loved exploring it for a couple hours. (It was also used as the slave city Yunkai in Game of Thrones, hence the dragon reference!)
Playing princess in Sintra – I had a long to-do list in Portugal; for a relatively small country, there sure is a lot to see! One of my top must-dos was taking a day trip from Lisbon to Sintra, which is a town up in the mountains known for its opulent palaces and villas. Even though Sintra was already pretty busy in March and even though my calf muscles hated me after all the hills, I LOVED this day trip! Can't wait to write about it.
Drinking port in the Douro Valley – I did a day trip to the Douro Valley from Porto (it's closer than most people think!) to visit the place where Portugal's famous port wine comes from. Along with taking a cruise down the Douro River, we also visited two wineries to try port and learn about the port-making process. This was pretty fascinating, and definitely worth a day trip!
Mural-spotting in Nashville – Lastly, I really enjoyed exploring more of Nashville with Elliot. On my first trip to Nashville last summer, I focused on the city's country music ties. This time around, though, we focused on all the non-music things, like distilleries and brunches and great street art.
March travel lowlights
Other than some rain in Nashville and running out of time to do everything I wanted to in Portugal, I don't have very much to complain about travel-wise this month!
March on the blog
I again wrote very little in March due to all the traveling, but it was another excellent traffic month for the blog (one of the best, in fact!).
March traffic: 203,263 unique visitors, 288,542 pageviews
Most popular post: 8 Things That Surprised Me About Traveling in Morocco – My first Morocco post details all the things I learned about the country, and gives a little sneak peek of everything I saw/did. I LOVED this trip so much, and you can look forward to many more Morocco posts!
Other posts published in March:
March on social media
Most popular Instagram post: You guys are almost as obsessed with my Morocco photos as I am! This image of an orange cat in the blue city of Chefchaouen was by far my most popular photo in March. It's one of my favorites, too – I plan to print it out and hang it in my living room! (Be sure to check out my feed for even more Morocco!)
Most popular Facebook post: You really enjoyed these photos from my trip to Sintra, along with this post about Moroccan food.
March business update
March continued to be a great month income-wise, despite me being home for only a small part of it. I've also got plenty of fun things brewing for the rest of the year!
Income report
- Advertising: $5,240.20
- Affiliate marketing: $4,026.39
- Other: $898.07
(Note that this is my income before deductions and taxes.)
Business highs
Having my best month ever with advertising – I use Mediavine as my ad network, and totally admit to being a Mediavine fangirl. But I have good reason to be, as they are excellent and help my business to be as successful as it is. I had my highest earning month EVER with them in March (it won't be reflected in my income report until June), which is very exciting. Maybe I need to go plan another trip to celebrate.
Business lows
Finding time to run two blogs – This isn't really a “low,” especially when I'm actually really excited about my second blog. But it is worth mentioning, because a lot of people don't realize how many hours go into running a blog! It was extra challenging in March since my second blog is all about Cleveland, and I wasn't really in Cleveland very much – meaning I wasn't gathering any new content to share. I definitely need to do a better job of planning ahead the next time I'm leaving Ohio for a while.
Having to turn down a fun speaking gig – Last year, I had a chance to speak at the very first TravelCon in Austin, Texas. I had an amazing time and got a lot of great feedback on my talk about affiliate marketing. I was invited to speak again at this year's TravelCon in Boston, but sadly I already have another campaign booked in Europe during that time. It sucks to have to turn down gigs (especially ones where I'm guaranteed to see so many friends!), but it's happening more frequently as my months book out further in advance every year.
TravelCon is once again offering a virtual pass to the conference for those who can't make it in-person, though, so I think I might pick up one of those so I can still watch all the talks. (If you'd like to get a virtual pass, too, you can buy one here!)
Upcoming in April
I don't actually have any travel planned in April! I'm going to stay at home and get lots of work done (and of course spend more time doing fun things in Cleveland – follow my new Instagram account for lots of Cleveland coverage).
After April, here are some of the things coming up next:
May: SATW in Columbus – At the beginning of May, I'm headed down to Columbus for a few days for the SATW Freelance Council meeting. This will be my first time going to an SATW event, so I'm excited! I also have a packed schedule in Columbus that's going to include, among other things, lots of amazing food!
June: Bloghouse – For the third year in a row I'll be mentoring at Bloghouse, a 3-day intensive blogging workshop. This year's edition is happening in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I'm looking forward to visiting a new part of that state.
June: Scotland – Elliot and I are taking our annual “big trip” to Scotland this year, where we're planning to explore the Malt Whisky Trail in the Highlands, and distillery-hop around the island of Islay. Elliot has never been to Scotland before, so I'm looking forward to sharing another of my favorite parts of the world with him.
June: Avalon river cruise – After Scotland, I'm flying to Budapest to board a river cruise up the Danube with Avalon Waterways. I'm really excited about this specific cruise, as it's one of Avalon's new “Active & Discovery” itineraries, which includes a wider range of excursions to choose from. I'm looking forward to visiting some new cities in Austria!
And remember that you can follow along in real-time with all of my adventures through my IG Stories on Instagram!
Amanda Williams is the award-winning blogger behind A Dangerous Business Travel Blog. She has traveled to more than 60 countries on 6 continents from her home base in Ohio, specializing in experiential and thoughtful travel through the US, Europe, and rest of the world. Amanda only shares tips based on her personal experiences and places she's actually traveled!
Hello,
Just stumbled across your blog and it’s excellent! Thanks for publishing a monthly report. I visited Morocco during my first year of travel and celebrated my 26th birthday there. I am now 29, boy how time flies by! The high tea seems like a fun activity. I always like to get fancy now and then, even though I’m usually on a backpacker budget. I can only hope to start making income on my new travel blog like yours!
Time definitely flies! It’s crazy to look back at all the adventures I’ve had over the years – most of them feel like they just happened yesterday!
What an exciting month of March you’ve had! I quite liked mine too because it kicked off my travels for this year. From now on I’ll go on a trip every month and I’m looking forward to it 🙂
A trip every month is awesome!
Your March 2019 was really eventful, Amanda! That’s pretty amazing though since people like us who love to travel feel a lot of fulfillment as we travel in different places around the globe. Safe travels!
Next month I’m going to Edinburgh; it’ll be my 2nd time visiting. Despite stories of Brexit dominating headlines lately, I still plan to go ahead with the trip.
I’m looking forward to reading about your upcoming Avalon Waterways cruise. Next year I’m doing their “Danube from Black Sea to Budapest” trip. (They had a promo about waiving the single supplement fee on select dates so that was a plus for booking the trip) It’ll be my 1st river cruise too!
I wish more river cruise lines would get rid of that single supplement! I’m looking forward to the cruise, too, as well as going back to Scotland, Brexit or not!
All of your outfits in this post are gorgeous! I now want to go buy lots of gorgeous dresses. Thanks for the inspiration!
MY favorite photos is the one at Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra. It looks beautiful!
Confession: It’s the same exact dress, just in 3 different patterns! Haha!
What?! That’s awesome haha. 3 gorgeous patterns.
I know you mentioned not being able to get much work done because of all the travel but I’m always impressed at how quickly you publish posts after a trip. I’m incredibly slow at mine! Like several months behind.
Portugal is definitely a country I’m itching to get back to. I didn’t get to see much on my last trip there. I agree with you about the port though, I like the white a lot better.
Once I’m home, it’s easy for me to get to work. But trying to work while I’m actually traveling? It’s almost impossible for me! Which is largely why I never traveled long-term. Lol.