{"id":120434,"date":"2019-02-04T14:37:14","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T13:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk?p=120434&preview=true&preview_id=120434"},"modified":"2019-02-04T14:37:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T13:37:14","slug":"an-award-winning-lunch-with-hand-luggage-only","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/an-award-winning-lunch-with-hand-luggage-only\/","title":{"rendered":"An award-winning lunch with Hand Luggage Only"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hand Luggage Only<\/a> scooped its second Best Travel Blog award at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2018 in November. Written by Lloyd Griffiths and Yaya Onalaja-Aliu, Hand Luggage Only has had an incredible 12 months and 2019 looks set to be another corker with trips already planned to the US and Canada.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a cold Friday in January we caught up with Lloyd and Yaya to talk about changes in the world of blogging, pet peeves with PRs and an unusual culinary \u2018treat\u2019 in Japan.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re trying to keep January quiet so we can prepare for the year ahead\u2019, says Lloyd, but a quiet January for Hand Luggage Only still means hours of work on the website, countless meetings and a skiing trip to Tignes.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s a day in the life of a travel blogger like? Hectic, non-stop and exciting. Yaya and Lloyd talk about their recent trip to Japan and the itinerary for the first day is enough to make anyone feel jet-legged.<\/p>\n

\u2018Every day we had a super busy itinerary, from the moment we woke up until we went to bed\u2019, Yaya says, \u2018We were met at the airport and it was go, go, go; every moment was jam-packed to the minute\u2019.<\/p>\n

But think of all the amazing food you got to eat\u2026 \u2019I couldn\u2019t eat the first meal we were given\u2019, Lloyd confesses. Tentatively we ask what it was, \u2019Fish sperm!\u2019<\/p>\n

After dashing the idea of travel bloggers lounging around in swanky hotels and getting paid for it (just kidding guys, we know you work very hard), the conversation quickly moved onto the ever-changing industry of blogging. From the new ASA rules to the next generation of bloggers, we covered it all.<\/p>\n

First things first, what do you like to be called? Blogger, influencer? Content creator?<\/p>\n

\u2018Blogger\u2019, Lloyd answers immediately, \u2019That\u2019s what we do and continue to see ourselves as\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"HLO<\/a>And is there a need for a bloggers association? \u2019Absolutely\u2019, Lloyd and Yaya agree. \u2019With so many new bloggers joining the industry it\u2019s easy for them to be taken advantage of. There\u2019s no quick fix to becoming a top blogger so don\u2019t waste your money on blogging courses that promise \u2018shortcuts to success\u2019. They never really deliver on that promise.\u2019\u2019, Yaya says.<\/p>\n

Any tips for any aspiring travel bloggers out there?<\/p>\n

\u2018Genuine and organic content is the most important\u2019, Yaya says, \u2018We\u2019ve know what readers of our blog like because it\u2019s essentially what we like too.\u2019, Lloyd says.<\/p>\n

If you could say one thing to the agencies out there working with bloggers what would it be?<\/p>\n

\u2018It is important to have a clear brief and a great understanding of what goals you\u2019re looking for on a project, Lloyd says, \u2019It\u2019s frustrating when an agency asks us to work with them on a brief and then changes their mind halfway through (especially so if the reasons behind the change could be foreseen before we even started) \u2013 if they don\u2019t know what they want, how are we meant to?\u2019 Yaya says.<\/p>\n

Would it really be an interview if we didn\u2019t ask about Brexit? Do you think it will have an impact on what you do as travel bloggers?<\/p>\n

\u2018Honestly, not really\u2019, Lloyd says, \u2019The thing that might get worse are the queues at the airport, and as frequent fliers that will be annoying but on the whole won\u2019t be as big an impact on people wanting to travel as one might imagine\u2019<\/p>\n

And with that we say goodbye to our number one travel blogging duo as they head off to enjoy what\u2019s left of their \u2018relaxing\u2019 January. We can\u2019t wait to see what\u2019s in store for Lloyd and Yaya this year, congratulations again on your win!<\/p>\n

Yaya, Lloyd and Hand Luggage Only are all featured on the Vuelio Media Database<\/a> along with thousands of other\u00a0bloggers and journalists.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hand Luggage Only scooped its second Best Travel Blog award at the Vuelio Blog Awards 2018 in November. Written by Lloyd Griffiths and Yaya Onalaja-Aliu, Hand Luggage Only has had an incredible 12 months and 2019 looks set to be another corker with trips already planned to the US and Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":120441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,3484,7272,4038,6980],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/414"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120434"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120452,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120434\/revisions\/120452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}