Travel

Christopher Deliso has comprehensive experience in almost all areas of Travel Writing, from newspaper, magazine and in-flight feature writing to over 20 Lonely Planet travel guides and a travelogue, as well as special hotel reviews for travel consulting firms and expert commentary for travel media on destinations.

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His first travel feature (on Monemvasia, Greece) was published in the St. Petersburg Times of Florida in the summer of 2001. Back in those days, a freelance writer had to physically mail a letter of inquiry to the editor, along with the printed article and printed photographs, and pray that they would be safely returned when inevitably the rejection came.

Another thing happened during that summer of 2001 which would prove propitious. Christopher Deliso attended the annual travel writer’s conference held at Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera, California. Among the illustrious speakers were famous authors and publishers such as Isabel Allende, Jan Morris, Dn George and Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of Lonely Planet. The author appreciated it when Tony Wheeler signed his copy of LP’s guide to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, but did not think much more about the company until, five years later and in new Balkan environs, he impetuously responded to an advert on the company’s website seeking new writers.

That inspired, if improbable decision would launch a great eight-year adventure during which Christopher Deliso would co-author guides to Lonely Planet’s Greece, Greek Islands, Crete, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania, Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, Europe on a Shoestrong, and various Best in Travel and specialty titles, as well as authoring articles for the company and its then-owner (BBC Worldwide).

He even performed quality control on sample luggage when the company briefly sought to get into the suitcase game. (Some of that prototype gear stands the test of time).

While guidebook research allowed the author to deepen his local and linguistic knowledge in the region, and encouraged him to interact with technology (the dreaded Christo CMS panel rolled out at the time), it turned out to be only one aspect of Christopher Deliso’s overall travel writing achievements. These are sufficiently diverse and numerous that it is difficult to categorize them; the various drop-down menus under the main Travel menu are just one way of organizing the material.

By 2006 when he began writing for Lonely Planet, Christopher Deliso had already been freelancing for a year for the former London travel consultancy Travel Intelligence, which provided advice for high-end tourists on luxury accommodation. In 2007, he also released the full-length travelogue, Hidden Macedonia: The Mystic Lakes of Ohrid and Prespa (Haus, London). And he also began to write newspaper and magazine features for Greek shipping owners, in-flight airline magazines of various airlines, and specialist publications doing innovative and exciting things, such as Hidden Europe magazine of Germany, which catered to the lesser-visited rural spots of the Continent.

Aside from interacting with the locals and learning new things about the traditions and singularities of different places, Christopher Deliso has always been driven in travel writing by a genuine passion for helping future travelers have better experiences and make the most of their trips. He is very much aware that for many, a trip abroad may be a rare or even once-in-a-lifetime experience; and so, even for those who do not physically go anywhere, he seeks in his writing to preserve something of the feeling of the experience and the place. This is infinitely more difficult to accomplish blurb-like reviews and list-type articles that one often encounters. yet the author remains ever optimistic.

As the Internet has been transformed by the rise of social media and particularly video media, travel publishing was affected too. Not only did it become more difficult for all professional travel authors to place their stories (and expect to be paid decently for them), it also became more difficult to grab the attention of a media consumer base deluged with too much information at all turns. The author is optimistic that there will always be a niche for travel writing, but like everything else, it is a genre that is constantly undergoing transformation.