We’re back in Grenada from a week away in Chicago. This was our very first time in the mid-west city as well as honestly, we felt like it was a extremely approachable, welcoming, livable huge city. Our very first impressions of Chicago were extremely positive as well as as the week continued on, those feelings remained.
In fact, the city totally grew on us as well as by the end of our visit, we’re quite sure it’s our new favourite city in the US. There are so many things to perform in Chicago, we could’ve spent a month as well as not even scratched the surface.
Don’t miss the video at the end of this publish which shows you what our week in Chicago was like as well as all the things you can see as well as do there!
The reason we went to Chicago was since we were invited by select Chicago, which is the city’s tourism board. Why would they want to invite us? exactly how does a connection with a tourism board as well as blog writers work? exactly how do we get paid to travel?
These are concerns that we’re constantly asked by readers, as well as rightfully so. press trips as well as blog writer fam trips are still a fairly new as well as interesting thing, so in this post, I hope to response those questions, in addition to provide you a glimpse of what our trip was like working with a tourism board.
Because of the visitors on this blog, viewers of our YouTube as well as social network followers (thank-you so much!), our website has grown to be one of the Top 50 travel Blogs based on website traffic. We currently just under 200,000 people visiting our site monthly to checked out the articles we post.
For our social network accounts, we have a integrated complying with of around 180,000. since of these stats as well as the connection we’ve developed with our visitors with blog posts, videos as well as social network – brands as well as business want to work with us to have us promote them.
Press trips such as this have been going on for decades, however pre-.com they were reserved for members of traditional media like magazines, newspapers as well as travel TV shows. These days, with the growth of social network as well as blogs, business have realized that they can get even more exposure with personal brands like those run by travel blog writers as well as Instagrammers.
A magazine talks at you, while a blog writer talks to you as well as develops a conversation with you with comments, emails as well as shares.
Now the business can get precise stats of who is seeing the promotions, who liked it, what they stated about it as well as even if they end up booking a trip. It’s a excellent method for tourism boards as well as travel brands to see instant as well as trackable ROI (Return On Investment).
Want to work with brands as well as travel for free? Click right here to discover exactly how to begin a travel blog in just 10 minutes plus get our beginner blog writer program for free.
In the situation of Chicago, we were there to show you what it would be like to travel to this American city. We were treated like nobility as well as it was one of the very best campaigns we’ve ever done with a tourism board (we’ve done many including Indonesia, Argentina, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Malta & new York).
We felt truly appreciated as bloggers, which is a wonderful feeling. We’ve worked truly difficult to get to this place, as well as it’s nice when the hotels, tour business as well as tourism boards we work with show us that they value our work!
Communication between all of the advertising reps was excellent and the itinerary was on point. We stayed at the Loews Hotel and enjoyed all of the city’s top attractions (including the Chicago design River Cruise), dined at the very best locations to eat in Chicago, as well as drank at a few of the very best bars in Chicago! Thankfully, we had many hours every day that were thought about “free time” for us to just check out on our own.
During trips like these, all transportation, accommodation, food as well as activities are included as well as we are likewise paid a charge for producing material during and after the trip (content being YouTube videos, articles on our website as well as social network shares). We only agree to go to trips that we understand will jive with us, our brand, as well as our readers…and Chicago 100% did!
Upon inspecting into the Loews Hotel, we discovered 2 bags of swag sitting on the bed. We like getting gifts on these kinds of trips (who doesn’t like a great swag bag?) as well as these welcome bags were full of tasty Chicago treats, city passes, gift cards as well as maps in addition to a printed itinerary of what was organized for our see to Chicago. What a excellent method to show up in the city.
Shortly after inspecting in, we went down to the hotel lobby to satisfy up with the select Chicago as well as Loews advertising reps as well as the other bloggers/vloggers/social media influencers on the trip. luckily everybody was truly great as well as all of us got along right away. We were to spend the next 5 days together, so if we didn’t jive, it wouldn’t have been such a excellent trip!
Every day we had outstanding activities planned, however we had some definite highlights. The helicopter trip over the city with Chicago Helicopter Experience, the buying spree at Macy’s, the windy City Smokeout as well as taste of Chicago food celebrations as well as the Skydeck at Willis Tower were definitely our favourite things that we did with select Chicago, however we likewise liked checking out the many neigbourhoods of the city on our own.
We spent time walking around Pilsen, Bucktown, The Loop, Fulton Market, River North, The Navy Pier as well as so much more. Chicago is house to 77 unique as well as interesting neighbourhoods as well as we were only able to see a few in our short visit, however we definitely want to come back as well as see more.
When we were working on this trip, we were mainly recording clips for a few YouTube videos that we’ll be creating (the very first one is at the bottom of this post), in addition to doing Instagram stories as well as taking notes about the locations we visited to ensure that we might compose about it on the blog later (there will be lots of Chicago posts coming up so stay tuned).
Even though it was a super hectic trip as well as we were quite much non-stop exploring, eating, partying as well as working from nine in the morning up until nine at night or later, we still had a blast the entire time. We never felt pressured to produce a specific type of material as well as select Chicago was excellent at enabling us to have our own innovative flexibility while creating the videos as well as posts (we wouldn’t have it any type of other way).
This is just one more reason why we like this task of travel blogging. before 2012 as well as before we started this blog, we would’ve never dreamed that a person day we’d be hired by an American city to find as well as have unforgettable experiences like this. It truly is a dream come true as well as we say thanks to you for your continued support as well as for assisting us get to this point.
We’ll continue to do our finest to show you what it’s like to be a digital nomad as well as exactly how you as well can make money on the internet as well as on the road to ensure that you can travel for as long as you want.
All in all this will go down as one of the very best press trips we’ve ever done as well as we definitely want to return to Chicago once again someday soon. Whether it’s with select Chicago once again or not, our plan is to go back to the windy City as well as check out some more off-track locations as well as hidden neigbourhoods. Chicago has so much to offer.
As always, all of our thoughts as well as opinions on social media, our YouTube channel as well as on this blog will stay 100% honest, no matter what we are comped. We have never accepted a trip or paid task where we were told to compose / act a specific way, as well as we’ll continue this method moving forward.
Being invited on a trip to do precisely what we like – travel as well as share it – is a win-win for everyone. It assists to keep the blog running as well as it assists us to create useful material to share across our channels. If you haven’t been to Chicago yet… plan a trip! It is a fun, energetic, unpretentious as well as approachable city that won’t disappoint.
I have actually just completed editing as well as uploading our very first video for Chicago to YouTube! inspect it out below to see all of the fun things to see, do as well as eat in just a week in Chicago. That’s right… GoatLife TV is back!! If you like the video, please click right here to provide it a “thumbs up” as well as leave a comment ? say thanks to you so much for your support!
Check Out The video Below!
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