Jonathan’s No Work All Travel Joins BoardingArea

Hi everyone, I’m Jonathan, the lone voice behind No Work All Travel.

Although I had been writing on-and-off about food and travel for years, it was only in 2020 when I finally decided to start No Work All Travel. Particularly during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when potential travel plans were delayed indefinitely, it has been a cathartic way to interact with new and seasoned travelers alike.

So, What’s That Title About?

Speaking about, writing about, and well, experiencing travel are never work for me, at least I try not to think of it that way. I still feel sentimental helping someone plan a trip, personally going somewhere, or waxing nostalgic about places where I ate; embarrassing note #1: I try to collect business cards from everywhere I’ve eaten, and subsequently write the date/names of people with whom I ate on the back). But things can get tricky when I don’t know what was written on the front; consequently, as you’ll see in future posts, that’s a small part of why I love studying languages.

Languages and Travel

Years ago, I was on a Shandong Airlines flight from Lanzhou, China to Urumqi, China. The flight was going to be late, but it’s not as if anyone told me that. As luck would have it, I stumbled across a Chinese sign noting that food would be handed out, and accommodations would be provided during the delay. As this was before you could just use your phone to scan and translate, it was obviously quite helpful to know a bit of the local lingo.

Having been an expat in Mexico, Indonesia, Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia, I’ve picked up some Spanish, Indonesian, Japanese, and Chinese, as well as menu Arabic, Russian, and Korean. I do some travel news research in other languages, as well as plan trips through a mix of English and non-English sources. Of course, I could run things through an online translator, but when eating out, caution knows that it’s headed straight for the wind.

Enough of Your Background, What Will You Write About?

That’s fair. No Work All Travel will hit upon a variety of posts:

— travel news, including new airline routes and infrastructure projects

— reviews, such as for airline lounges, flights, and restaurants

— Mondays will be for travel photography; I call them “Language Lunes,” whereas lunes means Monday in Spanish

— Wednesdays are typically reserved for the “Wednesday Who,” in which I delve into the person for whom an airport was named

— most importantly, I would like to hear your suggestions for topics. Really, please let me know. I may not be covering all of them, but let’s see what you’ve got!

Get in Touch?

Questions, complaints, remarks on posts, or anything of the “I want to reach out” sort can be sent to this e-mail.

Thank you again for visiting No Work All Travel, and I hope to hear from you soon!