Writing A Travel Guidebook: What To Expect

Written by Nikki Solano

Nikki is the CEO of Pura Vida! eh? Inc. (Costa Rica Discounts), and the author of the guidebooks Moon Costa Rica (2019, 2021, 2023, and 2025 editions) and Moon Best of Costa Rica (2022 edition) from Moon Travel Guides. Together with her Costa Rican husband, Ricky, she operates the Costa Rica Travel Blog, created the online community DIY Costa Rica, built the Costa Rica Destination Tool, oversees the brand-new (summer 2023) Costa Rica Travel Shop, and designed the Costa Rica Trip Planning 101 E-Course. Also, Nikki wrote the Costa Rica cover feature for Wanderlust Magazine's sustainability-focused Travel Green List issue, showcased Costa Rica destinations and experiences on Rick Steves' Monday Night Travel show and podcast/radio show, and served as the Costa Rica Destination Editor for Essentialist, a luxury travel brand. Want to show your appreciation for her free article below? Thank Nikki here. ❤️️

Writing a travel guidebook

I’m the author of Moon Costa Rica (2019), Moon Costa Rica (2021), Moon Best of Costa Rica (2022), Moon Costa Rica (2023), and Moon Costa Rica (2025)—Costa Rica guidebooks published by Moon Travel Guides. If you’re about to start writing a travel guidebook, here’s what you can expect from the journey!

How has it been writing for Moon Travel Guides?

A dream come true. I always wanted to publish a Costa Rica travel guide but I never thought I’d be lucky enough to write for Moon. Their travel series reflects a lot of what I look for in a great guidebook, including tons of unique, firsthand knowledge supplied by an author who loves the destination and knows it inside and out. The Moon brand and I fit well together; we both want readers to have eye-opening and life-changing travel experiences. You’ll find tons of experience-based content in all of my Moon Costa Rica guides, as well as the Moon Best of Costa Rica guide.

What has your experience been like working with Avalon Travel?

In a word? Synergistic. There’s a strong team vibe that radiates from Avalon Travel (the publisher of Moon‘s travel series) that was evident from the moment I started working on the first edition of Moon Costa Rica back in 2018. Since book publishing is a collaborative effort, I’m regularly in contact with several people at Avalon Travel, including an acquisitions editor, a senior editor, a graphics editor, and a map coordinator. I particularly love that the team is comprised of mostly women, each one superbly kind and professional. The two men I’ve worked with are equally wonderful—respectful of my experience, appreciative of my perspective, and welcoming of my opinions. I can’t speak to what it’s like writing for publishers of other travel series, but Avalon Travel is a dream team. I’ve felt supported by them during every step of each book’s production.

What does writing a travel guidebook require of an author?

Probably more than most people think. Beyond obvious requirements like a passion for writing and traveling, producing a travel guidebook requires diligence to meet deadlines, discipline to stay focused, and a great deal of respect for both the readers you’re writing to and the residents of the country you’re writing about. As fun and spontaneous as traveling can be, writing a travel guide is a much more serious undertaking. You’re counted on to supply accurate, helpful, and interesting content, and readers around the world will trust your recommendations. As an ambassador of the destination you’re writing about, you also need to ensure that you portray locals, their lifestyle, and their culture appropriately and fairly. That’s a whole lot of responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

What did Moon Costa Rica require of you in particular?

It required ample Costa Rica travel experience, tons of time spent curating and writing about experiences, an openness to trying new things, an appreciation for Ticos (Costa Ricans), and a deep love of the land of pura vida (Costa Rica).

What’s the hardest part about writing a travel guidebook?

For me, the hardest part is being too busy to fully enjoy every moment of my research. As much as writing Moon Costa Rica is a passion project, it’s also a job. When I travel around Costa Rica to conduct research for each book, I have a job to do, and that busy job leaves very little time for doing anything else. For each new edition of Moon Costa Rica, I walked along the sand of countless beautiful beaches but only had time to swim at a few. Fortunately, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to swim in Costa Rica’s crystalline waters over the past 15 years, but it’s still difficult to pass up time spent enjoying an amazing experience when there’s work to be done.

Is writing a travel guidebook a full-time job?

The work that Moon Costa Rica requires is the equivalent of work for a full-time job, though I manage to balance the project with others on my plate. Other travel writers may claim it took them less time to complete their books, but I strive to make Moon Costa Rica the best Costa Rica travel guidebook on the market, so I purposely work nonstop on it. There are nights when Ricky and I stay awake until 3:00am debating which waterfalls should be documented in the book, or which hanging bridge tour is truly the best. There are days when we miss important family events because we are so committed to collecting facts and anecdotes that contribute accuracy and authenticity to the guide. We believe the intense work that goes into the Moon Costa Rica and Moon Best of Costa Rica books translates to the immense help that readers get out of it, which makes all of the late nights (and spousal debates) worthwhile.

How did you get the travel-writing job?

I was very lucky; the acquisition editor reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in applying for the authorship of the first edition of Moon Costa Rica. That day was one of the best and worst days of my life. I had just finished touring a set of hanging bridges in La Fortuna when I exited the forest and Wi-Fi returned to my phone. I had two unread messages. One informed me that a beloved family member had suddenly passed away. The other was the offer to apply for the job with Moon. I felt deflated and elated at the same time. Avalon Travel was incredibly patient with me while I handled my personal business. I later provided them with a cover letter and a resume, took part in an interview, and wrote a nearly 100-page book proposal to compete with other potential candidates for the job. Approximately three months after I was first approached about the authorship position, I was signing my contract and hard at work on the first chapter of the all-new Moon Costa Rica.

What’s the project timeline like for writing a travel guidebook?

Timelines differ across publishers. I spent roughly one year working on the first edition of Moon Costa Rica following the signing of my contract. As a first edition, the Avalon Travel team and I built the publication from scratch, which no doubt added significant length to the timeline. Subsequent editions of Moon Costa Rica took less time to write.

Is there anything that made the project easier?

Having Ricky by my side always makes things easier, but he is especially influential with respect to my work on the Moon Costa Rica and Moon Best of Costa Rica guidebooks. As a born-and-raised Costa Rican, Ricky’s insider perspective is a crucial part of each book. Though I know Costa Rica well, Ricky is Costa Rica. He’s part of the local population, part of the culture, part of the country’s story, and part of its face. His memories, traditions, knowledge of nature and wildlife, and pride for his country make it easy to fill Moon Costa Rica and Moon Best of Costa Rica with authentic information.

Can you describe a typical workday while writing a travel guidebook?

There isn’t one, not for me at least. Every day is different. On any given day, I could be participating in an adventure or nature tour to experience it from a traveler’s perspective, meeting with hotel owners and managers to better understand their services, making phone calls to check facts, dining out at restaurants to sample the local cuisine, or driving new or renovated roads to verify travel times. The only constant is the fact that I write every single day. If not to complete a chapter or to meet a deadline, to keep notes that I might want to reference one day.

Is there anything you struggled with when writing your travel guidebook?

I have to keep reminding myself that many Moon Costa Rica and Moon Best of Costa Rica readers are first-time Costa Rica visitors. It’s easy for me to write to people who have been to Costa Rica before because I can relay information to them in a similar way to how I talk to Ricky, my friends, and my family, but there’s a lot of information about Costa Rica that first-time visitors don’t know, so I have to make a conscious effort to not write over their heads. Thankfully, Avalon Travel’s fantastic editors help me with that. When I wrote the first edition of Moon Costa Rica, I had to reflect on my first few days, weeks, months, and years in Costa Rica in order to connect with the new generation of first-time Costa Rica visitors. Once I got into the routine of doing that, it was much easier to write the guide.

How does it feel to be the author of a travel guidebook?

It’s an awesome feeling when you believe you’ve created something great. Throw in the fact that Moon Costa Rica is part of a world-renowned travel series and Moon Best of Costa Rica is the first of its kind in an all-new, country-based “best of” series, and you can begin to imagine how excited I am to have jumped on the Moon bandwagon. I’m grateful for Avalon Travel‘s preference, I’m pumped to see the guides stocked in bookstores, I’m curious to read buyers’ reviews, and I’m honored to be able to represent the Moon brand. I’m also looking forward to continuing to work on Moon Costa Rica and Moon Best of Costa Rica, and to publishing new editions of each guide every two years.

What advice would you give writers who want to publish a travel guidebook?

I think the most important thing to strive for is unique content. Moon Costa Rica contends with several other Costa Rica travel guidebooks for readers, and you’ll probably have your fair share of competition guides too. But I researched other Costa Rica travel guidebooks extensively before I set out to write my contribution to the market and that process taught me which content had been published over and over. Though some repeat content is inevitable, strive to stand out on whichever pages you can. Some readers will appreciate your individualistic approach and others might not, but at least you’ll sleep soundly at night knowing you wrote the world a new story and didn’t settle for rewriting someone else’s.

When and where to buy Moon Costa Rica

The newest edition of Moon Costa Rica (third edition, 2023) hit stores on September 26th, 2023. You can find it in the travel section in bookstores across the US and Canada (Barnes & Noble and Chapters/Indigo, for example), as well as on the websites of online book vendors, such as Amazon. Here’s a list of popular places you can buy the book, complete with links to Moon Costa Rica‘s listing page on each:

Amazon.com (paperback) / Amazon.com (Kindle E-book)

Amazon.ca (paperback) / Amazon.ca (Kindle E-book)

Barnes & Noble (paperback) / Barnes & Noble (NOOK E-book)

Chapters/Indigo (paperback) / Chapters/Indigo (Kobo E-book)

Google Play (E-book)

Kobo.com (E-book)

Ebooks.com (E-book)

For more information about Moon Costa Rica, don’t miss our related blog post:

Now Available: Moon Costa Rica, our Costa Rica guidebook with Moon Travel Guides!

Pura vida!

Do you have questions about writing travel guidebooks, want to know what it’s like to work with Moon Travel Guides, or need help deciding which Costa Rica guidebook to invest in for your vacation? No problem! When you’re ready, make an appointment here to communicate with me (Nikki) privately and we can discuss these and other topics to get your questions answered fast and your Costa Rica trip poised for success. Pura vida, amigos! 🙂

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