Welcome to “TravMedia's Travel Writer of the Week," where we highlight an active journalist or editor within the TravMedia community. We have so many amazingly talented, successful and inspirational professionals in our midst — let's meet Ben Groundwater...
Q. Where are you based? The Central Coast, NSW.
Q. What outlet do you write for? Who is your audience? What are your travel specialties? I'm a freelancer, though I'm a twice-weekly columnist and regular feature writer for Traveller in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times. My audience is a diverse spread of independent, experienced travellers, and I tend to focus my features on food and wine, though my columns can range from everything from airline etiquette to travel trends to self-indulgent moaning. I'm also pretty active on Instagram, documenting my travels and answering followers' travel and food questions.
Q. What are your professional pet peeves? When my kids insist on calling my work trips "holidays". "Dada, when's your next holiday?" Dudes, come on.
Q. In your past professional life, you were … I used to work on the sports desk at SMH, though I also spent a few years as a sub-editor at FHM, and once freelanced for a week on Dolly.
Q. Where would you like to return to? Dolly! They were all so nice. Travel-wise though, I will always return to Japan, but I also love discovering new regions in Spain, and Mexico is calling me back for more.
Q. What's on your bucket list? I've barely seen any of Scandinavia - I would love to explore more of Sweden, plus Norway and Finland look incredible.
Q. Where do you travel for fun? I do my leisure travel with my two young kids, so "fun" is a stretch, but Japan of course, and also Vietnam, and I've always loved southern Africa.
Q. Your funniest (or most harrowing) travel story is … I once took my then-9-month-old son on a week-long, self-drive boat trip on the waterways around Venice that was an absolute disaster. It pelted with rained the whole time, it was freezing cold, and boats like that are not designed with crawling children in mind.
Q. What advice would you give your younger professional self? Seek help! Find a mentor. Ask questions. Don't try to muddle through everything on your own.
Q. What nugget would you like to add that we haven't touched on? Media is difficult and AI is coming to get us. I think everyone, myself included, needs to upskill and diversify as quickly as possible.
Q. How best should people contact you? It's best to contact me via email, or if we already know each other, WhatsApp or text are also great.
