The Essentials
The practical layer under the sightseeing: how the city is laid out, how to move around it, which airport you're landing at, and the history that explains what you're looking at.
Regions
Southeast Asia, the Andes, the Balkans, East Africa and the rest — what each region is like to travel in, when to go, and how the pieces fit together.
Browse 13 regions →The EssentialsPlanning a Trip
The order the decisions should be made in: dates, then length, then budget, then destination. Doing it the other way round is why so many trips are in the wrong month.
Read more →The EssentialsVisas and Borders
Passport validity, blank pages, onward tickets, rolling windows and applying from the wrong country. Five things account for almost every refusal.
Read more →The EssentialsMoney Abroad
Between exchange spreads, ATM charges and dynamic currency conversion, most travellers lose more to fees than to theft. All of it is avoidable.
Read more →The EssentialsHealth and Vaccinations
See a travel clinic eight weeks before you go. It is the highest-value hour of preparation available and it is the one most people skip.
Read more →The EssentialsStaying Safe
Almost every travel scam is one of six patterns, almost every theft involves inattention, and the largest single risk factor is alcohol. None of that requires paranoia.
Read more →The EssentialsFlights and Getting Around
What actually moves an airfare, what a rail pass is really worth, and when the overnight bus saves you a day rather than costing you two.
Read more →The EssentialsWhen to Go
Season is the decision that most determines whether a trip works, and it is the one most often made last. A month-by-month view of where is actually good.
Read more →The EssentialsTravelling Responsibly
Not a list of virtuous gestures. The four decisions that measurably change a trip's impact: when you go, where you sleep, what you ride, and how far you fly.
Read more →The EssentialsA Short History of Travel
Pilgrim roads, trade routes, the Grand Tour, the railway excursion and the jet. How travelling for its own sake went from impossible to unremarkable.
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