Travel Insights for Experienced Travellers

Practical guides and honest advice for travellers who know what they're doing and want to do it well.

Articles on how to choose a private guide, why slow travel produces better trips, and what to ask before booking a tour. Written for people who travel seriously.

Where to Go in Colombia After Bogotá: How to Plan a Trip Across the Country

Where to Go in Colombia After Bogotá: How to Plan a Trip Across the Country

Once Bogotá has had its three or four days, the question is where next. Here is how the three cities we work in, Bogotá, Cartagena, and Medellín, fit together into a trip of ten days to a fortnight, and how to order them.

Three Days in Bogotá: How to Give Colombia's Capital the Time It Deserves

Three Days in Bogotá: How to Give Colombia's Capital the Time It Deserves

Most itineraries treat Bogotá as a layover. Here is what three unhurried days in the capital actually look like: the colonial centre and its museums, Monserrate and Usaquén, and a day trip into the highlands.

From Enquiry to Itinerary: What Actually Happens After You Contact a Travel Curator

From Enquiry to Itinerary: What Actually Happens After You Contact a Travel Curator

You have written the enquiry and pressed send. Here is what happens next: the questions, the design work, the draft itinerary, and the revisions that turn a form submission into a trip that fits.

The Golden Triangle, Four Ways: How to Choose the Right Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur Itinerary

The Golden Triangle, Four Ways: How to Choose the Right Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur Itinerary

India's Golden Triangle is not one trip but a family of them. How to choose between the classic seven-day route and its extensions to Ranthambore's tigers, Udaipur's lakes, or the sacred ghats of Varanasi.

Best Tours in Colombia for First-Time Visitors

Best Tours in Colombia for First-Time Visitors

Five tours that give a first-time visitor to Colombia a genuine picture of the country: Bogotá's colonial heart, an underground cathedral, the Caribbean walled city of Cartagena, Medellín's transformation, and the spectacular rock of Guatapé.

How to Brief a Travel Curator: What to Tell Us Before We Can Design Your Trip

How to Brief a Travel Curator: What to Tell Us Before We Can Design Your Trip

Most enquiries give a curator either too much of the wrong information or too little of the right kind. Here is what actually changes the design, and what to leave out.

The Morning You Couldn't Have Arranged Yourself

The Morning You Couldn't Have Arranged Yourself

The difference between seeing Nepal and being let into it is timing and access no booking site can sell you, the gift of a local operator who knows the hour.

The Two Nepals, and Why You Cannot Use One Guide for Both

The Two Nepals, and Why You Cannot Use One Guide for Both

Nepal divides cleanly into two destinations that share an airport but demand entirely different expertise. The guide who reads weather on a high pass is not the guide who can read a temple strut.

What First-Time Visitors Get Wrong About Nepal

What First-Time Visitors Get Wrong About Nepal

Most people file Nepal under strenuous trekking and never look further. That assumption rules out one of Asia's richest cultural destinations for the exact travellers who would love it most.

What a Curated Tour Actually Is, and Why It Matters for the Traveller Who Wants More Than a Package

What a Curated Tour Actually Is, and Why It Matters for the Traveller Who Wants More Than a Package

A plain explanation of what a curated tour is, how it differs from package holidays and travel agents, and why it suits travellers who want a better fit.