Personal travel stories and narratives
StoriesYou don't land on Bora Bora — you land near it, then cross the lagoon by boat. Here's how that 40-minute ride, and the grey morning before it, becomes the moment the whole island finally clicks.
StoriesNo WiFi, no phones, no other humans for miles — just me, reef sharks, and the clearest sky I've ever seen on Bangaram Island.
StoriesI tasted 47 wines in five days, nearly cried at a hot air balloon ride, and discovered that the $45 tasting was better than the $100 one. Here's what happened.
StoriesI woke up at 5 AM surrounded by tea bushes, watched the mist lift like a theater curtain, and realized I'd been looking for this kind of silence my entire trip.
StoriesHassan has built dhows on Nungwi Beach for 30 years. He has opinions about your sunscreen, your haggling, and why you should stop rushing through his village.
StoriesEurope's oldest lake. A fortress on the hill. 365 churches. And a pace of life that makes you question everything about productivity.
StoriesA Palermo local of 32 years on why you should skip Taormina at lunch, why riposo isn't laziness, and the street food order that separates tourists from everyone else.
StoriesThree weeks in Accra. Approximately 47 plates of jollof. Zero regrets. Here's the street food story that changed how I think about eating.
StoriesSeven days of lagoon swimming, questionable scooter driving, and one life-altering flight to Aitutaki.
StoriesI came to a car-free island for whale sharks. The whale sharks were gone for the season. What I found instead — bioluminescent plankton lighting up the shallows at midnight — was better.
StoriesA long-term Tibetan resident shares the Lhasa tourists never see — from hidden sky burial sites to the best momos in the old town.
StoriesI went to see the old coral-stone houses at sunset and ended up in the deepest lanes of Jeddah's historic district with no phone signal and the scent of oud burning from every doorway.
