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Field reports from places we have been

Journal

What a place is really like, when to go, and where we stayed. Written after the trip, with the dates, the names and the parts the brochure leaves out.

Reports
22
Countries
14
Category
Theme
12 shown below, 9 more in the index
The phinisi Emperor Harmoni at anchor between two islands in Raja Ampat
A nudibranch on the reef in Raja Ampat

Lead feature · Field report

Ten days aboard the Emperor Harmoni

A forty-two metre phinisi, a crew of twenty-one, and ten days in which the boat is the only address you have.

Raja Ampat, West Papua · Written March 2025 · 8 minutes

“The boat moves at night. You wake up somewhere else, and that is the whole reason to do it this way.”

Read the report →

The Emperor Harmoni at anchor, Raja Ampat. Inset: a nudibranch on the same reefs.

Reef-ringed islets in deep blue water, from the drone
Reef-ringed islets, from the drone
A manta ray gliding over a diver on the reef
A manta ray over a diver
A tiny islet with a white sandbar in turquoise shallows
A sandbar islet, from the drone
An overwater jetty and lagoon among jungle islands, from above
A jetty and lagoon among the islands

All Raja Ampat, West Papua. Our own photographs from the trip.

The reports

From the last few years on the road

Dates read “Written” when we can only confirm the month it went up, and “Went” when the trip month is on record.

Inside a canvas suite at Open Sky near Zion National Park, Utah
Where we stayedUtah

A canvas roof on the edge of Zion

Three nights at Open Sky, where the telescope comes with the tent and the shower has no roof at all.

Written October 2024 · 7 minutes
Dolphins off the coast near Dingle, Ireland
Field reportIreland

Cliffs, castles and the coast road

Four friends loop the west coast in September: the Cliffs of Moher, dolphins off Dingle, and a red-walled gallery in Kilkenny.

Went September 2024 · 8 minutes
The first glimpse of the Treasury through the narrow walls of the Siq, Petra
When to goPetra, Jordan

Walking the Siq

A mile of narrow rock, and then the Treasury arrives all at once. The approach is the part nobody photographs.

Written January 2023 · 6 minutes
Cloud forest peaks at Machu Picchu, Peru
Where we stayedMachu Picchu, Peru

The only hotel inside the gates

Belmond Sanctuary Lodge sits inside the archaeological park. That one fact reorganises the whole day.

Written September 2022 · 6 minutes
Waterton Lakes under cloud
Field reportWaterton to Napa Valley

The long road from Waterton to Napa

Sixteen days by road from a mountain lake in the Canadian Rockies to the vineyards of California, with hot springs, hoodoos and a salt flat between.

Went June 2024 · 9 minutes
Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, British Columbia
When to goBritish Columbia

Emerald Lake, and the case for Yoho

The next valley over from Lake Louise, with a lodge on the shore and a fraction of the coaches.

Written June 2020 · 5 minutes
Infinity pool at Bio Habitat over the coffee hills of Quindio, Colombia
Where we stayedQuindio, Colombia

Sleeping above the coffee farms

Bio Habitat, where the glass wall gives out onto the coffee hills and the pool holds the whole sunset.

Written January 2022 · 5 minutes
A longtail boat on the river below karst mountains at dusk, central Laos
Field reportLaos

Between karst and the Mekong

Nine days on the central route, from a Mekong night market in Vientiane to a dawn line of monks in Luang Prabang.

Went December 2024 · 5 minutes
Lobby of The Oberoi at Sahl Hasheesh opening to the Red Sea, Egypt
Where we stayedSahl Hasheesh, Egypt

The Red Sea from a ground floor terrace

The Oberoi at Sahl Hasheesh, an adults-only pool, and Luxor three hours up the road when you want a day off the sand.

Written May 2022 · 6 minutes
Boats at the dock in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
Field reportSian Ka'an, Mexico

The reserve south of Tulum

One point three million acres of mangrove, lagoon and reef, twenty minutes past where the hotel zone stops.

Written December 2022 · 5 minutes
Garden of Villa San Michele at Fiesole, above Florence
Where we stayedFiesole, Italy

Fifteen acres above Florence

Villa San Michele, a facade attributed to Michelangelo, and a pool that looks down on the whole city.

Written May 2019 · 5 minutes
The Colca Canyon valley and river from a lookout, Peru
Field reportColca Valley, Peru

Condors over the Colca

Four hours by road from Arequipa, a canyon over ten thousand feet deep, and a lookout where the birds come up to meet you.

Written January 2020 · 6 minutes

The index

Everything else in the journal

Nine more reports from places we have been, by region and by the kind of trip.

Stone terraces of Ciudad Perdida in the jungle of the Sierra Nevada
Field reportSierra Nevada, Colombia

Four days to the Lost City

We left half an hour ahead of the group tours. On a trail this narrow, half an hour is the whole difference.

Written December 2022 · 8 minutes
Manado Tua volcano at pink dawn with a lone red outrigger
Field reportNorth Sulawesi, Indonesia

Manado, before the guidebooks catch up

A city with the airport, the malls and the hotels already built, and almost none of the visitors they were built for.

Written March 2025 · 7 minutes
A Kuala Lumpur street hung with red lunar new year lanterns, towers behind
Field reportMalaysia

Kuala Lumpur to the Kinabatangan

Glass towers and hawker stalls on the peninsula, then a week on a Sabah river thick with wildlife.

Went March 2025 · 9 minutes
El Castillo at Chichen Itza at dusk, two people small at its base
Field reportYucatan, Mexico

Chichen Itza, then a cenote

The pyramid in the morning, cochinita in Valladolid at noon, and a sinkhole full of cold blue water after.

Written December 2022 · 6 minutes
A lagoon-edge pool with blue daybeds under palms at Mayakoba
Where we stayedRiviera Maya, Mexico

A villa with its own pool at Mayakoba

Banyan Tree Mayakoba, where every villa has its own water and the lagoons do the work of a wall.

Written December 2022 · 5 minutes
A path through green hills under tall wax palms in the Cocora Valley
Field reportQuindio, Colombia

Filandia, and the carts in the square

Cobbles, painted balconies, and small hand-pushed carts called carritos doing laps of the plaza.

Written January 2022 · 5 minutes

Not pictured yet

Reed boats on Lake Titicaca, Peru

The field letter

New reports, about once a month

One email when something new goes up: a field report, a when-to-go note, or a hotel we would send you to. No offers dressed up as news, and one click to leave.

Reed boats, Lake Titicaca, Peru.

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