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MoroccoCulture & Festivals2 min read
A Moment in the Sahara: Eight Frames From Past the Last Paved Road
Some places are not just meant to be visited — they are meant to be felt. Eight frames from the…
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MoroccoCulture & Festivals5 min read
A Wedding in the Sahara: Camels at Sunset, Bread in the Ashes and Dancing Until the Stars Came Out
Past the last paved road in Morocco, the dunes were set for a wedding — guests arriving by camel, bread…
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World CupEvents4 min read
The 16 Host Cities: A Culture Traveler’s Guide to World Cup 2026
Sixteen cities, three countries, one summer. The 2026 World Cup was the first tournament spread across a whole continent, which…
World CupCulture & Festivals4 min read
Pick a Team: How I Ended Up With Face Paint for Five Different Countries
I began this tournament as a neutral. I ended it having worn the colours of five different countries, been sincerely…
MoroccoEvents5 min read
The Food Stalls Were the Real Tournament: Eating Your Way Around the World Cup
Somewhere around week three I stopped pretending. I was not travelling around North America for the football. I was travelling…
World CupEvents4 min read
No Ticket, No Problem: Fan Fests, Plaza Screens and How to Do a World Cup for Free
Here is the thing nobody selling you a World Cup package will tell you: the best cultural experience of the…
MoroccoEvents5 min read
Match Day in Atlanta: Walking Into the Stadium for Morocco
There is a specific moment at a stadium that nothing prepares you for. You come up the concourse stairs, still…
World CupCulture & Festivals4 min read
The Summer the World Cup Came to North America
For five weeks this summer, three countries stopped being three countries. Between 11 June and 19 July 2026, forty-eight teams…
MoroccoTravel Tips6 min read
Morocco Travel Guide: When to Go, What It Costs and How to Be a Good Guest
Almost every question I get about Morocco is one of four: when should I go, how much will it cost,…
MoroccoMonuments4 min read
Tangier: Where Africa Watches Europe Across the Water
There is a cafe terrace in Tangier where, on a clear afternoon, you can drink mint tea and see Spain….
MoroccoMonuments5 min read
Fez and the Middle Atlas: Cedar Forests, Berber Wool and the Oldest Medina on Earth
Three hours after leaving the oldest continuously inhabited medieval city in the world, I was sitting in a cedar forest…
MoroccoCulture & Festivals6 min read
Essaouira: Gnaoua, Atlantic Wind and the Slowest Blue Town in Morocco
Essaouira ruined my audio and then fixed it. I was on the ramparts with two friends trying to film a…
MoroccoCulture & Festivals7 min read
Inside a Moroccan Wedding: The Amariya, the Negafa and Seven Kaftans
I have now been to Moroccan weddings in the mountains, on the coast, and in a Casablanca apartment block where…
MoroccoCulture & Festivals6 min read
Chefchaouen: The Blue City, and the Wedding That Climbed the Stairs
The first thing I learned in Chefchaouen is that you do not walk up the stairs. Somebody takes your hand…
JapanCulture & Festivals8 min read
Hanami: How Japan Turns Cherry Blossoms Into a National Holiday of Joy
For a week or two every spring, Japan collectively looks up.Hanami, "flower viewing," is the centuries-old custom of gathering under…
JapanCulture & Festivals8 min read
A Tea Ceremony in Kyoto Taught Me to Slow Down
I signed up for a Kyoto tea ceremony thinking it would be a pleasant hour of cultural tourism. I left…
IndiaStory8 min read
Kerala Backwaters: The Slowest, Greenest Day in India
After the noise of the cities, Kerala felt like India exhaling.The backwaters are a 900-kilometer web of lagoons, canals, and…
IndiaMonuments8 min read
Jaipur, the Pink City: Palaces, Bazaars and the Best Doorways in India
Jaipur is the city that made me fall for Rajasthan, and it did it with a color.In 1876, the whole…
IndiaCulture & Festivals8 min read
Varanasi: Sunrise on the Ganges and the Oldest Show on Earth
Nothing I had read prepared me for Varanasi, and I had read a lot.One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities…
SpainMonuments8 min read
Gaudí’s Barcelona: A City Built by Imagination
Barcelona is the only city I know where the architecture makes people laugh out loud. Not mockingly. Delightedly. You turn…
MoroccoFood5 min read
Mint Tea, Tagines and Msemen: Eating Your Way Through Morocco
Moroccan hospitality has a flavor, and it is mint.Within an hour of arriving, I had been offered tea three times:…
SpainCulture & Festivals8 min read
Semana Santa in Seville: When the Whole City Holds Its Breath
I thought I knew what a religious procession was. Then I stood in a packed Seville street at two in…
MoroccoCulture & Festivals9 min read
Lost in the Marrakech Medina (On Purpose): A First-Timer’s Guide
The best advice I got about Marrakech came from a riad owner on my first morning: "You will get lost….
SpainMonuments8 min read
The Alhambra at Dawn: Granada’s Palace of Light and Water
There is a reason every guidebook, every poet, and every taxi driver in Andalusia tells you the same thing: you…
SpainEvents5 min read
Flamenco: The Soul of Spain, Felt Not Watched
You do not simply watch flamenco. You feel it in your chest.In a tiny candlelit tablao in Seville, maybe forty…
SpainFood6 min read
Tapas, Sunshine & Slow Evenings: Eating Your Way Through Spain
In Spain, eating is not a task to get through. It is the whole evening.I learned to do it the…
SpainMonuments5 min read
Seville’s Moorish Wonders: Architecture That Stops You in Your Tracks
Seville is a city you walk slowly through, neck craned upward.From the soaring Giralda tower to the Royal Alcázar's tiled…
IndiaEvents5 min read
Inside an Indian Wedding: Color, Ritual & Pure Joy
Being invited to an Indian wedding is one of the greatest honors of my travels.It happened the way these things…
IndiaFood5 min read
A Taste of India: Street Food You Cannot Miss
You have not really experienced India until you have eaten your way through it.From sizzling pav bhaji on a Mumbai…
IndiaMonuments5 min read
The Taj Mahal: India’s Monument to Love
No photograph prepares you for the first time you see the Taj Mahal in person. I arrived just before sunrise,…
SpainCulture & Festivals5 min read
Plaza de España: Seville’s Most Breathtaking Landmark
Some places make you stop mid-step. Plaza de España in Seville is one of them. I had seen the photos,…
IndiaCulture & Festivals5 min read
The Holi Festival Experience: India’s Festival of Colors
If you only experience one festival in your life, make it Holi. I have never felt joy quite like the…
SpainCulture & Festivals5 min read
La Tomatina & Las Fallas: Spain at Its Most Joyfully Wild
A food fight with 150,000 tomatoes and a city that burns giant sculptures for fun. A guide to two of…
IndiaCulture & Festivals5 min read
Diwali in India: A Traveler’s Guide to the Festival of Lights
Diwali turns India into a country of light. What the Festival of Lights really means, when to go, and how…
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