How to Write to a Place

Rankings tell you what is "best". Letters tell you what someone noticed. We chose the letter because it is addressed to somebody: it assumes the place has a life of its own, with residents, routines and opinions, and that we are writing as guests.

The format also keeps us honest. You cannot write "Dear Kyoto" and then treat the city like a backdrop. The greeting sets the tone for everything that follows. Our manifesto, Dear World, says more about where this began.

Loving a place does not give us any claim on it. It means paying attention: to the hour the market opens, to how people greet each other, to the bench where the same man feeds pigeons every afternoon. Attention is how respect looks in practice.

Photographs are part of travel and part of this website. But a camera can turn people into scenery very quickly. Ask before photographing someone. Notice signs on private lanes, as in parts of Gion in Kyoto or Bukchon in Seoul. Put the phone away during prayers, performances and anything that feels private.

We don't ask anyone to spend more. We ask readers to think about where money lands: the family bakery rather than the chain, the licensed local guide, the community museum. Our letter The Things Worth Paying For goes into detail, including for tight budgets.

Cities are homes first. The laundry on the balcony and the queue at the bus stop are not decoration. Keeping voices low at night, choosing licensed accommodation and visiting busy places at quieter times all leave a little more room for the people who live there.

Steep streets, long queues, high prices, unreliable weather, seasonal closures. We write these down plainly, as in Dear Lisbon. Honesty helps readers plan, and it treats places as real rather than as postcards.

Every letter shows the month it was written, and readers can send us corrections. We avoid quoting exact prices and timetables because they change, and instead link to official tourism boards, transport operators and park authorities. Before you travel, check those sources and your own government's travel advice.

Useful starting points: US State Department travel advice ↗, UK Foreign travel advice ↗, and Leave No Trace ↗.

We don't claim to travel perfectly, and we don't think anyone does. Responsible travel is a continuing practice: a set of choices made again on every trip, sometimes well and sometimes less well. Our commitment is to keep learning, to correct our letters when we get things wrong, and to keep the people who live in a place at the centre of how we write about it.