How I Created My Own Series of City Guides For Independent Cultural Travellers
From childhood adventures in Morocco to uncovering Vienna’s hidden treasures, travel writer Duncan JD Smith shares the story behind his Only In Guides. Discover how a lifelong curiosity for history, unusual places, and untold stories inspired a unique series of guidebooks for independent travelers who love exploring beyond the usual tourist trail.
Pasta Grannies: Discovering the Heart of Italy, One Kitchen at a Time
From the family kitchens of Bologna to the pasta-making streets of Bari and a grandmother’s table in Sicily, discover how Italy’s beloved nonnas preserve generations of recipes and traditions. These heartwarming culinary encounters offer travelers a delicious way to explore Italian culture, connect with local families, and bring home stories worth sharing.
The Vatican Library: 500 Years of Books, Maps and Secrets
Hidden within the Vatican Palace is one of the world’s great libraries, filled with ancient manuscripts, illuminated books, maps and documents gathered across centuries. The Vatican Library is still a working research institution today, preserving extraordinary treasures while increasingly opening them to the world through digitization. Its story offers a fascinating way to better understand the Vatican, Rome and the long relationship between knowledge, power, art and faith.
The Mountain That Filled With Gates, Fushimi Inari
Fushimi Inari is famous for its thousands of vermilion torii gates, but no one designed the mountain to look this way. The gates accumulated over centuries as individuals, families, merchants, and businesses donated them one by one, creating one of Japan’s most extraordinary landscapes almost by accident.
The Country That Gave Its Children a Library
In Helsinki, Oodi is much more than a place to borrow books. Finland’s remarkable central library gives children room to read, play, wander, and explore—and offers a fascinating glimpse into a country that also gave the world Tove Jansson’s wonderfully curious Moominvalley.
The Wonder of the Skyscraper
From Chicago’s early experiments in building upward to New York’s race for the skyline and Dubai’s half-mile-high Burj Khalifa, the history of the skyscraper is a story of engineering, ambition, and wonder. Along the way, these extraordinary buildings changed not only how cities look, but how travelers experience them.
Reading is Traveling.
A tiny brass bookmark found at Keibunsha in Kyoto captures a philosophy we love: Reading is traveling. The collaboration with Traveler’s Factory is small, clever, and exactly the kind of unexpected discovery that makes a great bookstore memorable.
The Art of the Beautiful Book
Tucked beside The Mark Hotel on New York’s Upper East Side, Assouline’s tiny bookstore offers a striking reminder that travel books can be more than sources of information. Beautifully made, highly visual, and definitely expensive, they can celebrate a place, spark curiosity, and become part of the way we remember—or imagine—the world.
Twelve Floors of Pens, Paper, and Japanese Design
Tokyo’s Ginza Itoya turns stationery into something close to a pilgrimage. Across twelve floors of pens, paper, notebooks, and design, the store reveals something larger about Japan: a remarkable attention to detail, craftsmanship, presentation, and the beauty of everyday things.
How Medellín Rewrote Its Story
Once known around the world for violence and the shadow of Pablo Escobar, Medellín has become one of South America’s most compelling cities. Its Metro, cable cars, library parks, public art, and transformed neighborhoods reveal how deliberate investment helped create the city travelers experience today.
Hay-on-Wye: The Little Town That Bet Its Future on Books
Hay-on-Wye is a small Welsh border town with an outsized literary reputation. Its more than twenty independent bookshops, restored castle, riverside setting, and world-famous festival have turned it into one of Britain’s most distinctive destinations for readers.
The Stories That Explain Appalachia
Most Americans have heard of Appalachia, but far fewer could confidently explain what it is. Stretching across thirteen states, this remarkable region is far more than the Appalachian Trail or the headlines that often define it. Through unforgettable books, timeless music, rich traditions, and breathtaking mountain landscapes, discover why Appalachia has inspired such a deep sense of place—and why it may deserve a spot on your own travel list.
More Than a Masterpiece: What the Sagrada Família Reveals About Barcelona
After 144 years, Barcelona has finally seen Antoni Gaudí's extraordinary vision rise to its full height. But the Sagrada Família is more than an architectural masterpiece or the world's most famous unfinished church. It tells a deeper story about craftsmanship, ambition, and a city that refused to compromise on greatness. Discover why this remarkable basilica reveals as much about Barcelona as it does about Gaudí himself.
Behind the Walls of Marrakech: What the Riad Reveals About the City
Staying in a riad offers one of the most memorable ways to experience Marrakech. Hidden behind the walls of the medina, these traditional Moroccan homes combine beautiful courtyards, personal hospitality, rooftop views, and a calm retreat from the energy of the old city.
Reading Mexico City Through Food
Mexico City has become one of the world's great food destinations, but its most memorable meals offer something more than exceptional flavors. They provide a window into the city's neighborhoods, markets, traditions, and creative spirit. Discover five books that reveal how food can become the perfect introduction to one of the world's most dynamic capitals.
Why Savannah Is One of America’s Most Creative Cities
Savannah is celebrated for its graceful squares, historic homes, and moss-draped live oaks, but its creativity runs just as deep. This essay explores how the city’s beauty, preservation tradition, and the growth of SCAD helped shape one of America’s most distinctive creative communities.
The Odyssey: What Greece’s Greatest Journey Reveals About the Country
The Odyssey offers more than an ancient adventure. Through its seas, ruins, customs, and myths, it reveals a Greece shaped by geography, hospitality, and stories that have endured for thousands of years.
Before You Visit Yosemite, Read Its Story
Yosemite is more than one of America's most spectacular landscapes—it's the place that helped change how we think about protecting the natural world. Discover the remarkable story behind the valley that inspired a conservation movement, and explore four books that reveal why Yosemite deserves to be read as well as visited.
Why Edinburgh Is the Perfect Home for the Fringe Festival
Each August, Edinburgh becomes the world’s largest stage, and the Fringe feels inseparable from its host city. Through four books exploring Edinburgh’s history, literary traditions, and character, this essay considers why Scotland’s capital is the perfect home for a festival devoted to storytelling, experimentation, and discovery.
The Paris Bookshelf: The Art of Wandering the City
Paris is a city best discovered slowly. Through literary cafés, neighborhood rituals, hidden streets, and unexpected encounters, these four books reveal what it means to wander Paris with curiosity and attention—and why the city often becomes most memorable in the spaces between its famous sights.
