Sharing a short essay that arrived in my inbox today, courtesy of Dense Discovery — a newsletter about design, tech, sustainability and urbanism curated by Kai Brach, based in Melbourne, Australia. Do we travel for transformation or validation? It's always interesting to hear what thought leaders "outside" the travel industry have to say about the state of tourism, so I'm sharing Kai's article with his permission. There's a few good points in this piece, including how touristic travel (e.g. mass tourism) can import more culture to a destination than it exports. I also agree that seeking validation on social media is drowning out good quality travel content. There's some truth to Kai's point about escapism. Consider this: the biggest competitor to a travel agent is the electronics shop, where consumers can instead buy a new 50" flatscreen TV. In this scenario, which "escapism" is worse? Buying a new TV or booking a trip on a cruise ship? 😅 However, I don't believe that all trave...

On my visit to Europe this month I decided to use trains whenever possible. Here's what I learned. I took the following trains in Germany (Deutsche Bahn) and Poland (PKP): Hamburg to Flensburg. Berlin to Hamburg. Hamburg to Poznan. Poznan to Warsaw. All up, I probably spent about 20 hours on trains over the past few weeks, so I feel I've had enough experience to form some opinions — although I'm certainly not an expert. Good things about train travel • Trains are comfy and easy to use your laptop on them • Train stations are central and easy to get to • It's fast to get through a train station (no security screening, etc) • Some stations have lounges (e.g Deutsche Bahn lounge, not really advertised!) • Nice scenery to look at on the way 🌳 🚊 🏞️ Not so good things about train travel • In my experience, trains were almost always late, by at least an hour • Buying tickets (as a tourist, like me) requires queuing at a ticket office • Central train stations are jammed with food store...

I'm looking for your best recs of things to do/experience in Munich, Bavaria and Berlin when traveling with young kids. We will be Germany for Oktoberfest and then visiting the castles in Bavaria, then spending a couple days in Berlin for the history! Even better if you can provide recommendations of places to find great vegetarian food! I am open to tour operators/guides/app developers to reach out to me as well for any partnership opportunities or providing any background information that I can incorporate into future blog posts. Also open to working with them to set up a customized tour for me and my family.