Dispatch — Lisbon
48 Hours in Lisbon Without Once Paying for the Tram
A weekend built on free viewpoints, the cheapest ferry in Europe, and the long walk down from Graça.
Stories
Two streams. Dispatches are the long reads — a place, reported at length by someone who went. Signals are short and dated: what changed this week, and when we checked.
Dispatches
Features, essays, and destination guides. One place, at length.
Dispatch — Berlin
24 Hours in Berlin When You Landed at Six in the Morning
You are too early to check in and too tired to think. Berlin is unusually good at absorbing people in exactly this condition.
Dispatch — Mexico City
Nobody in Mexico City Eats Dinner Before Ten
What a night out looks like when the best food in the city starts serving around the hour your program calls curfew.
Dispatch — Washington D.C.
36 Hours in Washington on an Intern’s Budget
Half the city is free and the other half is a Metro ride you can skip. A weekend built for people whose stipend has to last until August.
Dispatch — Osaka
72 Hours in Osaka on the Money That Just Cleared
Three days of standing-room bars, five-hundred-yen lunches, and exactly one splurge worth the transfer fee.
Dispatch — Amman
Learning to Sit Still in Amman
Six weeks of intensive Arabic taught me less than the hours I spent alone in the same café on Rainbow Street.
Dispatch — Seoul
Seoul Doesn’t Close, and Neither Should Your Weekend
The 24-hour cafés, night markets, and bathhouses that make two days feel like four.
Archive
Dispatch — Marrakech
24 Hours in Marrakech When You’re Traveling Alone
One day in the medina, mapped for someone who would rather not be the story.
Dispatch — Sydney
Sydney Costs a Fortune. The Harbour Doesn’t.
An exchange semester spent finding out how much of this city you can see for the price of one ferry ticket.
Dispatch — Hong Kong
What Nobody Tells You About a Semester in Hong Kong
The skyline is the easy part. Four months of actually living there involves a set of logistics that no exchange brochure has ever mentioned.
Dispatch — Cape Town
What I Got Wrong About Cape Town Before I Got There
A semester in a city that refuses to fit the two paragraphs a study-abroad brochure gives it.
Dispatch — Buenos Aires
36 Hours in Buenos Aires and an Exchange Rate to Match
A weekend planned around a currency that moves faster than the subte.
Signals
Short, dated, and reported. Visa rules, strikes, closures, prices — with the day we checked.
Signal
Portugal Extends Digital Nomad Visa Eligibility to Non-EU Students
A policy change buried in this month's immigration bulletin quietly widens who can stay past a semester.
Signal
Jordan Drops the Petra Entry Fee for Anyone Staying Two Nights
The cheapest way into the Treasury is now to sleep in Wadi Musa first.
Archive
Signal
New Zealand Reopens Working Holiday Visas to US Students Under 30
The annual cap lifts in September, and the application window is shorter than it looks.
Signal
Japan’s Rail Pass Goes Up Again in October
The seven-day pass stops paying for itself unless your itinerary crosses the country twice.
Signal
Kenya Extends Visa-Free Entry to Student Passport Holders
The electronic travel authorisation still applies. The fee does not.
Signal
Amtrak’s Student Discount Is Back, With a Catch
Fifteen percent off, and blackout dates on nearly every weekend you would actually travel.