Author Archive: Alicia Chamaillé

The travel industry loves a portmanteau. In the last couple of years alone, we’ve been introduced to Coolcationers (people fleeing summer heat for Scandinavia), Set-jetters (visiting locations where films or TV shows were set, like the ’White Lotus effect’). Then there are devotees of Hushpitality: the pursuit of silence as luxury. (Yes,really).

I’ll confess: I rolled my eyes at most of these. And then I caught myself booking a week in the Norwegian fjords specifically to escape the southern hemisphere’s summer heat – which, it turns out, makes me a Coolcationer whether I like it or not.

All of which is to say: the way we travel is shifting, and so is the toolkit. And, somewhere along the way, our phones have become the most reliable member of any travel party. Gone are the days of misplacing physical maps and feeling lost, or flicking through pages and pages of bookings and reservations. Our phones store everything for us, just a few taps away. 

But not everyone travels the same way. Some of us seek out the quirky, unusual and off-the-beaten-path sites; others want to visit a great-grandmother’s village in rural Poland. There are collectors ticking off UNESCO sites, retirees who find group tours exhausting, booklovers going on their own literary pilgrimages, and independent travellers searching for connection without the crowds.

So, whether you’re a city-hopper, cultural deep diver, or a slowmadic (slow travel) wanderer, here’s what’s actually worth downloading, organised by the kind of traveller you might be.