In my last email, I probably spoke too soon about travel opening back up again. It looks like there are a few new speed bumps on the road to recovery. 

If you can travel right now, stay safe and travel wisely. If not, do as much armchair travel reading as you can. It's good for the soul.

☕️ Love Coffee? Travel and coffee often go hand in hand. Regular travelers tend to drink plenty of the stuff. The excellent Atlas Obscura website has put together a list of 25 Coffee Shops around the world to visit before you, well, are too old to visit coffee shops. How many have you been to? My score is 0.

On the topic of Coffee, this beautiful piece of writing by the Taste Cooking website will make you fall in love with my favorite coffee bean - Ethiopian coffee is one of the world’s great culinary treasures

🏠 Hating on Airbnb - I use Airbnb a lot. And while it has lots of good points, there are plenty of reasons why people feel uneasy about using the world's biggest "hotel" company. This article argues that "guests pay too much and the hosts are paid too little". It also recommends decentralized alternatives as a possible solution.

❤️ Lovin' Airbnb - "People aren't just traveling on Airbnb; they are now living on Airbnb.". the company has made it easier for customers to be flexible with travel. A new feature called "I'm Flexible" allows renters to search for flexible dates, locations, and destinations.

🇮🇹 Get paid to move to Italy - If you're under 40, entrepreneurial, and looking for an amazing place to live, this could be a good option. Oh, and you get paid to do it.

✈️ Airport, remember them? In case you've forgotten what it's like to go through security at the airport. Here's a tip: don't do this!

🍔 Food & Travel & Books - What else do you need in life? Tasty trips: 10 delicious reads for food lovers.

🌇 Stressful cities index - The Least and Most Stressful Cities Index 2021 compares and analyses 100 global cities for indicators related to stress. The cities were chosen for their size and significance, as well as for their availability of reliable and comparable data. The study consists of 4 broad categories - governance, city, finance, and citizens’ health - each made up of individual stress indicators that determine how stressful a city is to live in

🇸🇬 The End Of Street Food? - Singapore's stallholders selling traditional dishes are the city-state’s only entry on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Delivery apps might kill them all off.

🌎 The Power of Good Travel Writing - The most enduring works in the genre offer far more than practical guidance. "Readers often look to travel writing for practical information, but the strongest offerings in the genre do so much more." This piece from the excellent Atlantic explains.

🛴 E-scooters - Apparently, we have an e-scooter problem. "Electric scooters have disrupted micro-mobility worldwide, causing injuries and a fair load of resentment among pedestrians."

🥾 Skip the Inca Trail and The Camino! If you're looking for a lesser-known, adventurous hike, this might be for you: "Spanning three countries and extending 1,500km, the soon-to-open TCT will take hikers into the heart of some of the world's most culturally and ecologically diverse regions". Find out more on the official website.

🏔 Bragging Rights - Only 44 people have reached the summit of all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks...Or, they now say, maybe no one has.

🏔 Drone + Ibex + Mountains in Pakistan = Epic Video - This drone video filmed in Pakistan gives a unique perspective on where do ibex live. These animals are true mountaineers. No ropes, no safety net. Mental.

🗺 When maps are hazardous to your health - Here's why you shouldn't always trust Google Maps, especially if you're hill walking (hiking, trekking, climbing)

🤔 Speaking of Google Maps - Nick Mayhew-Smith explains that while a Google-powered map on your phone is convenient, we're missing out on incredibly useful and interesting information by not using real maps. 

🎧 In case you missed it - I finally released my podcast episodes. Better late than never (usually)

💡 We're talking about travel in this newsletter, but if you're a digital nomad (as are many readers of this newsletter) and want more content about that, check out my other newsletter here. You can subscribe to both, or just one, or none at all (no hard feelings). I hope they bring you value.