What We Do
(and why we do it)
Horizon Guides is a celebration of travel less ordinary: experiences that push us beyond our comfort zone and expand our understanding of the world.
We live in an era of quick and easy tourism, where the world feels smaller and more familiar than ever before. But at Horizon we know that there's a big world out there, and that it's full of intrigue and adventure.
Forget the undiscovered, untouched shangri-la. That was always a myth peddled by marketing types. Today’s best discoveries come from within – by travelling with a different mindset, approaching the world with open-minded curiosity, and connecting with new people and cultures.
At Horizon we’re nurturing this new age of discovery. We provide fresh insights to familiar places, getting you closer to the people and the stories behind the holiday destinations. We believe that travel is about more than selfies and bragging rights. The world is not a list of places to check off. Burn the bucket list and embrace #TravelLessOrdinary.
Guidebooks
We create guidebooks that offer original perspectives on incredible places. Our guides help you plan your next adventure, with all the essential information you need to find the right place and design the right trip. And because we’re completely independent and unbiased, you know you can always take us at our word. We never take payment for positive coverage and if our professional researchers and contributors haven’t been there, in person and on the ground, it doesn’t go into our guides.
The Journal
We publish Journal dispatches and interviews with a wide range of local voices, world-famous explorers, conservationists, archaeologists and anthropologists, each with their own insights to share. From the remotest deserts and mountain tops to our own hometowns, we know there’s a story waiting to be told behind every place, and the people that live there.
Itineraries
Our destination experts have crafted a range of suggested routes and itineraries to help you understand how your next trip might work. Our itineraries are packed with insider angles to help you make a deeper connection and see each location as a real place that is home to real people, not just a pretty picture in a tourist brochure.
Travel specialists
We’ve partnered with some of the world’s best independent tour operators to curate a range of first-rate travel experiences. Once you’ve read our guides and are ready to go, our partners will gladly help you find the perfect trip, with no pressure and no commitment to book. And because we don’t charge any commissions, you know you’re always getting the best possible price.
Advertise
We help independent tour operators and travel companies connect with a global audience of frequent international travellers. Interested in working with us? Get in touch at [email protected].
The people behind the magic
We're based in Sheffield, England, with a contributor network of thousands of professional travel writers, researchers and destination experts.
Matthew Barker
Founder/CEO
Matt has spent much of the last 10 years living abroad, including North and South America and SE Asia. He’s now back home in Sheffield, England, manning the fort at Horizon HQ and putting down some roots with his wife and their adopted Thai street dog.
Mike Beech
Co-founder/CTO
Mike is the techie one. After years of working on the Internet, he's perfected "work travel"—that often includes taking a large monitor in his hand luggage. He spends most of his time at home in Sheffield with his wife and son.
Karam Filfilan
Commissioning Editor
Karam is an editor and journalist with more than 10 years' experience in industry. He has worked and lived in the UK, Middle East and India, but his favourite travel experience is spending a hazy month exploring landlocked Paraguay.
Sadie Butterworth-Jones
Production Designer
With a background in journalism and publishing, Sadie has spent the last 3 years working remotely around the world. A lover of travel and graphic design, Sadie is busy combining her skills at Horizon HQ, while renovating her - slowly crumbling - home in Sheffield.
Jack Taylor
Partnerships Manager
Jack is the latest addition to the fold and is tasked with developing our partnerships with the travel industry's best and most innovative tour operators, calling distant corners of the earth to spread the Horizon Guides message.
Some of our contributors
Stuart Butler
Stuart is the author of Lonely Planet’s Trekking in Nepal, the Rough Guide to Nepal, the Tibet chapter of the Rough Guide to China and the Bradt guide to Kashmir & Ladakh. He also writes widely about East Africa and conservation issues.
Vidya Balachander
Vidya Balachander is a food and travel writer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Formerly the features editor of BBC Good Food India, her work has also featured in Mint Lounge, Vogue India, National Geographic Traveller India, Time Out Mumbai and the 2010 edition of Fodor’s Essential India guidebook.
Charlotte Beauvoisin
Charlotte is a travel blogger based on the edge of Kibale Forest, Uganda. She is a contributor to the Bradt Uganda Guidebook and has written for Lonely Planet, The Daily Telegraph and Fodor's. She first arrived in Uganda in 2009 as a Voluntary Service Overseas volunteer with the Uganda Conservation Foundation.
Dr Joseph Ogutu
Joseph is a bio-statistician currently based at the Institute of Crop Science in the University of Hohenheim. His research focuses on understanding the decline in the wildlife population of Kenya.
James Stewart
James Stewart is an award-winning travel journalist whose work appears regularly in the Sunday Times, Telegraph, Financial Times, Guardian and the Sunday Times Travel Magazine.
Ian Redmond OBE
Ian Redmond is a tropical field biologist and conservationist, renowned for his work with great apes and elephants. For more than 40 years he has been associated with the mountain gorilla, through research, filming, tourism and conservation work. Ian founded Ape Alliance in 1996 to encourage conservation organisations to work together.
Sue Watt
An expert on Africa wildlife travel, Sue writes for The Independent, The Telegraph and The Times, Travel Africa, BBC Wildlife, Wanderlust, the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides.
Hugh Thomson
Hugh has led several research expeditions to Peru and is the author of The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland and of Cochineal Red: Travels through Ancient Peru.
Marcela Torres
Born in Santiago, Chile, Marcela is a journalist and local expert on outdoor travel. She’s earned a master's degree in tourism with an emphasis on ecotourism, operated a tour company, and co-authored a Spanish-language guidebook about Chile’s national parks. Her travel career has taken her all over South America, and she has also lived in Australia, Costa Rica, and the United States. Follow her coverage of tourism in Chile at tourism-people-nature.blogspot.cl
Susana Corona Cruz
Susana is a Cuban-born travel writer, blogger and translator. Now based in Europe, Susana returns to her motherland at least once a year to rediscover, photograph and write about her birthplace. She works as an editor and translator for online and offline publications and her work has appeared in The Luxury Report and London magazine Latino Life.
Cindy Fan
Cindy Fan is a writer specialising in experiential travel, food, culture and destination guides. The author of Travelfish’s Laos and Vietnam guides since 2014, her stories and guides have been published in CNN Travel, The Australian, The Toronto Star and various inflight magazines.
Peter Knights
Peter is co-founder and Executive Director of WildAid, the only organisation focused on reducing demand for wildlife products and leading the fight against global demand for shark fin, ivory, and rhino horn.
Ethan Gelber
Ethan has been a freelance writer and editor for more than 20 years, with scores of projects focused on travel, culture and education. He specialises in responsible and sustainable tourism, family travel, and keeping travel local.
Jim Lutz
Jim is president of the International Galapagos Tour Operators Association, an organisation made up of 40 companies working to preserve and protect the islands by promoting responsible, well-regulated, low impact tourism, and by supporting critical conservation initiatives and scientific research.
Steven Hermans
Steven is the creator and editor of Caravanistan, an online travel guide to the Silk Road that was described by the Lonely Planet as a "peerless online travel guide to the region". He has been travelling the region since 2010, and has dedicated himself to improving tourism on the Silk Road, both for travellers and locals.
Mariellen Ward
Mariellen is a professional travel journalist who publishes the award-winning travel site Breathedreamgo.com, inspired by her extensive travels in India. Though Canadian by birth, Mariellen considers India to be her "soul culture” and she lives up in the clouds in Rishikesh.
Katie Coakley
Katie Coakley is a freelance writer and occasional blogger based in Denver, Colorado. She’s eaten dinner on a portaledge in Wales, snorkelled through the North American and Eurasian continents in Iceland and ridden the Reunification Express through Vietnam and has lived to write the tale. Antarctica was the seventh continent she has visited. Her writing has appeared in various newspapers, magazines and online outlets. You can find more of her work on her website or follow her on Instagram.
Jim O'Donnell
Freelance journalist, author and photographer, Jim O’Donnell focuses on conservation, human rights, and travel. A former archaeologist, O’Donnell is the author of Notes for the Aurora Society as well as numerous articles, several sordid tales, various angry letters-to-the-editor and other scribblings. He lives in New Mexico with his two children.
Lakshmi Sharath
After fifteen years as a journalist in several media organisations, Lakshmi decided to travel the world. So far, she has covered five continents and 25 countries.
Mike Gasparovic
Mike is an independent travel writer based in Lima, Peru. He has written for Fodor’s, Peru This Week and has created two book-length guides to his new hometown. His chief interests are the history and culture of the Spanish speaking world.
Julie Olum
Julie Olum is a nomad, writer, YouTuber and architecture graduate from Nairobi, Kenya. The hands and mind behind FrameAmbition.com, she makes online content around solo travel, festivals and visa hacks for holders of “weak passports". Her love affair with travel is now a near-obsession with slow travel and exploring cultural similarities across the world.
Matt Maynard
Matt has been based in Chile since he began a bicycle adventure from Patagonia in 2011. Since then, he has run ultramarathons across steaming volcanoes, hiked solo on the remotest stretches of the Greater Patagonian Trail and ridden his tandem with his Chilean wife across the breathless expanses of the Atacama desert.
Heather Richardson
Heather is an award-winning journalist and editor based in Cape Town, South Africa. She writes for the BBC, Sunday Times, National Geographic, Lonely Planet, Departures Magazine, among others.
Andrea Mujica
Born and raised in Florida, Andrea is currently living a nomadic lifestyle in Chile. She loves writing, people-watching, eating avocados, and finding new and interesting places to visit throughout South America.
Carolina Morgado
Carolina currently works as executive director in the Tompkins Conservation Chile office in the beautiful city of Puerto Varas, the gateway to Chilean Patagonia.
Edgar R Batte
Edgar is an award-winning journalist, writer and editor. His work has been published by The East African, African Review, Music in Africa, Marimba Media and many more.
Rachel Bracken-Singh
Rachel is head designer at international fashion boutique Anokhi and co-founder and director of the Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing. She lives in Jaipur.
Ashley Leiman
Ashley founded the Orangutan Foundation in 1990 and is one of the leading figures in orangutan conservation.
Anthony Ham
Anthony has been travelling around Africa for more than a decade. He has returned many times, seeking out stories about the people and wildlife of west and north Africa.
In recent years he has broadened his horizons into more traditional wildlife haunts, exploring Kenya, Botswana and South Africa. You can see his work in Lonely Planet and Africa Geographic.
Amanda Lynnes
Amanda is Head of communications and environment at the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO). Her Antarctic career began in 1996 with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as a penguin biologist and field assistant for the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
Mandy Sinclair
Mandy Sinclair is a writer and travel PR consultant based in Marrakech, Morocco. She runs the blog MandyInMorocco.com and hosts the bi-weekly podcast Why Morocco.
Lauren Keith
Lauren Keith is a guidebook author and travel writer specialising in the Middle East and North Africa and off-the-beaten-track destinations. Lauren was previously the editor for the Middle East and North Africa at Lonely Planet, where she’s written extensively about the region. Follow her adventures in the Middle East and beyond on Instagram @noplacelike_it.
Megan Eaves
Megan Eaves first visited China in 2004 with her Mandarin-language class and got hooked on Nanjing’s spicy weather and food. She’s lived in China twice and visited countless more times, travelling the length of the country from Guangdong to Qinghai and Guizhou to Beijing. She has written on China for Lonely Planet, CNN, The Independent and Atlas by Etihad, and is the author of This Is China: A Guidebook for Teachers, Backpackers and Other Lunatics. If lost, she is likely to be found scarfing down beef noodles in remotest Gansu province, or guzzling craft beer in a Beijing hutong.
David Luekens
Based in Thailand since 2011, David first waded into Southeast Asia in the early 2000s via friendships forged in the Thai, Vietnamese and Karen communities of Vermont, almost Canada, USA. He is a bona fide nerd in maps, islands and travel planning with a research background in Buddhism and the environmental, political and human rights issues of Southeast Asia. Bylines include CNN Travel, Conde Nast Traveller China and more than 100 Travelfish guides.
Nicole Canning
Nicole Canning is a freelance travel writer and co-founder of the adventure travel blog, TheTwoTravelled.com. Follow her on @nikkitravelled where she shares her latest travel plans and country guides for the time-restricted traveller.
Susannah Rigg
Susannah Rigg is a freelance writer and Mexico specialist based in Mexico City. Her work has been featured by Condé Nast Traveller, CNN, BBC Travel and AFAR among others. She has visited 26 of Mexico’s 32 states and is captivated by Mexico’s rich Mesoamerican history.
Sharell Cook
"Sharell Cook is a travel writer and author of Henna for the Broken-Hearted, published by Pan Macmillan. She was born and brought up in Australia and now lives in Mumbai, India."
Amanda Barnes
Amanda Barnes is an award-winning wine and travel writer who has been based in Argentina since 2009. She is author of the South America Wine Guide: The essential guide to the wine regions of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.
When she isn’t drinking wine in South America’s wine regions you can often find her off riding horses with gauchos in eastern Argentina, exploring the steppes of Patagonia, or learning to tango in Montevideo.
Mark Stratton
Mark is a professional travel writer and radio broadcaster. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Wanderlust, Telegraph Travel and many others. He is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Four’s From Our Own Correspondent.
Somdyuti Datta Ray
Somdyuti is an experienced Kolkata-based journalist who has written for Outlook Business, The Telegraph India, The Asian Age and others.
James Lowen
James writes about travel and nature. He has twice won Travel Guidebook of the Year awards. His books include Pantanal Wildlife: a Visitor’s Guide to Brazil’s Great Wetland and he is the editor of Neotropical Birding, the only magazine dedicated to wildlife in South and Central America.
Tamara Thiessen
Journalist-travel writer and photographer, Tamara Thiessen is an expert on Borneo with her 4th edition Bradt Travel Guide to the island due in 2020. France-Australia based, she works for newspapers, travel & leisure publications and in-flight magazines worldwide and is the author of several books
Jon Jared
Jon is a travel writer and guidebook researcher based in Quito, Ecuador. He has authored the Moon guides to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands and contributes to Delta Sky Magazine and the Happy Gringo Travel website.
David Whitley
David Whitley spent five years in Australia editing backpacker magazines and has visited twice a year since coming back to the UK. He works for major magazines and newspapers both at home and in Oz.
Stuart Thornton
Stuart is a California-based travel writer and guidebook author. His books include Moon California Road Trip, Moon Coastal California and the forthcoming Moon Northern California Road Trips. For more about Stuart and his books, visit his website.
Ashley Owen
Ashley is a freelance travel writer from the UK who spent two years travelling around Japan, and writes about the country regularly for a variety of print and online publications. You can follow her on Instagram.
Laura Williams
Laura is a freelance writer who has written for Men's Journal, Thrillist, VeryWellFit and many more. She currently runs a small community bar in the El Llano pueblo in Costa Rica.
James Clark
James is a freelance travel journalist who has written for Lonely Planet, BBC, Monocle, TGO Magazine and TNT Magazine. He is returning to Tohoku to complete the entire Michinoku Coastal Trail.
Emma Sparks
Emma Sparks is an itchy-footed freelance travel writer and digital editor based in Cardiff, UK. She has written for Lonely Planet, The Telegraph, Love Exploring, easyJet, Skyscanner and more.
Robin McKelvie
Robin McKelvie is a Scottish based travel writer who has spent the last two decades travelling the globe writing articles for newspapers and magazines across five continents, as well as over 30 guidebooks for the likes of Berlitz and National Geographic. He also talks travel regularly on the BBC.
Jools Stone
Jools Stone is an award-winning travel and arts writer and editor, published by the Telegraph, New European, Daily Express, Rough Guides and more. Based in Brighton, he’s a keen advocate for rail and slow travel.
Katheryn Wise
Katheryn is World Animal Protection's UK campaigns manager for wildlife. Her role focuses on exposing places where wild animals are used for entertainment in tourism.
Tom Allen
Tom is an explorer and travel writer, originally from England, now based in the South Caucasus. He has published five books and three full-length films, and currently works full-time on the Transcaucasian Trail.
Baia Dzagnidze
Baia is a travel writer and blogger from Tbilisi, Georgia. With a background in journalism, she has been writing travel articles about Georgia for local and international publications for more than three years. Her articles have been published in Lonely Planet, National Geographic Traveller FOOD (UK edition), Skyscanner, Georgia Starts Here, and Forbes Woman Georgia.
Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey
Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey is a freelance travel writer and guidebook author. Her work has appeared in The Independent, The Telegraph, France Today, AFAR, CNN Travel, and her three books on Australia are in print with Moon Travel Guides.
Chris Draper
Chris is head of animal welfare and captivity at the Born Free Foundation. He oversees animal welfare across all the Foundation’s projects and leads on promoting its Compassionate Conservation initiative. Chris is also the European Coordinator for the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS) and has completed a PhD at the University of Bristol on the implementation of legislation and assessment of animal welfare in zoos.
Nick Stewart
Nick is World Animal Protection’s global head of campaign against dolphin captivity, advocating for the public and travel industry’s rejection of captive dolphin experiences and building support for responsible alternatives and solutions to protect current and future generations of animals.
Jane Foster
Jane Foster is a British freelance travel writer, based in Split on the Dalmatian coast, and specialising in Croatia, Montenegro and Greece. She writes for the Travel section of the Daily Telegraph (UK) and various magazines, including Conde Nast Traveller and Scandinavian Traveler.
Joel Balsam
Joel Balsam is a Canadian freelance journalist and Lonely Planet guidebook writer.
Stephanie Foden
Stephanie Foden is a documentary photographer who has shot stories for National Geographic, New York Times and TIME.
Daiva Repeckaite
Daiva is a Lithuanian journalist based in Malta, published in Guardian Cities, Politico Europe, New Internationalist and other international and local media. She is interested in the changing worlds of work and the ways people make sense of dramatic changes around them.
Kellie Heckman
Kellie has a 20-year track record as a non-profit executive, charity startup veteran, and academic research scientist with a focus on international animal advocacy and conservation, companion animal overpopulation, and the protection of wildlife, equine and farmed animals.
Mazuba Kapambwe
Mazuba is a freelance writer from Zambia whose travel writing has appeared on CNN Travel, Unearth Women, Culture Trip and several in-flight magazines. Her travel podcast Mwende Bwino (Go Well) was recently featured on Conde Nast Traveler’s website and listed as one of the top five Zambian podcasts. Mazuba co-wrote the Lusaka Arts and Culture guide produced by the National Arts Council of Zambia.
Elen Turner
Elen is a Nelson, New Zealand-based travel writer who has lived on both the North and South Islands, from Northland to Otago. Her writing on New Zealand has appeared in Lonely Planet, The New Zealand Herald, Ozy, TripSavvy, Culture Trip, The Points Guy and elsewhere.
Tony Dunnell
Tony has been living in Peru since 2009. He has also written on a range of subjects for publications such as Atlas Obscura, Vice, Mental Floss, and many more. You can see more of his writing at tonydunnell.com.
Fergal MacErlean
Dublin-born Fergal fell in love with Scotland as a student, settling there to become a journalist and cycle guidebook writer. In addition to his guides covering Scotland, he has written for the BBC, New Scientist, BBC Countryfile Magazine and many travel publications. Andalusia is a second home.
Catherine Bodry
Catherine is a freelance travel writer and guidebook author hailing from Anchorage, Alaska. Her work has appeared in Lonely Planet, BBC Travel, Fodor's, MSN UK Travel, and many other print and web publications.
Lisa Maloney
Lisa is an Alaska-based writer and journalist. She has authored the Moon guide to Alaska Alaska and served as senior editor at Alaska magazine among bylines in Via, Backpacker, the Wall Street Journal, Alaska magazine, Last Frontier, Northwest Travel & Life, The Writer, Funds for Writers, Natural Home and Garden and Outside Online.
Daniel McCrohan
Daniel is a prolific guidebook writer who divides his time between exploring Asia for Lonely Planet and Britain for Trailblazer. As well as writing close to 50 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, he has worked on more than a dozen Trailblazer walking guides, and has hiked and camped his way across many parts of the UK, China, Mongolia and India.
Sarah Reid
Sarah is an award-winning Australian travel writer with a passion for sustainability and low-impact travel. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, BBC Travel, Lonely Planet, Adventure.com, The Independent, and more. She also writes travel reference books for Lonely Planet, and manages sustainable travel website Eco Travelist.
Colin Baird
Edinburgh-born Colin is a cycling blogger. He became hooked on cycling in Scotland after his first-ever biking holiday to the Orkney Islands. He's been all over the country discovering routes and seeking out the best places to visit by bike. He blogs about his adventures on the Cycling Scot website.
Sara Jane Armstrong
SJ Armstrong is a travel writer and infrequent blogger from London. She specialises in slow and budget travel across 6 continents, including 6 months travelling around Australia. Her writing has appeared in various online outlets and magazines, and more of her published work can be found here.
Jeremy Head
Freelance travel writer and photographer. His writing and photos are regularly published in the UK’s mainstream newspapers. Wales is one of his favourite destinations, particularly when he’s travelling with the family.
Steven Hunt
Steven is an energy & innovation advisor at the UK's Department for International Development (DFiD) with an interest in low carbon, and energy access technology. When he's not at work he's out exploring new corners of the UK and Europe with his wife, Sarah, and their two boys in their 1980s Volkswagen T3 campervan.
