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Horizon Guides is a celebration of extraordinary travel. Our readers come to us to learn about the people, places and experiences that take us beyond our comfort zone and expand our understanding of the world.

We work with leading travel journalists, guidebook authors and other destination experts to provide insider recommendations about places that the mainstream tourism industry doesn’t want to talk about.

Join our contributor mailing list for advance notice of our upcoming commissions and assignments, or read on for our pitch guidelines.

How to write for us

Please read before pitching!

Before sending in your idea, please make sure it is the kind of pitch we'll consider. We are unable to respond to pitches that ignore the following guidelines.

There are two main commission types for Horizon Guides: features for The Journal, or in-depth travel guides.

Guides

Our guides typically focus on a single activity or experience in a given location. For example, our guides to walking in the UK or gorilla trekking. We don't produce general destination guides, we do aim to be exhaustive and definitive on a particular activity within the destination.

When suggesting a guide pitch, send us a paragraph or two describing why we should cover this aspect of a destination and the specific details that your guide would cover, such as routes, places or activities.

Do explain how your own experience and expertise matches this destination (we prefer in-destination authors or those with several years/recent experience in the destination). If you haven’t written for Horizon Guides before, it’s helpful to tell us a little about your background and writing experience, as well as links to previous work.

Journal features

We’re looking for stories (not necessarily "travel" stories) on people, places, events and interesting social/political issues.

We don’t run straight first-person/narrative accounts of your travel journey. Your feature should have an angle, people, a storyline and a payoff. In the vast majority of features, the writer will be the least important person in the story. Instead, it should focus on the people, place or issue you’re writing about. Don’t be afraid to be contrary: if your story goes against the grain of mainstream travel and tourism writing we’re especially interested.

The ideal pitch is just a few paragraphs long, quickly telling an editor what the story is, what makes it different and why Horizon Guides should cover it. We want a flavour of what the finished feature will be like.

We strongly advise you to show awareness for our website and readers. Before sending a pitch, check our website to see what we’ve done and covered on the destination in the past.

You can find a full list of our features here.

Writing for us

We think there's huge room for improvement in the quality of online travel publishing. In an ocean of AI-generated, ephemeral, low-budget "content" we strive to treat our readers as adults who want genuinely useful insights and grown-up, nuanced perspectives on the world. And we depend upon our community of professional travel writers to make it all happen!

We've been freelancers ourselves and we know it's not an easy profession. We strive to reply to all pitches and provide constructive feedback (we're a tiny team so your patience is appreciated and please make sure you follow these guidelines!) and we promise to pay fair rates for your work.

Rates & terms

Rates vary according to the brief but as a general rule of thumb we pay anywhere from £200+ for features and upwards of £400+ for guides, all depending on length. Our editorial team will be happy to discuss the scope of your pitch and brief further.

We pay up to 30 days upon acceptance of your piece (not upon publication). We prefer to pay via BACS to UK bank accounts or Transferwise to international accounts.

How to pitch

For all pitches, please email our editor in the first instance, labelling your email with your pitch headline and destination in the subject line. We attempt to respond to all pitches that follow our guidelines, but the sheer volume means this isn’t always possible. Please do not send follow-up emails to pitches if you haven’t received a response – this will only block up our system further.

Complete the form below to receive semi-regular emails with our latest commissions, destinations of interest and forward features. (We will never pass on your information to any third party and you can remove or update your details at any time.)

If you’re already registered and need to update your details, please enter your registered email below and follow the link to update your profile.

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Why Horizon Guides?

Impartial guidebooks

Impartial travel guides

Our guides are written by the leading experts in their destinations. We never take payment for positive coverage so you can count on us for impartial travel advice.

Expert itineraries

Expert itineraries

Suggested itineraries and routes to help you scratch beneath the surface, avoid the tourist traps, and plan an authentic, responsible and enjoyable journey.

Specialist advice

Specialist advice

Get friendly, expert travel advice and custom itineraries from some of the world's best tour operators, with no spam, pressure or commitment to book.