Journal
Reports, analyses and features from all 195 countries - the journalism behind the journeys.
There Is No Such Thing as the Price
In an economy with a parallel exchange rate, the same bed has three prices depending on how you paid. Argentina ran the best-known version; the arithmetic is identical in half a dozen other countries, and it decides what a week costs.
The List That Is Longer Than the Brochure
Travel insurance is sold on evacuation and bought on lost luggage, and the gap is where declined claims live. Pre-existing conditions, alcohol, motorcycles and an altitude threshold that quietly excludes many of the world’s famous treks.
What Made Data Cheap
Roaming was ruinous and local SIMs were an hour of your first afternoon. Both problems dissolved in about five years, and the reason was not generosity — it was that a piece of plastic stopped being necessary to sell the product.
The Countries That Cannot Devalue
Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama and Zimbabwe gave up the ability to print money. The convenience for a visitor is real; so is the reason those destinations cost more than their neighbours and will go on doing so.
The Fare Was Never the Price
Unbundling did not make flying more expensive — in real terms it did the opposite. What it did was make the cheapest-looking fare systematically the one with the most stripped out, because every search engine on earth sorts on the base number.