How many correspondents does Faraway Places have?

Faraway Places works with a network of 240+ resident correspondents across 92 countries. Most live full-time in the cities and regions they cover and file original reporting directly to our Lisbon editorial desk.

Are correspondents paid by hotels, tourism boards, or airlines?

No. Every hotel, tour, and restaurant recommendation is paid for out-of-pocket by our writers. Faraway Places has run zero sponsored placements in editorial since launch, and 62% of revenue comes from memberships and newsletter sponsorships.

How do I become a Faraway Places correspondent?

We accept pitches from writers who already live in the destination they want to cover. Submissions go through the editor-in-chief's desk in Lisbon and require two reporting samples plus a story proposal reviewed by at least two editors before publication.

Four Faraway Places correspondents in conversation at the Lisbon editorial office

Issue 184 · The Correspondents

The people who actually live in the places they write about.

Faraway Places is built on a 240-strong network of writers who file from cafés in Oaxaca, guesthouses in Hanoi, and boarding houses in the Faroes — not freelancers rewording press releases, but residents with bylines, deadlines, and an editor on the other end of the line.

Resident correspondents in 92 countries Edited from Lisbon since 2014 Zero sponsored placements since launch

Founding Editor · Lisbon

Marisol Hartley

Portugal, Spain, Morocco · Food & slow travel

Marisol started Faraway Places in 2014 from a one-room office above a bakery in Bairro Alto. She still edits the Iberian coverage in the mornings and writes a long-form restaurant column for the Friday dispatch. Her last guide traced the route of an 18th-century salt trader across the Alentejo — seven towns, fourteen plates, one rented Fiat.

Filed fromLisbon, since 1998
Reports47 guides since launch
LanguagesPT · ES · FR · EN

Read Marisol's recent dispatches →

Kyoto Desk · Japan Editor

Kenji Mori

Japan · Crafts, ryokans, regional rail

Kenji files the Japan desk from a tatami room in Higashiyama that doubles as our small editorial office in Asia. He trained as an architect before turning to writing.

Southern Africa Bureau

Naledi Mokoena

South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique

Naledi spent eight years on staff at a daily newspaper in Johannesburg before joining the network. Her safari reporting is the most-cited guide in our archive.

Mexico City Bureau Chief

Tomás Beltrán

Mexico, Guatemala, Belize

Tomás runs the Latin American desk from a converted print shop in Roma Norte. He reviews every guidebook on the region before it ships.

That was four. The directory holds 240 more, each verified by an in-person editor visit within the last 18 months.

Browse the full directory

Linh Pham's working kitchen in Hanoi's Old Quarter — Linh Pham Hanoi, Vietnam

Søren í Húsinum's writing cottage in the Faroes — Søren í Húsinum Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

Yasmine El-Fassi's writing courtyard in Marrakech — Yasmine El-Fassi Marrakech, Morocco

Diego Calderón's writing carriage in El Chaltén — Diego Calderón El Chaltén, Argentina

A plate is one correspondent, one working address, one beat. Browse the full contact sheet in the directory.

Chapter I
Recruited, not cold-pitched

A working journalist or subject specialist based in the region — never a freelancer rearranging press releases. Candidates come through editor referrals, the SATW and Lowell Thomas longlists, and eleven years of reader letters.
Chapter II
Two trial dispatches, two editors

Each new correspondent files two trial pieces on their home region. They are read by a regional editor and the standards desk. Roughly one in three makes it past this stage; the rest are declined with a note and an invitation to reapply after a year.
Chapter III
Paid out-of-pocket for every recommendation

Hotels, tours, restaurants — every recommendation in a Faraway Places guide is paid for by the correspondent. No comped stays, no hosted dinners, no industry rates. Receipts are filed with the invoice. We have published zero sponsored placements in editorial since launch.
Chapter IV
Fact-checked on a 14-month clock

Every guide is revisited, redated, and re-fact-checked by the original writer plus a second editor at least once every fourteen months. If a restaurant closes or a route shifts, the guide is corrected within seventy-two hours and dated with the change.

240+

Resident correspondents

People who file from where they live, in 92 countries. Not freelancers, not staff travelers passing through.

Countries with boots on the ground

Of the 195 UN member states. We've never claimed we cover the world — only this honestly drawn 92.

14 mo.

Editorial update cycle

Every guide is revisited, redated, and fact-checked by a second editor on a fourteen-month cadence. Guaranteed.

One dispatch a week. Forty correspondents in rotation.

The Friday dispatch picks four correspondents' most recent reporting and sends it to 180,000+ inboxes. No listicles, no ads, no upsells — just the field notes and a single editor's note from Lisbon.

Already a subscriber? Browse the full directory

The people who actually live in the places they write about.

Meet a few of the writers behind the bylines.

Marisol Hartley

Kenji Mori

Naledi Mokoena

Tomás Beltrán

240 correspondents. 92 countries. One reading list.

The reporting system behind every guide.

Recruited, not cold-pitched

Two trial dispatches, two editors

Paid out-of-pocket for every recommendation

Fact-checked on a 14-month clock

What the network looks like, plain.

One dispatch a week. Forty correspondents in rotation.