I’ve just returned from an archipelago off the coast of Panama where a massive, privately-funded conservation endeavour is now being shared with the outside world via a top-tier hospitality project. And I can’t say enough good things about it. Genuine hospitality can be the perfect vehicle for the expression and transmission of culture. However, resort […]
The world is forever moving towards complexity, leaving us to face down bigger and bigger questions with every trip around the sun. The world of travel is no exception, and the inter-connected complexities of over-tourism, climate change and now COVID make planning decisions more complicated than ever. Questions abound, and for the more philosophical among […]
Long before founding Trufflepig with my best friends in 2004, I got my start in the travel industry as a 20 yr-old bike-tour guide with a braided ponytail, mutton-chop sideburns, leather pants and the inflated confidence of youth. But no real idea what I was doing. Not surprisingly I screwed up spectacularly in those early […]
I’ve always wanted to visit Jamaica, but was weary of its reputation. It’s as if tourism here developed a model where both sides—tourists and locals—put their worst foot forward. For too long I avoided it like the plague, but in GoldenEye, and the Island Outpost story, I found the Jamaica I’ve always longed to meet. […]
Trufflepig’s headquarters are in Toronto, where our office is known as the Farm. We’re looking for an experienced and capable office manager with a level head and the multi-tasking capacity of an octopus to help keep us ship-shape. To herd us into effectiveness. And to stop us mixing our metaphors. This person will look after […]
Trufflepig is pushing east, and we’re opening a new position for a Toronto-based trip-planner to head up our trip planning from Munich to Moscow. Expanding the boundaries of our trip planning eastwards from where they have so-far been stubbornly stuck in a winstub in Strasbourg will take some gumption, so this person needs to be […]
¡Atención Señores y Señoras! Trufflepig is looking for a new trip planner to help make hay in Latin America. Quieres ser chancho número uno? If so, llamanos pronto! For years now we’ve been bashing about the far corners of the Americas, from the Dali-esque dunes of the Lencois Marenhenses to the hanging glaciers of Torres […]
Nicaragua deserves a break, like rum deserves an ice cube. Which is to say, a lot. I like rum. I have always liked rum, and I like it even more now that it has brought us Mukul Resort. Mukul is the new, super luxe development on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, built by the Flor […]
Sometimes—you might even say often—we travel to escape. When routines become audible like the meshing of gears, we feel the compulsion to lose ourselves, to shed skin. Some places encourage fantasies of time travel—where we imagine ourselves living as adults in a different age. Take the ancient Medina of Fez for example, or the caves […]
Ibo Island is one of those places I always hoped existed but then kind of lost faith in. Finding it was like remembering a dream a few hours after waking—I felt a rush of excitement and familiarity, a sense of triumph. And now I spend my days dreaming of going back. Because of its fresh […]
I’m a big fan of delayed gratification; a little hard work beforehand makes the reward that much sweeter. For example, when eating lobster (my favourite meal), I’ll start with the legs and the little flanges at the tip of the tail, twisting and tweezing out even the smallest fibre of meat until I can barely […]
Every campfire conversation in Africa promises a lifetime of embellishment, exaggeration and sweeping generalization. Having sat around many a campfire myself, you’ll have to forgive me the indulgence. I’ve heard many a Kenyan take pot shots at Southern African safaris, and Southern Africans are no less opinionated, so I’ll try here to present a balanced […]
We all want to see lions, giraffes and elephants – these exotic animals have captured our imaginations from a very young age. For most tourists, a trip to Africa means a trip to see the lions, giraffes and elephants, but moving past this simple declaration they become quickly paralyzed by all the choice. This is […]
I was designed for the great plains of Africa – its more than just my job. I am reminded every time I land on the airstrip, any airstrip, and take my first breath. Every pore suddenly achieves full aperture, every muscle settles back into comfortable repose. It is like removing a pesky pebble from your sandal after tolerating […]
There’s an actual place in Uganda that’s actually called the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Hard to believe, but it’s true. I know, because one of our fearless Africa trip planners (Greg Sacks) has just spent a week there, trekking to see gorillas and chimps in the wild and wooly woods. It’ll be a another couple of weeks […]
Never judge a property by its website alone—if you don’t learn this lesson early on it will be taught to you the hard way. Or the blissful way, as was the case with Huvafen Fushi. Huvafen’s marketing materials put forth an image of South Beach hedonism meets Dubai bling, which fooled me into expecting a […]