***20 December 2023: Please note that applications for these positions are now closed*** Trufflepig as a company was started by Trip Planners and is run by Trip Planners, and in a world of distractions and fads we maintain a single-minded focus on our core objective: planning great trips. Trufflepig’s Trip Planners are destination specialists and […]
Modern beasts made from steel that hurl their futuristic shape from city to city at great speed, or rather rundown carriers of nostalgia that crisscross the countryside at a snail’s pace: trains. Manmade machines on tracks. I love them all. I’ve always had a great fondness for this quintessential way of getting from A to […]
Some foods are so intrinsically tied to a place that often they shed a light on its past vicissitude much better than any museums or monuments. One of them is cod: the consumption of this fish is widespread across several continents, from Russia, to Western Africa, from the Caribbean to England, to the point that […]
When I lived in China there were days where I would become overwhelmed by numbers. Numbers of people around me, numbers of buildings in cities, astronomical numbers and metrics of a scale so grand I thought could only be science fiction. I would become overwhelmed with culture shock, a stranger in an unknown land. Not […]
We’ve been out on the road this year…. a lot. At half-time on 2019, our trotters are worn smooth, and it’s time to take stock. The pictures above flooded my inbox when I naively wrote to our planning team to ask for a few shots from recent research trips. I was struck by the awesome […]
As even the most cursory glance at the map will tell you, Greenland is the world’s largest misnomer. It seems “Iceland”, sadly, was taken, and the Norse settlers who first attempted to set up camp on the south-eastern shores (the north-west had long been inhabited by Inuits) thought a little gilding the lilly might bring in […]
While Copenhagen rightly remains a perennial favourite on the Scandinavian circuit, there are a number of delightful retreats dotting the Danish countryside that are worth including in your Nordic adventure. Not only does the setting of these charming inns make you appreciate the slower pace of rural living, they also house some of Scandinavia’s finest […]
I arrive into Kiruna, gateway to Swedish Lapland (Sapmi in local language), around the lunch hour on an overcast Wednesday. It’s January, and the sun is about to set. I’ve come in from Stockholm, confident that I had adjusted well to the short days of Winter in Northern Europe. But up here past the Arctic Circle […]
In the blink of an eye, it’s over. It may not last long, but the sweet magic that Summer casts on the Swedish island of Gotland is a spell to enjoy year after year. A storybook of Swedish Summer paradise, Gotland is where savvy Swedes head from Stockholm to avoid the hordes of Southern Europe sinking Santorini into the […]
It’s no secret I like to sweat it out. Preferably in the solitude of a wood-fired cabin by a lake surrounded by dense forest. But failing that, I get my schwitz on any way I can. One of my most memorable sauna quests took place in Malmö on the Baltic Sea coast, where on a […]
Dreamt up by owners Kent and Britta, Treehotel is a year-round Northern outpost in the Swedish countryside, surrounded by unspoiled nature as far as the eye can see and the lush Lule river valley. They are the same couple who run Britta’s Pensionat next door; an inviting cluster of 1930-50s inspired rooms that feel like you’re staying at your […]
This Fall, Town & Country magazine had the hare-brained scheme of planning a 170-day Grand Tour around the world for their 100th anniversary. And then they had the wise idea of asking Trufflepig to plan 43 days of it. We were tickled pink with [false] modesty. There’s a world of difference between good trip-planning and most […]
“HEL yeah” sums what I thought when a recent opportunity presented itself to spend a few days in the Finnish capital Helsinki (whose airport code is HEL… genius!). Now, travelling to a Northern European outpost in February doesn’t appeal to everyone, I get that. It’s dark, it’s chilly and it’s wet. But if you think […]
I like cities. I don’t like to leave them. Frankly, too much green and nature makes me slightly apprehensive. Wide open, verdant space may seem idyllic in many respects, true, but it can hide suspect hazards. Like bear traps. Or vicious moles. Or dogs off-the-leash intent on crotch investigation. A park, however, is acceptable; a […]
My friend ignored my first nine emails suggesting we visit the Norwegian wilderness in December. But then she remembered who she was dealing with, and I—like a dog with a bone—was unlikely to give up on northern lights, dog sledding and sleeping in a heated tent. She had reason to be concerned. The weather website […]
In a world filled with economic meltdowns, terrorist extremists, and natural disasters, how does one rationalize a World Championship Wife Carrying Contest? Oddly, it somehow seems perfectly rational in Finland. To be clear, this is not your grandpa’s piggy back ride; it’s a race around a 250 meter track with your missus on your back, in […]