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Bang for your Buck Down Under

If you’ve ever considered a trip to Australia or New Zealand, now is an excellent time to start planning. Both the New Zealand and the Australian dollar, while always quite volatile, are lower than they have been in more than two years against the USD, making those beautiful (and pricey) hotels like Cape Kidnappers, Southern […]

Let’s Get Stoned

There is nothing quite like avoiding the multitudinous crowds when visiting a popular attraction. Something about being among a throng and herded around gets my goat. So it was with some delight that I recently visited the sanctified stones of Stonehenge for an hour with just nine others. There was no herding around, and you […]

Ambling in Athens

On a recent trip to Athens, we had the good fortune to book a tour through those lovely and wise folk at Context. Their learned docent Smaro met us at our wee boutique hotel, The O&B on the edge of the Plaka, where we ventured through lanes and flower-strewn alleys on a sun-dappled late autumnal afternoon (it seems […]

The Unexpected Amazon

Did you know that more than 60% of Perúvian terrain is Amazon Jungle area? Conversely, the ruins in the Andean Valleys (where most people concentrate their visits) constitute only about 28% of the country’s land. I was fascinated when I realized this—it wasn’t Brazil or Ecuador, but Peru’s ancient, Incan land, full of ruins and […]

Bringing Piggies to Market

At Trufflepig, we like to partake in all things fine and swine. When we come by fine swine, it’s sublime. Or perhaps a lovely wine, how divine. Okay, I’m done, I promise. On a recent trip to Vietnam, I was introduced to a program that is doing some great work west of Hanoi. Bloom Microventures has […]

Seeing in Black and White

I have had some growing pains over the years, as I learned to use my new digital camera. It was a world of difference over film, and I humbly admit that I did, on occasion, get caught up in the allure of certain “features” the camera offered. Remember that colour bleed, where you pull just […]

Erudition in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is arguably one of the most beautiful cities in the UK. The Scottish capital is a wonderfully evocative metropolis, the old town and new town are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and the city has much in store for the intrepid visitor. As you wander along Princes Street, Edinburgh Castle towers over the city grandly, […]

Wanted: Safari Planner Extraordinaire

Who says wildlife and farm life can’t co-exist? At Trufflepig we jumped the fence long ago and have never looked back. Our planners are passionate about safari and we spend a lot of time on African soil. From community-owned conservancies in Kenya, to rustic wine farms on the Cape, to bushman initiation hunts in the Kalahari, we […]

Boa Brazil: World Cup 2014

The Winter Olympics are over. What’s the next international competition that the world is willing to wake up to watch at all hours of the night? The FIFA World Cup, of course. Rio’s final samba school has finished the Carnival parade route, and now just 83 days remain (fifa.com has a countdown, naturally) until nationalistic […]

Dealings in the Ditch

Shoreditch used to be an area best avoided; indeed, the ‘ditch’ in question was probably a boggy suburb of London’s City back in Saxon times, known as ‘Sewer-ditch’. Gentrification and its proximity to the financial City of London changed this area into a hub of artistic creativity and art in the 90s, and this former […]

Time Travel

My travel bucket list is so extensive that I don’t think I’ll be able to complete it in my own lifetime. That’s what happens when you work in travel. Going back to a place I have already been, then, triggers an upset little voice in my head. “But… we could be seeing one of the […]

12 Reasons to Visit Venice

Having just returned from a research trip in Venice, our expert in all things Italian, Rudston Steward, has plenty to say about this watery wonder. He’s pared it all down to 12 key reasons why Venice should top your travel hit list. 1) A palatial past—Venetians don’t think of themselves as Italians, but as a […]

Make Like a Tree and Leave

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 […]

It’s Beginning to Look Nothing Like Christmas

As winter finally unclenches its fist from around our collective throats, and the temperature deigns to rise above negative double digits, I know exactly what you’re thinking: “where shall we go next Christmas?” Actually, that’s probably the last thing on your mind as you dream of warm sunshine and footwear other than snow boots, but […]

The House of Dreams

At Trufflepig we are firm believers in top-notch service. We’re a little bit addicted to it, in fact—we’ll admit it. What always leaves us raving about a trip is inevitably the hospitality; meeting a local guide who showed us things we never could have discovered on our own, or, in the case of Maisons des […]

Now & Zen

This is the moment when you’ve run out of patience. You know it. We know it. All the other drivers on the salt-crusted road know it. It’s mid-February and there are minimal daylight hours at the end of the tunnel, especially under this particularly heavy avalanche of snow. We’re all just trying too hard to […]