Archipelago FAQs

Archipelago is a travel media brand that focuses on articles, essays, long reads and deep-dive travel writing. The focus is always on useful, helpful, insightful information, rather than personal experiences or worthless opinions

Archipelago is fully independent and run by one person, Phil Brown, meaning there are no external stakeholders or hidden agendas!

No, Archipelago is a travel writing brand, trips aren’t booked or sold

Not always. Although most of the time Archipelago writers have indeed visited the places they write about, the focus is still on research, insight and facts. Just because you have visited somewhere doesn’t mean you suddenly have expertise, or the right to tell others what’s best. Instead, the focus is on consensus, data, facts and information, allowing our readers to draw their own conclusions, rather than trusting someone who may completely different views or opinions, or may have had an entirely different experience to what’s ‘normal’.

What you won’t find are guides, tips and ‘lived experience’ that’s made up or created by AI.

No. Our articles are written by humans, for humans. However, AI may have been used, like it should be, as a tool to save time or managed information. Take a look at our AI Policy and Editorial Policy for more information.

Our lack of photos is our commitment to making the words do the heavy lifting. The travel industry has a nasty tendency to tell fibs to get you to enter your card details, or push perfect photography as the honest truth. Archipelago’s view is that homogenised stock photos don’t add any value to our writing. We want our readers to gain the information, create a mental image, then enjoy seeing it for real when they get there. Marco Polo didn’t have a camera, and he tends to be the model for travel storytelling.

Extreme levels of research and immersion. Founder Phil spends most of his time reading forums, checking news stories, looking for angles and findings that are valuable and steering a writing strategy that’s all about the most accurate and up to date travel information. That being said, mistakes can be made and information is time limited, so there’s a comprehensive Corrections process so our readers can alert us to incorrect information.

The Archipelago mission is mainly about sharing insightful, interesting and inspiring travel writing – but it’s also about addressing the mess that has come about due to an over-reliance on SEO, a serious lack of trustworthy content, and the dreaded AI overviews that are running rampant across the internet. Add in an influencer culture that’s all about making sales rather than telling it how it really is, and you have a scary amount of poor quality information flying at you before you’ve even booked the time off work.

We are the antidote to all of that.

Archipelago+ is our membership subscription and you get plenty of bang for your buck. As well as exclusive content, an extra, longer monthly newsletter and the monthly Journal, you can also download all of the paid digital content for free, like city guides, maps, packing lists etc.

Just head to the subscribe page to make an account and get started.

You have a cancellation option in your account section which stops your subscription from renewing.

Your email address is stored if you sign up to the Newsletter or subscribe to Archipelago+, but things like payment information, advanced personal information or things like location, preferences or other activity online aren’t collected. See the Privacy Policy for full details.

Archipelago is operated from the UK, with registered office in Solihull

Archipelago is a limited company registered in England, paying corporation tax in the UK.

Only necessary cookies are used to ensure the correct running of the site and to ensure certain features, like the reading list, work properly. Read more in the Cookies Policy.

Archipelago is fully GDPR-compliant and uses encrypted, password protected storage to prevent hacks, leaks or accidental sharing of email addresses. See the Privacy Policy for full details.