How I pick and check

Here’s what the labels on every pick mean, who pays for what, how I fix mistakes, and how I handle travel news and AI.

How I choose picks

I pick places I’ve been. When a pick comes from a friend who lives there instead, the label says so: “Went · No, a friend who lives there.”

Places close to home get picks too, checked the same way.

A place that’s only viral doesn’t get a pick. Every picks piece has a “What I’d skip” section, and every list has what I wouldn’t do or pack again.

The labels

“Went” says how long I was there. It never says when.

“Still good as of” is the month I last confirmed the pick still holds. That can mean going back, calling, checking the place’s own listings, or asking a friend who’s there.

I recheck every pick in January and July. A pick that fails comes down or moves to “What I’d skip,” and the next issue’s Updates section says which ones changed.

Who pays

You’ll always know who paid for a pick. When it wasn’t me, the label says so.

Sometimes a brand, a hotel, or a tourism board pays for a trip or a stay, or pays for a pick to be included. I say yes only to something I’d pick with my own money, and what I think stays my own.

When someone else paid, the piece says so at the top, before the story starts, and each pick they paid for gets one more row in its box, in bold, the same size as the others:

A sponsored pick gets the same checks and the same “What I’d skip” as any other pick.

On Instagram, Threads, and TikTok, a sponsored post carries the platform’s paid-partnership label, and its first line says who paid.

Some issues carry one sponsor, an ad I write myself. It’s labeled “Sponsor” and sits after the picks, never inside them.

If you’re a brand, here’s how partnerships work.

Links that earn

When a link on a pick earns me money, the pick’s box says so, right next to the link:

It’s never only in a footer.

Corrections

When I get something wrong, I fix the piece and add a line at the end that says what changed. Corrections and picks that didn’t hold up both go in the next issue’s Updates section. If you spot one, write to [email protected].

Travel news

On Instagram, Threads, and TikTok, and sometimes in the issue, I post about travel stories other outlets reported. I read the primary source first, and I credit the outlet that did the reporting, not one that rewrote it. The outlet is named and tagged in the first line, and a photo or video post credits it on the cover: “Reported by @outlet.” The post is my take: what happened, then what I think and why it matters to someone who travels. Any footage is mine. I never download and re-upload an outlet’s video.

How I use AI

I write every piece and take every photo and video. AI never writes a piece, never makes an image of a place or a person, and never draws the van.

I use AI tools for work around the writing: sorting my notes and research, finding patterns across them, transcribing my voice notes, and helping edit my footage and lay out graphics from my own photos. It never replaces checking. I verify every fact against its source myself. When AI did more than that on a piece, the piece says so at the end.