Our Editorial Guidelines

Editorial Policy

In response to the growing debate about travel writing ethics and to provide our readers with a clear view on our editorial approach, we have implemented a public editorial policy.  While as a British publication we are under no legal obligations to implement a rule on disclosures, we feel that it is in both our interests as well as our readers to remain open as possible.

The Policy

Our overarching editorial view is simple:

Honest and Authenticity Are the Best Policy

However, more specifically, we align ourselves with the following principles:

  1. Writers for this publication accept sponsored travel.  While the life of a travel writer may seem glamorous, it doesn’t pay terribly well.  But sponsored travel does not always mean free flights or hotel nights.  It also means that we are offered access to tours and events that we might have missed out on otherwise – so that we can ensure you know about the best on offer and book accordingly before you go.  Trip reports which were sponsored by the destination now have a clear disclosure on them.
  2. We accept freebies from suppliers for our regularly featured contests.  If you see the verbiage sponsored by, courtesy of, or provided by, these are clear indications that we did not pay for the items in our contests.  This is regularly accepted practice throughout the industry but we’d be remiss not to spell it out here.
  3. We accept review copies of travel guides, books and other travel-related items for review on this publication.  We only accept items which we feel will resonate with our audience and are a strong fit with the STE brand, thus reducing the likelihood that we will review something we don’t like.  But if we don’t like it, we’ll tell you.
  4. We reserve the right to run ‘advertorial’ content on our site.  This publication is essentially free, and our sole revenue source is our hand-picked travel deals and special offers.  Any articles which feature items from our special offers section is intended to generate revenue – just like advertisements in a magazine do.  However, you cannot buy your way into this publication.  We only run special offers that offer value to our readership, and that is an editorial decision, not a financial one.

If any article does not contain a disclosure statement or any of the aforementioned verbiage, then no sponsorship was involved.

    Why All the Fuss?

    We don’t want anyone to think that we write good things about a place or product because someone paid us to do so.  (Or conversely, write bad things about something because we weren’t paid.)  But because we promote rich, authentic travel (what we call travel more), it is important to make it clear that All content on this site is written with editorial authenticity - our financial arrangements do not affect any of our content.

    Reporting Violations of This Policy

    If you feel that any content on this site is in violation of editorial policy, please contact the editor. You can leave a comment on an article as well, but bear in mind we will likely withhold publication of your comment per our comments moderation policy while investigating your complaint.