Publishing Principles

Welcome to We Seek Travel, an adventure travel blog by Olly Gaspar, offering authentic, honest, and in-depth travel guides rooted in real travel experiences. My mission is to inspire, inform, and empower your journeys with confidence and responsibility.

My Goal

We Seek Travel was founded in 2018 by Olly Gaspar, originally as a personal outlet to share his global adventures and travel photography. Since then, it has grown into one of the world’s leading adventure travel publications, now powered by a team of real travelers committed to sharing genuine insights into some of the planet’s most epic places and experiences.

Our mission is to provide trusted, experience-based travel guides that help others explore the world more confidently, all grounded in firsthand knowledge and a deep love for adventure.

Content Guidelines - How I Ensure Quality

At We Seek Travel, every blog post is written by someone who's actually been there. Our team of passionate travelers is committed to publishing honest, factual, and experience-based guides that you can trust.

Here are the core values we uphold when creating content:

• No AI content: Robots can't share real travel experiences (yet). So, until that day comes, all of the content on We Seek Travel is written by a human, for humans.
• Honest opinions: I combine my travel experiences with rigorous research. Our articles are crafted with a deep understanding of the destinations, attractions, and travel logistics we discuss. We make a living by providing travel advice and recommendations, so we take that responsibility seriously.
• We've actually been there: We'll never write about a destination that we haven't traveled to. Our founder Olly has been traveling full-time since 2018 and visited every single travel destination covered on We Seek Travel.
• Research, review, and update: Our word is our career. We thoroughly research and regularly update every single blog post every year. Our goal is to provide the most accurate and trusted information to help you on your travels.
• Trustworthiness: Accuracy is paramount. We meticulously fact-check and update my content to ensure it remains relevant and trustworthy.
• Engagement & community: We encourage reader feedback and incorporate their insights from the comments and social media to enhance the richness and diversity of our content.
• Our photography: Olly has taken 99% of the photos you see on We Seek Travel. This helps us paint a real narrative with the goal of inspiring you through his lens. The rare exception is when we include accommodation images from recommendations based on reviews, community suggestions, and recommendations from other travelers.

Who We Write For

We write for experienced travelers, adventurers, and those new to travel, aiming to resonate with anyone who shares a passion for discovering new places and embracing real travel experiences.

Our focus is on genuine adventure, and even if you are a luxury traveler, We hope to convince you to leave the cocktails by the pool and dive deep into every destination.

What We Write About

The core of We Seek Travel's mission is to inspire, inform, and empower your travels. We believe in travel as a transformative experience and aim to share my first-hand knowledge and real-world insights that we've developed through our own trips to help you explore confidently and responsibly.

Our travel guides are driven by a passion for adventure travel and the desire to share the beauty and diversity of the world with others. On We Seek Travel, you'll find:

• Detailed travel guides, itineraries, and comprehensive lists of things to do in a specific destination that go beyond the usual list to help you plan a unique trip.
• Accommodation guides and detailed roundups and reviews to help you plan where to stay in each destination.
• Recommended tours & unique experiences in each destination.
• Travel Gear & Trusted Reviews to help you plan what to pack, and find great photography gear so you can take better photos on your trips.
• Useful Travel resources to help you find great travel deals, and booking sites so you can ditch your travel agent.
• Detailed adventure guides: We write comprehensive guides to each hike, island, mountain, viewpoint, beach, cave, lake, and waterfall detailing our experience to help you plan independent travel.

Corrections & Feedback

Community feedback is essential in ensuring that our content is factual and trustworthy.

The comment section below every single blog post is open for any readers to provide feedback, comments, suggestions, or updates. In fact, we rely on my community of readers who provide us with new information in the comments from the places that we've written about so that we can update our guides or correct any mistakes.

Anyone is welcome to contact us at any time via our Contact page in case we've made a mistake or you want to provide feedback or updated information for our articles. We will personally get back to you within a few days.

Community

As travelers, we are all in this together. We run a dedicated Facebook Community where hundreds of travelers share their own experiences and help shape this blog.

For example, we run a weekly travel stories thread where we share stories from times on the road. Many of these insights and unique perspectives have been added to my guides.

This community is private but open to anyone who is a real, human traveler (no bots and spam).

Ethics Policy for We Seek Travel

1. Commitment to Integrity: At We Seek Travel, we are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and quality in our written travel guides and advice. Anyone is welcome to read our guides and engage in community discussions and we will never discriminate against any reader.
2. Transparency in Partnerships: Our recommendations are influenced by my experiences and expertise, not commercial relationships. We openly disclose any partnerships, sponsorships, or affiliations in any post with these kinds of placements. For information on how we make a living from my website, you can read our Affiliate Disclosure.
3. Accuracy and Fact-Checking: We strive for accuracy in my content. All information provided is thoroughly researched and fact-checked to ensure reliability. If errors are found, we are committed to correcting them promptly and welcome any feedback.
4. Respect for Privacy: We respect the privacy of my readers and community members. Personal information is handled with care and never disclosed or sold to third parties without consent. Read more in our Privacy Policy.
5. Cultural Sensitivity: In our travel narratives and guides, we aim to be mindful of cultural differences and aim to portray all destinations and communities with respect and sensitivity.
6. Environmental Responsibility: As advocates of real, adventure travel, we also champion responsible and sustainable travel practices. We encourage all of my readers to respect the environment and local cultures.
7. Feedback and Engagement: We value the input of my readers and encourage constructive feedback to help us improve our content and practices.

Our Commitment to Transparency

We am committed to transparency in all aspects of my content creation.

We openly disclose the sources of my information, any partnerships or sponsorships, and my editorial processes. You will find affiliate disclaimers on every single post that contains such links. Read more about our Affiliate Disclosure.

How We Review & Select Hotels & Accommodations

We often publish detailed accommodation guides and hotel roundups for many of the destinations that we visit. These guides are intended to help travelers find the best places to stay for their trip.

While we can't stay at every single hotel, hostel, guest house, or resort, we have established a set of guidelines that I follow during my selection process.

1. Personal Experience First: We personally visit and thoroughly explore, and document each location that we visit. This firsthand experience allows us to provide authentic insights into the best areas and neighborhoods. While it's not feasible to stay at every hotel, we make it a point to stay at several in each location. This variety in my personal experiences allows us to select and recommend only the best options. We focus on aspects like location, facilities, level of customer service, and the overall cleanliness and ambiance of the hotel or hostel.
2. Location Analysis: We thoroughly research the hotels' location for their convenience, safety, and proximity to major attractions that I document on our blog. We consider transportation options, dining, and overall ambiance. Our aim is to recommend accommodations that enhance your overall travel experience.
3. Amenities and Services: We thoroughly evaluate the amenities and services offered at each hotel, such as reliable Wi-Fi, fitness centers, and dining options.
4. Value for Money: We consider the balance between cost and value. This involves comparing room rates across different booking platforms, including any hidden fees. We always recommend the lowest price we can find across booking platforms like Booking, Agoda, Expedia, Hotels, and more.
5. Traveler Reviews & Feedback: Besides our own experiences, we factor in the feedback from other guests by thoroughly combing through reviews through a useful system that we've developed over the past few years of finding accommodation for ourselves. We analyze recent reviews to check consistent trends and provide up-to-date information. We also make sure to mention both positive and negative reviews from travelers for a well-rounded recommendation.
6. Local Insights: We are constantly working with local tour guides, tourism boards, and hotel providers at most destinations we visit. This gives us a unique opportunity to get insider, local recommendations on the best places to stay. We'll take these suggestions and consider them in our overall roundups.
7. Safety & sustainability: We all want to be ethical and environmentally conscious travelers. When selecting and combing through our drafts of top accommodations, we take into account their sustainability efforts, community involvement, and safety standards. We won't recommend any hotels or accommodation providers with a bad track record.
8. Reader feedback: We welcome feedback and updates in every single blog post from our readers. This allows us to get up-to-date information on closed hotels or update articles when we find out that the experience has declined.

How We Review & Select Tours & Experiences

We often write about independent and off-the-beaten-path travel experiences and help you plan them yourself. However, when creating content around bookable tours and experiences, we apply a rigorous and detailed approach to ensure only the best recommendations make it to my readers.

Here's what we look for:

1. Personal Experience: We've been on over 300 bookable tours over the past few years, ranging from street food tours to multi-day expeditions in the Himalayas. This direct involvement allows us to assess the quality, authenticity, and overall enjoyment factor of each experience. We prefer to recommend unique experiences that are well-organized and offer guides with the most expertise.
2. Comprehensive Research: Before recommending any tours, we conduct thorough research into the tour company and the inclusions they offer. We prefer to recommend local guides as opposed to huge multinational corporations but features like the itinerary, and the relevance of the experience to the must-see places in that destination is paramount.
3. Comparing Options: We compare different tours based on their itinerary, duration, group size, and exclusivity. This helps us understand the variety of experiences available and how they would suit our diverse reader base. We strive to recommend the tours that offer the most immersive and authentic experience for travelers.
4. Price Analysis: We evaluate the cost-effectiveness of each tour. This isn't just about finding the cheapest option, but about ensuring that the experience offers real value for the price paid. We consider factors like the duration of the tour, the depth of information provided, the number of places visited, and any additional perks or unique experiences featured. We always scan online for the best price across booking platforms like Google, GetYourGuide, Viator, BackPackerDeals, BookMe, and more.
5. Feedback from Other Travelers: We consider reviews and feedback from other travelers extensively during the research phase. We have developed a system to sift through feedback effectively and know exactly what to look for. This involves more than just looking at star ratings, and we have a keen eye for identifying "Karens" who leave bad reviews for no reason.
6. Local Connections: Similarly to how we find hotel recommendations, we contact my friends and colleagues that we work with in each destination, and other travelers we meet to get a draft list of the best tours, experiences, and recommendations. This helps us identify unique and lesser-known tours or local providers that might not be widely advertised but offer amazing experiences.
7. Ethical and Sustainable Practices: In line with modern travel trends, we assess the sustainability and ethical practices of the tour operators. We've been on many "boat trips" where a captain will throw cigarettes in the sea. These kinds of operators won't be recommended on We Seek Travel.
8. Safety Standards: The safety of my readers is paramount. We thoroughly check the safety protocols of the tour operators, including their track record and adherence to local regulations. If the tour or experience involves gear, like for instance snorkeling tours, we'll ensure they do proper maintenance of their equipment.
9. Reader Feedback: Again, we welcome feedback and updates in every blog post from all readers. This allows us to get up-to-date information on tours that are no longer running and provide updates if there are new operators or options available.

How We Review & Select Travel & Photography Products & Services

In our role as travel publishers and our experience as professional travel photographers, selecting the right travel and photography gear is crucial. There's also a sea of travel services, booking resources, and travel companies out there. Our goal is to find the best ones to use myself and recommend to readers on We Seek Travel.

Here’s our approach to reviewing and choosing the best products & services for my readers:

1. Hands-On Experience: We personally use and test nearly all products and engage with each service recommended on our blog. This firsthand experience is crucial in assessing their practicality, performance, and suitability for travel and/or adventure photography. From testing camera gear in various light conditions to finding the best locator beacons for mountaineering, we ensure every product meets your standards, or we won't mention them. On the rare occasions that we mention a product that I don't use, we'll let you know about it. This usually comes from close recommendations.
2. In-Depth Analysis of Features and Quality: For products, we examine technical specifications, durability, and user-friendliness. For services, we evaluate how useful it is by comparing the level of customer service, efficiency, and overall satisfaction from my experience or those of other travelers.
3. Comparative Evaluation: In our gift guides and gear roundups, we compare products and services with their competitors' offerings and consider aspects like price, features, customer reviews, and unique selling points that make it attractive to us.
4. Cost-Effectiveness and Value: The balance between quality and price is a big factor in what I look for. We assess whether the product or service offers good value when considering its price point relative to other options on the market and the value it provides to travelers and/or photographers. We always find the best price across platforms, which includes buying the product directly from the company, or on marketplaces like Amazon.
5. User Reviews and Community Insights: Gathering feedback from a wide range of users on marketplaces and by reading other reviews helps me decide which products we recommend.
6. Keeping my Recommendations Current: We update all my gear guides often to keep you informed about the latest developments in travel and photography technology and services. We consider how each individual product or service fits into current trends and whether it incorporates innovative features that set it apart, and will replace our recommendations if something supersedes it.
7. Ethical Considerations and Sustainability: We've big believers in investing in quality and multi-use products. The environmental impact of the consumer culture is devastating. We want to provide recommendations for products that won't end up in landfills. We also assess the sustainability practices of the manufacturers and service providers and favor companies with good sustainability policies and active contributors to good causes.
8. 9. Personal and Professional Network: Leveraging our connections in the industry, we seek insights and recommendations from fellow professional travel photographers we work alongside, and just great gear or products I see in dorm rooms from other travelers around the world. This helps in discovering hidden gems in both products and services that we can recommend to you.
9. Reader Feedback: Our comment section and inbox are wide open for all my readers to provide feedback on my recommendations. We often update gear guides and recommendations based on what readers have told us.

Ownership Information

I started this blog as a passion project. However, growth meant that I needed to make We Seek Travel more official.

That's why I registered We Seek Travel as a legal Private Company in Australia. This website and my company are completely run and owned by me, Olly Gaspar, and supported by an international team of adventure travelers.

• Entity Name: WS TRAVEL PTY LTD
• ABN: 15 665 797 213 - active since 16 Feb 2023
• Entity Type: Australian Private Company
• GST Registration: Registered from 16 Feb 2023
• Main Business Location: QLD 4879, Australia
• Business Name: WE SEEK TRAVEL
• Principal Owners: Olly Gaspar: 100% ownership
• Governance Structure: Run by Olly Gaspar, Director.

Have any questions about We Seek Travel's Publishing Principles? Visit my Contact Page to get in contact with us today.