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The Monocle Travel Guide to Seoul: The Monocle Travel Guide Series (Monocle Travel Guide, 28) Hardcover – April 24, 2018

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• Part of series Monocle Travel Guide
• Print length 148 pages
• Language English
• Publisher gestalten
• Publication date April 24, 2018
• Dimensions 5.51 x 0.39 x 8.27 inches
• ISBN-10 3899559436
• ISBN-13 978-3899559439
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gestalten is an international publishing house collaborating and engaging with the world’s most interesting creatives to document and anticipate vital movements in architecture and interiors, design and fashion, escape and mobility, travel, food, and beverage, as well as visual culture.

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ gestalten (April 24, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 148 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 3899559436
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-3899559439
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 0.39 x 8.27 inches
• #14 in Seoul Travel Guides
• #21 in General South Korea Travel Guides
• #158 in General Asia Travel Books

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These Books Are the Shelter-in-Place Vacations I Needed Right Now

The Monocle Travel Guide series is my much cheaper ticket to anywhere in the world, without breaking quarantine orders.

By Tyler Chin

This is Kind of Obsessed , a column about all the stuff our team is really, really into right now.

I’m not the first person to say this in the last month, and I won’t be the last — I am incredibly sick of being at home. I’m glad that my quarantining has helped flatten the coronavirus curve, and I’m incredibly appreciative of those who voluntarily subject themselves to places other than their homes to fight the good fight. But lately, the extent of my worldview has been my apartment and the grocery store. After I exhausted Alton Brown’s treasure trove of Youtube content , I turned to my dusty bookshelf and my collection of Monocle Travel Guides.

I’d been going on vacation at least once a year for the past six years, and 2020 is looking to be the year that I end that streak. Due to the severity of coronavirus, the US travel industry is expected to decline 34 percent for the rest of 2020, resulting in the US economy taking a presumed $910 billion hit, according to the U.S Travel Association . Those numbers are troubling not just for the economy, but for our own wellbeing. Traveling is scientifically proven to be beneficial to our mental and physical health . While I can’t book a vacation for the foreseeable future, Monocle’s line of travel books can teleport me to faraway lands, at least for a moment, while I do my part in the battle against COVID-19 at home.

Monocle first launched its series of travel guides in 2015 with books on London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Each guide is a carefully researched manual for living your best life in a certain city. The range has expanded to include 39 titles covering locations from Chicago to Melbourne. My personal collection includes guides for New York (where I live), Madrid and Bangkok . What I love about these books is how closely they resemble someone’s personal journal, a distillation of one, or in these cases a few, person’s favorite places to eat, drink, shop and live in a place. I had brought my Bangkok guide with me when I traveled to Thailand’s capital, and its relatively small size made it convenient to bring it out with me in true vacation dad fashion.

But I’m not on vacation. And with these books, I’m almost OK with that. Each book is basically a condensed vacation — find your hotel, figure out where to eat, drink, hang out and absorb the culture; there are even recommendations for what souvenirs to buy.

But why, you might ask, could I not just watch one of the many travel shows on TV for a similar experience. Instead of living vicariously through those adventurers, I’d rather choose my own adventure with the options that were curated in these guides. Should I choose to look through the eyes of someone who’s been to those places, each guidebook contains essays by those who have been deeply affected by the city they’re writing about. It’s just a matter of time before I get to see the city myself.

The respite that comes with booking a vacation is gone, instead filled with dread about leaving home. But my Monocle Travel Guides have become my portal to traveling again — a reminder that there will still be places to go once we’re through this.

Note: Purchasing products through our links may earn us a portion of the sale, which supports our editorial team’s mission. Learn more here .

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Tokyo: The Monocle Travel Guide

140 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2015

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The Best City Travel Guides

11 min read     August 7, 2017     #Reviews&interviews   #Books

During my recent travels, I’ve become increasingly reliant on a new breed of city travel guide. They don’t fundamentally do anything different than traditional ones. What makes them different is that they forgo the broad appeal of mainstream guide books in favor of a distinct point of view. Beautiful photography, compelling stories and modern graphic design replace the age-old pages of crowded text.

While these guides certainly have a target audience — millennials short on time and long on disposable income — they are suitable for anyone with an interest in contemporary culture.

What attracted me to these guides is how they honor the roles that graphic design and physical touch play in experiencing a city while bringing a strong point of view in the watered-down world of Yelp and TripAdvisor.

In photography, I no longer care about the end result as much as the experience of holding the camera, working the shot and seeing the world through a viewfinder.

Similarly, I don’t care about visiting the top spots in a new place. I’d rather view the city from a unique point of view, perhaps by spend a morning running a loop around Amsterdam or by taking a photo of every manhole cover I see in Tokyo.

The three guides I’ve collected here give you space to do these things by replacing the never-ending list of places to visit with a set of lenses to see the city through.

The Monocle Travel Guide Series

$10-$15 on Amazon

148 pages, hardcover

5.5” x 8.3” x 0.5”

The Monocle Travel Guides are my absolute favorite because of how they naturally extend Monocle’s competencies. They are less for the weekend traveler who merely wants to see a city, and more for those who want to live and breathe it. The depth of experience that they provide makes them best suited for residents and repeat or long-term travelers.

Compared to the more than decade old Wallpaper* City Guides, the Monocle Travel Guide Series is both younger and less numerous. It arrived to Tyler Brûlé’s Monocle media empire in 2015 as the latest horse in the stable alongside the magazines, radio, books, stores, and cafés.

Taking advantage of its numerous offices around the world and the wealth of knowhow among its staff, the series started with New York, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. It has since expanded to 22 cities.

Published by Gestalten , they are exclusively available in print, echoing Monocle’s intention for these guides to shake off the cheap, disposable character of more common travel guides. At launch, Brûlé said that “they will be taking on a more premium feel — you can spill your drink on the book and it won’t really matter.”

The books themselves are very durable, and withstand being tossed in a bag yet still blends in among a shelf of design books. The covers are wrapped in a textured, cloth like material with an integrated ribbon bookmark.

The pages are served up in full color with a generous heaping of photographs and dashes of illustrations. They maintain Monocle’s signature balance between information density, brand and readability. I’m impressed simply trying to understand the process behind making something that reaches that balance.

Every Monocle Guide is divided into around ten sections. Aside from a few straightforward ones like Food and drink and Retail , most are unique to the way Monocle sees the world. Things we’d buy presents a photograph of knolled artifacts from all around the city with a listing of where to find them. Essays brings together cultural experts and Monocle’s own editors to paint a deeper picture that only narrative can convey. My favorites were the Sport and fitness and Walks sections. These play the role of your friend the fitness enthusiast who knows in detail the best places to walk, run, cycle and more in the city.

Unsurprisingly there is a bias towards the neighborhoods that Monocle has a presence in, but that’s just a vote of confidence for those places. If Monocle located its office there, it must be good.

Wallpaper* City Guides

$8-$12 on Amazon

100-130 pages, softcover

4.2” x 6.4” x 0.4”

With around 100 cities covered, The Wallpaper* City Guides are the best option for those traveling to cities off the beaten path. Further, they are the most versatile guides among the set, because they are regularly updated and simply list attractions broken down by type.

Here we have yet another set of guides under Tyler Brûlé’s sphere of influence. Though they are published by Phaidon , they are written by venerable design and culture magazine Wallpaper*, the magazine Brûlé started before he left to found the Monocle empire.

This series started with 20 cities in 2006, expanded to 60 by 2007 and now apparently totals more than 100 (though I could only find 95 for sale on Wallpaper*‘s website). The guides are updated annually and each has a companion iOS app .

Slightly larger than a passport in every dimension, each book is bound in a different colored Pantone cover adorned only with the name of the city, a language if it’s not printed in English and Wallpaper* City Guide and Phaidon logos.

I think the colored cover is a brilliant way of establishing strong branding while also making different editions discernible from each other, a boon on multi-city trips.

The front cover opens to a panoramic photograph of the city with a selection of recognizable landmarks highlighted. The back cover has a corresponding fold out featuring a color-coded map of major neighborhoods. Within, the pages are step cut like a telephone book or directory, making it easy to thumb between sections. In the back are pages of ruled and grid paper for notes.

Aside from a 24 Hours section that lists a detailed itinerary with the aim of seeing “the best of the city in just one day”, the book is divided into sections by interest like landmarks, hotels, urban life, art/design, etc. Each opens with an introduction that briefly describes the subject and the attractions listed within that section.

The introductions helped me quickly build some intuition about that particular aspect of the city while also giving me an idea of which particular attractions I want to further read about.

In the remaining pages of every section, each museum, restaurant, or other attraction is illustrated in prose and beautiful photography.

I found myself first leafing through the pages to flag the items that look interesting and then reading the descriptions to form a list of places I’d like to visit.

While some of the other guides here have essays, walking guides, etc. the Wallpaper* Guides are limited to these lists of attractions broken down by section. This organization is well suited for those looking for a simple, curated list of places to see.

With around 100 cities covered, The Wallpaper* City Guides are the best option for those traveling to cities off the beaten path. Further, they are the most versatile guides among the set, because they are regularly updated and simply list attractions broken down by type

LOST iN · Curated City Guides by Locals

$10-$12 on Amazon

68 pages, softcover

6.3” x 8.2” x 0.2”

Modern design, brevity and attention to current culture make these guides perfect for today’s traveller making a short trip to a city. As a bonus, lovers of contemporary graphic design will appreciate the use of color and typography. Be warned, LOST iN guides are the most opinionated here because they take a strong stance in what they include and what they leave out.

LOST iN builds around a central motto. “Getting lost in the city is not about throwing away the map. Getting lost is diving headfirst into what makes each city its own.”

It’s the brainchild of a trio out of Berlin. Despite their wide ranging backgrounds, they agreed that they wanted “to recreate — in a print product — the type of travel experience you get when visiting a friend in an unknown city”. Graphic design and layout were done by NODE Berlin Oslo while publishing is handled by Gestalten . LOST iN focuses on and recommends their print editions, but they have also created a free companion iOS app . In the future, they plan on expanding the LOST iN business to services that can make travel better.

The thing I noticed when first I held a LOST iN book in my hands is its size. It’s both tall and wide, yet very thin. The perfect bound, glossy cover contrasts the matte pages inside.

The second thing I noticed is the typography. Each guide’s cover is emblazoned with a repeating, typographic treatment of the city’s name overlaid on a solid color. Both typeface and color are chosen to echo the history and aesthetics of the city. For example, New York’s cover features “NYC” in white set in a grotesque typeface on a black background. It clearly mimics Vignelli’s MTA signage, an inextricable part of New York’s identity.

If you are pleased by the cover, then the pages inside will be a treat. LOST iN takes a very modern approach to typography, using few typefaces, but a wide array of sizes and weights. Titles are large and heavy. Layouts, while on a grid, change substantially from page to page. Each section is subtly identified by a different accent color applied to some of the text, obviating the need for titles at the top of each page.

The guide’s compact size is a clue to the content inside. The LOST iN guides are perfect specimens of reductive design. It doesn’t contain nearly as much content as any other guide I’ve seen.

Most guides in this post are organized by the type of content, i.e. lists of attractions are together in one section as are essays in their own. LOST iN throws out that structured style, interspersing different parts throughout the book.

Every Story paints a vivid picture of one aspect of the city’s culture. The Made in section mirror’s Monocle’s Things we’d buy , but expands from just a list of objects to books, films and music. There’s even a wordless photoessay called Showcase and two tear-out postcards in the back. My favorite are the Testimonial pieces, interviews with local cultural icons centered around places.

Considering their contemporary design, brevity and attention to current culture, the LOST iN books probably won’t stand the test of time. 10 years from now, they will be relics of how we travel today.

However, their modern design, brevity and attention to current culture are precisely what make these guides perfect for today’s traveller making a short trip to a city. As a bonus, lovers of contemporary graphic design will appreciate the use of color and typography.

Be warned that LOST iN guides are the most opinionated ones here because they take a strong stance in what they include and what they leave out.

Final Thoughts

These city guides have changed the way I travel and I hope they do the same for you. If you buy your own city guides and take them on your travels, I’d like to hear what your thoughts are. Perhaps you’ll see them in a completely different light.

Also, as a side note, keep a look out for another post with the guides that didn’t quite make the cut for the best , yet are still worth a mention.

Thanks to Dustin Ho, Jeffrey Lin and Chuan Shi for reading drafts of this.

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Monocle Share's Its Travel Guide to Melbourne

Cobblestone laneways, a thriving coffee scene, local art, and dive bars..

Monocle ‘s most recent addition to its Travel Guide Series takes us down under to Melbourne Australia. In a cityscape dotted with Victorian terrace houses and cobblestone laneways, you’ll find a number independent retail shops, fusion restaurants, and museums supporting the country’s national art. In recent years, Melbourne’s specialty coffee scene has been growing especially strong with over 5,000 unique cafes now open across the city — making Monocle’s highlights especially helpful in deciding which ones to check out during your visit.

Watch the clip in full above. For more travel inspiration, take a look at our guide to Mexico City and it’s thriving streetwear scene.

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Israel opens new aid routes to Gaza

Gregg Carlstrom, author of ‘How Long Will Israel Survive? The Threat From Within’, discusses President Joe Biden’s tense call with Benjamin Netanyahu and what’s next for his leadership amid Israel’s increased international isolation.

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An Insider’s Guide To A Chic Greek Island, The World’s Best Bars And More Travel News

Plus: Luxury hotels in America’s national parks, new routes for a dog-centric airline and travel insurance for Taylor Swift’s tour.

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Where to Shop, Eat, and Stay in Sierra Leone's Capital, According to the City's Top Fashion Designer

The under-the-radar capital of Sierra Leone has lively beaches, thought-provoking art, and great shopping. Fashion designer MaryAnn Kai Kai takes T+L on a tour.

Yulia Denisyuk

On most Saturdays during her childhood, MaryAnn Kai Kai would go shopping with her family on Rawdon Street in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Fashion was all around Kai Kai, who grew up admiring the vast closet of her grandmother, a diplomat’s wife. “She had all kinds of African prints and the latest fashions from the U.K.,” Kai Kai says.

Today, she makes custom caftans and dresses under the label Madam Wokie, a reference to her great-great-aunt Madam Wokie Massaquoi, a former member of Sierra Leone’s parliament who once met Queen Elizabeth. Kai Kai has shown her exquisite tie-dyed m’boubou gowns on the runways of New York and Lagos and outfitted Idris Elba, the Duchess of York, and the first ladies of Angola and Nigeria.

Matthew Short/courtesy of Cole Street Guesthouse

Kai Kai also strives to give back. During the pandemic, she launched a program to teach women to hand-dye cloth using the gara technique, which originated in Indonesia. The cloth patterns that Kai Kai uses often include cow’s eyes. Last spring, with the support of the Sierra Leone Economic Diversification Project, she helped train 800 women across the country to make batiks and beads. Today the women sell their wares on the beaches outside town and in the more remote Banana Islands. 

To explore Freetown’s creative culture, follow Kai Kai’s guide to the city. 

Where to Stay

“From the veranda of Cole Street Guesthouse , in the suburb of Murray Town, you can see the Atlantic Ocean, and the courtyard is full of fruit trees. “

Related: 3 African Chefs Bringing Their Food to the Global Stage

Courtesy of

Where to Browse Art

“One of my favorite artists is Hawa-Jane Bangura , who has a by-appointment-only studio in Cockle Bay. Her work explores African history, culture, and identity, and she really plays around with colors.” (Above: I Am Not My Hair.) 

Where to Shop

“On Malama Thomas Street, you can find vendors selling tons of different fabrics, from Sierra Leone’s gara and kontri cloth to Ghanaian, Nigerian, West African, and even Dutch prints. I also like to browse carvings, beads, jewelry, and drums at Big Markit, on Lamina Sankoh Street.” 

David DiGregorio/Courtesy of National Tourist Board of Sierra Leone

Where to Eat and Drink

" At Cole Street Guest House, I order fresh juice, like ginger, mango, or hibiscus, the “ros bif” corn tacos, and the spicy jerk goat with plantains and rice. On weekends, everybody heads to the nightclub there, Warehouse , to dance and hear DJs. It has a mix of all ages. The owners are two sisters. Most of the staff, including the bouncers, are women."

For something downtown, Crown Bakery does a great Sierra Leone–style jollof rice with fish, beef, and chicken. There’s also artwork for sale.” 

Where to Hit the Beach

“I always see locals out in the waves at Bureh, River No. 2, or Tokeh Beach (seen here), on the Freetown Peninsula. After a day in the sun, I like to hit Franco’s for lobster and oysters — the tables are right on the sand.”

A version of this story first appeared in the April 2024 issue of  Travel + Leisure  under the headline "All Eyes on Freetown. "

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Every product is independently selected by (obsessive) editors. Things you buy through our links may earn us a commission.

• 9 Things That Delighted Us Last Week: From Linen Napkins to a Smart Lamp

We write about hundreds of products each week. Here, in our version of the Sunday circular, we’ve plucked some of our recent favorites: expert-recommended essentials, life-changing stuff you didn’t know you needed, newly launched gizmos, and very good deals we uncovered while trawling through the vast online-shopping universe — including some delightful mustard-colored linen napkins, a versatile hot-pot set, and a deceivingly realistic faux olive tree. 

The pair of jeans one stylist recommended to over 150 clients …

In stylist Sahra Brandt’s master recommendation spreadsheet, she has a tab just on jeans, and when she takes clients to Madewell during a shopping session, she always has them try on the Perfect Vintage Jean first. She guesses that of the 150-plus clients she’s recommended the pair to, about 90 to 95 percent buy them, a surprisingly high number for something as personal as a pair of jeans. “ Madewell jeans are made to fit the body really well and so that all different bodies can wear them,” Brandt says, noting that the Perfect Vintage is available in petite, tall, and plus sizes.

… And Julianne Nicholson’s go-to summer hat

“I’m much better at wearing a hat than I am at sunscreen,” actress Julianne Nicholson told us this week. Her preferred hat is this one from Wallaroo Hat Company, which she wears almost every day and says is easy to take on the go. “I can shove it in my suitcase and it pops open fine,” she adds. “Being able to pack it up is everything, because it’s such a bore wearing a hat on a plane.”

A non-fussy alternative to white linen napkins

When Meg Strachan, the founder and CEO of Dorsey, was a kid, she would watch her grandmother set the table for “really beautiful” dinner parties with linen napkins. After her grandmother passed away, Strachan started her own collection of linen napkins , including this delightful mustard-colored pair. She likes them as an alternative to white napkins, which “everyone is afraid to use.” Not only do the mustard napkins look great on a placemat, “they wear really well,” says Strachan. “They’re great for wash and tumble-dry and don’t show many stains.”

Everything you need to make hot-pot at home

You might think of hot-pot as something you can only get at a restaurant — but not so with this Hot-Pot starter set , which Strategist senior editor Kiki Aranita put to the test this week. She says the electric hot-pot — which comes with chopsticks, a slotted spoon, and a soup base — was sizable enough for a meal for two and versatile enough to act as an extra burner for weekend brunch, keeping her potatoes soft and warm while she cooked other parts of the meal.

An (on sale) linen duvet cover that’s perfect for a heat wave

Linen bedding tends to be more expensive than standard cotton (a reality we’ve noticed while reporting our guide to the best sheets ), but you can get this linen duvet cover on sale for 25 percent off during CB2’s Midseason Sale , which ends June 27. Strategist writer Erin Schwartz notes that thanks to the pretty burnt-orange border, this is ideal if you “avoid patterns but still want some details on your bedding.”

A hint of Tuscany in your living room

Unfortunately, we weren’t all born with a green thumb, but deceivingly realistic faux plants are a great alternative to the real deal. To help you find some particularly believable ones, we came up with a list of 60 artificial plants , trees, and flowers, including this faux olive tree that has a wood trunk and adjustable branches that’ll bring a little bit of the Tuscan countryside to your home.

A smart lamp that turns any room into a James Turrell installation

Well, not literally. But the Loftie smart lamp , which Strategist tech writer Jordan McMahon tested out, emits light from two color wheels that can fill your room with solid colors or custom gradients. “The lamp looks good in each color and gradient setting, and the light it casts is pleasant and can completely transform the room,” McMahon says. “At its brightest, it’s enough to be my sole source of light in the evenings. At its dimmest, the light glows just enough for me to make it to the bathroom without bumping into things.”

The most effective blackout sleep mask

Sleep masks are one of the most frequently mentioned products in our “ What I Can’t Live Without ” column, and we’ve tested lots, too. The Manta stands out as one that works particularly well for those in need of a few more hours of sleep. “Even on a bright morning, when I usually wouldn’t be able to sleep in, I can thanks to this mask,” Strategist junior writer Bella Druckman says. DJ, producer, and designer Steve Aoki is also a fan and estimates that he owns 15 to 20 of them.

A clip that makes it easy to turn your bike into an e-bike

The process of converting a bike into an e-bike seemed a bit too involved for Strategist fitness and outdoor-gear writer Jeremy Rellosa — until he tried the Clip , that is. Rellosa describes the device as one “you can attach to almost any bike’s front tire — without any tools — to power a regular bike like an electric one with pedal-assisting power.” He says the gadget was intuitive to use and made it “easier to power up long climbs (especially on bridges),” adding that the “auto-roll feature gives me a constant nudge forward, making me feel like I’m zooming.”

The Strategist  is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about  here . We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.

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Every product is independently selected by (obsessive) editors. Things you buy through our links may earn us a commission.

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