PDF £12 Europe · Portugal · 6 days
Lisbon and the Alentejo coast
Six days between Lisbon's hills and the empty beaches of the Rota Vicentina, by tram, regional train and one slow coastal bus.
A travel journal by Nell Arden, since 2019
Slow travel guides, walked before they're written.
Six destinations, costed day by day and re-checked every season. Read the journal for free, or take a guide with you for the price of a lunch.
41,000 newsletter readers 4.9/5 from 1,140 guide buyers No press trips, ever
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Walked in the last 18 months
Every route in every guide, on foot, by train or by bus. Nothing copied from another guide.
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Costs checked each season
Rooms, meals and fares re-priced in spring and autumn, with the date printed on page one.
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No press trips
I pay for every bed and every ticket, so I can tell you when a place was not worth it.
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Free updates for a year
Buy a PDF guide once and every revised edition lands in your inbox for twelve months.
Destination finder
Where should you go next?
Tap a region, or set the month and daily budget in the bar at the top. The guides below narrow down as you choose.
Showing all 6 guides
PDF £12 
PDF £14 Europe · Italy · 7 days
The Dolomites by bus and on foot
A car-free week across four high passes, using the summer SAD and Dolomiti Bus lines, with a hut night above Passo Falzarego.
PDF £12 Asia · Japan · 5 days
Kyoto in the quiet hours
A five-day plan built around the early and late hours, when the temple lanes empty out and the city belongs to the people who live in it.
PDF £14 Scandinavia · Norway · 8 days
Lofoten and the Arctic roads
Eight days along the E10 from Svolvær to Å, by local bus and hired bike, sleeping in fishermen's cabins and planning around the weather.
PDF £12 Africa · Morocco · 7 days
Marrakech and the High Atlas
Two nights in a Marrakech riad, then over the Tizi n'Tichka pass by shared taxi to the Dadès valley and the gorges beyond.
PDF £14 Americas · United States · 6 days
Big Sur and the Pacific coast
Highway 1 from Monterey to San Luis Obispo in six slow days, with the campgrounds, cabins and trailheads that are worth planning around.
No guide fits all three yet.
Try another month or a wider budget. New guides go to newsletter readers first.
Who writes this
One writer, one camera, 38 countries
Postmarked is Nell Arden: a former sub-editor who left a London newsroom in 2019 with a paper map, a secondhand camera and a rule to pay for everything. It started as a shoebox of prints on a kitchen table and a letter sent to nine friends. Seven wrote back.
- Years on the road
- 7
- Weeks per guide
- 2–3
- Sponsored stays
- 0
The kitchen wall
Seven prints that never came down
One frame from each trip stays pinned up long after the guide is written. Swipe, drag or use the arrows; each print opens the guide or story it came from.
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Nobody for a mile, and the stacks in the fog South coast, Iceland -
Wrong stop, right light Lisbon -
Forty minutes for the connection, no complaints A branch line in Greece -
Opened at six, and I was the second one in Kyoto -
The one clear hour in four days Flakstadøya, Lofoten -
The quietest room in Marrakech Marrakech medina -
Twenty minutes down the cliff path, worth every step Big Sur
How a guide gets made
What goes into every guide
Nothing in a Postmarked guide comes from another guidebook, a press release or a hotel's own website.
Planned on paper
Every trip starts with a road map on the kitchen table and one sheet of A4. If it does not fit on the sheet, it does not make the guide.
Walked at a slow pace
Two to three weeks on the ground per guide, by train, bus and on foot. I stay where you would stay and pay what you would pay.
Costed to the coffee
Every bed, meal and fare goes into a spreadsheet, which becomes the cost page and the trip-budget calculator on this site.
Updated each season
Prices and timetables are re-checked in spring and autumn. Buyers get every new edition free for a year.
Side by side
Six destinations at a glance
Mid-range cost per person per day, including a bed, three meals and local transport. Flights are extra.
| Destination | Cost per day | Best months | Flight from London | Pace | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lisbon Portugal | £116 mid-range | Mar–Jun, Sep–Oct | 2h 40m | Steady | Open guide |
| Dolomites Italy | £166 mid-range | Jun–Sep | 2h 05m | Active | Open guide |
| Kyoto Japan | £145 mid-range | Mar–May, Oct–Nov | 14h 10m | Easy | Open guide |
| Lofoten Norway | £192 mid-range | Feb–Mar, Jun–Sep | 4h 30m | Steady | Open guide |
| High Atlas Morocco | £82 mid-range | Mar–May, Oct–Nov | 3h 45m | Steady | Open guide |
| Big Sur United States | £212 mid-range | Apr–May, Sep–Oct | 11h 05m | Steady | Open guide |
The PDF guides
Take a guide with you
Sixty to eighty pages each, made to work offline on a phone and to print on a single evening. Every edition free for a year.
- A day-by-day route with a map for every walk
- Costed places to stay and eat, re-priced each season
- Real timetables, and the connections that fail
- 30-day refund, no reason needed
One guide
£12 – £14
Pick a destination and download it straight away. Free updates for twelve months.
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Every current guide, plus every new one published in the next twelve months.
Get all six guidesFrom readers on the road
Postcards that came back
4.9 out of 5 from 1,140 guide buyers
Vila Nova de Milfontes · May 2026
“Took the 07:40 to the coast on your say-so and sat on the left. Worth the early alarm for that one bend where the sea appears.”
Reine, Lofoten · August 2025
“The bad-weather page saved our trip. Three days of rain and we still came home saying it was the best week we have had in years.”
Boumalne Dadès · April 2026
“Your price list was accurate to the dirham. I paid what you said, smiled, walked away twice, and nobody minded at all.”
Kyoto · November 2025
“Fushimi at six in the morning with nobody on the steps. I did not know Kyoto could be that quiet. The lunch list was the other highlight.”
Passo Falzarego · September 2025
“We did the whole week without a car because of this guide. The bus connections were exactly as written, including the one you warned us about.”
Big Sur, California · October 2025
“Booked the cabin six months out like you said and got the last one. Southbound was absolutely the right call.”
The journal
Recent stories from the road
Essay · Dordrecht, Netherlands · 8 September 2026
Old towns before nine
The case for setting an alarm on holiday, and what a cobbled street sounds like when you are the only person on it.
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Field note · 8 min
What a slow train teaches you about a country
Nine hours on a regional line with a window that did not open, and why I would book the same seat again tomorrow.
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How I travel · 7 min
How I plan every trip on paper first
A folded road map, a pencil and one sheet of A4. The planning method behind every guide, and why it beats forty browser tabs.
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Essay · 5 min
A small defence of getting lost
Down a path the map swore did not exist, to a view the map swore was not there. Both were wrong, and that was the best afternoon of the trip.
Questions
What readers ask most
What exactly do I get when I buy a guide?
A PDF of 60–80 pages: a day-by-day route, maps for each walk, a costed list of places to stay and eat, transport notes with real timetables, and a one-page summary to print. It works offline on a phone, tablet or e-reader.
How quickly does it arrive?
Straight away. The download link appears on the confirmation page and arrives by email within a couple of minutes. If it has not, check spam and then write to me; I answer within three working days.
How current are the prices and timetables?
Every guide is re-checked in spring and autumn and the date of the last check is printed on page one and on the guide page here. Buyers receive each new edition free for twelve months.
Are the links on the gear page affiliate links?
Some are. If you buy through one, the shop pays me a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only list things I have carried for at least one full trip, and I say so next to each item.
Do you accept free stays or press trips?
No. I pay for every bed, ticket and meal in the guides. It is the only way I can tell you when somewhere was not worth the money.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. If a guide is not useful to you, write within 30 days and I will refund it in full. You do not need to give a reason.
All six guides for £39.
Every destination on this page as a PDF, instead of £78 one by one, plus every new guide published in the next twelve months. Instant download, 30-day refund.