About
Scott Monaco is a travel publication about everywhere else.
80% of travelers visit the same 10% of destinations. The famous places grow more crowded every year while the rest of the world goes largely unvisited, even as much of it becomes easier to reach, safer, and more interesting than it has ever been. A traveler willing to look past the usual list has more of the world available to them right now than at any point in history.
That is the premise of this publication. New pieces covering the Global South and beyond are published weekly: essays, photo essays, guides, reading lists, and humor. The full argument is on the Mission page, but the short version is that the world is much bigger than its famous parts, and some of the most meaningful trips go where few people thought to look.
This publication is the independent editorial side of scottmonaco.travel. The site makes the case for traveling beyond the usual destinations and starts from what you already enjoy, alongside a service for planning trips. It is also where we collaborate with tourism boards, operators, and brands through the partner page.
Write for Us
We publish original essays, photo essays, and humor from writers who know their places firsthand. If you have lived somewhere, worked somewhere, or returned somewhere often enough to understand it, we want the piece only you could write about it.
We pay $200 per essay, $200 per photo essay, and $50 per humor piece, funded directly by our paid subscribers.
Every submission is read blind. Your name, email, and bio stay unread until after the work has been judged, so publication here depends on the writing (sometimes photography) and nothing else. The full submission guidelines cover what we’re looking for, word counts, and how the process works — reading windows are announced in the newsletter, and paid subscribers can submit year-round.
Subscriptions
Most of what we publish is free, and the work is meant to circulate. Supporting it looks like this:
Free — Essays, photography, guides, and reading lists, weekly.
Paid — Directly fund guest contributions from writers around the world — every paid subscription is what makes the checks above possible, receive a $100 credit toward trip planning, submit your own work year-round, and read the occasional paywalled piece.
Patron — Underwrite a full reported trip, by me or a guest contributor, and the resulting work is published openly and remains editorially independent. Because destinations vary in cost and logistics, scope is coordinated by email before subscribing. Patrons receive a physical artifact from the trip they made possible, such as a signed print or an object collected along the way. This tier is for individual readers. Tourism boards, brands, and operators can’t fund coverage; if that’s you, the Partner page is where to go.
Contact
Reach me at scott [at] scottmonaco [dot] travel.
