Want to know how Monocle makes its City Guides? Here’s an inside look
Drawing from our extensive network of staff and correspondents, we compile restaurants, hotels and shopping to help travellers find the best a city has to offer.
Since 2007, Monocle has reported from around the world – in print, on radio and online. Over the past 19 years, our editors and correspondents have assembled a sizeable global address book showcasing the very best in hospitality, retail, culture and more.
Travel content has always been a fundamental pillar of Monocle’s offerings. Our City Guides are full of insider recommendations of where to stay, where to dine and what to see when visiting a new city. To date, we’ve checked into a London hotel spread across three Georgian townhouses; slurped thin buckwheat noodles in one of Kyoto’s most revered soba spots; sought out bespoke tailoring in Singapore; and spent a few weekends in Athens’s buzziest neighbourhoods. Our guides not only dig below the surface to show you the places favoured by locals but they are also updated frequently to reflect the changing nature of the destinations covered. Here we provide a rundown of how these guides are produced.
Who writes our guides and why you should trust us
When compiling our City Guides, we draw upon our extensive network of bureaux staff and trusty correspondents. Though our list of destinations is varied, stretching from New York to Sydney, each one is made to reveal their true inner workings. To this end, we only use writers and editors who have known a particular city for an extensive period of time and fully understand what makes it distinct.
Our editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, has taken care of Palma, his home away from home for quite some time. Our editor, Josh Fehnert, has transported readers around London, through the old charms of Bloomsbury to Monocle’s neighbourhood of Marylebone and beyond. Inzamam Rashid, our Gulf correspondent, has written about Dubai; staffers in our Zürich and Paris bureaux have overseen coverage of their plots; and the very best of Ginza, Tomigaya and other Tokyo neighbourhoods has been put into being by our senior Asia editor, Fiona Wilson.
Monocle has a rich history of creating travel guides. Notably, we produced The Monocle Travel Guide Series, a collection of books instantly recognisable for their black covers and playful artwork. They helped travellers to feel like a local wherever they found themselves, informing them about everything from cafés and music venues to late-night bars and museums. Today we are polishing off Thailand: The Monocle Handbook, the sixth installment in our handbook series, due for release in late spring 2026.
How we decide which cities to spotlight
There is no strict formula but we began by paying attention to the destinations that we’ve had close connections with. London and Zürich are home to our two headquarters, while bureaux in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo expand our global presence.
From there, we’ve branched out to cover the essentials – Barcelona, New York and Rome – as well as places that we find ourselves frequently returning to: Copenhagen for 3 Days of Design; Milan for its fashion weeks; and Dubai (our guide to Abu Dhabi is currently in the works). We’re also proud to have published reports from Istanbul, Jakarta, Singapore and Mexico City.
With plans to grow our offerings, we aim to paint portraits of even more capitals, including Seoul and Amsterdam, in addition to quieter destinations that are often overlooked by the headlines.
How we pick which hotels, restaurants, shops and other venues to include
The aim of every City Guide is to go beyond the usual tourist beats. We avoid sending you to destinations filled with camera-toting visitors. Instead, we suggest insider favourites that you won’t find in most guidebooks. Each directory also has a downloadable map that lists our recommendations, so you can easily navigate your way around whichever neighbourhood you’re in.
Our hotel selection often features grand dames but we place equal emphasis on boutique stays that champion good design and generous hospitality. We’ll help you to navigate the maze of drinking and dining options, pointing you towards the hard-to-find tables frequented by locals – perhaps a canteen-like spot in Istanbul where you’ll experience first-rate Anatolian cuisine or a Madrid tavern that has been in operation since 1854. To help you make the most of an afternoon, we’ll steer you toward architectural marvels, cultural hubs championing homegrown talent and, for good measure, a few vibrant enclaves that fully showcase a city’s inner life.
