Frequently asked questions.
Everything readers ask most — about the publication, the Library, our travel research, and how the site operates as a business. Categorized below.
What is Monthly Travel Guide?
Monthly Travel Guide is an independent travel publication founded in 2010, built on a single angle: the when of travel. Most travel sites tell you where to go. We tell you the month, the week, and sometimes the four-day window when each destination is at its best.
The publication combines four offerings: a library of 400+ destination articles, twelve monthly hub pages (the best places to visit in each calendar month), three full-length travel books, and a growing catalog of bundles, planners, country deep-dives, and regional workbooks. No part of it is sponsored.
Who writes the content?
Monthly Travel Guide is written by a team of more than twenty regional writers, each covering destinations or topics where they've spent significant time — usually years, often a decade. The most prolific, David Chen, has published more than 75 guides alone. Every article carries the byline of the writer who reported it. There is no anonymous writing on the site and no AI-generated copy passed off as human work.
The full editorial roster, with article counts and links to each writer's published work, lives on the Writers page, with a summary on the About page.
How often is the content updated?
We publish new articles weekly and refresh the twelve monthly hub pages on the first of every month. Existing destination guides get a full refresh every six months — prices, dates, and conditions rechecked. Anything that hasn't been refreshed within twenty-four months gets pulled from the site rather than left to mislead readers.
We do not "update daily." Travel writing that's actually researched cannot be updated daily. We update meaningfully, not constantly.
How does Monthly Travel Guide choose which destinations to cover?
By weather window, festival calendar, peak/shoulder pricing, and what locals actually recommend for each month. A destination earns a place on the publication when there's a defensible 4–6 week period in the year when it's clearly at its best — and a defensible period when it isn't.
Generic "best things to do in [city]" coverage is owned by larger publications. Our coverage is seasonal-first.
What's in the Library?
Three full-length books and a growing catalog of bundles, planners, and workbooks — built around the questions readers ask most often.
- The Emergency Vault — 13 protocols and 40+ templates for when something goes wrong in any of 50 countries.
- When To Go — every country, every month, scored on weather, crowds, price, and what's actually happening locally.
- The AI Command Center — 150+ prompts across 10 categories that turn ChatGPT into a real travel agent.
Plus five focused bundles — the Month-by-Month Calendar, the Itinerary Library, the Packing System, the Solo Traveler's Toolkit, and the full Year-Round Travel Library. And a wider catalog: monthly trip planners, country deep-dive PDFs, regional workbooks for the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia and the American Southwest, quarterly festival calendars, and a set of trackers and worksheets we use ourselves.
How are the books different from the free articles?
The articles answer "what's good in [destination] in [month]?" — one question at a time. The books answer the higher-leverage planning questions: "how do I score every country I'm considering against every month of the year?" or "what's my exact playbook if my passport gets stolen in Tbilisi?" or "how do I use AI tools to plan a trip in twenty minutes instead of three weekends?"
The articles are the raw material. The books are the systems built on top.
Do you offer refunds on digital products?
Because the books and bundles are delivered immediately and downloadable on purchase, we do not offer refunds, returns, or exchanges. By completing checkout you expressly waive any cooling-off period that might otherwise apply in your jurisdiction. Full terms in Terms of Service §04.
We do help with genuine technical issues — broken download links, corrupted files, or non-delivery. Email contact@monthlytravelguide.com within seven days of purchase with your order reference and we will resend or repair.
Are the guides suitable for all types of travelers?
The site is organized two ways — by region (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania) and by traveler type (Adventure, Luxury, Family, Solo, Romantic, Wellness). Use either dimension to navigate. Solo travelers, families, couples, and budget travelers will find dedicated guides — including a full Solo Traveler's Toolkit in the Library.
What we don't do well: ultra-luxury cruises, all-inclusive resorts, and group package tours. If that's the kind of travel you're planning, there are better sites for it.
Do you offer personalized trip planning?
No — Monthly Travel Guide does not offer one-on-one planning services. The closest substitute is the combination of two products: The Itinerary Library (15 ready-to-use itineraries from 3-day weekenders to 14-day deep dives) and The AI Command Center (the prompt system that turns ChatGPT into a planning assistant trained on real travel patterns).
For specific destination questions, you're also welcome to email — see Q.14.
How reliable is your travel information?
Every destination guide is researched against meteorological records, current visa and entry requirements, current hotel-booking platform rates, and local sources where possible. Where one of our writers has personally visited a destination, the guide is written in the first person and details what they stayed in, paid, and ate. Where they haven't, the guide says so explicitly at the top, under the writer's byline.
That said: travel information decays fast. Always confirm visa rules with the official embassy, vaccinations with the CDC or WHO, and flight schedules with the airline directly before you travel. The full disclaimer is on the Disclaimer page.
Can I advertise on Monthly Travel Guide? Will you publish a sponsored post?
We do not accept payment from any hotel, tourism board, airline, tour operator, or destination in exchange for editorial coverage. We do not publish sponsored articles. We do not sell display advertising directly to brands.
The only advertising on the site is served through Google AdSense, which we do not control on a per-advertiser basis. If you're a brand that wants editorial visibility, the honest answer is: you can't buy it here. We've made a deliberate trade-off — smaller revenue, higher reader trust.
How do the affiliate links on the site work?
When you book a hotel through one of our search widgets (Booking.com or Stay22), buy gear through an Amazon link, sign up for SafetyWing travel insurance, or purchase an eSIM through Airalo — we receive a small commission from that merchant. Your price doesn't change. The commission comes from the merchant's side, not yours.
Affiliate disclosures appear above the first link on every article that contains one, per US Federal Trade Commission guidelines. We only link to products our writers would recommend without a commission. Full details in Terms of Service §05.
Can I contribute articles or pitch a destination?
Yes — but the bar is high. We accept maybe one in twenty pitches we receive. The strongest submissions come from writers who have spent significant time (weeks, not days) in a specific destination, who can write to a clear seasonal angle, and who have their own photography to accompany the piece.
Email contact@monthlytravelguide.com with the subject line PITCH. Include: the destination, the proposed month-by-month angle, three of your published clips (or comparable writing samples), and three sample photos. We respond within two weeks.
How can I stay updated with new content?
Two channels. The Monthly is our newsletter — one destination per month, with weather, prices, and the honest assessment of going. Subscribe through the box at the bottom of any article or on the homepage.
On social, find us on Instagram @monthlytravelguide and on X (Twitter) @inMonthlyTravel. Pinterest works for visual saves and trip-planning boards.
How do I contact Monthly Travel Guide?
One address for everything: contact@monthlytravelguide.com. Replies typically within three business days.
For specific inquiries, use a subject-line tag to help us route faster: PITCH for guest contributions, PRESS for media inquiries, TECH for site issues, PARTNER for affiliate or partnership conversations, LEGAL for copyright or privacy matters.
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