The Grand Hostels

Over the past decade, Monocle editors have been writing about—and staying in—plenty of hotels. They’ve put to the test everything from cosy inns in the backstreets of Beirut to cutting-edge offerings from international brands in New York, Tokyo and beyond. At the heart of everything has been one guiding principle: to find stop-ins that get […]

The Monocle Travel Guide to Beirut delves into this metropolis to explore the vivacious thrum of life and unpick its many and varied quirks. We’ll lead you through a collage of cloud-scraping hotels, Ottoman-style palaces and golden age modernist apartments, and introduce you to small-scale fashion labels and smart shop-owners rethinking traditional handicrafts. We’ll also […]

The South Korean capital is energetic and sprawling; it’s a 24-hour city that’s home to some 10 million people and plenty of brightly lit billboards, skyscrapers and shops. The Monocle Travel Guide to Seoul looks past the dazzling lights to discover what, and who, have brought this late-blooming city careering into the 21st century. Its streets […]

How do we make better cities – places that work for people of all ages and backgrounds? How do we make cities that provide the obvious essentials – great transport, good places to work – as well as the softer elements that truly deliver quality of life, from urban swimming pools to rooftop clubs? In […]