About | Caveat Viator

If you really want to understand a country — whether you’re passing through with your backpack or planning to stay awhile — you need to look at its criminals and its taste for weirdness. Hence Caveat Viator, a new kind of travel website.

Unlike so many travel bloggers, I won’t repackage Wikitravel copy in an effort to drum up page views. I won’t publish Top 10 lists packed with linkbait and topped by perfectly tuned SEO heds. There’s so much more on this planet than the World’s Best Beach Resort Hotels. And, I just can’t stand lazy editorial.

My credentials: I’ve worked as the deputy online editor of Travel + Leisure, deputy editor of Forbes Traveler, editor-in-chief of New York Press and associate editor of The Prague Pill. I continue to write for Travel + Leisure, the New York Times, New York magazine, Forbes Insights, Radar, Good, Wired.com, the New York Post, The Guardian, Men’s Journal, Penthouse, Imbibe, Maxim UK, Cesar’s Way and some others. For my money, Fortean Times is the world’s greatest magazine, and I’m proud to contribute to it on occasion.

I’ve also spent a lot of time in a lot of places, including Prague, Bangkok and countless hotels of varying quality. One year, I slept in 120 different beds. The best hotels in the world are Amanresorts. Here’s some of my travel writing:

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Want more? My mostly comprehensive clippings site is Fine or Superfine. There, you can read my angry little zine from the 90s, Crank. You can also sometimes find me hanging around the writing project I founded in 2001, 100 Words. My pal Roy pretty much runs the site these days. Think of me as 100 Words’ editor emeritus.

Still not enough? Hit up google. Some people have said some awful things about me. Not all of them are true.

Finally, feel free to get in touch. Use the Contact page, or email me directly: koyen – at – caveatviator.com.

—Jeff Koyen