Taras has been writing travel features since the mid-90s, for the likes of The New York Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Condé Nast Traveller, Travel & Leisure, Afar, National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The Times of London. He's especially interested in food, slow travel, trains and transit, and the ethical aspects of travelling. (Also his own little obsessions: caves, mountains, forests, pilgrimages, intense flavors and odd sensations.) The best introduction to his approach is his second book, The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists, in which he walked the Camino de Santiago backwards, from west to east, and hitchhiked, cruised, and rode elephants to Tianya Haijiao (the End of the Earth in China). He may be a travel writer, or simply a writer who travels; posterity will have to be the judge.
December, 2024
This Is the Best Country in the World for Rail Travel: my Sunday Times (London) travel feature on using the Swiss Travel Pass to ride lesser-known trains in Switzerland. (Here's the link.)
November, 2024
A City Abuzz: my Travel + Leisure feature on visiting all the historical caffès in the enchanting city of Trieste. I think it has the best espresso in the world, but you be the judge. (Here's the link.)
January, 2024
On the Right Track: my Travel + Leisure feature on riding a sloooow historic train through the countryside of Piemonte in northern Italy (Here's the link.)
March, 2023
An Edible Tour of the Swiss Canton of Vaud: a gastronomic excursion on a vintage train from Morges to Bière, in the Travel Reports section of the Wall St. Journal (Here's the link.)
November, 2022
The Ultimate Father-Son Travel Adventure: Exploring "Creepy" Caves. On Vancouver Island, I introduce my eldest son to the tenebrous world of spelunking. He falls hard. (Fortunately, only in the figurative sense.) Here's the link.
August, 2021
A Great North American Off-Road Bike Trip with a Father and Son: riding the P'tit Train du Nord, a rail-line-turned-bike-route, from Montreal to Mont Laurier, originally published in the Wall Street Journal. (Here's the link.)
Twice a month, beginning in 2023
Vous pouvez lire des versions françaises de l'infolettre « Straphanger » sur le site Web de la revue québécoise L'actualité (Disponible ici.) / French versions of my Straphanger dispatches available on the site of Quebec's newsmagazine, L'actualité.
January, 2017
Shanghai Dwellings Vanish, And With Them a Way of Life: feature on the vanishing shikumen, or laneway complexes, of Shanghai (Here's the link)
May, 2013
Inside Europe's Most Enigmatic City: Afar Magazine sent your correspondent to Budapest, Hungary, where he gorged on langos and met Andras Török, the author of the greatest city guidebook ever (Here's the link.)
March, 2001
A Tour de Paris, With Pedals and Bell: Long before Paris became the New Amsterdam, I rented a bicycle from the RATP (which is how you had to do it before the Vélib' bikeshare), and braved the mean streets, and cobblestones, of the Ville Lumière. (Here's the link.)
November, 2000
Secrets of the Paris Metro: Here's a classic, from the New York Times, written on the anniversary of the opening of the Métro. Man, this one goes so far back the Times didn't even have color photos, and the prices were in francs. (Here's the link.)
