Condé Nast Traveler's Best Places To Go

This week, we have a fresh batch of creator opportunities for you.

The ones that piqued my interest include a call for Instagram travel creators by Marriott Bonvoy, a chance to win $7,000 for your short story (I will be submitting), and a call for pitches from Condé Nast Traveler for their annual Best Places To Go list.

I've contributed to this list a number of times; most recently, it was a story on Oulu, Finland for 2026.

Lists of any kind can be problematic. They can exacerbate overtourism and add to the trend that this BBC story calls the "digitization of travel inspiration."

Still, I'd like to think that by contributing spotlights on places that actually want visitors, we can play a small part in re-routing traveler numbers away from over-touristed sites and into communities ready and willing to receive such attention.

One example of this is Jordan. The small nation about the size of Maine badly needs tourism to return. More on this below.

If you have ideas for this callout, don't miss this chance to work with Condé Nast Traveler. They're accepting pitches until July 1st.

And if the idea of pitching scares you or stops you in your tracks, I can help.

You can work with me individually this summer in my 1:1 mentorship program (last day to join us is Friday, July 10).

You can also book a one-hour session with me or learn with me on your own schedule with my video masterclass. (Check out both options here.)

xx Yulia

🏠 Inside Going Places

Community call this week

For our paid members, we started a new perk this year: quarterly community calls where we gather to get to know each other and build our connections.

Our next call is this Friday, Jun 26, at 12 pm EST.

If you've been thinking about joining our membership, now is a great time to do it: join us here to get access to our community call on Friday, our Member Lounge where you can meet other members and even link up for a project, and full access to our weekly opportunities round-up – all while supporting our indie media project.

See you on Friday >>

🚀 Paid Members Corner

This week's creator opportunities

🚀 Win £3,000 and a trip to Spain, Portugal, or Costa Rica – apply by Mon, Jun 22

🚀 Sexual violence advocacy is seeking ongoing paid contributors – apply by Tue, Jun 30

🚀 Condé Nast Traveler is seeking Best Places To Go pitches – pitch by Wednesday, July 1

🚀 A call for eco-tourism pitches – no deadline

🚀 Say Yes Collective is hiring multiple travel roles – no deadline

🚀 Seeking Dubai-based freelance journalists – no deadline

🚀 A travel publisher is hiring a founding product manager – no deadline

🚀 Marriott Bonvoy is seeking Instagram travel creators – no deadline

🚀🔓BONUS: Win $7,000 for your short story – apply by Friday, Jul 31

🚀🔓BONUS: Finnish Lapland is seeking content creators – no deadline

Find all the latest opportunities here.

🔓 Bonus opportunities are unlocked for our free subscribers.

🌍 In The World

Want to travel with me this Fall?

The ceasefire agreement between Iran and the U.S. was welcomed across the world last week with cautious hope.

While it's not yet clear how the next few weeks will unfold, I knew exactly what I needed to do as soon as I heard the news.

Throughout this year, I've been in touch with my friends and community in Jordan.

As some of you know, I was supposed to be leading a group trip there now.

(I postponed that trip in the Spring, when the U.S.- and Israeli-led hostilities began.)

Jordan remains peaceful and safe, but its tourism community has been devastated once again.

The main difficulty is flights.

While the flag carrier Royal Jordanian has been operating as usual, many European carriers have not flown to the Middle East, including Amman, since the Spring. (Turkish Air has now resumed service.)

I work with a Palestinian-Jordanian tour operator who fulfills our trip on the ground. When I reached out to her to ask how things are going, she had this to say:

"Business is very bad. We have very, very few clients. In July, for example, we have zero clients."

Knowing this, I can't wait to return to Jordan as soon as possible, so that we can help people there start getting back to some sort of normalcy.

And the best part? We do that while seeing the country's incredible landscapes and meeting people I love:

People like Hussein Alazaat, a renowned calligrapher who designed Jordan's currency, Ahmad Mara'yeh, co-founder of my favorite Bedouin camp in Jordan, Rum Planet Camp, or Amelia Bilbeisi, who produces award-winning EVOO deep inside the Jordanian desert.

So today, I'm running a poll to gauge your interest in this trip.

This, of course, assumes that the ceasefire holds and travel returns to the region.

More to come on this soon.

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