Cartogramme is the urbanite’s guide to travel, art, design, culture, good food, serious drinks, and everything awesome. From Bangkok to Buffalo, every place on earth has that special something. Our job is to help you find it.

Because guidebooks are predictable, travel mags spin fantasy, and social media is a lie. Tripadvisor and Yelp are weighted by mass opinion and rarely dive deep on micro topics. Your time is precious, your vacation days even more so. Our mission is to help you travel better, smarter, and closer to the ground. We do this by constantly picking the brains of locals and personally vetting every restaurant, bar, shop, museum, cinema, gallery, hotel, motel, and roadside attraction that comes across our radar. We are not interested in cookie-cutter vacations, aspirational luxury, or armchair reportage. We don’t waste time on tourist schlock, nor do we expect readers to wade through navel-gazing travelogues to figure out who makes, say, Japan’s best ramen. We cut to the point. If we write up a place, it’s because it’s worth it. Period.

Andrew Parks is a 16-year veteran of the music and publishing industries, with experience in merchandising, branded content partnerships, and content marketing. He has done time in the offices of Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, eMusic, and Time Inc.; produced and updated travel guides for Michelin and Fodor’s; and created compelling sponsored content for Marriott, Apple, Red Bull, Sony, Interscope, Christie’s International Real Estate, Visit California, Guitar Hero, Bandcamp, Universal Music Group, and Ghostly International. He is the editor of self-­titled, a leading underground music magazine, and a contributor to Food & Wine, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure,  Bon Appétit, October, and Punch. Andrew was born in Western New York and fancies himself Cartogramme’s resident coffee and beer expert. Follow him on Instagram at @thereluctanttraveler.

Ashlea Halpern is the Editor-at-large for AFAR Media and launch editor for New York Magazine’s pop-up travel blog, The Urbanist. She has more than a decade and a half of media experience, having served as the Special Projects Editor at Bon Appétit, Strategist Editor at New York Magazine, Editor-in-chief of New York Weddings, and Senior Editor at Time Out New York. She has contributed writing and photography to Condé Nast Traveler, Airbnbmag, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, New York Magazine, Wired, Entrepreneur, Bloomberg Businessweek, Marie Claire, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. On the business front, she has produced sponsored content for Royal Caribbean, Ralph Lauren, Target, Food Network, Etsy, MM.LaFleur, Visit California, and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Ashlea was born in Maryland and schooled in the deep south. She has traveled to more than 50 countries and won’t stop until she’s dead. Follow her on Instagram at @ashleahalpern.

Our inbox would love to hear from you. To get in touch, email us at info@cartogramme.com.