Hi, I’m James, aka ‘The Travel Tortoise’. A long-time nomad/gypsy/traveller, I write detailed European travel guides and articles about sustainable, slower ways to explore.

My natural instinct is to go off-the-beaten-path, so when researching previous trips abroad I got pretty tired of reading the same boring and generic content, all pointing to the same hotels, the same experiences, and lacking much in the way of originality nor character! Hence, The Travel Tortoise was born!

It may help to know that I’m more likely to be doing something food or wine related, or be out in nature, rather than gradually losing my will to live in an art gallery, or self-indulgent museum. As such, think of this travel blog as a ‘Philistine’s guide to….’, and perhaps we’ll even level up our cultural game along the way?!

Whether it’s my home base in Vienna, further afield in Portugal or Italy, or more off-the-beaten-track destinations in central Europe, wherever I go, I try to write pithy, informative and sometimes silly travel guides to make you laugh and your travel planning easier. If all that sounds like your cup of tea, then dive in because there’s plenty here for you.