Journalist, Travel Writer, Author
Journalist, travel writer, foreign correspondent and author, I write on breaking news, travel, culture and amazing trips. As globetrotting in my work as in life, my stories are published in newspapers and magazines, online and in print, worldwide. For over two decades, I’ve been a freelance foreign correspondent, reporting on news and current affairs in Australia, France, Europe and the EU. I have a degree in journalism and a master’s degree in European journalism.
As a news journalist, I’m interested in politics, foreign affairs, social issues and the environment. A committed Europhile, I have reported on affairs in France, Italy, Germany and beyond for decades, living out of all those three countries. As a travel writer, I cover adventure, nature, culture and the arts, food, wine and design. Green travel and all the issues surrounding sustainable tourism are crucial to me. My travel stories appear in the likes of CNN Travel, Lightfoot Travel, World Nomads, Monocle, the Globe & Mail and many others.
A global hotel industry correspondent, I write for US publications Hotel News Now and Hospitality Design. For papers such as the South China Morning Post, I cover world news, architecture and design, life matters and travel news. Finally, I am the author of several books including travel guides to Borneo, Switzerland, Barcelona and Rome, with several more books on the way.
Breaking news meets travel news
I am a strange beast, combining in equal doses travel writing with breaking news coverage. Add to that, a compulsion to travel with one to inform people of world affairs. Travel intel fascinates me, as it weaves in so many parts of life … transport, technology business, politics, geography, the environment, culture and people. I love providing insights, information and analysis on major news issues affecting travellers.
Recently, this meant the cascading ramifications of two years of Covid travel bans and lockdowns. During this time, I wrote extensively on Covid-related subjects for Forbes. Many stories looked to Europe’s border closures, Trump’s travel ban and Covid travel news from Fortress Australia. In the post-Covid era (phew!) I will continue to focus on the big news stories impacting travellers.
Home is away for a journalist travel writer
Most of my life has been spent on the road, satisfying an innate travel itch. An incurable vagabond, I roam the planet in search of adventure, excitement, amazing encounters, contrast and beauty. There is nothing I love more than being footloose and fancy-free, with my camera and feet as trusty companions.
Frankly, there is no place like away! As Nanni Moretti noted in his Italian film, Caro Diario in 1993, if you don’t keep moving, you miss out on all the best bits of life. On the road, stories just come at you like tumbleweeds. The richness and thrills that travel offers in terms of encounters with other people, cultures, ideas, smells and tastes is incomparable. And it’s an eye-opener as well as mind-opener. As Montaigne said: Travel is transformational, thrilling and the best education in life.
Australian but with a European soul too, I have been coming and going from France since the 90s. It is a grand amour and a part of me – and sometimes I wish I could push the Continents closer. But then life would be dull, wouldn’t it!
My cross-continental life has been the biggest adventure of my lifetime. It forced me to cover distances and discover places that I may not have done if not born into isolation. A self-confessed islomaniac, I am irresistibly drawn to remote, wild places. Particularly those richly imbued with nature, like my end of the world island of Tasmania. Read more about me and my island beginnings here.
Global-roaming dispatches
All my writing is an invitation to roam. So please come roam with me! You can follow me on Tamara Thiessen Travels, where I post about travel destinations, travel news, hotels, sustainable travel and design. Like many of us, I keep getting drawn back to places I love. Sometimes it’s the nature. Sometimes it’s the people. Very often it’s both … and that makes a powerful, irresistible combination.
One of those places is Borneo. Another of my island loves. Borneo has a kind of magical air, because of its otherworldly forests and creatures.
The world will be all the poorer without such natural riches. We have to continue to raise the green consciousness with our writing. Those of who know that our travels in the biodiverse wonderlands have been transforming, and taken us to another planet, another level. Green, green, green is the best way to travel (as to exist). In nature and in cities. Just look at the transformation of Paris over the past 5 years as cars give way to bikes and Seine-facing roads to triple lane bike paths.
Book News! Borneo
Soon I will again be heading to Borneo to do the Borneo Bradt Travel Guide no.5! Borneo is a biodiversity wonder of the world, and I am so privileged to visit so many times over the past 15 years. 2015 is going to be the year of the orangutan and the year of Borneo for me. I am also due to update my work on the Horizon guide’s Orangutans in Borneo.