Travel Stories
Craft chocolate: Destinasian Hong Kong
This post is about the flowering of Indian craft chocolate using local ingredients. Really lovely to see an idli-grinder as part of the chocolate making process.
Tamil Food: for Mint Lounge
In the effort to serve up history while infusing it with storytelling, chefs are mining journals and literature, meeting home cooks and local eatery owners, and tracing little known ingredients and recipes.
Trying Henna in Jaipur: for Smithsonian Journeys:
This is an old story. But for some reason, it wasn't uploaded here. So here it is. This post is about the art of applying henna and how I learned how to do it in Jaipur.
For Going.com on Kerala
A travel story about Kerala for a largely American audience
Luxury Bhutan: for The National, Abu Dhabi
Bhutan has 774 species of birds. In comparison, neighbouring India— nearly ten times the size— has just 1200 species.
For Mint Lounge India on Bhutan
Does thinking about death five times a day increase your happiness? The Bhutanese seem to think so.
For Moneycontrol India on Bhutan
Ten experiences that you can do in Bhutan that are fun and unique to that country.
Hotel Review: andBeyond Bhutan
This is the first Asian outlet from andBeyond and, while more Asian properties are in the works, Punakha River Lodge has set a high benchmark.
Birding Costa Rica | Condenast Traveler US |
An adventure trip in Costa Rica with white-water rafting, searching for the Resplendent Quetzal bird, and traveling through the cloud forest.
Latest Articles
List of New York Times articles
I found my articles in the New York Times website by searching its archives (since 1851). They also have some feedback to my pieces which [...]
New York Times: Reader Comments
Subscribes to the rule that comments are often more interesting than the piece itself. From the NYT website here. 36 Comments Share your thoughts. [...]
New York Times: about Hinduism.
I am a Hindu. I love my religion's glorious and imaginative epic stories, in which seers chose the moment they die and goddesses kill the bad guy while riding a tiger.
New York Times: Essay award
Sometime in 1998, the New York Times announced an essay competition in its pages. I submitted an essay which won the award and launched my food-writing career
New York Times | Internet Wake
AUNT SHEILA was dead. Although my family does not hold wakes by religious tradition (we are Hindu), my grandfather had picked up the practice from his British boss in India and instituted it in our family.
New York Times | Male Chefs on TV
As a woman, I know that making others feel good must be programmed in our genes, and Ms. Moulton acknowledges that. ''I'd say self-deprecation is a female trait,'' she said.
Nine features I wrote for Condenast Traveler (US edition) a while back
Interviews with His Holiness The Dalai Lama
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Shoba Narayan is an award-winning Indian author, journalist, and freelance travel writer based in India. She specialises in luxury travel, immersive journeys, and Indian culture with a focus on food, wine, culture, cities, and identity. With over two decades of experience, she has contributed travel features to Condé Nast Traveler (US edition), Travel & Leisure, DestinAsian, Mint Lounge, The National (Abu Dhabi), Taj Magazine, and Hindustan Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph UK, The Guardian UK, and Robb Report among others. Her awards include the James Beard food-writing award and a Pulitzer Travel Fellowship. Her travel writing spans India, Southeast Asia, Japan, China, the Maldives, Bhutan, Costa Rica, and beyond — always with a focus on the sensory, the cultural, and the deeply human. Based in Bangalore, India, Shoba is a leading voice on South Asian travel, reviewing luxury hotels in India and abroad, and writing immersive features on traditional Indian crafts, and contemporary Indian culture. As a freelance travel writer and memoirist, she writes evocative, deeply researched features on everything from birding in Costa Rica to spiritual tourism in Bhutan.
For editors: Shoba Narayan is an Indian travel writer and food writer, who contributes to assignments on travel, food, culture, and Indian cities. She has reported from across the world and writes narrative-driven features with a strong sense of place.
Key Expertise: India travel writer, freelance travel writer India, South Asia travel journalist, luxury travel India writer, food and travel writer India, Indian food writer, Bangalore travel writer, South India travel writing, cultural travel writer, narrative travel journalist, travel features India, heritage travel India, slow travel India, sustainability travel writer, hotel and destination features India, travel essays South Asia.