Travel Stories
Trident BKC: Hotel Review: The Telegraph UK
Stylish business hotel The Trident BKC, Mumbai, India Telegraph Review/ Shoba Narayan/ Travel writer 8/10 This modern hotel flanked by financial companies, craft breweries, and restaurants is [...]
Hotel Reviews for The Telegraph UK
I review hotels for The Telegraph UK. Please click below for individual reviews. Sandhotel, Reykjavik Meghauli Serai, Chitwan, Nepal Orange County, Hampi Jaipur Oberoi Rajvilas, Jaipur Taj Jai Mahal Palace Tree of Life, Jaipur [...]
For Scroll India on Nepal
“Dakini represents the feminine energy in Buddhism,” says Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche.
For Khaleej Times Dubai on Hyderabad
Sufi singers, history, and gardens in Hyderabad
For Food 52 US on Persian bread
The royal tale of milky bread. In Bhopal, India
Jasmine Perfume: for Travel & Leisure US
Can India be the source of the best jasmine extract in the world?
For Destinasian magazine on Singapore
Touring Singapore’s historic neighborhoods in a Vespa sidecar.
Travelling with parents 3: Unexpected surprises
When abroad, there’s never any warning about how septuagenarian parents will behave
Travelling with Parents Part 2: encountering Prime Minister Modi
A fallen walking stick and a wheelchair can change all perspectives
Latest Articles
Wines from unusual lands for Sommelier India
Wine trends happen as a consequence of the economy combined with a knowledgeable, curious and open-minded drinking public,” says acclaimed sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier. We are sitting at Chambers restaurant in New York, which she cofounded in 2022.
Bangalore’s Colonial Era: Hindustan Times
Before every festival, my mother used to walk through the bazaars to get a flavour of the season. She would enjoy the fresh turmeric plants and sugarcane stalks before Yugadi and come back refreshed. During the Christmas season, I do something similar.
Video Interview of Shoba Narayan in The Hindu
Thank you to The Hindu for featuring Namma Bangalore 2.0 in such a generous feature and video interview. Thanks to editors Shonali Muthulaly, Preeti Zacharaiah and videographer Ravichandran for filming me.
Namma Bangalore 2.0 in New Indian Express
Thank you, New Indian Express for this lovely article about Namma Bangalore 2.0
Bangalore Christmas: Hindustan Times
This is the season when I avoid certain friends. You see, I am lucky. I have several friends who make excellent plum cakes. Here’s the thing: I am not monogamous with respect to my cakes. So each year, I switch sides...
Namma Bangalore 2.0 in The Hindu
When Preeti Zachariah, Assistant Editor of The Hindu, decides to write a feature, she goes all in. Thank you, The Hindu, for the first long feature on Namma Bangalore 2.0. And thank you Preeti for your lyrical prose.
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.