Travel Stories
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
Travelling with Parents Part 1: Eating butter chicken at 32,000 feet
When I decided to take my parents on a holiday last month, I didn’t know where we would go, what we would do, or how I would handle their fragile health. But I knew one thing: my folks were going to fly business class.
For India Today on Iceland
How a Chennai girl ended up in Iceland.
The Craziness of Vacation planning: HT Brunch
Want peace and harmony within the family? Check out the Abilene Paradox
The Pleasures of Palakkad: buying a lottery ticket
From the thrill of a lottery ticket to the wonder of herbal kashayams
Iceland Luxury Hotels: Robb Report
I wrote about Iceland for the January 2018 Travel issue of the Robb Report.
Vivanta by Taj, Bangalore: Hotel Review: The Telegraph UK
This luxury hotel has spacious soothing rooms, a Jiva spa offering excellent treatments, pool, fitness centre, Indian and Italian restaurants, all held together by the intuitive service that the Taj hotels are known for.
Sandhotel, Reykjavik: Hotel Review: The Telegraph UK
Sandhotel is situated in the heart of Reykjavik's hip shopping street, Laugavegur, and is bordered by Iceland's oldest gentleman's tailor and a cult bakery. Warm staff and thoughtful touches including a mobile phone, and chic comfortable rooms with locally sourced organic toiletries, make it a great place to stay.
Latest Articles
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.
The cult that conquers: Hindustan Times
It is December in Bangalore. Finally, the bean that Bangaloreans wait for, and celebrate with a josh that is akin to how Delhiites celebrate the musk melon or how the whole country celebrates the mango during the summer.
Poem: Silence: in the DMQ Review
This poem was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I am pinching myself. I had submitted it to the DMQ Review, which published it and later nominated it. Details in the post.
Annual Street Fairs: Hindustan Times
This is what I love about living in Bangalore. Amidst this tech-driven startup-city lies an agrarian festival that has somehow survived and thrived.
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.