Thomas Warwick

Editor

I didn't travel abroad until my late 20s, a fact which I like to think makes me more appreciative of the places I visit, and most of my travel has happened by accident or opportunism.

Ticking off every top travel destination on the planet isn't my goal—having lively experiences to write about is.

Even though in some regions it's down right dangerous, I enjoy travelling across international borders. In a perverse but similar away, I love tearing across countries at breakneck speed.

This forces me to notice cultural contrasts between places (or the complete lack of them), which can be sweet, frightening, and outrageously funny.

Hopefully, my humble collection of travel despatches from around the globe show this.

compassrosa.com @twarwick64 thomas.warwick@compassrosa.com

Destinations

Places featured across recent stories.

India 14 stories
Italy 6 stories
Lebanon 6 stories
Greece 2 stories
United Kingdom 2 stories
Croatia
Germany
Mexico
Slovenia
Turkey
United States

Stories by Thomas Warwick

Visiting Trieste Travel Exprience Cropped
🇮🇹   Italy 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Trieste dresses sharp and should be in a Bond movie
If you’re drawn to cities that feel like they belong in a Cold War briefing, you’ll enjoy Trieste. Its Art Nouveau façades push right up to the border with former Yugoslavia, it speaks almost as many languages as it has cafés, and it has straddled a century of shifting alliances.
 Visiting Jeita Grotto Lebanon
🇱🇧   Lebanon 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Jeita Grotto. Lebanon’s cave cathedral belongs in South America
Jeita Grotto is a vast network of Jurassic-era caves just a short taxi ride north of Beirut. They’re open to the public and their scale is staggering: vaulted chambers, electric‑blue lakes, and formations you’d normally have to travel to South America to see.
 Sentier de la Lune Lebanon Harissa
🇱🇧   Lebanon 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Hiking the Sentier de la Lune trail to visit Our Lady of Lebanon
The Sentier de la Lune trail passes through suburban streets and pine forests to reach the magnificent Christian shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa. I stumbled up it without GPS past spent bullet casings, beautiful groves, and friendly gardeners.
 M5 in San Diego at Night
🇺🇸   United States 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Cigars, scientists, and hundred‑million‑dollar yachts
Argumentative scientists and superyachts could be either an aberration or sum San Diego up entirely. But its skyline soothed me, and the hand‑rolled cigars I bought from a street seller proved you can still enjoy yourself here for twelve dollars.
 Piazza Giacomo Matteotti in Udine at Dusk
🇮🇹   Italy 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Appreciating a quieter Italy in Udine, home of Friulano wine
Udine is the home of world‑class Friulano wine and a city of quiet Venetian elegance, well off the tourist trail. It’s a place for morning coffee rituals, unique Friulian food, easy cross‑border trips, and Alpine adventures that begin at your doorstep.
 Warhammer World Nottingham Rhino Tank Full-scale.
🇬🇧   United Kingdom 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Visiting Warhammer World Nottingham. A beginner's take
Warhammer is a cherished tabletop and miniature‑making institution. I took the offer of a tour of Warhammer World as a complete novice and came away a convert, clutching a Kharadron Overlords kit. This is what impressed me most.
 A storefront teeming with a striking array of Venetian masks in Venice.
🇮🇹   Italy 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Unmasking Venice. Misconceptions that don’t survive a visit
More than ten million people visit Venice each year. So many visitors create familiar myths—a city sinking fast under thronging crowds holding their noses. Although theatrical, this iconic place is far less intimidating than many other destination cities.
 A Canal in Venice
🇮🇹   Italy 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Seeing Venice at its best by watching other visitors
Venice has a Five Guys, luggage drops, busy architectural masterpieces, and quiet lanes. There are no rules to having a great time here, but a few simple habits make the whole experience easier and more enjoyable, whatever you’ve planned.
 Visiting Venice away from the crowds.
🇮🇹   Italy 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Venice away from the crowds
Enjoying Venice's splendour without fighting the crowds is as easy as stepping off the main waterways and walking at odd angles, just a little further than most people stray. Far from wasting your trip, exploring Venice like this is delightful.
 Curried Potato Face at Namah Resort
🇮🇳   India 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
A surreal stay at Namah Resort, Radisson’s very individual hotel
Luxury hotels in India are a great way to escape the crowds and the noise of the subcontinent, but they can be wonderfully odd. At Namah Resort I got: traditional dancing set to bagpipes, a lifeguard in heavy canvas fatigues, and curried potato faces.
 Snorkelling in Greece and spotting little fishies.
🇬🇷   Greece 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Snorkelling in Greece. Haraki Bay is perfect for beginners
For clear water, easy snorkelling, and great underwater photos on a budget, head to Rhodes. Haraki’s calm bay is ideal for beginners and anyone who just wants to float and admire brilliant fish.
 Air India flight 161 from Delhi to London. One of many rawdogging flights I have taken.
🇬🇧   United Kingdom 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Tales from rawdogged flights and qualified advice from a rawdogger
Rawdogging flights is the practice of flying without screens, books, podcasts, or comforts. These are my toughest rawdogged flights and my entirely qualified advice on strategy, seat selection, and surviving on willpower and water alone.
 The entrance to the Taj Mahal in Agra.
🇮🇳   India 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Tourists vs. Agra. The city no one can prepare you for
Visiting Agra means dealing with clever scammers, insistent touts, baffling rules, and the occasional moral debate in a moving rickshaw. This is the Agra I experienced—the frustrating kind of trip that nothing can prepare you for.
 Old Delhi Junction is busy at all times of day.
🇮🇳   India 15 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Thirty hours east. Riding the Brahmaputra Mail
A 30‑hour train ride across North India sounds exotic until you’re enduring long waits, avoiding scams, and hoping you'll know when to get off. By the time it was over, my trip on the Brahmaputra Mail became an unexpected guide to surviving long train journeys in India.
 There's nothing benign about Delhi air quality, especially in winter.
🇮🇳   India 15 minutes
Thomas Warwick
The long taxi into Delhi’s poisoned air
Delhi’s winter air quality can reach 20 times the World Health Organization safe limit and is some of the poorest on the planet. I drove straight into it. This is the story of a taxi journey from the rural north into India's capital city, where pollution is one of the biggest killers.
 A charm featuring the Ashoka Chakra.
🇮🇳   India 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Fatigue, Bureaucracy, Uncertainty. Arriving in Delhi on Republic Day
India tests you before it lets you in, especially when celebrating Republic Day—the annual commemoration of the country adopting its constitution in 1950. My arrival that morning, after three days without sleep, became an initiation I won’t forget.
 Delhi_to_Agra_Hirakud_Express
🇮🇳   India 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Catching the Hirakud Express from Delhi to Agra
My train journey from Delhi to Agra on the Hirakud Express started in the pre‑dawn crush of New Delhi Station. Read on to see why travelling between India’s major cities by train is chaotic, memorable, and challenging—yet far more rewarding than flying.
 Prayer wheels in Darjeeling near the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute.
🇮🇳   India 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Tracing the history of Everest at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute
The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute preserves the legacy of Tenzing Norgay and the early Everest expeditions. Explore its exhibits on Himalayan geography, the Great Trigonometrical Survey, and the climbers who shaped mountaineering history.
 A mural on the side of a fountain in Damask Rose, a guesthouse in Lebanon.
🇱🇧   Lebanon 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Leaving Beirut and meeting Lebanon’s paradoxes
My farewell trip out of Lebanon showed me its contradictions. One minute I was being charmed by a kickboxing concierge, the next I was beside an expat happily defending Bashar al‑Assad who casually mentioned she’d been to a party at Carlos Ghosn’s place.
 The wedding accomodation at a Greek Orthodox wedding in Lebanon.
🇱🇧   Lebanon 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
A Greek Orthodox wedding in Batroun. Levantines can party hard
I attended a Greek Orthodox wedding and partied with Syrian guests from Homs. Middle Eastern and European cultures came together in Lebanon—an unlikely country for a destination wedding that changed my view of the Levant.
 Italy to Croatia by train: the rolling stock
🇸🇮   Slovenia 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Italy to Croatia by train through Slovenia and the Karst Plateau
In 2024, a direct train linked Italy to Croatia for the first time in over 90 years, slipping through the limestone hills of Slovenia. The beautiful route was an economic failure and wasn't reintroduced in 2025. Ride it with me to find out why.
 A snow leopard in Darjeeling Zoo, among Darjeeling Zoo's Himalayan wildlife
🇮🇳   India 3 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Exotic wildlife at Darjeeling Zoo and snow leopard conservation
Darjeeling Zoo offers close‑up views of rare Himalayan species, including snow leopards, for which it leads the world in conservation work. Explore its role in protecting endangered wildlife and why it’s a rewarding stop for travellers and photographers.
 India Gate in the Central Vista of New Delhi
🇮🇳   India 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Walking Rajpath to India Gate. A Friday evening in Lutyens’ Delhi
New Delhi’s Rajpath, officially Kartavya Path, runs from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate along the Central Vista. Designed by Edwin Lutyens, it makes a beautiful evening walk through lawns and fountains to absorb the city’s imperial history.
 The Jama mosque near Agra Fort railway station is one of the last sights you will see before catching an overnight train from Agra.
🇮🇳   India 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
On the overnight train from Agra to the Himalayas
Indian Railways overnight journeys vary wildly. I went to bed tired and harassed on the Agra–Ramnagar night train, finally slept for the first time in three days, and woke in the jungle, breathing cool mountain air near Jim Corbett park and the Himalayas.
 A picture of Jof de Montasio on an Italian Alps day trip taken from Monte Santo di Lussari
🇮🇹   Italy 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
An alpine day trip from northern Italy
From Udine in northeast Italy, it's an easy day trip to get to the Julian Alps. A cable car will take you up Monte Santo di Lussari and the region boasts fantastic views of Jôf di Montasio. Here’s what it’s like to make this alpine day trip.
 Some from a wildfire on Rhodes drifting out over the Aegean sea during early evening.
🇬🇷   Greece 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Greek wildfires. What it was like on Rhodes as a major blaze spread
In summer 2023, a major wildfire on Rhodes forced the evacuation of around 19,000 people and damaged homes and businesses. I was there in the days before the evacuation. This is how the rising heat and falling ash marked the end of my stay.
 The view of the Kvarner Gulfover from Rijeka
🇭🇷   Croatia 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
In Rijeka. A day in Croatia’s overlooked port city
Croatia’s Dalmatian coast gets most of the attention, but Rijeka offers scenic hikes, World War II history, and seafront dining—if you don’t mind a little gritty industrialisation in the mix. Here’s how I spent a day getting to know this underrated port city.
 The view from the gypsy jeep on a tiger safari in Jim Corbett National Park, India.
🇮🇳   India 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
An ethically-questionable tiger safari in Jim Corbett National Park
A tiger safari in Jim Corbett offers striking views and the chance to see rare wildlife, but unclear licensing and troubling animal treatment complicate the experience. Read my full account to decide if the adventure is worth the time, money, and moral cost.
 Agathi beach on the Island of Rhodes on the way to the Rhodes–Marmaris ferry.
🇹🇷   Turkey 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Enduring the Rhodes–Marmaris ferry crossing from Greece to Türkiye
You can travel between the Greek island of Rhodes and Türkiye on the daily Rhodes–Marmaris ferry. It’s a pretty crossing, but a very difficult pleasure cruise thanks to the queues, touts, and savage heat.
 A brothel lin Reeperbahn
🇩🇪   Germany 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Reeperbahn. A seedy night in Hamburg's red-light district
Visit the Shangri-La of transactional sex. Reeperbahn is Germany’s most notorious red‑light district, made iconic by the Beatles. My night there involved drinking alone and smoking cigarettes by the River Elbe, with the city’s noise fading behind me.
 Hand-painted pots in Mercado Hidalgo, Tijuana.
🇲🇽   Mexico 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Walking to Tijuana from San Diego for breakfast
The San Ysidro Port of Entry, the world’s fourth‑busiest land border, links San Diego with Tijuana. Cross it from America with us for breakfast in Mexico and see how sharply the two countries diverge.
 Darjeeling from Happy Valley Tea Estate
🇮🇳   India 15 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Notes from Darjeeling. History, culture, and what to see and do
Darjeeling is a hill town famous for its tea and mountaineering culture, shaped by the Raj and long‑established Himalayan communities. Discover the best sights in town, great places to eat and drink, and the layered history behind its distinct character.
 A dilapidated building off Hamra Street in Beirut, Lebanon.
🇱🇧   Lebanon 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
A walk on Hamra Street. Beirut's lively and secular boulevard
Hamra Street is a famous lane and cultural centre in Beirut. Discover its early history, French influence, street art, and nightlife on an east-to-west walk through the city to the sea.
 A mosaic on a waterfall inside the courtyard of a Lebanese guest house.
🇱🇧   Lebanon 10 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Visiting Lebanon. A troubled country of beautiful people with a resourceful spirit
Lebanon is a gorgeous country in the Middle East that’s open to Western visitors. But it also faces deep economic and political challenges that travellers should be aware of. Here’s what you should know before you go.
 The Taj Mahal
🇮🇳   India 5 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Visiting the Taj Mahal during Shah Jahan’s Urs
The Taj Mahal, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan for his consort Mumtaz Mahal, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a monument to love and loss. Explore how it embodies romance and what it’s like to visit as a Western tourist on his memorial day.
 The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway heading down the hills
🇮🇳   India 15 minutes
Thomas Warwick
Into the world’s highest mountains on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is a narrow-gauge train and UNESCO World Heritage Site built in 1881 that takes passengers up 7,000 feet into the Himalayan foothills. Join us on the 8-hour trip and enjoy what this famous attraction offers visitors today.