About Afar
Afar is an independent, award-winning travel media company dedicated to inspiring, guiding, and empowering travelers who care. We believe in the power of travel to make the world a better place through experiences that enrich the traveler personally, support the communities visited, and are sensitive to the effects on our planet.
Afar covers the full arc of travel, from deciding where to go to figuring out how to get there and what to do once you arrive. Our editorial mix ranges from in-depth city and regional guides and our annual Where to Go Next list to practical advice on airports, packing, visas, and passports, as well as narrative features.
We celebrate what draws people to a trip and what they find along the way: a family looking to slow down together, a solo traveler chasing a personal challenge, a journey through a region’s food or history, or an itinerary built around the outdoors, a safari, or LGBTQ-friendly destinations.
Our hotel coverage spans notable new openings and our vetted Hotels We Love collections, while daily news tracks and unpacks developments in air travel, cruises, and and other topics that help make travel easier and more rewarding.
These stories appear across Afar magazine, our flagship print publication; digital website; three original podcasts—Unpacked, Travel Tales, and View From Afar—video; social media; and our suite of email newsletters.
Founded in 2009 by Greg Sullivan and Joe Diaz, Afar remains independently owned by Greg and Joe and operates as a purpose-driven public benefit company. Afar became a Certified B Corporation in November 2025.
Afar reaches travelers and travel advisors across print, digital, email, podcasts, video, social platforms, and events. In 2025, Afar expanded its global footprint through the acquisition of Suitcase, the London-based travel media company.
Alongside Greg Sullivan and Joe Diaz, Afar is led by Julia Cosgrove, editor in chief; Laura Simkins, chief operating officer; Bryan Kinkade, publisher; and Maggie Gould Markey, head of marketing.
Together, and along with an incredible team of professionals similarly dedicated to the mission, Afar has become the most critically acclaimed travel media company, consistently recognized by other media professionals for the high quality of our work, and the leading voice of the best travelers in the world.
Afar speaks to and for people for whom travel is not just something they do, it is central to who they are. Our audience is constantly exploring and growing, seeking to understand the world and themselves better. We hope that the world and individual travelers are better as a result of these travels.
Empathetic
We believe in arriving in new places with humility and a desire to learn from others.
Authentic
We generally have an optimistic view on the world, choosing to see the world through a “glass half-full” lens, but we are also realists. As such we do not sugarcoat, whitewash, greenwash, or photoshop reality. Human connection is core to what we do. Our reporting is original and we don’t traffic in AI or misinformation. There are people behind everything we do.
Intelligent
In everything we do, we seek to inform, inspire, enrich, and empower travelers who care. As a result, they trust our expertise, our authority, and our taste.
Joyful
We offer travelers a breath of fresh air. At its best travel is spontaneous, surprising, fun, and unexpected. Our brand reflects this through our point of view, storytelling, and approach.
Curious
We are driven by a compulsion to learn about and understand, without judgment, others’ daily lives, attitudes, and perceptions.
Inclusive
Travel—and travel stories—should be accessible and should reflect the multitude of human experiences.
afar.com
Afar.com is our award-winning website.
Visit afar.com →
Print magazine
Afar is an award-winning quarterly magazine about the people, places, and ideas that shape how we travel.
Read articles from our latest issue →
Email newsletters
Afar’s email newsletters include Daily Wander, From the Editor, Stay Here Next, Behind the Mic, and more.
Explore newsletters →
Podcasts
Podcasts include Travel Tales, Unpacked, and View from Afar.
Explore podcasts →
Social media
With a 224 million yearly reach across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Afar’s social media accounts reach travelers through innovative video and visual storytelling.
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn
Suitcase Magazine
In 2025 Afar acquired the London-based travel media company, Suitcase, with its website suitcasemag.com, email newsletter, and social platforms on Instagram and Facebook.
Visit suitcasemag.com →
Afar Advisor
Afar Advisor is a bi-weekly email newsletter that reaches 10,000 luxury travel advisors who are inspired by our mission and high-quality storytelling. They lean on our content to have client-facing conversations, leading to planning and booking travel.
Sign up for Afar Advisor newsletter →
The majority of Afar’s revenue comes from advertisers who want to reach our incredible audience of the most well traveled, affluent, and influential travelers. If you are an advertiser, you can learn more about our audience, upcoming coverage, and advertising options below.
As a B Corp in the travel and media industries, we’re counted among businesses that are leading a global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. Together with our fellow B Corp companies, we make the following statement together:
“We believe: That we must be the change we seek in the world. That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place matter. That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all. To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.”
We became a Certified B Corporation in November 2025, receiving an overall B Impact score of 84.1.
From the beginning, Afar has believed that travel is the best form of education and should not be the exclusive province of adults who can afford it.
Accordingly, founders Greg Sullivan and Joe Diaz started Learning Afar in 2008, a nonprofit foundation that has to date helped to send more than 1,500 underserved middle school and high school students from the US on life changing trips around the globe.
Learning Afar took a step back during the COVID-19 pandemic and has not fully recovered, but it is still a core part of our soul and history.
We originally operated the program with No Barriers USA and now partner with the Global Leadership Adventures International Foundation.
The first issue of Afar magazine was rated as the best on the newsstand by the NY Post and accolades have poured in since. In its first year, Afar was named Best Travel Magazine by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation in the 2010 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition. We’ve won many Lowell Thomas Awards since, including Gold for Best Travel Magazine again in 2023 and 2024.
The magazine has been a finalist in the Society of Publication Designers’ annual design competitions across multiple years.
Afar is the only travel magazine to have been recognized as an American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) finalist for General Excellence in its annual National Magazine Awards, and we have been so recognized twice. In addition, Afar has also been a finalist in ASME’s National Magazine Awards for our website, photography, and design.
Whether you are an individual traveler, a travel advisor, a travel supplier or other business/governmental entity, we welcome you to our community. There are lots of places to engage with us through all our platforms and we look forward to inspiring, entertaining and challenging you. Most importantly, we hope that we help you to live a more enriching life and that we can all take the world forward in understanding and care.
Have a question about our editorial coverage? Interested in advertising? You can get in touch with a member of our team via the link below.