FAQs

Yolo Journal, our magazine, is 130 pages of full-on photography-led travel inspiration—what print does best. We started it in Summer 2019 and we produce 3 issues a year: Spring, Summer, and Fall/Winter. Because we are not in the business of chasing what’s new and next, but are really interested in what’s best, we like to think that these issues have a long shelf (or coffee table) life.

In 2021 we started our newsletter, Yolo Intel, because we needed a place to put all of the tactical travel info we were gathering that would have looked junky in print. These came to include our guides (Black Books, Travel Planners) that are reserved for paid subscribers, as well as Guest Books (hotel reviews), interviews with travel specialists (The Navigator), roundups of stylish, versatile pieces to pack (Travel Uniform) and more. Every two weeks we publish a Bric-a-Brac post, which is a mixed bag of travel info including some of the above, plus maybe a playlist, or recipe, or foreign pharmacy find. 

The magazine and newsletter complement each other well and don’t overlap at all. You can subscribe to each one separately, or to both, for a bit of savings. See our subscription tiers here.  

We still send out our Bric-a-Bracs every two weeks! But rather than put all of the stories into one long email scroll, we break them up into individual stories on the website, which are easier to search for and explore (and soon, to save!). We are considering keeping an archive of all of our old Bric-a-Bracs for those who prefer the long format—stay tuned!

 Some of our readers have asked us this, so we want to be transparent about our approach. First of all, many of our contributors travel on their own dime, and then they share their discoveries with us. As for our team, we get many generous invitations to visit properties all over the world, which come from various sources—the hotel management/marketing team, the PR company that they work with, or, less frequently, a brand that is doing a destination event. Sometimes flights and expenses are included in these invitations, but not always. We know that there is an unspoken (and sometimes spoken) expectation for us to share our visit on social, or in our newsletter, or in the magazine, or in all three. Before we accept anything, though, we first evaluate it as best as we can—we don’t want to waste our time (or someone else’s money) accepting a free or discounted stay at a place that we ultimately won’t be able to cover because it isn’t “us.” We also are careful not to promise anything in return—we don’t want to be beholden to expectations, and we won’t know what we will think of a place, or how we might best cover it, until we have experienced it. And when we have, we hold ourselves to being truthful about what we loved—and also what we didn’t.

 As of now, we don’t use any affiliate links for hotel or other travel-related recommendations and make no money from them. Occasionally, however, we do use affiliate links for some style, accessories and book recommendations, and earn a small commission.

We are open to pitches for the magazine, newsletter, and social. For the magazine, we begin with photography first, and base our decision on the quality of the images and how much we love them/how they might work with an upcoming theme. To submit a story idea or digital portfolio, contact our photo director, Linda Denahan: linda@yolojournal.com.

For the newsletter, while we create most of the content ourselves and with a fairly tight circle of regular contributors, we may be interested in a dispatch from a recent trip you’ve taken to a place we haven’t covered, or are already booked to take. We cannot support hotel stays or pay for commissions. If you still want to pitch, please contact Carly Shea – carly@yolojournal.com.  

If you’d like to pitch an Instagram story takeover, reel or TikTok about a trip you’ve already taken, please send visuals, a short description and your social handles (make sure your account is public) to Carly Shea: carly@yolojournal.com. We do not accept pitches over DM. 

Rula Al Amad is our Partnerships Director and is the best person to contact for a paid partnership or brand integration with YOLO: rula@mag-netmedia.com

Please contact Lauren at info@yolojournal.com and she will respond as soon as she can. 

Our print copies are sent out from distribution warehouses in both the US and Europe and it typically takes a few days for issues to arrive after publication (i.e., when we tend to post the new cover to Instagram!). Occasionally there are hold-ups beyond our control. If, after 2-3 weeks, you haven’t received your copy (or a month in Australia/other continents), please contact us at info@yolojournal.com. We don’t accept returns of magazines, but if yours arrives in poor shape/was mishandled by the USPS, please take a photo and let us know at info@yolojournal.com so we can rectify.

You can unsubscribe from our Yolo Intel newsletter in your account dashboard under “My Subscription.” To cancel or change your magazine subscription, contact Lauren at info@yolojournal.com. 

Lauren can help with your login! Contact her at info@yolojournal.com. To change your password, head to this page and enter the email associated with your account.

For sure! We offer gift cards in denominations of $80, $90 and $150 to cover the cost of a magazine or newsletter subscription—or both! This way you won’t be charged when they renew their subscription (which we hope they do). 

Absolutely! If you are interested in stocking Yolo Journal, please reach out to Lauren. She can provide you with our line sheet, which has pricing and details on all available issues. info@yolojournal.com 

All our stockists can be found here.

Yep! If you buy 3 or more issues, you can use discount code SHIPPING15 at checkout for $15 off  your order.