Sample newsletter — content from the sample issue.
Wayfarer, December: the Hornbill Festival, northern lights, and a winter checklist.
Editor's Dispatch
Some journeys start with a date on a calendar. For a lot of us, December is that date: a festival we have meant to see for years, a family gathering that is also an excuse to go somewhere, a winter we want to spend under a different sky.
This first issue of Wayfarer is built around that impulse, but with a rule we intend to keep: a festival is a doorway, not a destination. The drums at Kisama are extraordinary. So are the terraced fields of Khonoma, a kitchen in Kohima, a quiet field of rice stubble in the evening light. We want to take you through the door and out the other side.
Lead story
Ten days of drums: the Hornbill FestivalEvery December, Nagaland gathers its tribes in one hillside village. What to see, how to go well, and why the festival is only the beginning.
Also in this issue
- Beyond Kisama: three Naga villages for the days afterKhonoma, Touphema and Longwa — different corners of Nagaland, and three different ways of understanding it.
- The white desert: Kutch in the cool seasonA salt flat the size of a small country, a tent city, and the craft villages that give the landscape its human scale.
- Sri Lanka in the dry season: coast, tea and trainWhy December to March suits the south and west coasts, and how to link them with the hill country without hurrying.
- Tromsø: a patient guide to the northern lightsNo one can promise the aurora. Here is how to give yourself good odds — and a good trip either way.
- The 12-Point Winter Travel ChecklistA one-page list you can save, print or share.
Coming up
- Hornbill FestivalNaga Heritage Village, Kisama, near Kohima · 1–10 December (fixed every year) (approx. — verify)
- Losoong (Namsoong)Gangtok, Rumtek and monasteries across Sikkim · About mid-December 2026 (Tibetan calendar — confirm closer to the time) (approx. — verify)
- Sunburn FestivalGoa · Usually the last week of December (confirm on the official site) (approx. — verify)
- Christmas in GoaOld Goa, Panaji and village churches · 24–25 December (fixed every year) (approx. — verify)
One practical tip
Battery life drops fast in the cold. Keep your phone and spare battery in an inner pocket, close to your body.
Your turn
Which festival have you always meant to see? Reply and tell us — we may feature your answer.