The Team
RealRoute is written by a small group of independent travel writers who came together to build the kind of reference they wished existed: honest about cost, clear about timing, and upfront about its sources. Each guide is researched and written by members of the team and checked against the sources in our editorial guidelines.
Writers & editors
Will founded The Broke Backpacker in 2015 after years of hitchhiking and backpacking across more than 100 countries on a shoestring. For RealRoute he covers budget destinations and how to get the most out of a trip for the least money.
Brian founded The Points Guy in 2010 and wrote the 2025 New York Times bestseller How to Win at Travel. He covers cheap flights, airline and hotel loyalty programs, and which points and miles are actually worth chasing.
Lauren writes Never Ending Footsteps and authored the 2015 travel memoir How Not to Travel the World, drawing on more than a decade of full-time solo travel. She covers solo trips, reading safety advisories sensibly, and staying safe on the road.
How we work together
Each guide starts with a single named writer who owns the research and the draft, then goes to a second pair of eyes before it publishes. We check prices, timing, and safety claims against primary sources, flag anything we could not confirm, and date our pages so readers know how current they are. The full process, including how we source, fact-check, and handle corrections, is public in our editorial guidelines.
How we work
Every page is the work of named writers, not an anonymous content mill. Our standards for research, sourcing, fact-checking, and corrections are public in the editorial guidelines. Want to write for us, or suggest something we should cover? See Contact and Suggest a topic.