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The edge of a pool and palm fronds above a turquoise lagoon with a long wooden jetty

Travel films · Local voices · Field guides

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We are Giada and Serdar. We film our trips slowly, talk to the people who live there, and write down what everything really cost.

Explore the guides Watch on YouTube

Our story

A couple from Switzerland, making memories one place at a time.

We film our trips, talk to the people who live where we travel, and rate everything we try: the good meals and the disappointing pools alike.

We keep the camera on the place rather than on ourselves. You will hear us more than you see us. What you will see is what a trip actually looks like: the tide a kilometre out, the power cut in the middle of dinner, and the best chocolate cake on the island anyway.

  • 15 days on Zanzibar
  • 18 places rated in the guide
  • 3 local interviews

Destinations

Where we have been, and where we go next.

A small cove with pale sand and green water, a few people wading
Guide available soon

Zanzibar

Fifteen days on Unguja in September and October 2026. Stone Town, the swim-at-any-tide north, and the lagoons of the south-east.

The Zanzibar Field Guide
December 2026

Langkawi

An island of mangroves, a cable car above the rainforest, and a night market that moves every evening.

Films and guide planned
December 2026

Kuala Lumpur

The old town on foot, kopitiam breakfasts, and the skyline from the park below it.

Films and guide planned
December 2026

Penang

George Town's hawker stalls, one dish per stop, and a morning above the city on Penang Hill.

Films and guide planned

Malaysia is ahead of us. Nothing on this page describes a place there as visited until we have been.

Cover of The Zanzibar Field Guide A page from the guide showing a day-by-day route

Field Guide No. 01

The Zanzibar Field Guide

54 pages for people planning their own trip. No padding, and a clear label on every place: visited by us, or researched.

  1. Five bases compared, tide by tide
  2. 5, 7 and 10-day routes, day by day
  3. Stone Town history and walking route
  4. 18 places rated, with what we noted on the day
  5. A worked budget
  6. Entry rules, arrival, offline preparation
  7. Respectful travel and wildlife
  8. Checklists, planner, budget worksheet
US$12Planned price. Checkout is not open yet.
Read the free sample (PDF) Available soon

PDF, A5 pages, sized to read on a phone. First edition, November 2026. Covers Unguja, Zanzibar's main island.

In preparation

  • LangkawiField Guide No. 02 · planned for 2027
  • Kuala LumpurField Guide No. 03 · planned for 2027
  • PenangField Guide No. 04 · planned for 2027

Written after the trip, from what we actually did and paid. No pre-orders.

The Travel Journal by Giada & Serdar: cream cover with an olive spine, next to an open spread showing the two pages for day one
Rendered preview of the page files, not a photograph of a printed book.

In preparation

The Travel Journal

One journey, written down properly. A guided journal for a single trip of up to three weeks, anywhere in the world.

  • Before you go. Hopes, plan, bucket list, packing, budget
  • Every day. Two facing pages for each of 21 days: highlight, places, food, people, one question, room for a ticket or a photograph
  • Afterwards. The honest list, a letter to yourselves, the next journeys
A digital edition comes first; a printed edition may follow. No price yet.
In preparation

84 pages. Not yet available.

Companion to the guide

The Zanzibar Trip Journal

31 printable pages to plan the trip, write it down while it happens, and score every place the way we did.

  • Before you fly. Trip overview, countdown, booking tracker, budget, packing list
  • On the island. Tide planner and ten day pages, each with its own prompt
  • Rate it yourself. Twelve score cards: place, what you spent, your score
  • Looking back. Your honest list and the best of the trip
US$7Planned price. With the guide: US$16.
Download sample pages (PDF) Available soon

A4 PDF, also prints on US Letter. Made for a pen, or a stylus in any app that lets you write on a PDF.

A day page from the journal with writing lines and a prompt Score cards from the journal
The one-page Zanzibar packing checklist with tick boxes in two columns

Free download

Zanzibar packing checklist

One printable page: what to pack, what to sort out before you fly, and three things to leave at home.

  • Documents and money. Including the kind of dollar notes that get accepted
  • Clothes, health, tech. For tide walks, power cuts and boats
  • Leave at home. Plastic carrier bags are banned in Tanzania
Download the checklist (PDF)

A4, one page, free. No sign-up and no e-mail address needed. Facts checked on 12 November 2026; rules change, so check official sources before you fly.

YouTube

Slow, observational, and honest.

Natural sound, real conversations and our ratings on screen. The Zanzibar films are in the final edit. Subscribe to catch the first one.

Open our YouTube channel
Open turquoise sea seen from a boat, with another boat in the distance
In the editZanzibar: 15 days, the whole story
Plates of food on a restaurant table
In the editActivities, food and drinks, rated
Low sun over the sea, with small boats near the shore
Coming nextMalaysia: Langkawi, Kuala Lumpur, Penang

All stills are frames from our own Zanzibar footage. Titles are working titles until release. Short films appear on the same channel.

A street in Stone Town seen from above, with white houses and red roofs

Local voices

We ask people about their lives, not about the view.

In every place we visit we sit down with people who live and work there: guides, cooks, boat captains, café owners.

We ask how a normal day goes, what has changed, what makes them happy, and what visitors usually miss. Everyone is asked before we film, knows where it will appear, and can change their mind afterwards.

  • Zanzibar. Three conversations, in the edit
  • Malaysia. Planned for December 2026

Shop

Digital downloads, made carefully.

The shop is not open yet. The samples and the packing checklist are free and complete.

The Zanzibar Field Guide

54-page PDF guide

US$12 planned

Free sample

The Zanzibar Trip Journal

31-page printable PDF

US$7 planned

Sample pages

The Travel Journal

84 pages, any destination

In preparation

Guide + Journal

Both together

US$16 planned

Opens with the shop

Prices are planned launch prices in US dollars and may change before the shop opens. Nothing can be bought on this website yet.

Questions

Good to know

Did you visit every place in the guide?

No, and the guide says so. Every place carries a label: visited by us, or researched. Ratings and amounts appear only where we went ourselves.

What format are the guide and the journal?

Both are PDF files. The guide has A5 pages that read well on a phone without zooming. The journal has A4 pages made to be printed or written on with a stylus.

Can I buy them now?

Not yet. The shop opens once checkout and delivery are set up. Until then the free samples show complete, unedited pages, and the packing checklist is free.

Why do you stay off-camera?

Because the place is the subject. You hear our voices, and you see what we saw.

Do you accept free stays or paid placements?

If a stay, a meal or a link is ever hosted or paid for, we say so clearly in the film and in the guide, next to the place it concerns.

When do the Malaysia guides come out?

After the trip. We travel in December 2026 and write only from what we actually did. We do not take pre-orders.

Contact

Say hello, or work with us.

Questions about a guide, a correction, or an idea for a collaboration: we read everything.

giadaserdar@gmx.ch

Or find us on YouTube. We both work full-time; a reply can take a few days.