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Lara Dunston, Travel and Food Writer

Lara Dunston

Travel and Food Writer

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About Lara Dunston

I’m an Australian-born, Asia-based travel and food writer who has written hundreds of stories and authored and updated dozens of guidebooks for the world’s best publishers, mostly in collaboration with my incredibly creative writer-photographer husband Terence Carter.

Terence and I run the popular travel site Grantourismo, produce websites and digital content, and are developing cookbooks. I’ve been editor-at-large for Lifestyle+Travel magazine, destination expert for numerous travel sites, and I consult on writing, digital storytelling, social media and content strategy. I also craft bespoke itineraries and plan trips, Terence and I host Cambodian creative retreats and culinary tours.

Middle East specialists after eight years living in the United Arab Emirates, and over 12 years writing on the MENA region and Europe, our home is now Siem Reap, Cambodia, and our work these days focuses largely, but not solely, on Asia and Australia.

Our words and pictures appear in magazines and newspapers and on websites and blogs around the world and I’ve written on subjects ranging from chefs, cuisines and restaurants to art, architecture and archaeology.

The long list of publications our stories have been published in includes The Guardian, CNN Travel, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Delicious, Feast, National Geographic Traveller (UK, US), The Independent, The Telegraph, Conde Nast Traveller China, DestinAsian, Travel+Leisure Asia, Get Lost, Wanderlust, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, International Traveller, AFAR, Lifestyle+Travel, Four Seasons magazine, Ritz-Carlton magazine, Hemispheres, Voyeur, Bangkok Airways’ Fah Thai, Emirates’ Open Skies, Gulf Air’s Gulf Life, Jazeera Airways’ J Magazine, Garuda’s Colours, Qatar Airway’s Oryx, Thai Airways’ Sawasdee, Silk Air magazine, Dusit Hotel’s Eight, Business Traveller, Executive Traveller, Paperplane, Fibers, Connect, Voyageur, M Lifestyle, Cape+Kantary, Ocean, Seabourn Cruises Club Herald magazine, Interval, Southeast Asian Globe, BBC History, The National, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, Sunday Telegraph, USA Today, Phnom Penh Post Weekend, and dozens of US newspapers, from the Houston Chronicle to Chicago Tribune, where our stories have been syndicated.

I’ve written, updated and contributed to some 60 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, Dorling Kindersley, Footprint, Rough Guides, AA Guides, Thomas Cook, Hedonist’s Guides, and Fodors, many co-authored with Terence, who has photographed countless guidebooks. The first editions we authored and photographed include half a dozen Lonely Planet guidebooks (Syria and Lebanon, Milan, Paris, Dubai, and Dubai Encounter and Buenos Aires Encounter), The Italian Lakes and Milan for Footprint, Calabria and Northern Italy for Thomas Cook, Cyprus and Mallorca for AA Guides, and Top 10 Dubai and Abu Dhabi and most of Backroads Australia for Dorling Kindersley. I’ve contributed stories to inspirational coffee-table books for Lonely Planet, including The Travel Book, The Asia Book, and Blue List, and Rough Guides Clean Breaks.

I’ve been writing professionally since 1987, after stints for my university newspapers, including Honi Soit at Sydney University, where I began an arts degree. When I shifted to the University of Technology, Sydney to start a BA Communications in screen studies, film production and writing, I began film reviewing and writing on low budget filmmaking for Film News and Independent Filmmaker. 

Giving up glamorous work as a waitress/kitchen hand in cafes and casual eateries, I moved from full-time to part-time study for my first proper job as a media researcher for a member of parliament. Leaving seven years later as executive officer to the Speaker, I returned to freelancing and segued into travel and food writing (my first small piece was on dim sum) and Terence and I wrote The Sydneyside Guide for a Universal Press compact street directory in 1995.

Throughout the 1990s Terence and I spent most of our spare time making films, including our first feature film, a road movie called Come By Chance, which screened at film festivals. I continued to write on film; taught film history, scriptwriting, directing and producing at community colleges and the International Screen Academy; had a teen fiction novel published by HarperCollins; and worked as a publicist for a photography gallery.

In 1996, I commenced my first Masters degree in International Studies, travelling to South America for a year of in-country study in 1997 to research contemporary Latin American cinema using an itinerary based around film festivals. It was there that I developed an interest in the connections between film and travel and a passion for teaching that took us from Sydney to the United Arab Emirates in 1998 so I could accept a faculty job teaching film, media production and writing to young female Emirati college students.

During my time in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, I completed a second Master of Arts in Screenwriting through Bournemouth University in the UK and began a PhD at Nottingham Trent University on the links between film and travel, which I put on hold to, well, travel.

It was in Abu Dhabi that Terence and I serendipitously fell back into travel writing after complaining about a European guidebook we’d used. My detailed notes resulted in an invitation to write Lonely Planet Dubai and more commissions quickly followed, including guides to the UAE, Syria and Lebanon, Greece, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Belgium, Perth and Western Australia, and Australia among other destinations.

I’ve written and produced content for many digital forms, from writing interactive walking tours for the Sony PSP to presenting destination videos for Lonely Planet TV. Since then I’ve contributed to a long list of travel sites, writing accommodation reviews for the Lonely Planet site, i-escape, Mr and Mrs Smith, and Travel Intelligence, creating digital guides for Sherman’s Travel, World Travel Guide and Fodors, writing destination features for VTravelled, Directline Holidays, and Miss Citty Kitty, and blog posts for World Nomads, Viator, Bravofly, and more. Terence and I were NineMSN Travel’s Dubai Insiders and destination experts for Triporati and I have also been the Dubai Travel Expert for The Telegraph, and am the Dubai and Siem Reap expert for AFAR.

Countries I have experienced include Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel & Palestinian Territories, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, USA, Uruguay, and Vietnam.

For more about my education, employment and writing career, and to read testimonials from people I’ve worked with, see my LinkedIn page. For more information about my content strategy, social media, consulting, and trip planning work, see the relevant sections on this site.

If you’d like to commission me, hire me or collaborate on a project, please get in touch via my Contacts page.

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Brief Bio

Lara Dunston is a Cambodia based Travel & Food Writer and has regular gigs with: The Guardian, CNN, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, The Independent, Telegraph, National Geographic Traveler / Traveller, Get Lost, Wanderlust, Travel+Leisure SEA, DestinAsian, AFAR. Read more here.

Related Websites

Our travel website:
GRANTOURISMO TRAVELS

Our full service digital media agency:
GRANTOURISMO MEDIA

Our Cambodian retreats site:
SIEM REAP RETREATS

Partner Phtography Site:
TERENCE CARTER PHOTOGRAPHY

Latest on Instagram

Second doses done! Thank you, Cambodia!! And this Second doses done! Thank you, Cambodia!! And this view was our reward on the stroll home. It was just us and about 300 five year olds getting their vaccinations today and @terence_carter_photography reckons I was the only one in tears. The nurse was not as gentle as the first one a few weeks ago...  I have to say that Cambodian children are such brave little souls. Not a single “ouch”. Most kids went in on their own while their parents waited outside. The only little girl who needed her hand held was a European child with her dad. The Cambodian kids and their parents were also very proud to be vaccinated. It’s no wonder The Kingdom of Wonder is one of the world’s most vaccinated countries. Great job, Cambodia!  And we were rewarded with this magnificent weather and marvellous view of Siem Reap River. Now all I want to do is sleep...  #siemreap #siemreapcambodia #siemreapriver #steungsiemreap #river #riverview #riverside #reflections #trees #leafy #bluesky #blueskies #blueskiesandsunshine #sunny #sunnyday #monsoon #rainyseason #igtravel #igtraveller #travelwriter #travelblogger #travelphotographer #ᴠᴀᴄᴄɪɴᴇᴅᴀʏ💉 #vaccinated #vaccinatedandhappy #seconddosedone💉✔ #picoftheday #picoftheday📷
Pickled peppers. New recipe posts on pickles on th Pickled peppers. New recipe posts on pickles on the site. Not that you’ll need a recipe after making them the first time. These are dead easy and so deliciously tangy. Link in bio.  #pickles #pickling #picklingtime #picklingseason #pickledpeppers #pickledchillies #pickledjalapenos #pickledonions #pickledcabbage #pickledveggies #pickledcucumber #dillpickles #quickpickles #refrigeratorpickles #recipe #recipes #foodwriter #foodwriting #writingacookbook #foodphotography #foodphoto #foodshare #foodshot #igfood #igcooking #instafood #foodstagram #grantourismotravels
Siem Reap continues to surprise and delight during Siem Reap continues to surprise and delight during its post-pandemic* recovery. Exciting to see the proper footpaths — made of beautiful granite blocks —  curbs and guttering, new bitumen roads, and riverside paths finally being completed. You’ll all be returning to a very different city, a more modern and more walkable city.  And who knew this timber house was hidden behind the clutter of the former furniture workshop cum home that was here? Not quite sure whether they’re deconstructing the house or restoring it, but it would make a lovely cafe-bar with the covered balcony, pagoda across the road and leafy riverside opposite.  And that’s Barcode right behind it, home to Siem Reap’s finest and most flamboyant drag shows pre-pandemic, which many of our former clients and friends who visited would no doubt recall. Fun times were always had by all. Remember fun?!  * I used “post-pandemic”, as Cambodia is now one of the most vaccinated countries in the world and Covid cases are in the two digits at last! 💃🏻🎉  #siemreap #siemreapcambodia #newsiemreap #siemreapreopening #siemreapredevelopment #siemriverside #siemreaprenaissance #cambodia #newnormal #pandemic #pandemic2021 #covid19 #postpandemic #afternoonwalk #monsoonwalk #monsoon #rainyseason #urbanphotography #photography #grantourismotravels #writing #writer #travelwriter #barcode #woodenhouse #streetlife #dailylife #streetscene #igdaily #picoftheday
We’ve been quiet on social media again. Thanks f We’ve been quiet on social media again. Thanks for the messages to check in on us. We appreciate them. I just don’t seem to be able to keep on top of everything. There’s just not enough time in each day. But I really need to start sharing again so let’s start with this recipe, published a while ago but so good and so easy to make.  This spicy chicken lettuce wraps recipe makes a Southeast Asian take on san choi bao, the Chinese lettuce cups from Southern China and Hong Kong that were popularised in Chinese-Australian restaurants in the 1970s.  Our minced chicken lettuce cups take inspiration from the food of our home here in Southeast Asia, from both savoury larbs (minced meat salads) and the custom of wrapping things in lettuce.  If there’s one thing that the pandemic has taught us, it’s to always ensure the freezer is stocked with minced meat – minced chicken, pork mince, ground beef, it all comes in handy – because you never know when there’s going to be a lockdown or stay at home orders or, even worse, you run out of ideas as to what to cook for dinner.  If you do, drop by Grantourismo and browse our Recipe archives. We have hundreds of recipes from Southeast Asia and beyond.  Link here and in the bio: https://grantourismotravels.com/spicy-chicken-lettuce-wraps-recipe/  #sanchoibao #chineseaustralianfood #chinesefood #cantonesefood #cantoneseaustralianfood #asianaustralianfood #australianfood #asianfood #southeastasianfood #lettucewraps #lettucecups #chicken #salad #chickensalad #recipe #recipes #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #food #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodporn #foodstagram #instafood #foodpics #foodie #foodiegram #healthyfood
We’re still alive — thanks to those of you who We’re still alive — thanks to those of you who have messaged with concern — and, no, it wasn’t an intentional social media detox, more like an accidental one, and I highly recommend doing it occasionally.  It’s just been such an eventful month —  trying to get vaccinated, then finally getting vaccinated (on my birthday — best present ever!), recovering (I had side effects; Terence didn’t), then trying to catch up on everything I fell behind on during the previous weeks and months having let the quest to get vaccinated dominate my life there for a few months — and failing.  I had so many goals for October, too, being my birthday month — such as getting new and improved cookbook proposals and culinary history proposals out to publishers, following up with publishers I sent earlier proposals to, increasing Grantourismo subscribers, finding kitchenware sponsors (everything is old and breaking), promoting our @society6 shop products, fundraising for the next cookbook research and photography trips now that we’ll soon be fully vaccinated, recruiting more patrons on @patreon to help fund those trips and our research and work... and more! So much more!  I did not achieve any of those, for reasons earlier explained, but if there’s one thing the pandemic has taught me — in fact it’s taught me a lot of things — and that’s to be kinder on myself, and not beat myself up if I don’t get through those very ambitious to-do lists. There’s always November... bring it on!  How was your October?  View from our Siem Reap balcony.  #view #viewfromtheoffice #viewfromhome #blueskies #blueskiesandsunshine #blueskiesfordays #blueskiesahead 
#siemreap #siemreapcambodia #cambodia #pandemic #pandemiclessons #pandemic2021 #covid19 #vaccinated #vaccinatedandhappy #photography #grantourismotravels #writing #writer #foodwriter #cambodiancookbook #cambodianculinaryhistory #cookbookwriterseekingpublisher #fundraising #patreon #society6 #patreoncreator #cookbookwriter #writingacookbook
I guess we’re having noodles for dinner... #pep I guess we’re having noodles for dinner...  #pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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ALL MEDIA (WORDS AND IMAGES) COPYRIGHT © 2007–2022 LARA DUNSTON AND TERENCE CARTER | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DESIGNED IN APARTMENT RENTALS, HOTELS AND RESORTS AROUND THE WORLD BY GRANTOURISMO MEDIA. ASSEMBLED IN SOUTH-EAST-ASIA.

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