Atlas Obscura and The Explorers Club Launch ‘Field Notes,’ a New Home for the World’s Most Storied Travelers

NEW YORK, July 14, 2026 — Atlas Obscura, the travel and discovery platform for people who refuse the ordinary, today announced a partnership with The Explorers Club, the legendary New York institution that has championed scientific exploration and field research since 1904. Together they are launching Field Notes, an ongoing collection of travel stories, on-the-ground tips, and hard-won recommendations drawn directly from the people who know the far corners of the world best: Explorers Club members.

For the first time, Atlas Obscura’s audience can follow the real journeys of explorers as they happen — where they go, what they find, and what they’d send you to see — and turn those first-hand accounts into their own itineraries. Field Notes pairs The Explorers Club’s century of expedition heritage with Atlas Obscura’s talent for surfacing the wondrous and the overlooked.

“Explorers Club members have stood at the poles, explored the ocean floor, reached the highest summits, and reached a thousand places most people will never hear about — and they come back with stories and recommendations you can’t get anywhere else,” said Louise Story, CEO and Publisher of Atlas Obscura. “Field Notes lets our audience travel alongside them. It’s the difference between a list of destinations and a trusted friend telling you exactly where to go. It’s connecting with humans for taste in an increasingly AI-driven world, and it’s exactly what wonder should feel like.”

Through Field Notes, audiences will be able to:

• Follow explorers’ travels through dispatches from active expeditions and journeys around the globe.
• Get their recommendations — the specific places, meals, routes, and detours that members return to and swear by.
• Learn from their field tips — practical, tested advice on how to move through remote and unfamiliar places.
• Discover the stories behind the map — the encounters, mistakes, and discoveries that don’t make it into a guidebook.

“Exploration has never been only about reaching a place. It’s about coming back with knowledge worth sharing,” said Explorers Club Board Member Jamie Robinson. “For more than a century, our members have gone into the field and returned with understanding the rest of the world could not find on its own. Field Notes carries that purpose to a wider community, turning first-hand discovery into a way for curious travelers everywhere to see the world more closely, and more honestly.”

“Atlas Obscura has always aimed to shine a light on the most fascinating places in the world and to lift the voices of the awe-inspiring people and cultures that shape them,” said Doug Baldinger, Chief Strategy Officer for Atlas Obscura. “With this partnership and a number of other programs this year, we’re opening up how people can interact with each other on our platform to have a more meaningful experience of the world, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s to come.”

Field Notes will roll out across the Atlas Obscura platform and app, complementing the company’s growing ecosystem of community-led discovery.

Partnership opportunities. Field Notes is available for brand and destination partnerships. Partners can align with a collection built on authenticity, expertise, and genuine wonder, reaching an audience that plans real trips around what they read. Brands, tourism boards, and destination marketing organizations interested in partnering on the series can contact partnerships@atlasobscura.com.

About Atlas Obscura
Atlas Obscura is the definitive travel and discovery platform for the world’s most curious people. Founded in 2009 and based in New York City, Atlas Obscura has spent 17 years cataloging the wondrous, the hidden, and the extraordinary — and helping millions of travelers experience it for themselves. Its guiding belief is simple: refuse the ordinary map. Learn more at atlasobscura.com.

About The Explorers Club
Founded in 1904 and headquartered in New York City, The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, and resource conservation. For more than a century, its members have carried the Club’s flag to the far corners of the planet, and have been among the first to reach the North Pole, the South Pole, the summit of Mount Everest, and the deepest point in the ocean, as well as the surface of the Moon. Learn more at explorers.org.

Media Contacts: Rebecca Cruz at Rebecca@AtlasObscura.com; Trevor Hale at thale@explorers.org