About Hidden Gems

Last updated: 19 October 2026

Hidden Gems is a small travel project about places that look unreal and still feel like a secret: monasteries on top of rock pillars, lagoons hidden behind limestone cliffs, villages that seem frozen in time. It started as a TikTok channel and grew into this site, where each place gets a proper guide.

What you'll find here

• Short videos on TikTok that show what a place actually looks like.
• Travel guides for each place: where it is, how to get there, the best time to go, and what to know before you book.
• Practical tips we'd give a friend, such as booking your first night in advance and sorting travel insurance and mobile data before you fly.

How we choose and research places

We look for places that are spectacular but sit off the usual first-trip list, or that most visitors only see from a tour-bus window. Before a guide goes live, we check the practical details against official tourism boards, local operators and recent news: opening times, entry fees, transport and closures. Travel information changes, so we review the guides and update them when something changes. Prices, fees and timetables are the details that change most, so we update them every year, and they may differ by the time you travel. If you spot something out of date, please tell us.

Photos, videos and the use of AI

Every photo and every video clip on this site, and in our TikTok videos, is real footage of the place it shows. It comes from licensed stock libraries such as Pexels and Envato. We never use AI-generated or AI-altered images or video to show a destination.

AI does play a part in how we make our short videos. They are edited with AI-assisted tools, and some use an AI-generated voice that reads the on-screen text. The footage underneath is always real. Where a video uses a synthetic voice, we switch on TikTok's AI-generated content label.

The text of the guides is also drafted with AI assistance. Every guide is then fact-checked against official tourism boards, local operators and recent news before it goes live, and we update it when something changes.

How the site is funded

Hidden Gems is free to read. To keep it running, some links are affiliate links: if you book a tour, insurance or an eSIM through them, we may earn a small commission, and your price stays the same. The site may also show Google ads. We only recommend services that fit the trip, and any sponsored content or paid partnership is always clearly labelled. See our privacy policy for how cookies and ads work here.

Get in touch

Questions, corrections, a hidden gem we should cover, or an idea for working together? Visit the contact page or send us a message on TikTok.