About

About Us

Andy Jarosz

I’ve been a freelance writer since early 2009. Before I took the plunge I spent 10 years working as an optometrist, a couple of years as a technical manager for a group of laser eye clinics, a year in a New York medical office, two years out to complete a full-time MBA and three years in a crisis management role within the travel industry. A bit of a mess really – something that’s accurately reflected in the structure of this website.

Recent travel commissions include BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveller, Coast, MSN Travel and ABTA Magazine. I have also written the copy for several websites (travel and non-travel) and write occasionally for a number of oil and gas industry publications. You can see various examples of my published published articles by clicking on the Portfolio tab or by visiting www.andyjarosz.com.
Sameena Jarosz

Sameena Jarosz I’m a freelance photographer and have had many photos included alongside Andy’s stories in print and online. You can also visit my site at www.sameenajarosz.co.uk

 

 

 

About 501 Places

501 Places is a collection of travel articles, photos, personal opinions  and the occasional rant. The content follows no particular logic and the site is updated when we think of something to add and have the time to do it.

For some reason 501 Places was recently listed in The Times list of 50 Travel Websites You Can’t Live Without – a dubious accolade but very nice to be mentioned. Even more recently it was also listed in the Independent’s 50 Best Travel Websites – a nice surprise for us to discover.

We have deliberately kept this as a non-commercial site (this post might help explain our motives). The travel we describe on this site has been self-funded and independently arranged unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Please note that we don’t reply to enquiries regarding links, sponsored articles, guest posts, advertising of any kind or offers of free travel – crazy I know, but if you’re checking out our site to make us an incredible offer, hopefully by reading this you’ll have saved yourself a wasted email. Oh, and if you want us to review your latest smartphone app, please read this page first.