We heart travel

Sunset over the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Lazio
(capital: Rome) aboard Windstar Cruises’ Wind Star.

November 3, 2013

What you’ll discover in our Etsy shop

Handcrafted photocards featuring the world’s best places and the stories behind them. Think of them as bespoke journeys-in-an-envelope to share with those you care about most, no passport required. Below, Allen & Mark’s journey to Vast Compass—this website, our blog, and our Etsy shop.

The world’s best places and the stories behind them


Please note the photocard prints do not have a white watermark. They arrive as shown in the video clips below.

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Facade—Galaxidi, Greece. 

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Rosa ‘Iceberg’—Sydney, Australia.  

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‘Baux’—Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France. 

Our journey to today

How 30+ years of travel led to this website, our blog, and our Etsy shop


Hello!

We’re Mark & Allen, the guys behind Vast Compass.

We count 11 passports’ worth of trekking between us, most of it over the past 30+ years, and counting. So many flights and debarkations, “All aboards!”, and missed connections. But still with so many points far and near yet to explore, so many ports of call unpinned on our travel map.

We heart travel

For this photo we stacked some of our boarding passes and arranged them in the outline of a heart because, like you, we passionately love travel. And we placed our expired passports in the center shaped like a ‘V’—our wordmark’s first letter—because some of the most awesome travel begins with wheels down in a distant land, vastly different than our own.

Digital boarding passes and increasingly online travel documents are making ephemera like these relics of a bygone era. (Ummm…what does that make us?)

People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains,
at the huge waves of the seas,
at the long course of the rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars…

…and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.

—St. Augustine

Why Vast Compass?

As St. Augustine notes, we travel for wonder. But sometimes we travel only because of a bucket list, going so quickly that we miss the teachings of history, or pass by the deeper understanding of a place that is just out of frame. That’s where our photocards and their essays come in. They tell the rest of the story.

St. Augustine’s metaphor of a ‘vast compass’ sums up with economy and precision the travels Allen and I have enjoyed as we explored some of this planet’s most exciting lands and waterways, from Easter Island and the Irrawaddy, to Seyðisfjörður and Stornoway. What unforgettable experiences do you put at the heart of your own travel memories? Let us know in the comments below!

Put a pin in it

Even before we meet in 1994 there are few greater pleasures for Allen and me than the first miles of a family road trip, a jet bridge left behind, a cruise ship cleared…you get the idea. We’re kindred spirits, you and us. Curious, rollaboards at the ready, our eyes always thirsty.

Allen & Mark on Piazza San Giovanni in Florence, Italy—Christmas Day, 2024.

Allen ascending the Aiguille du Midi observatory (elevation: 12,605 ft.) on Chamonix Mont-Blanc—
June 7, 2016.

Mark & Allen astride their two besties on the Giza Plateau in Cairo, Egypt—March 22, 2019.

Mark looking doubtful at 45°18'30.78" S 166°57'23.874" E (Doubtful Sound, New Zealand)—April 5, 2009.

This handful of photos—and thousands more beside—are why our world map is pierced through in 46 countries, each pearly pin a window into who we are…

…into new ways of seeing, being, and becoming. 

We look forward to placing pins in Morocco, Jordan, and Israel soon.

A return to Bali is a must, and Thailand is always a good idea. Myanmar, Angkor Wat, Japan—so many ineffable destinations and still we’ve only scratched the surface.

We’re largely saving travel in North America for after we retire. (Oops! It’s almost time…)

Rapa Nui (Easter Island), far left, is a province of Chile. Deemed the most remote island on earth, it’s national seat of government is in Santiago, 2,200 miles to the east.

Rapa Nui (Easter Island), lower right, is 2,800 miles from French Polynesia to the west, which travelers often shorthand as Tahiti—though Tahiti proper is only one of 118 islands in the French collective.

The Roaring 40’s between Australia and New Zealand make for a memorable crossing. Further south are even stronger westerly winds—the Furious Fifties and Screaming Sixties.

Like all great travellers, I have seen
more than I remember, and remember
more than I have seen.

—Benjamin Disraeli

The magic of travel

You have your own map filled with pins, even if only in imagination or dreams. And therein is the magic of travel—it makes no difference if you’ve been there, done that, hope to, or never will in person for whatever reason. Travel is as much imagination as experience. Which is why Benjamin Disraeli’s aphorism rings so true for us.

The rich tapestry of life

Yes. Amazing stuff, travel. Tracing the arc of history, learning to do nothing for a stretch, or simply inviting the power of place to have its say. These things, of course, but also the missed train, the ‘1-star stay’ at a ‘3-star bnb’, and the over-crowded, over-tourist-y crush of pretty much anywhere if you don’t remember to look past the melee for the truth of what you’ve come to experience. As our dear friend Gordon often remarked, “It’s all part of the rich tapestry of life!”

We lost Gordon a few years ago, too, too soon. While our hearts ache, we are so very, very grateful not only for knowing him, but for sharing so many awesome journeys with him. And for sharing so many travel frustrations and unexpected disappointments. Because those moments, in time (and usually within hours, if not minutes) became just as treasured as the good stuff. So many memories…

Which is why Gordon’s perspective is essential. Not-so-important-after-all inconveniences seldom outweigh the life-altering moments of “OMG!-it’s-it’s-even-more-everything-than-I-expected!”

And that’s one more of a thousand reasons the worlds great destinations truly deserve celebration—and sharing.

Celebrating and thanking Gordon for his lesson of the rich tapestry of life

l. to r., Jay, Gordon, Murat, and Allen in Sultan Ahmet Park, Istanbul, Turkey—May 31, 2014.

Greater than the sum of its parts

Our photocards are a time-tested way to honor the best that travel can be. Like any great trip, it’s the whole of the experience, vs. any one thing that makes travel great. The itinerary, sure. The sites and sounds and tastes, absolutely. The people and unexpected insights from chance encounters in the pub, the apse, the corner shop, yes, yes, and yes. It’s the same with our photocards. As Lisa, a dear friend, puts it, “As I read a card and look at the photo, the whole affair comes together in a ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ kind of way. You’re holding a small part of the world in your hand.”

Like Gordon’s tapestry, it’s when every element of travel is woven together seamlessly that it truly comes to life in ways that are impossible to forget.

You’re holding a small
part of the world in your hand.

—Lisa

Upcoming Vast Compass Collections

Iconic France II

Lost Civilizations II

Why we connect

At its heart Vast Compass is about our connection to moments in time when there is a clear before and after.

Flashes of insight in which we come to see a cathedral or the cascade of a rushing river through new eyes because of how the sun hits carved stone or free-falling threads of mist. In these fleeting instants we come to understand why this building and this cataract are sacred. Or why mingling with creative cosplayers in Harajuku is just as essential as enjoying sakura when visiting Tokyo in springtime. These moments and limitless others make for indelible memories. They prove to be enduring reasons for us to share. Because experiences shared are the very stuff of civilization, across millennia.

Start with the stories captured in cave paintings and hieroglyphics. Fast forward to fading family scrapbooks, Kodachrome slideshows, and Polaroids. And today, iCloud Photos, LI profiles, all the rest. Relating where we’ve been—who we are, what we’ve seen and done, how it made us feel—this impulse is too strong to deny, too pure to alter. It’s a an outsize force of the human condition from before the pharaohs, even as it fuels today’s gazillion selfies, Tik Tok, and Insta. It makes our world a life-sized pop-up picture book and inspires Mark & Allen to create envelope-sized journeys to share. Connection via the wide, wide world is the reason for our Etsy shop.

Visit our Etsy shop

A record of our connection to moments in time


From eras in the distant past, to who we were, and who we are now

CAIE19022*—Temple of Sobek and Haroeris in Kom Ombo, Egypt—March 16, 2019.

Mark’s mom and her ski club—1966.

Mark’s dad in Sedona, Arizona—1994.

Allen’s LinkedIn profile pic—2023.

Why we write

Social media and DMs, email and self-deleting texts, emojis, AR effects, and Insta animations—just a smattering of the digital tools we use to communicate in our always-on, never-out-of-touch world—are wildly popular, and with reason. Sometimes these apps and the messages they relay are even essential. But far too often, far too much of the imagery and content streaming across these platforms is superficial and fleeting, if not downright harmful. Despite their ubiquity and the multiple hours we spend on them each day, many of us self-report as being increasingly lonely and left without meaningful connection in a deceptively hyperconnected world. Fortunately, there’s a solution.

When we want to truly communicate in a way that matters most, we can still reach for paper and pen, a humble stamp, and the street or POB address of a great aunt or old college friend who’s been on our mind of late. We follow these analog rituals not because we shun technology, but because physical artifacts still matter, personal intention still calls attention, and deeper meaning still begins with the simplest of gestures.

Sometimes we just need to say, “I’m thinking of you," or, “I remembered.” Other times it’s, “I’m sorry for your loss,”“I miss you,”“I love you.” Maybe best of all, “Just because.” Most important, we want to say these things in a way that rises above the din of digital mayhem by adopting decidedly analog and definitively more heartfelt, more enduring traditions.

A thousand reasons

There are a thousand reasons to reach out to someone we care about. But those we connect with, whatever our impulse, receive our words differently, more deeply, and certainly more lastingly when they’re scribed by hand. A written note on a photocard from Vast Compass traverses more than time and distance—your words thoughtfully impressed on bespoke linen paper have a life span far beyond the abbreviated flicker of a text or DM, or the ephemeral ‘sell by’ date of a FaceTime chat.

What matters most

Now add in lustrous images of the world’s most enchanting places, from Versailles and the Sydney Opera House, to lost civilizations of Myanmar, Giza, Easter Island, and Machu Picchu. An abundance of flowers. The vibrant doors and windows of San Migeul de Allende. The bluest waters of Greece, undulating titanium starchitecture, and empty, echoing streets. All hand-tipped using archival methods, with white glove handling throughout.

Our photocards and your words matter. Enough to be treasured for re-re-reading and framing. For safekeeping, across generations. They are touchpoints and keepsakes that remind those we care about the most that our relationships with them are more than transitory transactions measured in digital bits and bytes. They’re deeply personal, tangible, and timeless. That’s what matters most—when you send a photocard from Vast Compass you make a lasting difference in the lives of those you care about.

They also remind those in our orbit just how awesome this planet is, with its multitudes of vistas and natural wonders, its pristine solitudes and gravity-defying structures raised to the sky, its grandeur and its vulnerability, its beauty and its impossibility.

A photocard from Vast Compass traverses more than time and distance.

Your words matter most.

The world is ours to share, together.

Visit our Etsy shop

Digital campfire

But Vast Compass isn’t just a way to make our unique photocards accessible by you on any screen, any time. Our Etsy shop is just one way we make our travel insights available.

The photocards are also a jumping off point to share stories around a digital campfire. Drum roll, please…

Announcing our Vast Compass blog!

While our blog features only two destinations on its launch (5 posts on Corfu, Greece, and 15 posts on the Eiffel Tower in Paris), look for a regular cadence of featured destinations and the stories just out of frame, from history and personal experience. And with a comments section always available, we encourage you to share your own insights, recommendations, and ideas for future posts. Being a digital campfire, the s’mores are your responsibility, but at least we can enjoy the sparks of imagination and joys of time travel that our photocards inspire.

Vast Compass—this website, our blog, and the photocards in our Etsy shop—are your gateway to share a thousand worlds. Check in often for new posts, new recommendations, and new ways to see far-flung corners of the world.

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Unless otherwise noted, all images are copyright © Vast Compass, 2025.

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