Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 23, 2026

The Travel Manual (“we,” “this site”) is operated from the Republic of Korea at https://thetravelmanual.com. This policy explains what information we collect, why, and what your choices are.

Information we collect

Information you provide. If you leave a comment or contact us by email, we receive what you submit: your name or handle, email address, and the content of your message. Comment metadata (IP address and browser user agent string) is collected to help spam detection.

Information collected automatically. Like most websites, we use cookies and similar technologies for analytics and advertising, described below.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored in your browser. This site uses them to understand how visitors use the site (analytics) and to support advertising (AdSense). You can refuse or delete cookies in your browser settings at any time; the site remains fully readable without them.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand aggregate traffic — which guides are read, from which countries, on which devices. This data is collected via cookies and processed by Google. IP anonymization is enabled where supported. We do not use Analytics data to identify individual visitors. You can opt out with the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Google AdSense

We display advertisements served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners use advertising cookies (including the DoubleClick cookie) to serve ads based on your prior visits to this or other websites. You can opt out of personalized advertising at Google Ads Settings, or learn more at How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Affiliate links

Some outbound links (to booking platforms such as Agoda and Klook) are affiliate links. Clicking them may set a cookie from the affiliate network so that a booking can be attributed to this site. See our Affiliate Disclosure for details.

Embedded content

Guides may embed content from other sites (maps, videos, social posts). Embedded content behaves exactly as if you visited the source website, which may collect data about you, use its own cookies, and track your interaction with the embed.

How long we keep data

Comments and their metadata are retained indefinitely so follow-up comments can be recognized automatically. Analytics data is retained per Google Analytics’ standard retention settings.

Your rights

If you have left comments on this site, you can request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, or request that we erase it (excluding data we must keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes). Contact us via the Contact page.

Where your data goes

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Analytics and advertising data is processed by Google, which may transfer it outside your country of residence.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site’s tools change. The date at the top reflects the latest revision.