We started YOLO Journal in the summer of 2019 as a visually immersive travel-lifestyle magazine in print, then joined Substack in 2021 to launch our weekly newsletter, Yolo Intel. Within the newsletter, we aim to provide a trusted perspective on travel by gathering the very best suggestions from our well-traveled, discerning network and share their—and our—hard-won recommendations. As our digital content archive grew, however, we felt we needed a platform that was more visually transportive, as travel arguably should be, and also more easily searchable. So in the summer of 2024, we launched our website, YoloJournal.com, to house our travel content archives—including our Black Book city guides, Travel Planners, hotel reviews, packing stories and more.
Right away we recognized that our website, though beautiful and easy to navigate, lacked a hub for our community to gather in the way that Substack does. And so, because we really missed hearing from you, understanding your travel pain points and joys, we’ve decided to come back. It won’t be the same as it was before—our weekly travel stories will continue to publish over on our website. But we’ll use each platform for what it’s best at—Yolo Journal as our archive, and Substack for community. Think of our site as the library, and our Substack as the café just next to it.
What does this mean and how will they be different? On Saturdays, if you’re signed up for our Yolo Intel newsletter, you’ll receive the week’s new digital issue, and on Wednesdays, you’ll get a Substack email from us. Substack will be the place to ask questions and get answers—from us and from your fellow readers. We’ll be in the Chat vertical, where we’ll collect your questions, and then publish posts with our answers—but we’ll also do Q&As with some of our expert contributors, packing videos, mood boards, playlists, and eventually, that podcast I keep promising.
Because we’re changing what we’re offering here, I thought we should change the name! I’m going back to my club girl roots (yes, I was a club promoter at a nightclub in San Francisco in the early ‘90s—Club 1015!), and calling this Club Yolo. Also: I’ve lived my whole life with fomo that I never got to go to Club Med, but my brother did.
It’s a work in progress! We’re still figuring out exactly what we’re doing here, so we aren’t charging anything until we determine what merits a price tag.
And now that we’re back—let’s start talking. What do you want more of? Less of? Any travel quandaries we (or your fellow travelers) can help solve? Join us in Chat.
Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy what we do in both places. —Yolanda
PS: In case you started following us here after we moved to our new site and you have no idea what we’re talking about, you can read more about us, and subscribe, here.
