Travel Dreamscapes
Looking back and looking ahead for ideas and inspiration on where we want to go this year
For our first post of the new year, I thought it would be a good moment to think about what inspired us from our and our contributors’ travels (looking back), and all the things we are excited about and hoping to do this year (looking ahead). One of many great things about our small team here at Yolo is that we all have very different interests—very complimentary, but we aren’t all trying to go to the same places. So when one of us comes back and shares their experience, or we create a Black Book, List, or Travel Planner on a place that is new to someone on the team, one of us will inevitably say: I had no idea I would want to go there until working on this story. That’s the magic of travel—often the reason why we aren’t dying to go somewhere is really because we don’t have the inside track on it. —Y.E.
Looking Back
I barely scratched the surface of Corsica on our whirlwind four-day trip last September, and I’m already plotting a return for my birthday this year. Brussels was meant to be a cozy long winter weekend for me and my husband—we stayed at the lovely and just opened Corinthia, and had some great meals planned—until I caught some awful flu and spent most of the weekend in bed. I’d love to go back and experience the hotel in its fully opened glory—the bar and and spa weren’t ready when we were there, and I want to go to Au Vieux Saint Martin for the Filet Americain (their take on a steak tartare), which I missed out on, but certainly heard all about from Matt who dined there solo. We published an epic Hong Kong Black Book with intel from a great lineup of contributors, which got me so excited, and on the easier side of things, I loved this story from Robin Helman on exploring the Hudson Valley—no car required.
Looking Ahead
If I’ve screenshotted a place from someone’s IG Stories, and after researching it, it still holds up, I’m going. One such place was The Old Swiss House in Lucerne that I saw on my friend Zach’s feed. Look at that wienerschnitzel! And the decor! I’ll be finding a way to detour there at some point. On my dream-into-doing list, I’m heading to Jaipur and Sujan Sher Bagh in just 10 days (first trip to India!), going to Mayr Life in Austria in February (also a first!), and still working on my plans this spring for Singapore and Hong Kong, followed by a couple of days in Tokyo, and ending in Hokkaido. (This will be a Packing List for sure–all the different climates and activities in one trip!) Places I’ve not yet plotted out but sure hope they happen this year: Formentera! Kastellorizo! Georgia (the country, not the state)! Australia! Botswana! And lastly, I really need to get back to one of my favorite hotels that I reference so often, but haven’t been to since 2015, the Villa Feltrinelli.
Alex Postman - Yolo’s Deputy Editor
Looking Back
I do love a road trip! Particularly a West Coast drive, like the one I took last spring up the Sonoma Coast to Mendocino. This year I’m gunning to head south, inspired by the Baja Road Trip Annie Parr and Tim Parr wrote up for us last year. Stopping off first south of the border in the Valle de Guadalupe, the Tuscany of Mexico, for vineyard visits (there’ll be a shnitzy new stay with the newest Chable opening in the Valle); then continuing south to Baja Sur, where I’d love to make it to one of Annie’s dance/yoga/movement retreats at their place El Campo in El Pescadero; and staying on for barefoot-on-the-beach tacos and beers at Hotel San Cristobal in Todos Santos, guided by Chip Conley’s Southern Baja List.
I used to think I must have Irish blood (though 23&Me insists otherwise!)—I went several times in my 20s, called by the soulfulness of the language and literature, genuine warmth of the people, great craics in the pubs, and otherworldly landscapes, from the lunaresque Burren to the wind-lashed cliffs of Donegal. And then, weirdly, I didn’t go back for decades! But I think it’s time, sparked by a set of stories we did in September, a glorious time to go: the Connemara List by Maria Murphy and Lorna Kissane, who founded Within the Village and describe picturesque drives past fishing villages and scenic loughs; a Dispatch from Galway by The Tweed Project co-founder Aoibheann McNamara, who describes the pleasures of the Driftwood Sauna in Spiddal after a swim. And what I wouldn’t give to stay in Glin Castle, the most enchanting sounding home of Catherine FitzGerald and Dominic West!
This little sleeper of a story we did last year, an “Armchair Traveler” with Melissa M. Martin, cookbook author and chef-owner of New Orleans’ Mosquito Supper Club, had me dreaming of the Louisiana Bayou: a fried po’boy at Ceana’s in Bayou Grand Caillou or boiled seafood at Higgins in Lafitte, followed by a swamp walk spotting blue herons… and sleeping under the tent of kudzu at Moon Over Bayou cottage in Franklin. Bookended by a couple of days in the Big Easy, cherry-picking from our New Orleans Black Book.
Looking Ahead
Ever since watching The Clouds of Sils Maria—a layered meditation on female ambition and aging, with stellar performances by Juliette Binoche and Kirsten Stewart and a hypnotic supporting turn by the jagged Swiss Alpine landscape—I’ve been a little bewitched by the idea of the Engadine, a region that has long lured creatives from Nietzsche to Proust. So I was excited to hear about the opening of Chesa Marchetta, a property that pairs a 16th-century guesthouse with a small but celebrated restaurant, newly acquired by Artfarm, the hospitality company created by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, cofounders of the Swiss gallery Hauser & Wirth. The 13-room hotel (plus a 3-BR house) was renovated by Luis Laplace, retaining that quietly Swiss sense of understatement, layered with antiques and Swiss pine. It reopened last week with a refreshed restaurant whose ingredients are all local or foraged—remarkably, the very one where Iwan and Manuela had their first date! Hoping I make it there!
I admit Oman is not a place that has worked its way onto my wish list—until now. That’s because of the arrival of The Malkai, an ambitious project launching this spring that creates a circuit in regions of the Sultanate that have never been exposed to tourism. Created by the family that owns the beloved Chedi Muscat, this route will link three wildly different landscapes—Barkaa’s date-palm shaded farmlands, the Al Hajar mountains echoing with the calls of goatherds, and the remote dunes of Sharquiyah. Each site will have 15 tented suites resembling Bedouin tents and will be connected by Land Rover Defender, in the company of your personal “murshid” or guide. Ending in Muscat, where I’d wander the pastel buildings of the old city and gaze up at the gargantuan chandelier at the Sultan Qaboos (Grand Mosque).
September usually finds me in Marrakech at the annual Pure travel show. I usually try to tack something on to the front or back of my trip (last year I visited Casablanca, which was so unexpectedly cool!). This year I want to detour to Fes—in part, admittedly, because a friend with amazing taste arrived in Marrakech with a duffel full of the most beautiful and refined hand-sewn bed linens, and I have been hankering to update ours. But also because I absolutely love losing myself in the disorienting labyrinth of an old medina, like an IRL mythological adventure, and Fes’—with its 9,000 narrow lanes trod by donkeys and lined with centuries-old tanneries, metal workers and spice shops—might actually require letting out a spool of thread to find my way out! (Or… I’ll hire an attuned guide from Inclusive Morocco.) I’d stay either at the Jardin des Biehn, a family-owned riad that’s home to a collection of textiles and decorative objects belonging to a French antiques dealer, or (if the timing works out) splurging for a night or two at Palais Jamaï Fès, a 19th-century Moorish-style hotel that La Mamounia is remaking and opening later this year.
Clara Hranek - Yolo’s social media and associate editor
Looking Back
After having spent Christmas upstate again this year, I am dreaming back to my time there last week, as well as my fondest memories there across all seasons. As I’m sure the rest of my family will agree, our house in Sullivan County NY is really our happy place, and is seriously one of the greatest gems in the state. You can find our favorites in our Sullivan County List as the area has grown immensely with lots of city folk migration, while never straying from its more country bumpkin roots—thankfully.
While this is technically still in the future for me, I will definitely be referring to (and adding to) our Rajasthan Travel Planner, which we published in 2024, for my trip to Jaipur in a couple of weeks!
Looking Ahead
When organizing our recently published Hong Kong Black Book, and working with all of our contributors as they shared their favorites, I fell in love with the city—if that’s possible to do through a screen! Being a place of such dramatic contrasts, with a mix of both old school and new school, as well as some of the most incredible sounding properties, Hong Kong is definitely No.1 on my list of 2026 destinations.
Another travel dream of mine, also inspired by a Yolo contributor, is Botswana. After reading Chloe Frost Smith’s Dispatch from the Okavango Delta and seeing how incredible her safari was, I became obsessed. I’ve never been on a safari before, so this one looked not only incredibly diverse animal-wise, but also beautiful, and coupled with great hospitality. I feel like safaris are notoriously intimidating for first-timers, so reading her story, which detailed every part and depicted it so beautifully, totally convinced me. (Also, read our incredible Safari Travel Planner here!)
On my property dreamscape, I am dying to check out Le Proevençal in Hyères. I’ve come across it a few times, both when working on our Costa Meno France and our huge Costa Meno Roundup, and it’s at the top of my summer destinations list. It’s been family owned since 1951 and looks amazing, and is perfectly located with swimming platforms right on the sea.
Carly Shea - Yolo’s lifestyle editor
Looking Back
The most fun-yet-overwhelming guides we do are our Travel Planners, where we go incredibly deep on a country or region, posing highly specific questions to all sorts of experts, whether they’re professional travel advisors or just well-connected creatives who know the craft or food scene better than anyone else. This year I worked on our Turkey Travel Planner and Alex tackled our African Safari Travel Planner, and both ended up being 70+ pages long. I learn SO much every time we take one on—who knew Turkey is responsible for 70% of global hazelnut production?!—and always want to book a trip immediately once we’re done. In Turkey, I’d love to explore the Urla Wine Route, visit small alpine villages in the Black Sea region, and hike part of the Lycian Way, a 300-mile-long coastal trail that meanders through Lycian and Roman ruins, towns and olive groves. And when basically every safari expert who answered the “if I could only go on one safari in my life…” prompt mentioned the Okavango Delta, I knew I had to bump Botswana higher up on my ever-growing list!
I’ve had a photo of some Klein blue house in Trancoso, Brazil on my vision board for the past three years—any hard-to-get-to beach town that still feels like a little bit of a secret is my idea of heaven—but when I read Siobhan Reid’s dispatch from Itacaré, an even harder to get to, even more hush-hush surf town 6-hours north of Trancoso, I was totally sold. That corner of Bahia is home to some of the most biodiverse pockets of the Atlantic Forest—of the 23,000 plant species you can find there, 40% of them can’t be found anywhere else on the planet—plus sandy beaches with great surf, cacao plantations, and small shops and cafes that attract a Haviana-clad, if not barefoot, crowd.
Looking Ahead
The other day in our office we were talking about astrocartography, which, for those who have never heard of Susan Miller, is a type of locational astrology that maps your birth chart onto the globe, and traces how different planetary energies manifest around the world for you. The idea is that you can travel to a point on your Jupiter line if you’re looking for luck/expansion, Venus for love/luxury, the Sun for confidence/vitality, Mars for adventure, Mercury for communication, and the Moon for emotional depth. It all sounds very woo-woo, but my sun line goes directly through somewhere where I’ve had the most transformative experiences of my life, so I think there might be something to it. If nothing else it’s fun to zoom in and out on the map, and imagine what version of myself I might meet in Tirana or Tucson, how I might grow or what I might learn in Lima or Lukla. As a writer and just a human being I’d love to work on communication this year, and my Mercury line slices across Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, so maybe a safari or Nile cruise (both at the top of my dream trip list!) is in the stars this year.
I went to university in Scotland, and aside from a weekend trip a few years ago I haven’t been back since, but Killiehuntly (which I wrote about here) is still one of my favorite places I’ve ever stayed. This spring, Wildland, the conservation-focused hospitality group behind Killiehuntly, is opening their most ambitious project yet in Sutherland: a restored 19th-century Highland shooting lodge with just a handful of bedrooms and cottages—each outfitted with a Gaelic name and Jacobean or Georgian oak furniture—on a 100,000 acre estate guided by a 200-year rewilding vision. The project is called Hope (mine are high) and sounds like a perfect beckoning back.
Linda Denahan - Yolo’s photo editor
Looking Back
As Yolo’s photo editor, I find myself routinely getting inspired to travel to the places we cover - so much so that it’s a bit of a joke amongst the team, but it’s hard not to get excited while looking at gorgeous travel imagery and reading our Contributors’ recommendations! Some of the locales that I can’t stop thinking about are Munich and Hong Kong, two cities who seem to have that perfect blend of culture and nature. After 15 years away, our New Orleans Black Book also had me craving morning beignets and late-night cocktails.
Looking Ahead
I have been lucky enough to go to Botswana, South Africa and most recently, Rwanda, and I am a firm believer that Africa is not a “once in a lifetime” destination! Working on our Safari Travel Planner has made my itch to go back even stronger - a visit to Elela, the new Singita property in Botswana, would be a dream, and I’ve heard amazing things about Elephant Pan Camp, which borders a watering hole for ideal animal spotting.
Finally, I’ve recently learned from a friend about the concept of solar return, which is an astrological theory that traveling to a specific location on your birthday can effect change on your coming year. I would love to have a reading from her astrologer to see where I should go!