Every morning I wake up to loads of direct messages asking me for very specific travel advice. Best restaurants in Mykonos? Should we take our family to Puglia or Sicily? Best villa rental agency in France? Best weekend getaways near NYC?
I’ve been promising a newsletter ever since I launched Yolo Journal (which turns 2 this weekend!), but I wasn’t ready until now. I wanted to make sure that whatever was hitting your already full inboxes would be helpful—listening to you on Instagram has been a great way to hear what you need help with and what inspires you. And now more than ever, so many of us are ready to hit the road, but are unsure about the where, the how, and things that before we would never have thought twice about. I’ll be sharing the stuff I’m excited about, answering questions, highlighting travel experts I think you should know, and, in general, just going deeper than we have space to in the magazine. Plus we’ll get some of our favorite people to share their travel secrets. And recipes! One of my favorite sections in the good old days of Gourmet was where readers would ask the editors to get the recipes for their favorite dishes from some place they had visited. We’re starting that next week with the best egg salad ever from our favorite Bell’s in Los Alamos.
There’s a whole lot of travel help we all need that can’t be figured out with a google search, and that’s exactly what I want to address here. Think of Yolo Journal as your travel moodboard, our Instagram as daily inspiration, and the newsletter as all the hard-working info, recs, nitty gritty, plus what is inspiring us right now. For this intro post, I’m going to answer a couple of the most immediate questions that have come into my DMs in the last couple of weeks, but moving forward, we’ll have a weekly q+a where subscribers can write their questions in the comments. But without much more wind-up, here are the questions of the week:
Q: “A hotel in Rome that has character and isn’t $$$?”
A: Our Italy (first issue) cover photographer Stephen Ringer and his wife, Aly Michalka, the cover star, have incredible taste, and they turned me on to this hotel they love in Rome, the Donna Camilla Savelli. It’s in a former monastery designed by Borromini, in the Trastevere neighborhood. “It's a magical place…just no room service and the inside can feel a bit corporate in the elevators and common spaces with flyers and crap. Rooms are spacious. There is a bar that you pretty much have to yourself, and the same goes for the rooftop terrace. There's a Catholic church in the building just off the lobby and every morning there are nuns in the courtyard tending to the plants and practicing classical music. It's also just about five doors down from Antica Pesa and close to Janiculum Hill and Fontana dell'Acqua Paola. There's a good local coffee shop just down Garibaldi, and it's a short walk to most things in Trastevere like da Enzo.”
Q: “Going to Sorrento for a week in June. By any chance do you have restaurant recommendations there? And thanks a million in advance.”
A: Our friends from Chez Dédé in Rome love Sorrento, and some of their favorites are: lunch at the Gio Ponti Parco dei Principi, on the water, Fauno Bar for the signage alone, ‘O Parrucchiano La Favorita, and Bagni Sant’Anna, a beach club that turns into a restaurant at night.
Q: “Will you put your Marin Headlands hikes in the next issue?”
A: “No, but I’ll put them here! For those of you who don’t know what the Marin Headlands are, we are talking some of the most magical trails with epic views of the Pacific Ocean, just 15 minutes north of San Francisco. My favorite hike suggestion is to head to Tennessee Valley, and then look at the All Trails app to see what loop and length you want to do. You can do as short as an hour, or hike as far as Stinson. Try to go on weekdays and as early as possible, so you can have the trails pretty much to yourself. Best coffee is at Equator (the one by Proof Lab is super close to Tennessee Valley), there are great snacks (and juices) at Good Earth (across the road from Equator), and my hiking friends Maca and Angelina swear by Juice Girl, which has, well, obviously great juice, but also gluten-free seed and nut loaf which they do an avocado toast with, and delicious things that are actually good for you. Or you could drive back to the city and stop in Sausalito, one of my favorite towns. (The Equator has great food, but if it’s lunch time, or you did a sunset walk, check out Fish, and Sushi Ran for the best Japanese.
PS a very big thank you to my friends David Coggins of The Contender and Jenny Rosenstrach of Dinner: A Love Story for pushing me to do this! Follow them both on Substack!
Late to the game but love the new Loro Piana campaign that you're a part of!
Love this! Good work, Yolanda. Looking forward to more.