Issue 13: Summer travel plans. Design-y AirBnBs in Sicily. A new hotel in St Tropez.
A real grab-bag newsletter for ya.
Hello existentialists!
Today’s email is a grab-bag of travel things & dreams:
My summer travel plans so far
Design-y stays in Sicily
A new hotel in St Tropez
(Castello Ruspoli, part of a garden tour I’ll be taking)
HAVE YOU BOOKED SUMMER TRAVEL YET?
If so, where are you going? Tell me in the comments. Airfare is so grotesquely high this summer. We bail them out and they gouge us following the worst of the pandemic. I’m mad about it! But is it stopping me? Of course not. <insert clown emoji> They have got us by the necks. What am I gonna do? Not go to Europe? Lol, no. Life is short, so even if tickets to wherever are ~$500 higher than 2019, I’m gonna book anyway because I’m almost 50, the Death Zone, and I have dreams, baby. The existential clock is ticking.
MY SUMMER TRAVEL PLANS
I’m headed to Rome next week and also have a three-week trip to Sicily and the south of France booked for June (Arles and Marseilles). I’m probably going to book something in July, but that is still TBD. I’ve been to both Sicily and Arles, so why would I go again so soon? Well, I like the “second-city” energy of these places. So much beauty and charm, but fewer crowds. Click the links in bold that I just inserted a sentence or two ago and I think you will get a sense for the energy of these places. Perfect destinations, really.
Not exactly summer travel, but I have a tour of gardens in Lazio, the area around Rome, planned for early October. I have never done an organized tour before, and this one will be with a bunch of old British people, so I am, naturally, quite excited. What better group to tour gardens with?
I found London-based Martin Randall Travel after searching for a company that specialized in cultural and architectural tours. This particular tour appealed to me because I don’t like to rent a car, and you need one to efficiently get around to so many gardens in just ~6 days. Additionally, some of the gardens can only be visited by special arrangement, so having a cultural tour company sort it all out seems well worth the money. Their range of tours is fantastic - - everything from tours of old country houses in England to a tour of the Silk Road. If the garden tour is a hit, then I am going to look into their tours deep into Spain, Georgia, and Uzbekistan. Some destinations will clearly be better if you leave all of the coordination to an expert, and having a PhD or similarly credentialed expert provide context along the way seems like it’s well worth the money. So stay tuned later this year with an update on my maiden voyage with Martin Randall.
DESIGN-Y ITINERARY IN SICILY.
I’ve been to Sicily once, and will return next month. I haven’t been working for a year and I am down to fumes on my year-long sabbatical travel budget, so my Sicily and south-of-France trip is fully booked with a per-night hotel/AirBnB average of $112. I love a good deal, so I am extremely pleased with my bargain itinerary. You can really stretch a dollar in Sicily and south of France if you have a good strategy. I’ll write a detailed newsletter on that itinerary as we head into June, but I wanted to talk a bit about what I would plan for Sicily if I was feeling a bit more flush and wanted to elevate my AirBnB choices a bit while enjoying design-y stays along the way.
I would start in Palermo HERE. Needs very little explanation. Chic, chic, chic and there are gymnastic rings in the shower (!!).
Next I would make my way to Scicli and stay HERE. I’m a sucker for anything built into caves & stone. This is carved in, dug out, streamlined, decorated with the lightest touch, has a pool, and sits proudly over Scicli. What is not to love.
THIS place in nearby Modica is a bit more “Ikea-modern” than my taste, but you’re not staying here for the very Euro kitchen, you are staying here for the courtyard and little pool. The many little secluded places to hang out plus the view of the church make this such a great choice.
In Noto, you can stay HERE. This one is only possible with a car. Designed by StudioGum, this place has been featured in books and design magazines. Real “Kinfolk-goes-to-Sicily” energy if that is your thing.
Designers will want to zhuzh up the interiors a bit and probably replace the art, but you’re HERE for the exterior and the pool. Views, baby! It’s giving… “The cell phone are off, we aren’t checking email, and yes our out-of-office message is low-key bragging that we cannot be reached as we are in Sicily…”
THIS ONE is a perfect mix of old-world and new energy. Beautiful cement tiles, vintage lamps, a cool kitchen cordoned off by a wall of steel windows. It’s giving “your cool designer friend decorated his second apartment with all the misfit stuff in his (amazing) storage unit.”
Lastly for now: One of Paris’s best hotels has opened a cousin in St Tropez.
The very “if you know, you know” Chateau Hotel Voltaire in Paris has just opened a cousin in St Tropez: La Maison du Clocher. Take a look.