The Fast Track

The Fast Track Weekly Edit Chef Andrew Zimmern’s hot take, how to unplug, and a wholesome community of plane spotters. Welcome to The Fast Track, a newsletter from the editors at Travel + Leisure. If you’re new here, my name is Nikki Vargas, and I’m an associate editorial director here at T+L. I’m popping up in your inbox with our weekly edit, exclusive to our paid subscribers.

An American Airlines Eagle lands at LAX Airport in Los Angeles, California. Photo by FG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images. Every few minutes, the conversations stopped mid-sentence. Someone would spot a rare aircraft approaching, and a sea of phones and cameras went up at once. For a second, I could feel the jet engines rumble in my chest. Then the wheels touched down on the runway, and everyone went right back to talking.

Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / Dandy Wellington Wants You to Slow Down The Harlem-based bandleader and vintage-style icon on analog rituals, old New York, and why faster doesn’t always mean better. I recently returned from walking the Camino de Santiago, where I spent two weeks on the historic trails stretching from southern France to the Spanish coast of Galicia.

To call Andrew Zimmern well-traveled is an understatement. He’s gone to Kazakhstan, the fish markets of Busan, and even joined traditional feasts in Mongolia. I’m Susmita Baral, a senior editor at Travel + Leisure, where I cover breaking news across all of experiential travel, from trains and hotels to food and aviation, and here, on The Fast Track, I write for my column Off-Menu.

The Fast Track Weekly Edit It was a hotel-inspired week on The Fast Track. Welcome to The Fast Track, a newsletter from the editors at Travel + Leisure. If you’re new here, my name is Nikki Vargas, and I’m an associate editorial director here at T+L. I’m popping up in your inbox with our weekly edit, exclusive to our paid subscribers.

Styl(ish) The fashion industry’s most seasoned travelers share the accommodations they rely on for style, serenity, and a much-needed respite. The Seine as seen from the Pont Louis-Philippe, which links the Île St.-Louis to the Marais. Photo by Anaïs Boileau/Travel + Leisure. Fashion editors are the go-to experts for styling advice and shopping recs, but what most people don’t know is that we’re also expert travelers.

Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / We Found the World’s Best Hotel Restaurants Here’s how we did it. Here is a very nice, very true story: about a year and a half ago, Jacqueline Gifford—Travel + Leisure’s editor in chief, and also my boss—came back from the SLS Barcelona, which had just opened. Sitting in her office, she waxed poetic about the cocktail bar Kyara, which was groundbreaking not just for the hotel, but for the city’s flourishing bar scene.

This curated monthly list by Travel + Leisure's editor in chief, Jacqui Gifford, will become an exclusive perk for The Fast Track paid subscribers. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber here, let us help you with that: Are you somewhere fabulous in Europe right now—perhaps lounging on the shores of the South of France, seeing Celine in Paris, or dining at Roscioli in Rome? And if not, don’t you want to be? You and everyone else.

What makes a great boutique hotel? For me and Hotels Above Par founder Brandon Berkson, it comes down to something increasingly valuable in hospitality: having a unique point of view. I’m Jacqueline Gifford, the editor in chief of Travel + Leisure, and this past weekend I was joined by Brandon from his Substack, Hotel Espresso.

Welcome to The Fast Track, a newsletter brought to you by the editors at Travel + Leisure. If you’re new here, my name is Nikki Vargas, and I’m an associate editorial director here at T+L. I’m popping up in your inbox with our weekly edit, exclusive to our paid subscribers.