Yolo Intel

The longtime travel editor of the Financial Times’ HTSI, Maria Shollenbarger is one of the most trusted and influential voices in travel journalism. Opinionated and discerning, she is always the first to suss out worthy new openings and identify the legacy brands with staying power, separating real quality from marketing hype.

The latest in our August OOO series: we hand the keys over to Tracy Georgiou, who writes the Substack Long Weekend, a “travelogue for a creative life”—always an inspiring read. From the pleasures of solo travel to letting down her guard at Esalen, Tracy is constantly drawing our attention back to the importance of connection and presence to sparking creativity—in travel, in life, and in work.

You may recognize Rebekah Peppler from our Yolo Intel newsletters, where she’s posted stories from places as diverse as Austria and Cape Town. (We also interviewed her here on Club Yolo for one of our first You Should Meet Q&As.) In addition, the Paris-based writer is an accomplished cookbook author (Apéritif, À Table, le SUD) and NYT wine/cocktails columnist, who is always on the road digging up the most special addresses and sharing them in her ultra-discerning Substack, Shortlisted.

This month we’re handing over our Club Yolo keys to four of our favorite Substackers in the travel world, while we aim to be on holiday. Not completely OOO, as we’re still sending out our Yolo Intel newsletters every Saturday with new stories from our website. (Unfamiliar? Subscribe for free.) We’re kicking things off with Christine Muhlke, who writes the brilliant newsletter, Xtine.

After three months in Europe, I was ecstatic to be back home. Not saying our trip wasn’t fantastic (I wrote all about it here), but I didn’t bring my dog Prune, because there was too much zig-zagging around—two nights here, one night there—and it wouldn’t have been fair to either of us. (I do have the most amazing dogsitter.) Being in the States for a month in summer is pure nostalgic heaven for me.

We kept hearing that our New Year’s retreat round-up was so inspiring, we thought we’d do it again for fall—another season that carries the impulse to turn over a new leaf and learn a thing or two. From a bread-baking/ceramics-making/yoga retreat in a Pugliese Masseria to writing aboard a dahabiya on the Nile, painting in Tangier, or horseback riding through Wyoming’s wild sagebrush, here is where to scratch your creative itch.

Summer is nearly half over, and I don’t know about you, but I have barely managed to crack a book (blowing through Yesteryear and Strangers on audiobook at 1.2x doesn’t entirely count, I know). And yet this is the season I most look forward to turning actual pages: in a backyard lounger, on a beach blanket, on a plane to some summery destination I’m trying to understand through a vividly drawn novel or biography.

Since I received so many DMs from you all last month, I decided to do a bit of a You Asked For It/Travel Diary combo. I get so many questions about Rome, especially now, in the literal heat of the moment: What to do when it’s unbearably hot and you need to shift gears? Another one I get a lot is, How do I find all the good stuff in the flea market? (I drew you a map.) Where to eat on a Sunday?

After three months on the road living out of a suitcase—and completely reliant on my packing cubes—I’m ready to upgrade to these colorful ones from Tuckernuck. My favorite Le Monde Beryl Venetians make a comeback, but in a summery suede version, to celebrate their 10th anniversary! This may be the year I actually make it to Basilicata, and when I do I’ll be checking into the Santavenere and the Palazzo Margherita. Love this modernist house in Puglia.

There are few people who inspire us like Andrea Gentl. I’ve been fortunate to work with her since I got started in the magazine world back in the late ‘90s, and lucky to call her a dear friend ever since. She and her husband, Martin Hyers—who together work under the name Gentl & Hyers—are behind some of our favorite Yolo Journal covers, as well as a few of our favorites from our Traveler days. She’s also a big inspiration for my collecting habit.