my favorite travel experiences of the year
the very best of 2025
best return trips:
Since about 2010, I’ve visited a new country every year, including in 2020 when I went to Costa Rica for the first time that January. I didn’t go to any new countries this year, but I did get to return to some of my favorite places: Rio, Warsaw, Provence, Sicily, Trancoso, Athens, Santa Teresa, Amalfi Coast, and Swans Island (which has probably never before been mentioned in the same sentence as the Amalfi Coast).
best new places:
No new countries, but lots of new places: La Paz, Crete, Cassis, Ortigia, Noto, Salvador, Milos, ROME (?!), Ponza, Santa Cruz, Saratoga Springs, Philadelphia, and Eleuthera.
places I most want to go back to:
If I could only visit one country for the rest of my life, it would be France. But if I could only visit two, it would be France and Brazil. I can never get enough. I loved Salvador and could see myself living there someday.
In Sicily, Oritiga had a really magical atmosphere. I was only there for a day but I’d like to go back and stay at Des Etrangers.
I only spent a day on Crete on my Ritz-Carlton cruise but I feel like it should be its own country (the Cretans think so too). I’d like to go back and spend two weeks there.
places I don’t need to go back to anytime soon:
This is probably user error, but what’s the deal with Santa Cruz? I wanted it to be a funky seaside town full of hippies and weirdos (a la The Lost Boys), but it was more like a very sad roadside attraction full of methheads and chain stores. (I’m willing to give it another chance.)
I will not be going back to Saratoga Springs, unless it’s to buy a cool hat and go to the races.
best hotel stay of the year:
Absolutely, hands-down, the week we spent in one of the villas at UXUA with my husband’s family.
worst hotel stay of the year:
I’m going to go with the slightly grim and overpriced Hampton Inn at the San Jose airport. (If your itinerary requires an overnight, I much prefer the funky Doubletree Cariari, which is like a tiki-themed 1960s motel, or Finca Rosa Blanca, a cute little ecolodge that’s only 30-ish minutes from the airport.)
best boat day:
Tooling around the calanques in Cassis, which is when I discovered the magic of poulet roti + moutarde potato chips. Circumnavigating Ponza in a little wooden boat with a couple of bottles of Franciacorta. Cruising along the Amalfi coast to eat spaghetti alle vongole at a beach club.
worst boat day:
The fast ferry to Ponza was so rough that this woman barfed all over the deck and peed/pooped her pants. (I still think about her sometimes, and it makes me cry with laughter.) I also barfed, but into a trash can, right after I coincidentally found 20 euros. Even the worst boat rides are kinda good.
best travel purchase of the year:
A hard jewelry case shaped like a shell so all my big earrings don’t get crushed. This packable tote from Farm Rio that I end up using on almost every trip (mine is a watermelon, but now I’m tempted to buy this banana one). A new aluminum Away bag for Haley so he stops borrowing mine. This silk bra purse just big enough for your room key and some cash so you can go out at night without a purse. (I also like to wear these shorts with a phone pocket under my dress). A super-thin but super-warm cashmere sweater from Everlane. A second pair of my favorite (discontinued) Timberland boots that are more comfortable than a pair of sneakers. A tiny leopard print umbrella that I like to bring EVERYWHERE as superstitious insurance against rain. These microfiber towels that take up no space, so you can pack a bathing suit and towel in a tiny purse. My silk robe from Kayll that’s become a travel staple.
worst travel purchase of the year:
Before I bought Haley an Away bag, I bought him the knock-off version from Quince. It broke the first time he used it, so we had to borrow some tools from the hotel in Brazil to hack it open, and then we spent the next day on a wild goose chase trying to track down a new suitcase. (They did give me a refund for the bag, which I used to buy some 14k gold jewelry because that seems pretty hard to fuck up.)
best meal of the year:
Dinner with my sisters at Cotogna in San Francisco (especially that big ravioli). Natural Wine and small plates at Chambers with my cousin Rebecca, which I included in this article for Vogue. A languorous lunch at Bistrot du Paradou in Provence with my parents, my sister Abby, my cousin Rebecca and my aunt Melissa (the cheese plate at the end was incredible). Lunch by the beach after cliff jumping at Montezuma Falls at Playa de los Artistas in Costa Rica this Thanksgiving with my family. A whole baked fish at Pierlugi in Rome with Haley. Our anniversary dinner at Le Veau d’Or in New York. Fish tacos and margaritas at Mack Fisher in La Paz with my friend Isabel. Our last ever meal at Winona’s with my friends Claire and Annie and Kenny. A solo meal at the bar at Pharaoh in Athens. A long gossipy lunch with Abby and our tour guide in Rio at Ocya (after spotting caimans and capybaras and eating pink peppercorns right from the tree). The coconut bread at Coral Sands in Harbour Island. The sesame cold noodles with crab at Haesu Bit aboard the Ritz-Carlton Luminara. Cactus parmigiana at La Marina in Ponza with Haley. Every meal I had at Zimmi’s this year. The sizzling moqueca Haley and I had at Dona Mariquita in Salvador. The deconstructed carbonara at All’oro in Rome with my mom. Dinner with the Minford cousins at Keen’s in New York. Dinner with the McRoberts cousins at Taqueria on St. Mark’s.
worst meal of the year:
Anything eaten in the Delta Sky Club, except that time we used miles to buy champagne and caviar in the Delta One lounge at JFK.
best souvenir:
A second pair of gaudy earrings from Antonio Lo Turco in Taormina (he remembered us from our last visit and gave my mom and I both necklace charms). An embroidered bucket bag (kinda like this one) I bought from a stand on the boardwalk in Ipanema. A bunch of shark tooth necklaces in La Paz, Mexico. Olive tapenade from the market in Lourmarin. Okkia sunglasses in Cassis. A smiley face ankle bracelet in Athens. A new tattoo in Athens. A fancy leather purse in Italy that’s big enough to hold my big camera. A pair of giant white palazzo pants in Rome for $10 that I have since worn at least 20 times. A fabulous pair of alpaca socks in Saratoga Springs. A CD in Harbour Island because it was the only thing I could afford. A tiny lilac kelly-esque bag I got in Rome for $50. The organic socks I bought at the UC Santa Cruz botanical garden gift shop. The perfect leopard print bikini in Trancoso.
worst souvenir:
Haley would argue that bringing home a vat of olive tapenade was not my best idea, but it was delicious. They just gave me WAYYYY too much of it. I’m not sure if this counts, but I have a lot of regrets about the tinctures and potions I didn’t buy at the Nepenthe gift shop.
best drink:
A Bloody Mary with a view at Nepenthe in Big Sur. The clarified pina colada at Namore in Santa Teresa. A Polish 75 (a French 75 made with Chopin vodka) at the Long Bar at the Raffles Warsaw. Borschtinis at Russian Samovar. Picketinis at 169 Bar. Rose at La Canorgue in Provence. Goombay Smash in a bag at Junkanoo practice in Harbour Island. Polish natural wine at Rascal in Warsaw. A pumpkin spice espresso martini at Lake Placid Lodge. The ice-cold beer at Sunset Deck Bar in Trancoso. The coconut coffee smoothie at Ani’s in Santa Teresa. Caipirinhas on the boardwalk in Rio
worst drink:
I had an absolutely undrinkable martini at Holbrook House in San Francisco that still haunts my dreams. It put me off martinis for good until we got to the Redwood Room later that evening.
best party:
The open mic night that Isabel and I planned on our cruise in Mexico, where one of the passengers did a magic show, one 19-year-old girl inexplicably did a Borat impression, and a retired surgeon said he could undo a woman’s blouse using chopsticks but his wife would be mad. David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall. Masquerade. The Louis Prima cover band at the White Party on Luminara. Monday night samba at Pedro do Sal. Junkanoo practice in Harbour Island. The beautiful memorial for my father-in-law Simon. My friend Devon’s baby shower slumber party at her house in Philadelphia. Christmas carols under the disco ball at the Williams barn in East Hampton. Christmas Day cocktails and canapés with my cousins in Shelter Island.
worst party:
When half a million Catholic youths descended on Rome while we were there and walked around in packs of 20 singing Coldplay songs a capella.
best travel experiences:
Driving down to Big Sur with my sisters and gossiping all day long. Riding around Ponza on the back of a vespa. Wandering around La Paz on a Sunday looking for vapes after my friend Isabel accidentally dropped hers in the hotel pool. Making friends and drinking limoncello spritzes at our hotel’s rooftop pool in Athens. Spending a beastly hot afternoon at this beach club in Ortigia where we could walk to the end of a long quay, jump off, and swim back. Beach club hopping in Trancoso. Driving around Warsaw in a vintage Fiat. Picking potatoes at Chopin’s distillery in Krzesk. Visiting Burle Marx’s home and garden outside Rio. Snorkeling with sea lions in the Sea of Cortez. Seeing the Last Judgement at the Vatican.
worst travel experiences:
I had some very bad travel days this year, but my brain also goes into a fugue state in airports so I have almost no recollection of them. Whether or not I cried at WAW or AMS or ATL or CDG is, frankly, none of my business anymore. On the plus side, I discovered that EU 261 actually works. Almost shitting my pants while we were lost in the suburbs of Santa Cruz was also a low point, but it immediately became so funny that I can’t really look back on the memory with anything but fondness.
Beautifully curated list! The shift from chasing new countries to revisiting favorite places speaks to a deeper kind of travel wisdom I've kinda noticed in my own trips lately. There's somthing about returning to places like Salvador or Ortigia where the second visit lets you peel back layers you missed initially. The Swans Island/Amalfi Coast juxtaposition was perfct btw.