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The Latest
In This Week’s Edition
The Cape Town List
Cape Town is a place of topographical drama—mountains and sea—but also deep cultural layers, from Xhosa and Cape Malay traditions to Dutch and British influences that shape its food, design and daily rhythms. Six creative insiders share the spots that capture this dynamic South African city right now.
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Black Books
Opinionated city guides from us and our friends, locals and insiders
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Hong Kong Black Book
For this city of islands and contrasts, we asked 13 locals and frequent visitors for their go-tos. Think dim sum from trolleys and Michelin tables, Peking duck feasts and rooftop cocktails with epic views. Also white-cube galleries beside incense-filled temples; beaches, trails, and ferries just minutes from skyscrapers. And shopping that’s pure HK: jade markets,…
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Zurich Black Book
Zurich may run like clockwork, but beneath all that Swiss polish and precision lies a looser, more eccentric side, the same spirit that made the city the birthplace of Dadaism and a longtime haven for the arts.
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The Cotswolds Black Book
There’s a reason the Cotswolds have become shorthand for English country charm—but beyond the postcard perfection, there’s a vibrant daily energy that continues to draw transplants from London.
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Travel Planners
You asked, we answered: what you need to know to plan your travels
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Turkey Travel Planner
Our network of local experts and creatives pointed us to hidden antiquities, an emerging wine scene, healing thermal pools once visited by Cleopatra, best routes for a gulet trip, and storybook towns on the Black Sea… and shared insider intel on the best ways to see the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia, the beach towns with…
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Caribbean Island Travel Planner
You asked, we answered! Sweet cottages on islands you’ve never heard of, hotels that grow all their own ingredients, and the places where Slim Aarons photographed (or look like he could have!)… there’s somewhere in the Caribbean you’ll really love. We mined our experts for their insider favorites and tactics for the best islands to…
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Rajasthan Travel Planner
Our band of locals and frequent travelers demystify how to do this magical, maximalist corner of Northwestern India and its color-coded cities. From opulent palace hotels to stylish heritage homes and refined tented camps; lunch on the lawn alongside cheeky peacocks, dinner in candlelit stepwells, and drinks in ornate, candy-hued bars. Driving detours to see…
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Lists
Personal favorites near and far from us and our well-traveled friends
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The Cape Town List
Cape Town is a place of topographical drama—mountains and sea—but also deep cultural layers, from Xhosa and Cape Malay traditions to Dutch and British influences that shape its food, design and daily rhythms. Six creative insiders share the spots that capture this dynamic South African city right now.
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City & Country: Los Angeles
LA contains multitudes, but it’s also a city that practically begs you to get in the car and keep on driving. In our latest City & Country edition, we asked our LA friends—photographers, architects, designers, writers and winemakers—to share their favorite local go-tos and the nearby escapes they love most.
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The Old-World Netherlands List
For Autumn Sonata founder Lilli Elias, the Netherlands is a living cabinet of curiosities, where traces of antiquity, from ornate canal houses to shops that feel like time capsules, quietly exist in plain sight.
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Dispatches
Our “Just back from” journals from places near and far
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Dispatch from Okavango Delta, Botswana
Photographer and writer Chloe Frost-Smith heads deep into Botswana’s Okavango Delta, hopping between three remote camps where leopards, wild dogs, and lions outnumber vehicles.
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Dispatch from Penang, Malaysia
Writer and artist Sai Pradhan returns to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Georgetown to find it overflowing with character. Over three days, she chases the perfect bowl of char kway teow noodles at hawker markets, visits an old bus depot reborn as an arts hub, and falls hard for the Art Nouveau-meets-Asian architecture, all…
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A 2-Day Philadelphia Arts-and-Food-Focused Itinerary
Philly has long punched above its weight with its deep bench of museums and galleries and fiercely local food. New Yorker Kira von Eichel made the two-hour trip for a culture-packed two days.
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Guest Books
Some of our favorite hotels and what we loved about them
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Ellerman House, Cape Town
An elegant, art-filled home hidden on the cliffs of Cape Town’s Bantry Bay with standout service and unparalleled views.
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The Silo, Cape Town
Part of South Africa’s Royal Portfolio hotel group, this former corn silo was reimagined as a hotel by British starchitect Thomas Heatherwick in 2017.
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Ballymaloe House, East Cork, Ireland
Ballymaloe House is like getting a cozy hug from Ireland. This family-run countryside escape in East Cork has just 32 rooms, all within a historic castle turned family home turned hotel, on 300 acres of farmland, gardens, and a magical wooded river trail dotted with fairy houses.
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Postcard From…
Field notes from summertime travels
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Postcard from… Maine’s Midcoast
Spend a late summer weekend on Deer Isle along Maine’s Midcoast and you’ll see why the state earned its slogan, “the way life should be.” With artist studios at every turn, an endlessly craggy, untouched coastline, terrible cell service, and humble seafood shacks, Carly Shea finds the draw is its unapologetically salt-of-the-earth spirit.
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Postcard from… Wisconsin’s North Woods
In Wisconsin’s North Woods, Minocqua is pure summer nostalgia—lake swims, water-ski shows, square dancing, and fudge shops straight out of another era. Photographer Sophie Elgort has been coming back for 12 seasons and finds that its low-key appeal never gets old.
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Postcard from… Chania, Crete
Hello from Chania’s Old Town—a warren of neoclassical mansions, Ottoman domes, and flower-draped Cretan houses surrounding a stunning Venetian harbor.
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Subscribe to YOLO Intel for access to our free posts sharing insider spots, secrets and hacks