Let’s Go!
16/06/2013 § Leave a comment
If you’re in the market for a little travel inspiration this summer, I’ve recently started putting together photo collages of places I’d like to visit as soon as humanly possible. From glamping in the Australian outback to secluded spa resorts in Brazil to beachy villas in Tulum to foresty retreats in the Hudson Valley, you can peruse them all on my Tumblr, under the tag “Let’s Go.” Just please remember to pack me in your suitcase, should you actually go to any of them.
Desired Destination: Morocco
01/10/2012 § 2 Comments
When the weather turns cooler, my wanderlust for warmer climates always picks up. I’ve frequently forgone the usual trip home for Thanksgiving in favor of a long international journey somewhere warm. Last year it was Argentina, two years before that I went to Egypt, and lately my mind has returned to North Africa. Morocco has officially made its way to the very top of my Desired Destination shortlist somehow, fueled at least in part by the images and inspiration I have been collecting on Pinterest.
My trip to the Maghreb probably isn’t all that far off with flights hovering around $1,000 and no annoying visa procedure for US citizens, but until that day comes, you can find me wandering among my pictures, wistfully wishing for the smell of fragrantly perfumed tobacco, oranges and coriander, the taste of mint tea and dates, the feel of crisp linen against my body and cool tiled floors beneath my feet, and the sound of the call to prayer at dawn and the souk at dusk.
The harbor town of Essaouira.
Dying to stay at L’Heure Bleue hotel in Essaouira…gorgeous!
Marrakech, the Ochre City.
YSL in Morocco.
YSL at home in Marrakech, what is now known as the Majorelle Garden.
Casablanca
All images via Pinterest.
Quite Continental Desired Destinations
~*~Travel Charmingly~*~
Louis Vuitton City Guides 2013: New York City
18/09/2012 § 1 Comment
It’s always a favorite time of year for me when details about the annual Louis Vuitton City Guides — and their accompanying video clips — start to emerge from the ether, but when the House of Vuitton decides to feature New York City first, it’s a double win. In its fourteenth year of publication, the Guides offer the discerning traveller expert advice on a select group of cities in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Kicking off the 2013 guides in a perfect marriage of travel and cocktailing,* we find ourselves in hot pursuit of a perfect Manhattan in Manhattan — a shaken cocktail that has shown remarkable staying power since its invention at the Manhattan Club in 1870 — we visit Jimmy at the James Hotel, Le Bain at the The Standard Hotel, The Summit Bar on the Lower East Side and Amor y Amargo in the East Village.
I don’t know about you, but my watch definitely just hit cocktail o’ clock.
*probably not a word, but should be.
Postcards from Los Angeles
04/09/2012 § 1 Comment
Wanted to share a few of my Los Angeles moments before I head back to NYC,
as filtered through Instagram (quitecontinental).
Roughing It.
05/07/2012 § 4 Comments
Fact: I have never been camping.
Corollary: My mom will probably dispute this.
Who’s right? I suppose it depends on how broadly you construe the term “camping” — because if to you, camping means you’re in a sleeping bag in a tent in the woods somewhere, then I most definitely have never been camping. However, if you are like my mother, and think camping includes driving some sort of van or trailer to a “campground” and parking for a few days near some nature, then maybe you’ve got me there.
My parents did own a sweet Minnie Winnie in the late 90s. It was sort of an odd purchase for a completely non-camping family that was spurred by the experience of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. We did use it a few times, mainly for soccer tournament weekends, but also for camping at Lake Cachuma and the Kern River. We actually did Thanksgiving one year, turkey and all, entirely on wheels!
So while I don’t really count those experiences as camping, I do have plenty of great memories of those weekends, which were jogged when I came across this set of photos in the Life Archive, taken at various points around the country by Ralph Crane in 1970. Capturing different kinds of motor homes and trailers, and the folks who used them, they are a slice of Americana that seems perfectly apropos for the day after Independence Day.
Some of these images originally appeared as part of a special group of articles in the August 14, 1970 issue of LIFE entitled “Home, Home on the Road,” which details “Caravans on the open road. Houseboats on the busy waters. Youth in its frustrated festivals. Venturers abroad in trains.” If you’d like to read the article — and I definitely recommend it, mainly for some great pictures of a convoy of pretty aluminum Airstream trailers — you can find it here. Enjoy!
Bob Newcomb with his 12-member family in Hershey, PA.
Sidenote: Can I just say that I have NO idea how 12 people could coexist for any extended amount of time in a trailer. My family only numbered 5 and speaking for the kids, I know we regularly contemplated pulverizing each other when we “camped.” Newcombs, hat’s off to the lot of you, indeed.
Baby Newcomb in her bathtub bed!
The Wally Byam Caravan Club converging upon Hershey, PA. The club, named for the founder of the Airstream Trailer Company, still exists — and caravans — to this day.
Airstream owners and Caravan Club members, saluting the flag.
All images via the Life Archive.
Quite Continental 