Shakira Partners With Despegar for Upcoming Marketing Campaigns

Melissa Dewalt caught the travel bug a decade ago when she drove from her home state of Pennsylvania across the country to California to visit her then-boyfriend. She then road-tripped north to Seattle.

Ski season is just around the corner, and the Ikon Pass is making it even easier to ski across the country by adding a new California mountain to the mix.

A few years ago, when flight prices were awfully expensive, I saw an Amtrak ticket from California to Washington, DC, for just $250 and snapped it up.

Clarksville, a historic district of Austin, Texas, has lately emerged as a stylish dining and shopping enclave. Among the area’s most compelling new businesses is La Embajada, a design shop housed in a 1923 Craftsman bungalow. Combining the hospitality and interiors expertise of its founder, Raul Cabra — who has designed tableware for some of Mexico City’s most celebrated restaurants, including Rosetta and Pujol — La Embajada presents a refined, regionally diverse selection of Mexico’s artisanal offerings. A series of small rooms display vintage and contemporary furniture, from stately midcentury armchairs and 1970s glass sconces to a minimalist agave fiber rug by the Oaxaca-based textile artist Trine Ellitsgaard. The house is also an actual residence. Cabra often stays in the bedroom up the creaky stairs, and he’s recently made it available for short-term stays (bookings include a daily basket of baked goods from Austin’s Swedish Hill). Guests can purchase the room’s handmade décor, such as a pair of sleek bedside lamps in milky white onyx, a 1960s La Malinche dresser and a bedspread from a Michoacan manufacturer that once supplied Herman Miller. Downstairs, glassware, candles and gifts fill a section modeled after a typical general store in a small Mexican town. But La Embajada’s heart is its inviting kitchen, where visiting chefs cook elaborate meals and staff prepare ice cream and coffee. In another twist, every bespoke detail — including a hammered copper sink, caramel-colored tiles and waxed pine cabinets — can be custom-ordered for one’s own home.

When Los Angeles–based designer Clare Vivier began decorating the 19th-century house she'd bought in her husband's hometown of Saint-Calais, in France's Loire Valley, she had a particular aesthetic in mind. “I love color and patterns but wanted something peaceful, so the intention was to create a dialogue between those two things,” she says. She wanted the house to have a blend of contemporary pieces, antiques, and textiles from heritage maisons to create a space that, much like her namesake handbag and fashion label, channeled both California fun and French sophistication. She also knew that she wanted her longtime friend Kate Berry, a designer and creative director, to help her make it happen.

Always wanted to see Antarctica? Holland America Line this week unveiled an unusual new option for getting there.

The flag carrier of Mexico is growing in Miami with an all-new route to Cancun, Mexico.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Scarlett Kiaras-Attari, a marketing executive and education content creator who moved to the UK for her studies. It has been edited for length and clarity.

April Gargiulo, the founder of the San Francisco-based beauty brand Vintner’s Daughter, first considered making a fragrance two years ago, when she connected with Loreto Remsing, a perfumer who’s also based in Northern California. Gargiulo and Remsing talked about how they might work together to bottle the landscape they both know well. Gargiulo’s creative prompt was “a magical liminal world between earth and sky, under the redwoods.” Remsing, Gargiulo says, “took this thing that was pretty esoteric and created something that was a perfect reflection of it.” Understory, a perfume oil with notes of violet, jasmine and moss, was released in 2022. This month, Vintner’s Daughter will debut Understory Vol. 2, which Gargiulo describes as a “new vintage” with subtle differences from its predecessor — the violet notes are stronger while the moss is softer in this iteration. The brand will release a limited run of 500 bottles of perfume oil, this time featuring illustrations by the artist MarSha Yi Robinson. “I love the idea of [Understory] being something that comes and goes, almost like scent itself,” Gargiulo says.

When Los Angeles–based designer Clare Vivier began decorating the 19th-century house she'd bought in her husband's hometown of Saint-Calais, in France's Loire Valley, she had a particular aesthetic in mind. “I love color and patterns but wanted something peaceful, so the intention was to create a dialogue between those two things,” she says. She wanted the house to have a blend of contemporary pieces, antiques, and textiles from heritage maisons to create a space that, much like her namesake handbag and fashion label, channeled both California fun and French sophistication. She also knew that she wanted her longtime friend Kate Berry, a designer and creative director, to help her make it happen.

April Gargiulo, the founder of the San Francisco-based beauty brand Vintner’s Daughter, first considered making a fragrance two years ago, when she connected with Loreto Remsing, a perfumer who’s also based in Northern California. Gargiulo and Remsing talked about how they might work together to bottle the landscape they both know well. Gargiulo’s creative prompt was “a magical liminal world between earth and sky, under the redwoods.” Remsing, Gargiulo says, “took this thing that was pretty esoteric and created something that was a perfect reflection of it.” Understory, a perfume oil with notes of violet, jasmine and moss, was released in 2022. This month, Vintner’s Daughter will debut Understory Vol. 2, which Gargiulo describes as a “new vintage” with subtle differences from its predecessor — the violet notes are stronger while the moss is softer in this iteration. The brand will release a limited run of 500 bottles of perfume oil, this time featuring illustrations by the artist MarSha Yi Robinson. “I love the idea of [Understory] being something that comes and goes, almost like scent itself,” Gargiulo says.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, August 21, 2024, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.