The 100 Hotels on My Bucket List
Where I'd rest my head in my wildest dreams, around the world
First off, I wanted to thank you for the love I received from my last post, sharing my experience with TikTok and why I’ve moved away (here!) for now. To everyone that became Founding Member, you moved the needle on my life this week. To everyone who left a comment or a like or sent an email – it was beyond appreciated. Community really is everything. Which brings me to the first Substack Live! Man, I left that hour feeling like the luckiest girl alive. To everyone who joined, it meant so much. I hope I helped! It was a small fraction of my paid subscribers, but if I know anything in this world, it’s that intimacy fosters true connectivity, and therefore it was truly the perfect first Live.
Week in Review
I just finished listening to From Here to the Great Unknown on Audible, narrated by the author, Riley Keough and Julia Roberts, as well as recordings from Lisa Marie Presley herself. I think it’s the fourth time I’ve ever cried from a book. I felt it was less of a “celebrity memoir” than a true story of family and humanity, written beautifully and honestly. 5/5, and listen to it on audiobook, it’s a story that deserves to be heard. I can’t believe I didn’t do so the week it came out.
In summer 2021, I was in Venice, and the New York Times had just written a book about a mystery-of-sorts in an old palazzo. So, this week, I finally read Palace of the Drowned, by Christine Mangan. It turns out I never needed to read it. 2/5 stars – I found it slow and boring, too often.
I quickly and hastily read Swiped, a dating app-centric mystery by L.M. Chilton, and it was the definition of mediocre. 3/5.
I also had my first TV full-series binge this week, with Disclaimer on Apple TV+. I love Cate Blanchett, I love a dual-timeline and a hidden secret. Especially when it involves a love affair from an Italian Summer. I’m a fan!
Like most good Millennials, I love Martha Stewart. I love her for who she is today. I love her and admire her for her relationship with Snoop Dogg. Naturally, I watched the new documentary spanning her life, Martha, on Netflix. I really enjoyed it, but I kept wondering how she felt about the film. She inspires me, she’s the blueprint for success if you’re lucky to know who you are be who you are and thus can naturally evolve with time. I really hope she knows how much people revere her.
For all of 2024, I’ve made a Sunday night ritual of goal setting before bed. I use one journal, a Florentine marbled one with the title “My Brain” and I turn on a binaural beat that’s supposed to have the frequency of abundance (I have no answers to the questions you must be having) and I take stock business from the week and then make goals for the next. Because I treat Happy Hoteling brand and not a passion project (although it is), every week, I track income, total Substack subscribers, total paid subscribers, annual revenue, open rate, and Instagram followers. I take stock of what worked and what didn’t, and then I make goals for the following week. Very specific numbers. Then, I write them down on little sticky notes that I put on the inside of my nightstand, facing my bed. The goal is to take each one down, one by one, as I accomplish it throughout the week. This is the first week in a lot of weeks that I took down every single sticky note. So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart. It feels damn good to succeed at something you are both good at and find incredibly both fun and rewarding.
But also, this week I’ve been bursting with the ticking clock of Tuesday.
The Shopping Section
Going forward, each week I’m going to share eight pieces that call to me the most, for whatever reason. More is almost always more, but over-consumption isn’t cool. The Top Eight is back. This week we have:
This very cool and unique striped merino wool sweater that works year-round – I like Boden stripes. They do them well.
To celebrate a new partnership with Mytheresa (!! a dream since high school), I got the shoes I’ve been wanting the most, a new pair of Tod’s driving loafers. I grew up wearing them and really needed a new pair - they will be the next cool shoe, mark my word. And they last forever. This color combo is even better in person.
H&M for the major win with this thin knit turtleneck top, great for layering and the perfect pink. Is it going to be great quality? No! It’s $14.
A sparkly, festive (but chic!) skirt to wear all season and those tho come. Plus, it’s Rabanne on very good sale, Small and Large still available. I wanted this last year, and now my size is sold out and I’m sad.
I’ve been curious about Quince, and I still am (I’ve never ordered anything from them before), but I think I’m going to find out if it’s really as good as it seems with this very good suede handbag (with perfectly placed pockets). It’s so affordable, but so luxurious looking.
It’s simple, I know, but I really like this doormat.
I rarely make beauty recs, because I rarely change anything up. But I have a new holy grail lip product, because I don’t like the liner look nor anything that’s sticky. Really, I don’t like a product that looks like anything much at all. Violette FR’s Bisou Balm in Bonbon Myrtille is exactly how I want my lips to look without anything on. And the magic is, it looks like they are bare. And it isn’t drying. I think I’m going to get the OG color next.
If you have a gift to buy, a nice one, something that will stay with the person forever – a Pucci scarf is never the wrong idea, and this new release is classic and cool at the same time. Of course, it came out just as the Capri store closed (my BFF Stefanie usually gets me things end of season with her local discount).
The 100 Hotels on My Bucket List
And now. The main course. The response to the only question that has ever gotten a 98% yes vote on an Instagram poll. With far too much deliberation and back-and-forth, these are the 100 hotels on my bucket list, in no particular order. My only criteria was that I had to think of it from my mind alone, without consulting any lists. I have quite a good memory, so I figured that if I can’t recall the name, it doesn’t deserve a spot on my bucket list. There are really so many more hotels that I feel the need to stay at in this lifetime, but these are the top 100 that feel the most pertinent. Really, the whole Substack is one big bucket list. But with this list, intentionally, most of the hotels are not the new cool places of the moment that I’m dying to stay at. Those have been largely relegated to the honorable mentions section. Same with the hotels I really must stay at but can also easily stay at, i.e. within my budget and not hard to get to.
The 100 hotels on this list are names that mean something to me. They speak to me, you could say. Also, to be clear, this is my personal hotel bucket list, for the type of traveler and writer and creative I am. For my taste. Right now. I change my mind a lot, and am always discovering something new. Don’t hold me to this! But I will tell you that I have spent far too long deliberating of what and what does not make the cut.
Lastly, I’ve been fortunate to stay at a good amount of bucket list hotels, so they are not included. I have not yet stayed the night at any of these hotels. Some of them I have been to, but I don’t count it unless I’m an overnight guest.
Oh, to guide any expectations, there are no photos of the hotels. 100 hotels is a lot to write about and too many to show photos for. I tried, I really did. I just didn’t have enough time between when I posted that Instagram Story, asking if I should make this the week’s post, and now. And you know I never miss a week! Except, I have been thinking lately about the concept of PTO as a writer. A Substack writer, me specifically. If I learned anything from my trip to Italy in July, it was that it’s best to fully live in each moment, experience each hotel and place to the fullest, capture everything that inspires me, and then share it all with you after the fact. Most people do this, I thought I could do it all. I can’t! I’ll be on my Italy & Switzerland winter trip Dec 3-15 and will be taking that time as my holiday break. People have time to read about travel after the 25th, anyway. I will likely do this again in June. I hope you understand – if you have any concerns about it, please let me know. I’m all ears and never want anyone to feel they are not getting their money’s worth. PTO in the creator economy is not really spoken about!
Anyway, this compiling the 100 hotels on my bucket list was tremendously fun. A good challenge for someone like me, who doesn’t typically feel the need to stick to round numbers. But also, a way to take stock of how excited I am for my lifetime of travel ahead. I hope to help you follow suit.
Some hotels are included because of the strong pull of a legacy. Some are included for every and all reason under the sun. Some are for a particularly Special Piece of Earth. But, they’re all not just one of those things – they represent the breadth of what I hope to see in this world. But everything is included because it’s a Special Hotel. Places that are on my bucket list but do not have an associated bucket list hotel are not represented. I think you get the gist.
HAPPY HOTELING!